《The Two Lives Of Aaron Wade: The Gamer And The Heir》


 1 Tragedy I : Aaron Comes Home

    As if it was mocking me, the door to the manor opened with a creak. That door has always seemed to be a problem for as long as I could remember, but still it instilled a sense of nostalgia in me. I only spent seven years of my 24 years of life in this house, granted it was the most painful of all my years, but also the sweetest. The manor was old, and the fact that it was able to stay this long without being gobbled up by rich....well richer folks than my grandfather was surprising. It was an amazing piece or architecture.


    "Master Enyo!"


    Her voice was still as raspy as always. But yet toned like steel and tempered with a doze of motherly love only people who knew her could experience. I turned to look at her, and I almost cried. She looked older, there were more wrinkles around her eyes, and they seemed to have lost their color. This entire tragedy must have been hard on her, after all apart from me; she was the one closest to him.


    "Nanny Florence. It''s good to see you." I said as I stretched out my hands and hugged her. Her tiny body seemed to sink completely into mine, and I couldn''t help but wonder if she was always this small. The last time I was here, my head only came up a little above her''s, though that was five years ago and I was all grown up now.


    She looked up at me and said: "look at you. All grown up now. If only your grandfather could have hanged on a little longer, he would have been proud of the man you have become. You look just like him, though it''s unfortunate that just like him you lack your father''s looks. But that doesn''t mean you''re ugly dear, you just can''t compare with your brothers in that department."


    To most people who didn''t know nanny Florence, everything she just said was grounds to have her arrested for emotional abuse. But this aging lady, with all of her black belts, and PhDs; had a twisted sense of humor. She''s a trained bodyguard and my late grandfather''s closest confidante. Everything she''s learnt was to hurt people to protect her master, even down to her words. too bad it became a complete part of her.


    "Do you need me to bring your bags up?" She asked as she took a step back to take a closer look at me.


    "I''m a big boy now nanny Florence. I can carry my own bags, you shouldn''t stress yourself with menial labor. I''ve got this."


    "Are you saying I''m too old to do my job?"


    The sudden change in her tone was all the warning I needed. Five years was too short a time to completely forget what nanny Florence was capable of. And I was antisocial, not stupid or dumb. I knew the wrong buttons to push when talking to a woman(sometimes). And a woman like Nanny Florence, did not like being treated like a woman for some reason I just don''t understand.


    "No that''s not what I meant. I just thought that you''ve been busy getting the manor ready for my arrival, so you might be a little tired."


    I couldn''t help but swallow. Hours of sparring, which to be honest was just an excuse for nanny Florence to beat the fear of God into me; suddenly sprang to mind. I better let her do what she wants. That way I can go to bed today without bruises.


    "Do you need me to bring your bags up?" she asked again with an all too bright smile.


    "yes please." I squeaked.


    "Good, now go up to the study. Your grandfather left a message for you young man. And after that head up to his room. As the master of the manor it belongs to you now. No excuses! It''s what he would have wanted."


    I couldn''t say no to her, though it''s mainly because saying no would get my bones twisted in rather colorful ways and positions I don''t understand, or really want to experience. Also I''m just too tired, emotionally and physically. The long flight from Abuja Nigeria, back to Los Angeles U.S.A did not do my body any good. Not to mention I had to prepare for his funeral, it''s going to be a long week.


    Going up the stairs and to the east wing, all the way to the attic/study was one nostalgia filled journey.


    There were pictures of me, my brother, my father, my elder brothers, and our dead sister. And just one picture of my dead mother, right on the day she gave birth to me.Flashes of painful memories went through my head, as my heart ached. I hurried along and made my way to his study, staying any longer would have just hurt me more than I was ready to experience.


    The study was clean, though the curtains were drawn, and the windows closed; which made the room a little stuffy. Florence said he left a message for me, but all I could see was his table, with a note on it. The note said ''sit'' with an arrow pointed at the direction of his cozy state of the art office chair.


    I remember one time when I was eleven, my grandfather had given me a grand tour of the manor, explaining the history of everything in it. That chair was over two hundred years old, it has been in the Wade family for generations, with each head, passing it on to the next, and leaving the duty of customizing and renovating the chair to fit the new head of the family. It was a family heirloom, and If I sit on it.....it means I''m king of the manor.


    I sat on it, and almost immediately let out a yelp of pain as a thin needle shot out of the armrest and into my hand. It was just a tiny prick, but it didn''t stop me from cursing at the chair and all of its previous incarnations. Then there was a beep, it became faster and faster in seconds until massive steel doors fell over the windows and the door, completely shutting me in.


    It seemed to me like my grandfather''s study was made into a panic room. Which was why when a hologram of him popped up right in front me, grinning like an old drunk, I jumped back screaming like a girl.


    "Damn it old man! What the hell is wrong with you?" I yelled at the hologram.


    "Sorry, I just couldn''t help myself. Good to see you again grandson!"


    I looked at his smiling visage and sighed. Then I asked. "you''re not actually dead are you? You seem a little too conscious for a hologram if you ask me."


    "If you''re seeing me like this, then I''m really dead. I wouldn''t have been activated otherwise."


    I shook my head again as I let out an exasperated groan of annoyance.


    "You completely mapped your consciousness and uploaded it into a virtual algorithm didn''t you. You know damn well that shit''s illegal. I could go to jail for the rest of my life just talking to you!"


    "Bah! Don''t be such a pu**y. Why do you think I have six inch doors of Xorimatium lining the entire structure of the attic. No one would find out, besides as soon as I''ve delivered my message a self destruct sequence would be initiated. I''ll die and you''ll be safe from any implication."


    But he was already dead. This was just a shadow, and watching him, seeing him with that all knowing smile on his face made my tears fall down without restraint. I cried, and I cried some more. I think at this point I really needed someone to hold me, but there was no one. All I could draw comfort from was an echo of the person who was most important to me, life really sucked.


    "I''m sorry we had that fight Aaron. I never forgave myself for it." He said to me.


    "Me too Baba, and you can call me Enyo. You did like that name a lot better than Aaron." I answered with small laugh.


    "That''s because your mother gave you that name. It''s a testament of your African heritage. Besides it''s a powerful name with a powerful meaning. It means blessing."


    "You''re still a cheesy old man, even as a hologram. What is it you wantedto tell me?"


    "Yeah let''s get down to business. After my burial there''s going to be a string of events that would pretty much shake the world. First of all, I''m leaving all of my shares to you....."


    "Wait! What shares?"


    "Oh right, you don''t actually know do you. You always believed I was rich, but you never knew how. I''m the principal or I was the principal share holder of Imperium industries. I own 30% of the damn company, and all of it''s assets. Your dad and his witch of a wife own 15, and your elder brothers own 5 each. The rest belongs to the investors and other share holders. Now all that was mine would be yours."


    "Oh! Well then continue." I answered nonchalantly, as if I did not just hear I was going to become a billionaire. My grandfather raised any eyebrow and asked.


    "You''re probably going to panic later right? You always do that. Experience news with a cool head, then do something stupid later when it''s properly sunk in."


    I shrugged my shoulder in reply. He was right though, I was definitely going to panic later. When I got the news he died, the lawyer who called had said he had left a primary will and a secondary will to be read after his burial. The primary will gave me ownership of the manor, and all it''s surrounding land and affiliates. Though I have no idea what affiliates an old ancestral manor would have, but I just took the news in stride. I was grieving then, I still am.


    " you''re also to assume an executive position in the company immediately. However you have to work your way up. As the principal share holder, you can become CEO. But the board of directors are filled with your father''s cronies. You have to work your way through and past them, make allies, and deliver good results. It''s a matter of global security that you become CEO of the company. Your father has been making really questionable decisions lately, trying to. Expand the company''s scope of Influence into biological weaponry and cyber warfare as a whole. We''ve done well with Interstellar travel, entertainment, inventions, and virtual reality gaming. We''re not the number 1 company, or number 2,but we''re number 3 and that''s sayingsomething. Your father has gotten too greedy, and in my quest to stop him, this happened to me."


    I felt as if someone just dropped a bomb in my head. I was hoping, desperately that what he just said was a slip of tongue, or just one big joke. It can''t be possible.


    "Based on the look of shock on your face I know you''ve realized it. Though I can''t really be sure myself. I''ll like to believe that I wasn''t killed by my own son because of more money than he already has. But at this point I can''t write it out as a possibility. Trust no one, except Florence.But that''s not the end. After my burial, Lost Descendants will experience an update that would bring every player character down to level zero. Skills won''t be reset, and equipment won''t be lost, so the higher level players will still have the advantage. Of course without mana I doubt they can use most of their skills. This will allow you to start playing the game, and you should, considering it was designed and built by your mother''s grandfather. It''s your inheritance, and your mother left something in that game for you, I don''t know what, but she said the key would reveal itself when you get strong enough.


    But that''s just sentimental bullshit. Not that I''m insulting your mother''s memory or anything, but let''s look at it from a different angle. The department that runs Lost Descendants, has not had a director since your mom passed. And right now, that game gives 43% of the revenue Imperium gains annually. It''s the most popular game in the world, and controlof that department unfortunately falls under your step mothers rule, even though it''s a part of your shares. You will have to fight hard to get it back.


    Another thing to look out for is the massive economical explosion that''s sure to happen once that update goes live. Every business, guild, mercenary band and kingdoms would be reset to level 1. Some will even loose everything that they''re have struggled to build over the years. But it''s also a good chance to start again and gain monopoly over in game resources, and many of the forces would find it easy to keep up since items and money won''t be lost. But the landscape will change, there would be new classes, new skills, new races, new monsters, dungeons, bosses, and NPCs. It would be like a brand new game.


    You need to conquer it, not just to find the inheritance your mother left behind, but to build up your own empire, capable of standing against your father''s and your brothers. But you have to keep your identity a secret, think of it as being a super hero. By day, you''re the young mixed race heir to multi billion dollar company. You drive fancy cars, date hot models and have extravagant vacations. But in the game, you have to be responsible, a leader, the best of the best.


    It''s like being a super hero with a secret identity. And one final thing, there''s a rumor going on, that Imperium along with a radical off world terrorist organization has developed an AI virus, capable of corrupting not just a game, but directly possessing, just like demons, the human mind. Placing a lot of people under mind control. I don''t need to tell you that''s bad for business. Once you get into the company, snoop around, find that virus, and destroy it.


    You''re going to be making a lot enemies, and friends who you will end up betraying. You''re going to have to bang a lot of women, some that would leave your skin crawling, but it''s necessary. You''re going to lie, steal, cheat, and overall just be your normal spoilt rich kid. But you have to try your best to save the company and our family name. I know I said don''t trust anybody, but this doesn''t have to be a lonely road, find a girlfriend, get married. Your son would definitely need a mother. Florence will tell you whatever you need to know. I love you Enyo, and I''m sorry for putting this burden all on your head. It''s time for you to be a man and stop running away from who you are. Look in the mirror and be proud of yourself, be proud of your name. Aaron Wade."


    His hologram burst into a shower of light as the self destruct sequence was carried out. All the while I was standing there with a confused look on my face as I asked out loud.


    "What son?"

 2 Tragedy II : The Funeral & The Will

    When you watch a funeral scene in a movie, there''s usually a gloomy weather to go with the mood. Usually there''s rain, or the clouds are overcast and the wind blows the hair of the protagonist left and right.....i had no such luck today. It would have been better if it was raining, because that way, watching my father and his wife crying like children would not have been so painful and annoying. My step brothers at least had a bottom line they wouldn''t cross, forgoing shamelessness for a stoic visage that still pissed me off.


    All the reporters gathered here, would probably write about how strong both heirs of the Wade family were. About how much of a pillar they were to their parents by staying strong and not breaking down after our patriarch passed away.


    This was total bullshit. I was not happy their parents, ''our parents'' were shamelessly crying, but I was not happy that they were not showing any emotions either. Just like me they grew up learning at the feet of the old man, and both of them for a longer time than me. But yet they looked as if they didn''t care one bit.


    I could hear flashes of cameras as the priest carried out my grandfathers last rights. I was standing directly opposite my father and his family, yet all four of them pretended I didn''t exist. Apart from Florence who was standing beside me, and my dysfunctional and maybe murderous family, no one else knew that I was also a heir to this family. An illegitimate bastard son; of a jerk of a father, and his greatest shame. I was a well kept secret, and it''s obvious that they wanted to keep that secret going for a while, if not forever.


    Battling this intense summer heat, and my irritation at my father, I got through the entire funeral without shedding a single tear, even though I wanted to so badly. As soon as it ended I took Florence and went back to the manor, preparing for the guests that would be arriving soon.


    I passed by my father and his family, and couldn''t help but grimace in annoyance as they stuck around to give statements to the reporters and lobby for public support. I''m sure sales for the next half of the year would go up splendidly.


    A little party would be held in my grandfather''s honor back at the manor. Of course no one apart from them knew that the manor now belonged to me, but we had to keep up appearances, and this was for my Baba, not them. I could tolerate looking at their hypocritical faces for one evening.


    Besides, there would be a public will reading before the party commences, which means they were in for quite a surprise. Nanny Florence insisted on driving me back, which was fine with me. Because it gave me a chance to relax and cry in the back seat of the two hundred year old Cadillac. I was having a really bad day.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    The garden at the back of the manor was huge, and it encompassed a freaking hedge labyrinth, a field of roses, sunflowers, daisies and a couple of other flower. An orchard, a huge koi pond, with some really snazzy and expensive looking fishes. There were also turtles in it. All in all it looked like a nice place to host a wedding, or a party, or read a will.


    Everyone was sited, even the reporters had a seat right at the front. Me? I was thrown all the way to the back, it would be best if I did not spoil the picture of the perfect family up front. We were all waiting for old man Jones.


    He''s been a family friend and my Baba''s lawyer ever since I was a kid, he''s one of the few people who knows about my true identity. I remember one time when I was thirteen he had made me intern at his law firm for a year. He would tell everyone that it was just his way of training me for the future, but my Baba knew old man Jones was just bored and lonely in his office, and he needed someone to talk to.


    I heard whispers and turned around to see him coming up the side of the house, flanked by two younger people in a suit. He looked older, frailer, and there were more greys on his head than the last time I saw him on TV.


    I guess I wasn''t the only one suffering, he''s also lost his best friend. His eyes roamed over the guests here, and settled on me. He didn''t hesitate, and made a beeline for me surprising everyone and eliciting a look of panic on my step mother''s face. Old man Jones totally ignored her as he came and held me close, crying just as I was.


    "Young Aaron, I''m so sorry. Even after your fight I know how much you both meant to each other. But it''s good that you''re here(sniff)it''s good. You''re going to make everything right, I just know it. Your grandfather is going to be so proud of you, though I think he would have preferred if you were anything but a soldier. I know how many nights he spent cursing at you for trying to send him to an early grave with a heart attack."


    With tears in my eyes, I couldn''t help but laugh. This is old man Jones, a man who was as ruthless as they come, but totally uncomfortable in the midst of grief, even his own.


    "It''s good to see you old man."


    "you too kid, you too."


    Were the whispers louder?.....definitely, were there looks of shock etched all over faces.....yes there was. Were cameras flashing, and my step mother glaring at me like I killed her child....yes she was. I would be lying and completely hypocritical if I say that I wasn''t psyched about becoming stupid rich, especially at the expense of my father. I always yearned to be a part of this family as a child, but I was my father''s shame, and it was something my grandfather could not work around.


    "Ladies and gentlemen my name is Jones Josiah Jefferson, known to most of you as J.J Jefferson. I''m the, or I should I say I was the attorney of the late Mathias Wade. And I''m here today to read his last will and testament; chronicling the allocation of all his properties, monetary wealth, and company shares. Without further ado, I''llbegin.


    To my only son Henry, I leave nothing. You''re a grown man boy, and you already have a percentage of my company shares. That should be more than enough, what would you be doing with more money? don''t be a greedy little monkey."


    I was not the only one who had to hold in a bout of laughter. This was my grandfather for you. Honest, brutal, crazy and very, very rude.


    "To my daughter in-law Denise; I leave nothing, zero, nil, zip, nada, a big fat nothing! Don''t be mad, it''s just that you''re a conniving little witch, and the fact that you''re already eating and enjoying my family''s hard work makes my skin crawl. Just like your puppet husband, don''t be a greedy monkey."


    There was a clamor and a wave of shock, cameras clicked faster and recorded clearer as they zoomed on her face. I have to hand it to her, she has the best poker face I''ve ever seen. There was not even a twitch on it, my father on the other hand looked incredibly livid. If not for my step mother holding him back, I''m pretty sure he would have stormed the stage and attacked old man Jones.


    "To my two eldest grandsons Matt and Marcus, I leave joint ownership of my chain of resorts, and my transport company. Say what you want boys, but those assets cost a pretty penny, and unless your parents are more stingy than I thought, you''re both going to be inheriting their shares in the company. And it''s more than enough for you and your families to live three generations comfortably.Contrary to what you guys believe, I love you both! I just hate your parents, after all they robbed me of my own company. Be careful not to let your children hang around those bozos. It will destroy their lives."


    I think by now it''s clear how much my Baba hated my father. But it was a shock even to me. Just like the world who never saw them arguing or fighting, I never knew that they had a falling out, or that it was this bad. My brothers and my sister before she died never failed to come over for holidays, and sometimes their parents came with them. Of course the only person I got along with was my sister, but even then, it was the perfect picture of a dysfunctional yet happy family, with the only bad taste being me. I guess I didn''t know them as well as I thought I did.


    "And to my grandson Aaron; I leave all of my principal shares in the Imperium industries, totaling to 30% of the entire company''s assets. I leave behind the manor, our ancestral home, along with full ownership of the lands and the gated community it''s built in. I leave all of my real estate empire, spanning 4 continents and 16 countries. I leave the entire fortune in my bank account, totaling up to 500 million dollars, and my insurance pay out, totaling up to 200 million dollars. And to the son you never knew you had, Aaron Junior Wade. The last time I saw him was his first birthday, I implore you to go to the orphanage he was left at and be a better father to him than I ever was to you. I leave young Aaron total control of my shares in the Seaside valley phamarceutical company. Totaling up to 16% of its total assets. You''re to keep watch over his fortune until he turns 18. I''m sorry I left you like this, I hope by the time this will is being read, we would have made amends. If not; then accept my apologies Enyo, I should have listened to you. There''s nothing left to say that I''m sure I''ve not already told you. You know what to do."


    One bomb after another, though I could still see the hint of a scheme. My grandfather announced that I had a son, so that I wouldn''t do the same thing my father did and keep him a secret. I have to love him, take care of him, protect him and make all my decisions for his sake.


    But how the hell did I suddenly become a father, Nanny Florence refused to say a single word, not until the funeral was over.Everyone was looking at me now, my life of obscurity was now over, now it would be all about the glitz, the glam, the money, and the politics. Happy 24th birthday Aaron, you''re filthy rich, and you''re a dad, what could possibly go wrong.

 3 Tragedy III : Funeral Party & Threats

    The party after the funeral was beyond awkward.A lot of the people here had come to curry favor with the bosses. Showing their condolence would have inevitably put them in their boss''s good book. But now someone else is boss, and he''s a complete and total stranger.


    This party could not finish any quicker, because I felt just as awkward as they did. I tired escaping multiple times, but every time, Nanny Florence pushes me back in and asks me to socialize. How the hell do I do that? I felt like a fresh water fish, thrown in shark infested waters; this guys were just waiting for an opportunity to eat me.


    "If I didn''t know any better I would say you''re uncomfortable in your own house."


    I know that voice, and I hated that voice. Quite ironic since I used to be crazy in love with the owner of that voice, but what the hell was she doing here. I turned around to see her standing beside Marcus, looking as beautiful and as shiny as the day she ripped my heart out.


    "Monica I can''t say it''s a pleasure to see you as your presence has given me an incredible urge to go look for a barf bag. To what do I owe this displeasure." I replied to her query with a smile on my face. Just so you know, that smile is totally fake.


    "You should do well to treat my fianc¨¦e with respect little brother! You wouldn''t want any problems between us would you?" Marcus spoke up, glaring at me like he''dseenthe source of all his misfortunes. But that might be true.


    "You''re engaged to this snake, and the snake is equally engaged to a weasel! You guys are made for each other. Congratulations."


    I think it''s not too late to tell everyone around that I had a similar problem with my grandfather. We had too much wit and charm than we knew what to do with. Of course it''s all just a mask for us to hide our pain and insecurities, and deep down if you look hard enough,you''ll see that we''re really soft, thoughtful and sweet...that''s just bullshit. It''s true! like all this soap opera movies you watch everyday, but it''s still bullshit.


    "Your arrival has been nothing but misfortune. I''m sure you would have heard by now. The virtual reality game Lost Descendants has experienced a weird software update, left behind with your bitch of a mother''s Admin account. Now everything we''ve built, all of the economy, the levels, the kingdoms are level 0 and completely changed. Ever since you and your mother came into our lives, you''ve brought nothing but misfortune. But I''m not surprised, a bitch can only give birth to a....."


    I drew him closer and pulled him into a hug, making sure to choke him real nicely in the process. It would probably show on his pale skin later, but I didn''t care, I was mad.


    "what makes you think you can talk about my mother like that....insect! Let me set something straight for you. If you talk wrong about my mother, or even mention her name, I''ll string you up from the tip of the Imperium industries headquarters in your underwear, and clip pictures of your mother sleeping with that guard. You remember those pictures right? we took them almost ten or nine years ago, we were going to show them to dad, until you chickened out and ratted me out to your own bitchy witch of a mother and had me locked in a wine cellar for a week!I still have those photos boy!And if you fuck with me, or come anywhere near my house especially with your whore, then I''ll destroy your family. As an added incentive let me leave you guys a gift."


    I let him go and he crouched over clutching at his neck, as he gasped for air. Maybe I shouldn''t have held him to tight. By now everyone was looking at my direction and without a doubt knew something had gone down between the two of us. They haven''t seen anything yet. I grabbed a glass of champagne and called out in a loud voice.


    "Ladies and gentlemen may I have your attention please! Yes!Thank you. I want to propose a toast; to my Baba. He was a good man, a great man who had many friends and helped a lot of people. It''s too bad he has a useless bastard for a son. A man who is incapable of taking care of his own home or loving his motherless son. I used to tell everyone who asked that I was an orphan...because my father and his bitch thought knowledge of me would ruin their reputation and standing in the company and society. I grew up without a fathers love, if not for my Baba, only God knows where I would have been by now.I can confidently say, on behalf of both my Baba and myself, about how ashamed I am that this idiot came from our bloodline.


    So let this be a warning to you father. I''m coming for everything you owe me, and my mother. If you or your family decide to fuck with me, then I''ll bury all four of you. And as for our guests, those of you who''ve come here to suck up to this bastards, I only have one advice for you. Pick your allies well, because this won''t end well for anyone of you. So think twice before you join forces with a man who''s own father suspects of being responsible for his death! Have a good night and don''t let the door hit you on your way out."


    Damn it, I shouldn''t have said that last part about father being a suspect. But I got carried away, and with the look on nanny Florence''s face, it seems like she approves. I made my way up the stairs as she gave me a nod of approval, looks like she was going to take care of everything here. I''m sure by tomorrow what I''ve said would be all over the tabloids, my father would probably spend a significant amount of time trying to run damage control over the blow to his reputation, and the company''s stocks would suffer for it.


    It''s a huge scandal, and in other to balance that scale they would need to bring in a counter weight. And that was me. Giving me a seat on the board of directors, along with a executive position would sate the hounds of justice and make the public feel like he was trying to make amends.


    This would be the only route available to him, if he doesn''t wants to get kicked off the board, just as he did my grandfather. Oh! I''m so bad. Anyway let the party go wild, with millions of players panicked about the update, this would be the best time to strike while the iron''s hot, and get into Lost Descendants. After all the early bird gets the worm.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    Lost Descendants at the time of it''s inception was like most games of it''s time. Stiff, expensive and not at all worth the hype about it being the next generation of VR gaming. The company took a dive, and at that time things weren''t really working out for both my great grandfathers.


    But damn those two willy foxes, it was all a publicity stunt. They let that trashy game run for a whole year, loosing a serious amount of money, before they did something equally as crazy as what just happened today. Reset all levels, and organizations to Zero, and send an update that completely changed the landscape of the game. They called it the great sundering.


    The update was a narrative, about a sudden destruction of the planet, and from the ashes of fallen civilizations came new ones. New races, new classes, and new skills. New locations as the landscape of the game change from one massive super continent, to four. Now the game has a player base of over 800 million worldwide and still growing, a hundred and seventy six classes, 60 customizable races, with the players being allowed to mix up their races to create unique builds, skills, and even racially oriented classes. Only God knows how big an update this is, this time around.


    Lost Descendants draws heavily on entertainment to make most of their money. Even though as of recent the game was running out of new content, the live streams of really famous players brought in revenue, as each of those players were only allowed to sign streaming contracts with imperium entertainment, a side company of the main company. From monthly subscriptions, to public appearances, the streamers were celebrities.


    But that was not all, since real money can be exchanged from the game to the real world and vice versa, many major companies took the initiative to establish themselves in the game, raiding dungeons, completing quests, fighting against other players, selling equipment or finding some other way to make money within the game.


    The back story for lost Descendants sets the planet along with a few other dimensions, in a universe that suffered a cataclysmic event. So to survive, races from every corner, galaxy, nebula, black hole, asteroid belt,planets etc. came together on one giant massive planet to start anew. Over time, there were a lot of inter marriages between species, and hybrids were born. But over time, they all forgot about where they came from, or who their ancestors were, loosing knowledge of their origins to time. Hence why it''s called The Lost Descendants.


    I would have done a much more extensive research, but with the update, all previous knowledge about the game would be nothing short of obsolete. Somethings might still be the same, but the change would be too extensive to find any similarities this early. It would take a while.


    My grandfather''s room, now mine was exactly what you would expect the house of a billionaire in the 22nd century to look like. It was snazzy, cozy, a big ass bed, a walk in closet, and a bathroom the size of my old apartment. There was a Jacuzzi, a TV and State of the art full immersion virtual pod. Its was beyond comfortable for me, and since that was the case, let''s see what the Lost Descendants have in store for me.

 4 Logging In I : Character Creation

    [Initializing hub space...¡­..hub space generated.]


    [New user recognized. Do you wish to bind this pod to your account.]


    [Binding process initiated.....Bound.]


    [Warning! Unauthorized prerecorded message detected. Orientation unknown! Initiating log off sequence...¡­.log of sequence interrupted. Attempting to call for technical assistance...¡­call back blocked. Playing message]


    "Oma mi(my child). This feels exciting doesn''t it, you''re just like all those heroes from the novels I read you when you were young. I assume you''re older now, hopefully not too old. You have a secret inheritance, hidden in a game 30 times the size of earth, and with the new update, that''s just one planet and dimension among the millions out there. It could be anywhere! But don''t worry it''ll come to you once you''re strong enough.


    Enyo the real world is a much harder place, and if your fath...¡­I mean your grandfather, if your grandfather does decide to give you a part of his fortune, then he''s going to be throwing you into shark infested waters. The life of an elite socialite, or the wealthy heir to a billion dollar company is not all parties and hot models. It''s a battlefield Aaron, one you have to fight everyday until you know that you''re the only king on the mountain.


    I don''t need to tell you this, but don''t trust your father, or his wife. In fact I would say don''t trust anybody, but living life like that would be torture, and that''s something I don''t want for you. Be careful of the people you trust, and sleep with one eye open. Get a bodyguard, or a dozen, and make friends with all the important people and their children. You''ll be playing two games at the same time Aaron, and it''s important that you win both. Keep your identity as a gamer separate from your identity as an heir to the Imperium cooperation.


    When you''re powerful enough, both in the game and outside of it, you can let the world know who you really are. I''m sorry, this message is totally out of context and without structure; but this might be the last time you''rehearing my voice, the last time I get to talk to my son...¡­.and I have so many things to say that I don''t know where to start. First of, once you start working at the company, or even if you don''t get to work there, just in case things don''t go according to plan.


    You have to track and locate three people. This individuals have in their possession, evidence that could expose the criminal dealings of not just half the board of directors, including your father, but also a couple of international figures, both in the government and private sector.


    There are three people, with three different set of information, and each part is useless without the other, so you need all three to make sense of what I left behind. Aaron you have to be careful, because this knowledge would shake the foundations of the world, causing an upheaval that has not been seen since the fourth world war. You should really take my advice and get those bodyguards.


    I''m not supposed to do this, but what kind of mother would I be, if I don''t give my son access to a cheat item in the game our family has designed and perfected over successive generations. Cheat items like equipment, resources and special locations in this game are not found. They''re earned, and in the most surprising ways. You must perform every quest like it was a real life scenario, even the basic ones. And make sure every repeatable quest you get, must be completed at least 25 times. Volunteer in temples and churches, but stay away from the dark ones.


    I very much prefer if you were a force for good rather than evil, but whatever tickles your fancy. Talk to bosses, yes do that. Every boss has an advanced AI as the core of their being. You could get a lot of benefits from them. In this game just swinging a sword or shooting a gun won''t get you to the top; Just like real life Aaron, you can''t just play the Lost Descendants; you have to live in it. I love you."


    [Message ended....proceed to opening scene...]


    She was right, there really was no context to her message. But that''s how I remember my mother. She was messy, forgetful, had her head stuck in the clouds most of the time, and let her imagination carry her away more than once. But she was also beautiful, a schemer and the most brilliant person I''ve ever met.


    I miss her very much, and I hate the fact I had to bury an empty casket the day I had to say good bye to her. I think I just realized that my whole life, there''s been shadows hanging at every corner, my mom and grandfather did their very best to protect me from it.


    There was bright light in front of me, and I felt the world shift. I looked down, to see a galaxy of stars, and planets.


    The boundlessness of space was exposed to me, and it looked truly beautiful. Then I felt it rumble, and a speck of orange light in the distance flared. Then it expanded as a massive wave of fire and rocks spread across space, burning everything in it''s path, turning millions of luscious green planets with great bodies of water to nothing more than grey balls of ash and smoke.


    Moons exploded, some turned to massive chunks of crystals. Many suns and stars imploded into themselves, causing a chain reaction that burnt everything in sight. Some of the sun and stars began to freeze over, turning from great big balls of burning gas, to great big balls of frozen planets.


    It was cataclysmic, another big bang and the veritable end of all life in the universe. After everything had burnt around me, it all went dark. And that''s when I heard it. I''ve never been off world before, but I''ve watched a lot of documentaries and movies about interstellar travel. I knew the sound either a warp engine, or a hyper space engine made when they traveled.


    And that''s when I saw them, space ships, numbering in the millions, different civilizations from different corners of the universe. Some of them attacked others, some were attackedthemselves. Others made alliances, and some stayed on their own. They all traveled the same direction in the boundless darkness that is space.


    Many of them fell behind, their engines going cold as they ran out of power to sustain themselves. Some didn''t loose power but instead fell to some disaster either from space, or within their ships. Many races went extinct, others were assimilated by more powerful civilizations that shared similar traits. After countless years and when it seemed as if life in the universe was truly at an end, they found hope.


    There was loud bang, as deep drum beats resounded. And epic musical score began to play. It was the kind of music that would get your blood pumping for action. Peaking over the edge of a frozen moon was a hint of planet, and beyond it was a big beautiful sun. Slowly the moon moved away and the planet was exposed in all it''s splendor. It was green, but it was also blue, very blue.


    Without a doubt, what I was looking at was earth. The same continents, but only a lot bigger, like 20 to 30 times the size if not more. The sun flashed as words etched themselves out of starlight and the entire scene froze.


    The Lost Descendants Online


    [Initializing character creation menu.]


    The world turned upside down again, and I found myself floating above a platform, surrounded by white pillars and a sea of clouds. This was the kind of scene you would see in a fantasy movie. A screen sprung up in front of me.


    [Choose racial template. Full breed/Hybrid/Tribrid/Blank.]


    Thinking about my choices gave out explanations about them. A full breed means you''re a full blood member of a race. Hybrids are explainable as they usually mean someone is a child of members of two different races. Tribids fall under the same spectrum, by having either one or two hybrids as parents, causing for a mixture of races in their children.


    Blanks mean you don''t have a race, and as such you would start without a gender and racial bonuses. It would be up to you to explore the game and build your own unique race from the ground up.


    This must be a new option that came with the recent update, but no way in hell am I choosing that. I like having a dick, whether I''m in the real world or a game, besides the blanks option is a gamble. No one knows what they''ll end up like.


    [You have chosen Tribrid, please choose three races to fill into your genome sequence and choose your race.]


    And then a list containing over five hundred races showed up in front of me. My jaw was hanging halfway down my mouth at the sheer number of possibilities. It would take me forever to choose. But the list should have a filter.


    "Filter the list until there are races good with magic and as an added bonus, a magical race with good physical abilities."


    I was fishing in troubled waters, but I just hoped it turns out fine. Did it even allow filtering, or were they races that actually matched that criteria. I didn''t have to wait long, and three names showed up on the screen.


    High Elves


    Dragons(elemental)


    Yaksha(Demons)


    High elves were marksmen and swordsmen, having really good bonuses to ranged classes and skills, and mastery over rune magic, healing magic, and oracular magic. They''re mostly rangers and druids, but have extremely strong and lithe bodies that makes them very fast.


    The dragons are just that, dragons with control over a particular element. While I wouldn''t have a human form as a dragon, I will have strength, speed, flight, and control over a particular element of my choosing. Classes for dragons are rare, and difficult to describe. But they''re given classes based on a players mode of play.


    The Yaksha demons are scary looking to say the least. They''re a race of demonic priests, but being seven foot tall, with muscles, grey skin, huge horns and a very tensile tail did not look priestly. Masters of curse and black magic, and a very special blend of sinister summoning abilities, made them a recipe to be one of the most malevolent classes. No thank you.


    "I choose high elf for one of my racial templates and wind dragon for the second."


    High elves were sexy looking, and my mom wanted me to be a force for good. Which better race to do so than an elf, and who wouldn''t want to be a fire breathing dragon, but in this case wind. I chose that because I wanted to build on my racial strengths.


    Elves are known for their speed, and closeness to nature, being masters of wind, earth, water and green magic. Diversity is good, but building upon a solid foundation with the same shaped brick, rather than a new type is better. I''ll be going for a speed combatant, both in spells and melee. And being an elf and a dragon gave me options for that.


    "Filter the list until you have races with good exploratory and production skills, and capable of combat too."


    Human


    Dwarves


    Gnomes


    Goblins


    Hortuvit


    Beast man


    ...¡­.


    The list went on for quite a while, but I had already made my decision. I''m sure I''m not the first person to choose this particular arrangement, but it suited me just fine. I picked human. Most of the races mentioned had one thing in common, and that was their short height, and love for dirt and shiny things. I was a 183 centimeters, and I loved my height. How could I be a beacon for good if I was as short as a ten year old.


    [Template accepted. Generating race....race generated. User is now a Dragon Kin. Racial distribution are at Dragon 40% High elf 35% and human 25%. Would you like to alter.]


    With the dragon gene having more concentration than the other genes, it made me look more like a reptilian man, rather than a normal human or elf. I shifted it so that elf had 40% dragon 40% and human 20%. By making the elf gene equal to the dragon gene, I made it a major contender, so with the help of the similar human gene, normal features won over draconic ones. I felt a tingle all over my body as I changed.


    My height remained the same, skin color was also the same light brown, synonymous with the children of white and black parents. My hair turned into a shiny silver that fell to the middle of back, my eyes became a peculiar shade of green and blue. I had no idea what that color was called, but at different angles it was green and at others blue.


    My ears became tipped, not extravagantly like a real elf, but just a little bit longer than a half elf''s. And then finally the crazy sensation on my back to show I had wings that were a weird combination of membrane and feathers.


    [Input Character Name.]


    "Aaren"


    I did not really have a good naming sense, and using either of my real names would have been stupid. It''s the first rule of gaming, never use your real life name for your in game avatar. My mom made sure to beat that into my skull.


    [Name chosen. Generating starter planet, generating starter city. Welcome to Lost Descendants Online.]


    The temple in the clouds faded into a rainbow of colors as I fell to a new world, ready to become a new person. From this moment one, in this world, Aaron did not exist. There was only Aaren!

 5 Logging In II : Middle Of An Ocean

    SPLASH!


    First of all falling from the sky was not fun, I thought that I would have enjoyed it seeing as I had chosen to be part dragon, but the wings on my back seemed to be malfunctioning or something. So all I could do was plunge head first into a freezing cold lake.


    -5hp


    That sucked, and it hurt a lot. Considering I only started out with 10hp, it means I just lost half falling from the sky. It could have been worse, but I doubted the first experience the game would want any new user to feel was death. I kicked my legs and swam up to the surface. This was a game, and places like this would be the stomping ground for monsters, and unfortunately I was right.


    I have barely begun my ascent, when I felt something grab me, (as clich¨¦ as it could get. Tentacle monster hidden in the deep.) I kicked down hard.


    You have dealt -3 damage to Vomusk Deep Squid


    level 200


    HP: 1,500,097/1,600,000


    I opened my eyes in shock as I kicked harder. Where in God''s name did this game spawn me. I was level 0,a big fat ZERO! Why am I skinny dipping with a level 200 man eating fish. I kicked harder, ignoring the strings of -0 floating in the air. But I was rapidly running out of air and my limbs were getting to heavy. Then suddenly a hand plunged into the water and pulled me out, depositing me roughly on a wooden raft that was adrift over the lake.


    I coughed and hacked out water from my lungs and mouth, all the while kissing the raft below me in thanks and gratitude. I was alive, and that was enough for me. And I had to be grateful for it, who knew what could have happened if I didn''t get the help I needed at the moment. And then


    PARUUUUUUUUUU!


    I almost fell back into the water at the loud sound. Why would an elephant be so close. I turned to ask my benefactor, only freeze like a dear in headlights. Yes I was on a wooden raft, but it was not set adrift on a lake, because of how high I was when I was falling I thought it was lake, but it was a freaking ocean. But right on that wooden raft, sitting opposite me with skin as black as night, and dotted with tiny specks of light, to make it seem like it''s skin was the night sky, was an elephant the size...of a dog.


    I looked at the elephant, and elephant looked back at me. I blinked, and it blinked it''s huge silver eyes in return. So this was the person who save me from becoming fish food, an elephant smaller than the average baby elephant. And it''s skin was black with white dots and stripes, and one snazzy looking diamond rested on it''s forehead. I wonder what it is.


    [Arnetine Sky Mammoth (Night Form)/Grade: Earth/Level 1/ HP 408/450]


    [Status: Injured and Hungry/ Attack: 1 Defense: 100/ Neutral]


    We had the same level, but it had 45 times as much health as I did. And it''s grade alone let me know that this was no ordinary monster. In lost Descendants, weapons, equipment, materials, monsters, in fact everything in here has a grade. And they''re divided into Normal, Mortal, Earth, Heaven, Legendary, Mystic and Divine grades.


    The grades depicts the rarity, strength and importance. Which means this fellow was at the top of the low grades being an earth monster. But the question remains why was it set adrift on an ocean, alone, and why was I thrown right in the middle of it.


    Even though players are randomly spawned, they are always sent to the closest city, town or village around. Which means either the system made a mistake, or the bloody city I was spawned at was freaking underwater, in an ocean filled with level 200 to who knows what monsters. Wow, thanks Mom, things are going great.


    "Hi my name is A...."


    THWACK!-1 Hp


    Oh my God did that elephant just smack me? I was about to burst out in anger and maybe have it for dinner when I saw it''s eyes. It was frightened, and it was cold. It may have pulled me out from certain doom, but that didn''t mean it trusted me. And looking at it, all I could see was a child, someone who was alone in the middle of nowhere. I felt a little guilty, so I decided to try again.


    "Hey are you oka....."


    THWACK!-1hp


    You know what, I give up. Let''s just ignore each other and drift around aimlessly till the world ends. Three more hits like that, and I''m dead. There was enough room for both of us to share the raft. Besides I had other things to do.


    "Status Screen,don''t you dare!"


    I shouted as I pointed at the elephant about to smack me again. It seems just me talking was enough to spook the little fellow. But a firm tone was required, and it learnt that I meant business. I was an adult, and I would not let any baby, elephant or otherwise smack me around.


    THWACK!


    I''ve come to the realization, that I hated this elephant. And that as soon as I get the opportunity, I was going to kill it, and eat it! Holding my stinging cheek, I faced the stat screen that popped up in front of me.


    Name: Aaren/ Level: 1(0/100)/Class:N/A


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Attack: 10/Defense: 5/Speed: 10/Magic: 15


    Hp 3/10MP 30/30


    Stat points:0.Skill points:0


    Passive skills:


    ?	Nature buff (level 1) basic + 2% to all nature oriented skills, spells, or tasks.


    ?	Wind child(level 1) basic. +5% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 1) basic. +2% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    Active skills:


    ?	Shoot(level 1) basic. +3% damage and speed for projectile weapons. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 25 seconds)


    ?	Glide(level 1) basic. Glide in the air for 15 seconds. + 5% to speed during flight. (Cost 20 MP) (cool down 40 seconds)


    ?	Hard punch(level 1) basic. Hit your opponent for 40% extra of your total attack. Speed +5% during skill.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    Well none of the skills are helpful in getting me out of my current predicament. The wings on my back, even though I could weirdly feel them, like two extra limbs were completely useless at the moment. I could feel that they were weak, and incapable of sustained flight. Like I was some sort of baby dragon. A hungry baby dragon. Ignoring the crazy elephant, I turned my gaze into the sea below me, it was almost dark, but I could see fishes swimming near the surface.


    I looked around the raft, and noticedthree bags on it. I wonder how I was unable to notice them before. Keeping a wary eye, on the trigger happy baby elephant, I inspected the contents of the bag.


    [Convolurian Fire Ruby/ Grade: Earth/ Type: Forging, Alchemical and Spell material]


    Well who would have thought baby elephant here was loaded. This things had to fetch a lot of money, and there were three bags, with each bag being half a meter tall at least. Unfortunately, I had other plans for it. Giving a wary look at the elephant, I scooped up a fistful of the rubies, and walked to the edge of the raft. The raft alone was three meters wide and six long, so I had enough space.


    The rubies were the size of beans, just the perfect size that I needed them to be. I raised my hand and waited, watching closely as the fishes swam around leisurely, waiting for one that''s stupid enough to come close to me, and here it is.


    "Shoot!"


    (You have caused 30 damage to Jitusat ocean catfish,critical hit ¨C 300 Hp)


    (you have slain Jitusat ocean catfish. Gained 1000 exp, x10 XP for killing a monster 10 levels higher than you.)


    (Congratulations on getting to level 3.you have gained 3 stat points, and 1 skill points.)


    That was great and all, but I was still really hungry. I pulled the dead floating fish out of the water, and almost had a heart attack when I realized it was half the size of my body, and scalding hot. I placed it on the raft and shoved my burnt hand back into the sea. By the time I was done, the fish was roasted to a crispy texture that made my stomach rumble even more.


    A thought came to me, and I quickly shoved my finger into the hole the fire ruby had made through it''s eyes.I didn''t want to boast about being able to take the fish out in one hit, and aiming for a vulnerable place like it eyes, so I didn''t say anything. Not that there was anyone here to listen anyway. I spent quite a bit of time among my mother''s extended family back in Nigeria. I spent hours learning how to fish from the rivers there, fun people. They also taught me how to wrestle, but I don''t think that Information was relevant at the moment.


    I pulled the ruby out, but instead it was no longer a ruby, but a simple crystal. Apparently the fire in it, had cooked the fish. I placed it aside, picked the fish up, and dug into it with much gusto. It seemed to melt in my mouth, it crunched, and spilled delicious juices down the side of my lips. I''ve never tasted fish this delicious in my entire life, and I was determined to eat, until nothing was left.


    Then I felt someone nudge me, I turned to see the elephant a whole lot closer and looking at me with eyes I''ve only ever seen on human kids, or a dog. How is this possible? I wanted to resist, I have to resist those eyes...¡­..I failed. I watched it eat, letting out happy groaning sounds as it filled it''s hungry stomach. I turned my head to the horizon and saw the setting sun as it fell down into the sea.


    My strings of weird experiences aside, this world was beautiful. It was amazing and so real. A world my mom and her family built. It was peaceful, and I hoped that I could be stuck in this moment for as long as I could. I turned and saw the elephant snoring away. I scoffed at it, and laid back, my eyes looking at the deep blue sky. I''ll be back.


    "Log Out."

 6 A Son & His Mother I : Kira Lee Zhang

    Kira Lee Zhang loved coming to the New Saint orphanage home in downtown Los Angeles. People might argue that it''s location was in a rather dangerous neighborhood and that it was dangerous for children to live there. But she would probably argue and prove them wrong, she was a lawyer after all. In fact the truth was that the orphanage was the most protected place around.


    Due to the increase of gang violence, lot''s of kids were orphaned. After loosing their parents, the orphanage took them in. The surviving members of the gangs, knowing that the children of their colleagues live there, protected it. New Saints orphanage was a neutral ground in the middle of seediest neighborhood in Los Angeles. It was home to a lot of people and little Aaron Junior Wade lived here.


    Kira remembered the day almost three years ago when her friend Samantha called to tell her that she had a baby she had given up for adoption. She also gave her the baby''s name, and the baby''s father''s name. Aaron Wade, apparently they had met during an international military exercise between a couple of countries that were a part of the U.N.what followed was weeks of Sex and drinking as both people were dealing with a lot of shit in their lives and found solace in each other''s company.


    It was supposed to be just a simple hook up that lasted longer than expected. She came out of it pregnant, and unable to track the bastard down as he retired from the army just after the exercise was over.


    However she found his grandfather, though Samantha never mentioned who this grandfather was, apparently they were filthy rich, and the man offered to take care of her needs and those of her baby.


    Samantha refused, something about the family not having a good reputation, and not being a conducive environment for her son to grow up in. At the very least she would have preferred if his father was around.


    She couldn''t raise him on her own, so she left him in an orphanage when he was just six months old. A month later she called Kira and told her all she needed to know, and just two months after that Samantha passed away after battling a rare strain of cancer that affected the heart.


    At that point it all made sense to Kira, the reason why her friend couldn''t raise her son. She was dying, and being a mother at that time was the farthest thought in her mind. The father never came looking for his child, probably because he didn''t know he had one. Kira would have adopted little Aaron, but her life was too complicated at the moment to take care of a child. So that''s how she ended up being the interim mother to a three year old bundle of sunshine and joy.


    Being his mother was the most joy she''s had in all 28 years of her life. And she wouldn''t trade any of those years for anything. It was certainly better than being a major shareholder of the Imperium industries. That company was trying to work her to an early grave.


    Kira whistled a jolly tune as she parked her car in he parking lot at the side of orphanage. It was almost the end of the 22nd century, and Kira was proud to say that she was among the few people who had cars that still used wheels. Flying cars were the rage this days, and you only used a four wheel drive if you were dirt poor, or stinky rich.


    Thankfully for her, she was the latter rather than the former. She gave the black Camaro a gentle tap as she grabbed the bags of groceries and toys she had with her, she could almost see the smile on his face when she shows him the vintage spider man action figure she got him. Those things were so damn rare and expensive she almost thought she was buying drugs or something.


    Kira opened the door to the orphanage, and released a happy laugh as she was swarmed by children. They were all clamoring for a hug, and a gift from her, though mostly they were clinging because of the gifts.


    There was a tiny crease to her forehead, as she didn''t notice Aaron amongst the children hopping around her in a fervor. He knows she would be here today, of course he was only three years old, so it''s hard to say how aware of her arrival he could be, but either way this was the first time she came here that he was not around to greet her.


    It took her a while to extricate herself from the children. She gave a jovial nod and wave to the caretaker at the counter, and walked past, heading straight for his room. It did look like the caretaker wanted to say something,but in the end she just kept silent about it and let her pass. Maybe it was just Kira''s imagination, but she couldn''t shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong somewhere. She entered his room a beaming smile on her face as she prepared to tackle him to the ground, but he was not there, there was nothing here.


    She knew she was in the right room, and nothing seems to be wrong with the room so there should not be any reason for him to be moved to another room. And even if he was moved, he would have still been waiting for her at the entrance. Kira felt her heart jump into her mouth as she dropped everything in her hands and ran for the head matron''s office.


    She climbed stairs three at a time, took corners like a champion racer and ignored whatever dignity or image she had to uphold as she ran past the inhabitants of the orphanage. She barged into the matron''s office like an angry lioness looking for her cub, she marched up to her desk and slammed her palms on it with a bang, startling the elderly woman as she jumped in fright.


    "Where is my son?" there was an edge to her voice, a ferociousness that even Kira herself could never have imagined she had. She was looking for blood at this moment, and if she doesn''t get her son, then blood definitely going to be spilt.


    "Ms. Kira maybe it would be better if you calm down, I have some tea here that wou......"


    BANG!


    "I hope you''re not trying to make me repeat myself old lady, but for reference sake, let me ask you one more time. Where. The. Hell. Is. My. Son!"


    With each words spoken through gritted teeth and her eyes blazing like fire, the old matron knew that not given her the answer she wanted would probably end up causing serious consequences for herself. This was a mother on a war path, and truly there was nothing under heaven or earth, that could withstand the rage of an angry and desperate mother.


    "They came for him." The matron replied carefully.


    "Who?" Kira asked, still looking like a lioness who''s tail was just bitten off.


    "His father."


    Kira felt the world stop. To be honest she had no idea how to react to that. Her baby''s father had finally come for him, a man who had more right over him than she ever did. But even if that was the case, she was not going to roll over and let some bum take her child. Samantha had made her promise to love and to cherish the little kid with everything she''s got. Maybe she was selfish, but she was completely unwilling to share him with any body, not even his father. Kira turned to matron about to ask for a method to track the bastard who stole her son, but the old lady beat her to the punch.


    "He left an address for you." She said, passing over a white sheet of paper with shaking hands. Kira was surprised, she didn''t expect this at all.


    "He had wanted to talk to you, to see the woman who has been taking care of his son for three years, but you were out of town so there was nothing I could do. So he left an address and said to tell you that you''re welcome any time. His name is just the same as the boys, Aaron Wade. Which makes him senior and little Ron junior. I tried reaching you, but I couldn''t get through to you. And I couldn''t hold him back from his father, not when they had legal DNA test results, and a court order asking us to release the child into his father''s care. We...¡­."


    Kira had stopped listening as she stormed out of the orphanage, hopped into her car, and drove west. Her mind in complete turmoil as she looked at the address on the paper. How could she have been so stupid, and how could he have worked so fast. She was just there two days ago for a funeral, and after she''s had to deal with a lot of publicity at the sudden scandal that seemed to have thrown the Imperium industries of it''s smooth tracks.


    Damn it their names were the same, of course it would have been too far fetched to assume that Aaron Wade was the father of her son just because they shared the same name. She was shaken, and she was upset. Too many things ran through her mind at this point, one of it being the fact that she belonged to a faction in the company that supported his father, the same father that he accused of murdering his grandfather.


    They were destined to be on opposite sides on a corporate battlefield, and now fate has gone and kicked her in the teeth by making her sweet little boy, the son and next generation heir of the Imperium industries. Why couldn''t his father have being a useless bum as she always imagined he would be, why was life such a bitch.


    But even with all of her worries and apprehension, Kira didn''t notice that she never slowed down or took a turn hesitatingly. In fact she went faster, politics aside, all she knew was that her baby was out there waiting and calling for his mother.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    This was weird, but it was a rather calming kind of weird. It took me three hours and boat load of ice cream to call him down. And then he ended up having a stomach ache, and I had to run around the house looking for a kid friendly pain relief medication that won''t kill my son.


    I wasn''t really successful, and Nanny Florence was out of the house, apparently she had to go to a recruitment center and get some new workers for the manor. The old ones were let go after my grandfather died.


    I couldn''t find any meds, so I had turned to the internet. They gave me a boat load of home made herbal remedies that I could try. I called a 24 hour pharmacy and ordered more trustworthy medications, but they would not be here for another two hours, and Aaron(it''s so weird my son and I share the same name) was crying up a storm. I panicked and tried one of the home remedies, hoping to God I did not murder my son the very day I finally got to meet him.


    My gamble worked, his stomach ache stopped, and he was passed out on my shoulder with his arms tightly clenched around my neck in a choke hold. He refused to let go and I was finding it really difficult to breathe. I really had no idea what I was doing, it was only the first day and I had caused such a disaster, and damn this kid has a loud voice. But there was this feeling I couldn''t describe, it was warm and cool, and intense at the same time.


    Aaron was a spitting image of my mother thank God for that. If he had inherited my less than average looks I would never have forgiven myself. I just knew from the very moment I saw him that this was my blood, my son. And as cheesy as it sounded, I loved the kid from the very moment I set my eyes on him. I was all alone in this world, I had Nanny Florence, but she was not really my blood.


    My father and brothers hate me, my mom''s side of the family are narrow minded and only chose to hang around me because they knew my mom was rich. But looking at him sitting on his bench, and clutching his Ironman action figure sent a bolt of lightening through my chest. At that moment I never wanted to let him out of my sight again.


    DING DONG!


    "Hunh!Who could that be?"


    I moved towards the foyer and to the main door, staring through the peep hole. It was a woman, and she looked weird. Her hair was a mess, her makeup was smudged, and she was missing a shoe. I looked behind her, and saw the missing shoe hanging on top of a black Camaro, which she parked on top of Nanny Florence''s rose garden. Shit! I''m so dead. I pulled the door open, about the give this crazy woman a piece of my mind, but doing it carefully so as not jostle my sleeping angel.


    "What the hell is wrong with youuuuuuuuuuu"


    THUD


    "Give me back my son!"


    I was on the ground, and I could feel the woman trying to pry Aaron from me. But before that, I could have sworn she kicked me in the face...¡­..what the hell?

 7 A Son & His Mother II : Wardrobes Malfunction, Enemys Daughter

    How did I ever get into such a comical situation. I was holding on to the legs of this strange woman, as she tried to leave with Aaron in her hands. There was no way in hell I''m letting her get away with my son. A son who I might add has chosen sides, and he picked her! She must have brainwashed him with toys.


    "Let go you stupid man!" She screamed at me.


    "You let go!" I shouted back, reinforcing my decision to absolutely not let go.


    "I''m not holding on to you, dumbass."


    She replied.


    Oh right! She was just trying to leave. Ignoring my throbbing nose, and hoping to God it wasn''t broken, I dragged myself off the ground and grabbed a hold of her collar, trying to stop her from leaving. There was a struggle, then she violently dragged herself from my grasp.


    RIIIIPPP


    I knew I was strong, but not to the point of ripping off a blazer and blouse at he same time. Smeared make up and messed up hair aside, this woman had a body to die for. Smooth, pale, but also incredible tattooed. That was something I didn''t expect to see in this scenario. Of course I also didn''t expect to rip her clothes of her body, but who knows how this things turn out anyway.


    She had a tattoo of a rose bush, a bush who''s roots started from below her waist line, from a direction I''m not supposed to be looking at, up her navel, before spreading towards, oh my God! She''s not wearing a bra. What kind of woman leaves the house without a bra. I was dark skinned enough that the blush creeping up my neck could not be noticed, but it was obvious I was terribly flustered.


    "did you enjoy the show?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.


    "Yes....umm...no....not at all¡­ it was...¡­terrible." I nervously answered, trying not to stare as the two roses tattooed over her breast and nipples.


    "So you''re saying you stared at my breasts for almost a minute because they were ugly?" her voice had an edge to it.


    I was not an amateur when it comes to women, though I couldn''t say I was master either. Honestly more often than not, I''m a stuttering mess around members of the opposite sex. Most of the hookups I''ve experienced in my twenty four years of my life, has been because women find my awkwardness cute.


    As much as I hated to admit, I''m not the stereotypical rich handsome young master. In fact not until recently the rich part was not included in the equation. I had a face that was plain, forgettable in the crowd, but I also had one redeeming factor.


    My blue eyes, the most obvious trait of the Wade bloodline. I had it and it saved me from being a virgin at twenty four, but my incredibly cute little boy also had it, guess we now know who has the stronger genes.


    "Would you like to have dinner with me?" I have absolutely no idea where that came out from. And she seemed even more surprised than I was.


    "Indeed Ms. Kira it would be our honor if you have dinner with us, and maybe set up the young master''s room. We also have to get you new clothes too, and all this childish fighting is unbecoming of both of you. Though young master Aaronfinds it amusing, it''s making me itch for a beat down session. Now before we proceed who''s car is parked on my beloved roses."


    I didn''t need to think twice before pointing at the woman who''s name was apparently Kira. I so did not want to get in Nanny Florence''s bad book, that old woman was deadly in more ways than one. After I finished speaking, Nanny Florence went to the door, and ran her hands over the edge.


    To my shocked gaze, the wooden boards at the threshold of the manor slid aside, and rack filled with guns rose up out of the ground. Kira moved backwards keeping her distance from both me and nanny Florence. Then Nanny Florence pulled out earphones from God knows where, and threw it to Kira.


    "Put that on the young master, and hurry."


    I''m sure in Kira''s mind, all she could think about was that here was a crazy old woman with a military grade assault rifile.She hastily put the earphones on Aaron''s head, and watched with nervous breaths as Nanny Florence made her to the doorway. I would like to tell you that as Kira breathed erratically, my eyes were not glued to her breast, but that would have been a total lie. They were so big, and perky, and......


    RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!


    I dived for the ground immediately, crawling towards Kira, hoping to keep her and Aaron safe from whoever was attacking. But the crazy woman was not even keeping her head down, she was still standing there like a deer caught in headlights. The gun shots had already stopped, and I could hear her muttering to herself.


    "My car, my precious car."


    I turned towards the open door, and stared with open jaws as Nanny shot a vintage Camaro full of holes. She placed the gun back on the rack she took it from, then came and led the shocked Kira and dozing Aaron up the stairs, leaving me flat on my ass and completely stunned by the sudden turn of events.


    "What just happened?"


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    WADE MANOR


    DINING HALL


    KIRA


    To be honest I couldn''t bring myself to be angry at the lady who introduced herself as Nanny Florence. But that would probably be because I was busy being absolutely terrified of her. Is this where my baby would grow up, with a trigger happy Nanny and a perverted idiot as a father, this was not good, but I don''t think I could do anything about it, not unless I took this to court and have them carry out an investigation.


    And I would do that, if I was not so scared gun master Nanny Florence here would kill me. She destroyed my baby, a classic!Just because I parked on top of a few flimsy roses! Who does that?


    Aaron...¡­.well Aaron senior seemed afraid of his Nanny.


    But there was one thing he''s been doing all through out this awkward dinner that I really appreciated; and that was pay complete and total attention to his son. Of course I think he''s avoiding me because he had seen me topless, and also his nanny because of the embarrassing position she found him in today.


    Aaron junior on the other hand was happy being somewhere new and meeting new people. I could see the resemblance between father and son, but thankfully my baby is cuter. The both had blue eyes, and tipped ears like real life elves, and they both had the same intense look of concentration as they slurped up the Chinese noodles we had ordered for dinner. That was all the proof I needed that they were father and son, their love for noodles was all to obvious.


    "So Ms. Kira, where do you work?" Nanny Florence asked as she wiped the side of her mouth with a white dinner cloth.


    I didn''t know whether to answer or not, but his nanny already knew my name. She must have done a background check on me, so lying about who I was just to avoid an awkward situation did not seem to be an option.


    "I''m the director operations of the Consumer services department in the Imperium industries."


    Aaron senior froze with his chopsticks hung halfway to his mouth. Continuing with a game they previously had going on, Aaron junior leaned over and stole his father''s dinner, with a triumphant smile on his face. Seems he''s won this round. Aaron senior gave junior a loving smile that did not leave his face as he asked me a question.


    "Your Thompson Lee Zhang''s daughter aren''t you?"


    "Yes." I answered him.


    "Well that''s unexpected, but no problem. You''re always welcome here Kira, anytime of the day you want to see him, you can come over. If you want you can even move in too." He said with a bright smile on his face. But ignoring his innuendos, I asked him with a surprised voice.


    "That''s it, just like that? You do know my father is part of the reason why your grandfather got ousted out of his own company, and you''re okay with me being around you and your son?" was he sick in the head or plotting something, nobody was that forgiving.


    "Well what do you want me to say? You want me to tell you to get out, that you should stay away? Please that''s way to dramatic for my taste, and I''m much to lazy to play that game now. But most importantly, you''re his mother, the woman who raised my son when he lost his biological mother and I couldn''t be there for him. I owe you, and stopping the both of you from seeing each other is the worst possible decision I can make as a father. To be honest I have no idea what I''m doing, I almost killed my son today by giving him too much ice cream..."


    "What! Are you insane! He''s allergic to dairy! How did you calm him down and treat him?" I asked as I got up from my seat and went to check on Aaron. I pulled out my phone to all a doctor.


    "I gave him some home made herbal remedies, it made the symptoms subside."


    I heard Nanny Florence slap a hand on her forehead in exasperation. I glared at him with all the strength I could muster, Nanny Florence shifted and spoke up.


    "Let me call for the family doctor lady Kira. Please don''t be too hard on the master. It was my fault for leaving a man who can hardly take care of himself alone with a three year old. The doctor will be here in ten minutes."


    I nodded my head, and carried Aaron up, though he protested quite a bit seeing as he was not done with his dinner. I looked at his father and couldn''t help but agree with him. He really had no idea what he was doing, and he really did need help, lot''s of it.


    Thankfully for him, I''m not willing to let him send Aaron to an early grave due to his ignorance of parental duties. So I''ll stomach his presence for now, I just didn''t know why, but looking at him annoyed me.


    I felt like I had to keep on punching his face a million times before I would be satisfied enough to leave him alone, that and he still saw me topless.


    Though I wasn''t too worried about that, he''s not the first man to see me topless, unfortunately he would probably be the only man who didn''t enjoy the excitement that came next after seeing me topless. As if that will ever happen.

 8 Sea Legs I : Rewards & Swim

    When I opened my eyes I discovered I was still on the raft. But I was drenched from with water and the person responsible was the stupid elephant. Since I''ve been logged off, it has been trying to wake me up, hence the reason why it''s been splashing sea water all over my body.


    "Okay fine! I''m up. What''s the problem." I asked glaring at the elephant in he process.


    The disproportionate mammal sat on it''s hunches and looked up at me with it''s silver eyes glistening. An earth shaking rumble was heard from within it''s stomach, so I knew it was hungry. I carried a handful of the fire ruby and sat at the edge of the raft, staring intently at the ocean. It didn''t take long for another stray fish to swim past us, and I shot my hands down.


    "Shoot!"


    [You have attacked Jitusat ocean Tuna. Critical hit -400HP. You have slain Jitusat ocean Tuna.]


    [You have gained 700 XP for killing a monster seven levels above you. Shoot is now level 2 basic. You have reached level four. You have gained one skill point, and one stat point.]


    I ignored the system message and pulled the fish out of the ocean. It was a little bit bigger than the last one, almost my complete height. Though I don''t understand why fish this big would only be level 10. But it works well for me though, as of this moment I had no class, no skills, no weapons, and there was not a single starter city in sight.


    I could use the fire ruby as ammunition, and grind my skills and increase my level until I get to land. As a bonus I don''t get hungry either. I shared the fish, giving the elephant the lions share, because even though it looked smaller than me, I had a feeling it could out eat me any day.


    [You have eaten grilled Jitusat ocean Tuna (poor).+5% to attack, defense and speed for the next two hours. + 20% extra damage against aquatic monsters for the next three hours.]


    Well would you look at that. I lookedat the elephant who had completely gobbled up the Tuna and was looking at me with an even more pitiful gaze. Then I smiled and asked it.


    "Are you still hungry? Well today is your lucky day, you''re going to eat so much you''ll explode."


    I dragged one of the bag of fire rubies closer to myself. These things were expensive no doubt, and somewhere out there, someone was probably spitting blood with the knowledge that I was using it as ammunition to fish. This was just crazy. Either way, until I''m strong enough to kill the fishes using the used rubies, I have to keep on using the fire rubies.


    Usually after the fish is dead, the fire essence within the ruby would spread and cook the fish, leaving the previous ruby a transparent crystal stuck in the fish''s forehead. I could still use this as ammunition, but only at a higher level would I be able to take the fish out.


    I could use the stat points and skill points to enhance my strength, but I wanted to hoard them for now. I shouldn''t be too hasty to allocate my stats, especially when I''m not in too much danger. Well then let''s begin.... "Shoot!"


    THREE HOURS LATER.


    [You have reached level 10. You have been given 5 stat points, and 2 skill points. Shoot has leveled up to basic level 5.]


    [For reaching level 10 without allocating any stat point or skill point you have been given the title: Hoarder. +1 extra skill point every level, +2 extra stat point every level.]


    [You have killed over 50 aquatic monsters in a row. You have been given Augmented Racial trait: Gills (I): can breath underwater for two hours.]


    [Shoot has reached level 5,please choose secondary active or passive skill. I: Precise Aim basic level 1= +5% To Aim when moving, +10% to aim when stationary./ II: Power Shot basic level 1= +50% total damage when used. Cost 20 MP, cool down 30 seconds.]


    At this point I had totally forgotten what my mom had told me about this game when I first started it. Every good thing in here was not found, it was earned.


    Though I don''t see the difference. There were a variety of scenarios and conditions a player had to meet to earn any of the good skills or equipment. What I''ve gained from not seeing the need to allocate stat or skill points, or attacking fishes was something other players won''t get unless they fought tooth and nail for it, or where extremely lucky.


    This was amazing, and I don''t think there were many players that have discovered this function. Even if there was, I''m sure none of them would want to expose it, choosing to monopolize the benefits for themselves.


    After dinner with Kira and Aaron I had done a little research about the game. Skills had extra sub skills that were unlocked after the skill has reached a certain level.


    This skills are only ever unlocked at level 5 of the skill mastery. And once you give up on a skill, you won''t be able to learn it again, unless you paid a trainer a ridiculous amount of money, and even then the skill would not be as powerful as it would have been if you chose it. So if I choose one skill, the next time I would be seeing another secondary skill is at level 5 advance of shoot, or level 5 basic of which ever skill I choose.


    Between power shot and precise Aim, I was a little confused about what to choose. If I choose power shot, an active skill no doubt, I would be able to use the ordinary crystals, saving the fire rubies for a rainy day. But recently the fishes have gotten a lot faster, and it''s hard for me to keep track of them. The rubies provided enough power to take the fishes out in one hit, and if worse comes to worse, I''ll just allocate the stat points. Precise aiming was the better choice.


    Name: Aaren/ Level: 10(33.008/102.400)/Class: N/A


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Hoarder


    Attack: 10/Defense: 5/Speed: 10/Magic: 15


    Hp 10/10MP 7/30


    Stat points:17Skill points:8


    Passive skills:


    ?	Nature buff (level 1) basic + 2% to all nature oriented skills, spells, or tasks.


    ?	Wind child(level 1) basic. +5% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 1) basic. +2% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 1) basic. +5% to aim when in motion, +10% to aim when stationary.


    Active skills:


    ?	Shoot(level 5) basic. +10% damage and speed for projectile weapons. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Glide(level 1) basic. Glide in the air for 15 seconds. + 5% to speed during flight. (Cost 20 MP) (cool down 40 seconds)


    ?	Hard punch(level 1) basic. Hit your opponent for 40% extra of your total attack. Speed +5% during skill.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    Augmented racial trait:


    ?	Gills (I): Breathe underwater for two hours


    Well all is well that ends well. I''ve been doing this for a few hours, and the repetitive actions was begin to weigh on my sanity. Something needed to happen fast or I would loose my mind. The elephant was passed out, can''t blame it though, the little guy had been eating none stop for an entire hour.


    There was no shortage of fish as I caught them and delivered them to it''s waiting jaws, though there''s something that I''m a little confused about.Aren''t elephants herbivores? I get that the fishes became grilled and cooked, but still...¡­forget it, my boredom is making me question things I don''t really care about.


    Maybe I should go for a swim, yeah that would help me cool off. I plunged into the ocean, and for a moment I couldn''t see anything. But being an elf and a dragon meant I had superior senses, not the best, but good enough to see in it. I looked up and saw the raft floating away, I panicked, and paddled towards it. It was a little hard to move in the sea, I only had on a simple shirt, trouser and sandals. But I felt weighed down, and the only thing capable of doing that, were the wings on my back.


    It also struck me at that moment that I wasn''t really breathing, and I was already out of air. I took a deep breath and nothing happened. I was breathingjust fine. I felt movement on both side of my neck, and then I stupidly slid my hand over my skin.


    The blinding pain I felt almost made me pass out, and I learnt an important lesson, done mess with the gills, they were an exposed part of my body, and they seemed really fragile. I moved my hands and kicked my feet, looking around me at the fishes happily going about their merry business.


    The raft was still floating away, and was about fifteen meters away from me now. My wings were heavy, and wet, being part feather and part skin did not make it any less susceptible to the dangers of water. But I had to figure something out, and fast.


    A fish swam past me, lazily moving it''s fins as a propeller or to be more exact. It was moving its fins like two hands. It was as if a light bub came up on top of my head. The resistance from the water made it difficult, but I maneuvered my weak wings, fighting for control as I flapped them.


    Glide was an active skill rather than a passive one, and at the moment I was running low on MP after three hours of intense hunting. But there was a silver lining, and that was the fact that the current of the ocean was moving in the direction I wanted to go, rather than opposite it. It was like learning how to walk, only this time it was flying, underwater.


    Flap, swipe, kick, flap, swipe, kick. I moved my hands and legs in tandem with my wings, finding my balance. It was a little awkward moving at first, but slowly but surely I rapidly became accustomed to it, and swimming with my wings became easier. In fact I didn''t notice it at the time, but I had swam/flown past raft. This was not the sky''s, but under the sea. I''ve heard so many people describe flying; and said that there was freedom to it, you could never explain.


    Your worries, pains, and all of the hurt you felt faded into nothing and it was just you and the wind. But who knew the freedom was pretty much the same under the sea, there was an endless amount of space, fishes to be your companion, and it was a world all on its own. The reefs, the huge whales in the distance, and the angry shark with a silver horn that was heading right for me...¡­..Oh Shit!


    I flapped my wings, my panic made me loose control of my rhythm, giving the shark ample time to catch up. I swerved, dived and ascended, hoping to loose the shark, but it was rather persistent. Thankfully the raft was not too far away, so I shot towards it, putting all of my strength and attention in getting away from the shark.


    I got closer and closer to the surface, and with each centimeter I gained, the predator behind me gained an inch. And then I shot out of the water, going up almost six meters into the air in a beautiful air pirouette, twirling in the air with my wings wrapped around me, spraying droplets of water around.


    The shark also jumped out, snapping it''s jaws into the air in an attempt to bring me down for dinner. It barely passed the four meter mark before it fell back into the ocean with a splash waking up the elephant, who let out a loud roar of anger at being disturbed. I fell to the raft, spreading my wings and using it to catch air in much the same way a parachute would be used.


    I landed on the raft, and rolled onto the elephant tangling both ourselves in a heap of wings, trunk, grilled fishes and my limbs. It''s face was right over mine, and based on how it''s silver eyes had turned red, it was really angry.


    "So let''s not do that again." I said with a bright smile, the response I got, was.


    THWACK! -1HP


    THWACK!-HP


    Hah.....story of my life.

 9 Sea Legs II : Shark Bait, Broken Wings

    That stupid shark was persistent, it has been following us for the past thirty minutes, looking for an opportunity to chew us to pieces. I''ve spent the better part of that thirty minutes chucking the Convolurian fire rubies at it, almost to the point of emptying one of the bags. Many of them missed the shark, and the others that did hit the monster couldn''t cause much of a damage.


    Because the damn thing was level 150,a full 140 levels above me. I felt the elephant touch me, and I turned to see it pointing at a spot in the distance. It was land! Or to be more precise an island. It would take us another forty or so minutes to get there, which means we just had to endure the onslaught of this shark until then.


    Unfortunately our assailant had no plans of letting us go. I''m sure the shark had also seen the island in the distance, and knowing that getting on that island meant an escape, he became frantic with his attacks. He rammed the raft, making sure it was his silver crystal like horn that met the raft at the point of impact.


    A sizable chunk of the wood came off, and little cracks spread across that area. I panicked, my shoot skill, needed a 25 second cool down, so I couldn''t use it as much as possible. And as if that wasn''t enough, I was also running out of MP to power the skill, and it took five minutes for 1 MP to regenerate.


    I was running out of time, and he only thing I could rely on was my precise aim passive skill. It helped me keep up with the crazy speed of the shark. I needed to do something drastic, if not both the elephant and me will both be thrown overboard and become shark food before we get anywhere close to the island.


    I picked up a handful of the fire rubies, and moved to the edge of the raft, making sure my toes were in the water. Then I squeezed the rubies tighter, keeping them enclosed in my fist as the shark drew closer.This was a little trick I had learnt when I was hunting fishes; apparently this rubies are fragile, volatile and incredible reactive to a lot of things, including friction.


    I was afraid about taking my next action because I could get my hand if not my entire body blown up. But I don''t really have any choice now, I had to take the risk. I first saw it''s dorsal fin, and then it''s silver horn poke out of the water, coming closer as my heart beat strongly in anticipation. I started turning my arm, making it go round and round like a Ferris wheel. The rubies in my fist caught on fire, the flames were so intense that I almost dropped it.


    [Your Dragon heritage has helped you resists 40% of the flame damage and pain]


    It was still painful, but not so much. And that when he poked his head out of the water, jaws open wide as multiple rows of sharp teeth poised for an attack. The idiot took the bait, by now my shoot skill was already off it''s cool down, and I had just enough MP for one final use of the skill. So no matter what I had to make it count,this shark had already proven it was fast enough to evade my shooting skill, so I had to play it safe and make sure that no matter what, I. Didn''t. Miss.


    It was 10 meters away now....9 meters.....8meters.....7. By now my hand had already burnt to the point that my flesh was turning black and the crisp aroma of barbequed flesh, intermingled with the smooth ocean air. I have to admit, I really smelt nice and very tasty...¡­.2 meters! Now!


    "Shoot!"


    I threw the fistful of flaming rubies into the Shark''s mouth, and then turned. I flapped my wings, propelling myself forwards and over the raft, I grabbed the elephant and the remaining two bags of Convolurian fire rubies,and shot forwards, spreading my wings as we glided over the surface of the water. There was a loud crash as the shark smashed through our raft, but barely five seconds later, there was a huge sound.


    BOOOOOM!


    The shark exploded in a shower of guts, blood, and blackened skin. A shockwave was released after the crystals exploded in it''s stomach, creating a might draft of wind that caught on my wings and pushed me forwards at an incline, closer to the island. I flapped my wings to get more speed, shortening the distance.


    Since we flew up at an incline, relying on the power of the shockwave, there was no reason to actively use the glide skill. It wasn''t until ten seconds later, when we stopped our ascent, and were quite a ways up in the air that I activated the skill.


    I felt the wind catch my wings, in the same way it would catch on to the sails of a ship. I flapped it twice, and then tucked my wings around my body, covering the elephant as we fell from the sky like a missile. Our descent was also at an decline, covering more distance and bringing us closer to the island.


    When we got close to the surface of the ocean, I spread my wings again, and let the wind carry us forward. The speed with which we moved, and because of how close we were to the island, made us raise a stream of water behind us, in much the same manner a speed boat would.


    The island ahead of us had jagged rocks stretching out from the sea, serving as a natural barrier for it. I could see the reef beneath the water, and due to how close it was to the surface I concluded this was currently the low tide season. However because of that, I doubted any ship could dock or navigate around the island.


    But I had another problem; I have spent hours under the sea, learning to swim like no other, but maneuvering myself outside of the water, in the air, with just my wings was something I was completely unfamiliar with. And not to mention, the rocks were too clustered for me to navigate around properly with my amateur flying skills.


    CLIIIP "ARGGHHHH" BAAANG! CRASHHH! "FUUCK!" SPLASH!


    [Your wings have been damaged terribly,you have incurred the pain debuff,speed and directional orientation -80% until wings are fixed.]


    Only God knows how I dragged myself to the island, my body ached so much and I could almost feel myself blacking out. But I didn''t, instead I felt every bone in my wings twitch and creak in pain, as they lay behind me, badly twisted and broken. It would take a champion flyer to go around those rocks, of course the flyer could go over them, but I don''t think that would work.


    From what I could see, the smallest of those jagged rocks was about fifteen meters above the sea level and about ten meters in diameter. The biggest was about a hundred meters tall and fifty in diameter, but immediately after that, a thick cloud surrounded and covered the top of the island. The occasional crackle of lightening and the booms of thunder I heard from it, let me know that those were storm clouds, really thick and dangerous storm clouds.


    This island was protected by a slew of natural defenses. There was absolutely no way for anyone to approach the island, not by the sea or under it due to the coral reefs and rocks, and not by air due to storm clouds. And since it was hard to come in, it was just as hard for anyone to leave. We were stuck here, but it''s too early to jump to conclusions, this was just one part of the island anyway.


    [You have slain Jitusat Silver Horned Tiger Shark. You have been given 140 million XP, for killing a monster 140 level above you.]


    [For reaching level 20 without allocating any stat point or skill point you have been given the title: Thrill Seeker. +3 extra skill point every level, +5 extra stat point every level. The Compass of captain Jack Sparrow( the title Hoarder has been removed)]


    [You have killed over 200 aquatic monsters in a row. And over a hundred at the same time. You have been given Augmented Racial trait: Gills (III): can breath underwater for eight hours/You have been given the Augmented Racial Trait: Swim Bladder: +70% to speed underwater, can talk to fish]


    [For being the first to get to level 20 you have been given the Registered Encyclopedia Of Beast Knowledge And Monster Physiology. R.E.B.K.M.P]


    There were no inventories in Lost Descendants, there were equipment that functioned as inventories, and they were called spatial treasures. But it was still a little surprising, for a compass to appear hanging from a string around my neck, and for giant book a meter long and wide, and made of energy to appear and shoot into my chest.


    Ten seconds later, I was wracked with pain, as I felt something growing in me. The pain was so much it almost drove me crazy, however I was able to grit my teeth and bear it, until it was done.


    After the pain ended, I felt free, so incredibly light, like I had a pocket of air inside of me or something. It didn''t make me feel weird or uncomfortable, it just gave me an awareness that there was something extra inside of me.


    I was turned over with my face to the ground, thankfully I was not on my back, if not I could not begin to imagine the amount of pain I would be feeling now, with my broken wings. I got on my hands and knees, and took a look at the Compass hanging around my neck.


    [The Compass Of Captain Jack Sparrow./Grade: Mystic/ a magical compass that once belonged to the greatest pirate to roam the seven seas, captain Jack Sparrow. It was lost after his death, hidden In the streams of time for many years until now. +50% chance to find Mortal treasure, +40 chance to find earth treasure, +30% chance to find heaven treasure, +20% chance to find legendary treasure, +10 chance to find mystic treasure, +5% chance to find divine treasures. It can help you find anyone, anything, and lead you where your heart desires to be the most. All you have to do is ask. Bound to Player Aaren]


    Okay this was insane, it''s the first piece of equipment I''ve gotten in the game, and it was at the mystic grade. But I knew about the legend of this compass, granted I learnt it from a movie that''s almost a 160 years or so old. And it did it''s original justice in it''s capabilities.


    This really was a cheat item, and it was gotten out of sheer luck. I felt my wings twitch and my vision went dark with pain for a moment. This game was so damn realistic, and I won''t be able to focus on anything with this kind of pain in play. So it''s better to check my stats and then log out, whatever adventure happens next, that''s for another day.


    Name: Aaren/ Level: 20(35.472.480/104.857.600)/Class: N/A


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker


    Attack: 10/Defense: 5/Speed: 10/Magic: 15


    Hp 10/10MP 2/30


    Stat points:57Skill points:26


    Passive skills:


    ?	Nature buff (level 1) basic + 2% to all nature oriented skills, spells, or tasks.


    ?	Wind child(level 2) basic. +5% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 3) basic. +2% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 2) basic. +5% to aim when in motion, +10% to aim when stationary.


    Active skills:


    ?	Shoot(level 6) basic. +10% damage and speed for projectile weapons. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Glide(level 1) basic. Glide in the air for 15 seconds. + 5% to speed during flight. (Cost 20 MP) (cool down 40 seconds)


    ?	Hard punch(level 1) basic. Hit your opponent for 40% extra of your total attack. Speed +5% during skill.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    Augmented racial trait:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures

 10 Bonding

    THE MANOR


    KIRA


    The sunlight streaming from the window woke me up, it hit my face as just the right angle to make waking up a pleasant experience for me. I turned sideways and stretched my arm over the empty side of the bed. Another morning waking up alone. Even though I had an amazing good night''s sleep, my loneliness made the bed seem all the more colder.


    I sighed and got up from the bed, the dress I had worn to dinner last night was gone, probably to get dry cleaned, and there was simple dress placed on an arm chair beside the bed. I couldn''t fathom how that nanny could come into the room, take a dress, place a new one and leave without me knowing it.


    But it was enough proof that the caretaker of the Wade manor was not ordinary.


    I got up, went into the bathroom and cleaned myself up. It was soothing, comfortable, and quite relaxing. There was just such an atmosphere in this house that made me want to just let down my guard.


    To be honest I''ve never been more comfortable in my entire life, not even in my own house, and in the end the entire thing just felt weird to me.....but it was a rather comfortable sort of weird. As for the dress, I hated it. I''m sure I would look beautiful in the white floral print dress with golden and black flowers, but I was not a dress kind of girl.


    My go to clothes were leather jackets, t shirts, skinny jeans, combat boots, and a whole host of other things that make me seem more like a girl that throws punches first and ask questions later.


    And that''s exactly the kind of girl I am. I know my family would want me to be dainty, demure and weak. I''ve lost track of how many times my mother had told me that the reason why a twenty eight almost twenty nine year old woman like me was still unmarried, was because I beat the men at their own game. Apparently men don''t like a woman who''s as capable if not better than them. It was stupid, it''s the 22nd century and yet women are still not getting the respect the deserved. And it pisses me off, that so far, she was right.


    I mean I know not all men are the same, there are a lot of guys who would not mind me being me, but I just can''t seem to find them. And the ones I do see, are always in it for something else. (Sigh) damn it I''ll just wear the stupid dress, no need to get all sappy and woe is my life about being a lonely almost middle aged woman. That''s frankly not my style.


    My room was in the west wing of the manor, right besides Aaron, and little ways down the hall was his father''s. They let me stay close to him, and apparently the room I stayed in last night was Aaron junior''s grandmother''s.


    They''ll let me stay in it whenever I come for a visit. To be honest when I found out the room belong to Comfort Elizabeth Ojone, I almost lost it in excitement. Of all the legends of the Imperium industries in recent memory, she''s the one I idolize the most.


    She and her family had single handedly been responsible for almost fifty percent of the company''s annual revenue, for the past 85 years.And with the Imperium industries rapidly approaching its 100th anniversary, it''s safe to say that they also built the company. Too bad her son is a jerk, but thankfully her grandson is an angel.


    I went down the stairs, and followed the sounds of a noise to an adjacent hallway underneath the stair case. I came up into a courtyard, and right there was Aaron senior doing Yoga, and Aaron junior trying with all his might to imitate his father, but the little kid was failing, miserably. I wanted to go ahead and impose myself, but something stopped me. This was a father and son bonding moment, I''ve seen my father and brother do something similar so many times I''ve grown to hate it. But this? This was different.


    "Come on Hero that''s not how you do it." Aaron senior spoke up.


    "But it''s hard." A tiny voice complained back.


    "I know it''s hard,that''s why we''re doing it."


    "But if it''s hard aren''t we supposed to not do it, we''ll get tired or hurt."


    "Listen to me Hero, we do hard things because, it makes us stronger. If we do the hard things, and we become stronger, then the hard things won''t be hard anymore, then we can beat up the bad guys."


    "Oh so that''s why. Can mommy do hard things too?"


    COUGH! COUGH!


    "Well of course your mother can do hard things, I can imagine a lot of ''hard things'' she can ride, I mean do. That''s what I meant to say. Hehehe"


    I''m sure there was an ugly look on my face, I was about to go over there and beat the ever loving crap out of him. How could he be so, so vulgar! And how dare he say such things in front of Aaron. Maybe after I beat the shit out of him, he''ll learn some manners. I was about to go pound his face, when I felt a hand around my wrist. I felt my blood go cold in fright, I didn''t need to pretend, this woman scared the shit out of me.


    "Please cut him some slack. He''s nervous, inexperienced, and just like you he''s afraid. He''s just been thrust into fatherhood, with no warning whatsoever, and no help. He doesn''t want to fail his son just like his father failed him, but at the same time he doesn''t know what step to take. He''s trying his best, and he''s bound to make mistakes. But he''ll learn from it, that''s what he doe''s best, learn. Now come with me, we need to set the table for breakfast, those boys must be hungry."


    Maybe she was right, I was being aggressive and unfair to him. But can you blame me, the very thought of loosing my son brings out the worst in me. But just one day and night in this house, and I feel like I belong. It doesn''t help that his Nanny is treating me like a newly married wife, urgh my skin crawls just thinking about it.


    The thing is, there''s a family here, a family that Little Aaron has just become a part of. And without asking for anything, they''re letting me be a part of it. So maybe it wouldn''t hurt to at least get to know the bastard and be friends with him. It will do Aaron a lot of good.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    "The media is going insane about your reveal, aren''t you going to host a press conference or something?" I asked as the giant tow drone, towed my destroyed car away. Aaron was being held by Nanny Florence, while I stood beside his father watching them.


    "There''s no hurry, I''m waiting for my father to make the first move. But on that note, aren''t you supposed to be at work?" he asked me back.


    "I am, but there''s nothing I can do. Even with a PhD in social and computer sciences, my position in the company is just as a figure head. I''m just keeping the seat warm until my brother is ready to take over from my father. Every other thing is just for show, so I''m sure I could go missing In this crisis and they won''t even notice." I said to him.


    "If it''s so unfavorable to you, then why do you keep working there? From what I''ve seen, you''re not the kind of woman that gets told what to do when it''s not in her best in interest."


    "And how would you know what kind of woman I am? You think just because you saw me topless, that means you know me?" I asked him with a voice a little too hostile, even for me.


    "No nothing of the sort. First of all, your change of tone, and the aggressive questions means you''re defensive about something, so if you don''t want to tell me I won''t pry. However based on how you''ve acted since we''ve met, has let me know that you''re a woman who punches first and ask questions later, literally. The fact that you have so much tattoos on you, means you''re rebel, you prefer to go straight to the point, and are direct in your approach. However as clich¨¦ as it sounds; your strength while it''s a real part of who you are, is just something you use to cover your own weaknesses. It''s not such a bad idea to let someone in once in a while."


    I couldn''t say anything to that. He was right, but how could he have gleaned all this much information about me in just a few hours. Was he a shrink or something, it was weird and I felt exposed under his gaze. It was ironic, I was completely topless in front of him, but I felt more exposed now,than then.


    "Why don''t you come work for me?" The sudden question threw me for a loop, and I couldn''t fathom what he was getting at.


    "Work for you, why would I do that? We''re in opposite camps, and doing so would cause a scandal within the company and even with the media. And what position would I even hold working for you?" I asked him.


    He looked at me with a smile on his face, a smile that I recognized almost immediately as something his son would have on any time he was being mischievous. He shook his shoulders and crossed his hands, leaning on door frame behind him as he said.


    "Why do you think I asked you to work for me? It''s just for the chaos and the scandal it would cause. I''m pretty sure I''ll be getting an executive position soon enough, I''m not really down for that shit, but I''ll be around. You''ll do all the work, doing exactly what you''re supposed to be doing without being a figure head. Being the figure head would now be my job. Also you get to stick it to the bosses, and make a choice that suits you, rather than someone else. And I get to sow discord in the camps of my enemies. It''s a win for the both of us."


    Was he drunk or something. Did he even have half an idea of what he was talking about. I''ll be honest, everything I''ve heard sounds like ramblings of a child, who has no idea how the world works.


    "Are you alright in the head? I''m the enemy! Or at least the enemy''s daughter. You don''t tell me your plans, or how you plan to execute them dumbass, and what makes you even think that you can trust me? Hunh! Are you even thinking straight?"


    I asked him, even going as far as poking my fingers on his head to emphasis his insanity. He grabbed my hand suddenly, and I hated to admit it, but I felt a jolt go through my body and I felt myself blushing. What the hell? He''s not even half as cute or as handsome as the guys I''ve dated. I must just have been a little cold that''s all.


    "I''ll give you two good reasons why I believe I can trust you, even with my life."


    I raised an eyebrow at that. His hands felt warm in mine, and they were big, really big. But I was looking forward to what he has to say. He drew me closer to his body, and I involuntarily let out an ''eep'' squeal, sounding like such a girl made my embarrassment jumped up two levels. I''m sure by now my face was completely red. He drew closer and whispered to me.


    "The reason why I believe I can trust you is that one, you''re my son''s mother, and two I''ve seen you half naked. It''s only a matter of time before I see everything."


    Well he was right about the first part, and about some parts of the second part. But his delusions about seeing everything had to be killed at it''s infancy. Which was why I did not hesitate to send my knee straight in between his legs. I have to say he''s made of tougher stuff considering he did not squeal like I expected him to. But he was hunched over as pathetically as I wanted him to be. I bent down and whispered to him.


    "It would be a pleasure working for you...¡­.Sir."


    Then I went up the stairs, moving as fast as I can to my room. No matter what I had to do something about this blush that won''t go down. What''s happening to me.

 11 The Island Of Patmos I : Sky The Battle Beasts

    Kira left, thank God! But still I wish she was still around. Was I enamored by her beauty and macho like grit and bad girl charm, yes I was. But I was not stupid and neither was she.


    While we have a mutual appreciation for each other because of my son, and there''s a certain level of understanding, we both know we''re using the other. And I have a feeling we''re both going to end up hurting each other, like a lot, but we''re passed the point of no return.


    But Samantha picked the right person to look after Aaron in her stead. And it''s unfortunate that she passed away, making my son experience the same thing I have. Of course she died when he was just a baby, so he never really knew her. But I know somewhere down the line, when he''s all grown up, this issue would come up, and my boy will have to deal with the fact that his biological mother was long gone. As for Kira, I really wanted to foster a good relationship with her, for my son''s sake.


    I''m not going to be a hypocrite and say I don''t want to get her into my bed and explore the wonders of her body.


    I mean come on, which guy in my shoes wouldn''t do so. She was older, successful(somewhat), a total badass, and the kind of chick you would never approach. A complete challenge.


    But I was socially awkward half the time, and the first real girlfriend I have is now my elder brother''s fianc¨¦e, and to top things off, the mother of my child is dead. Safe to say I''m not that lucky with girls, and my earlier attempt at seducing her, happened before I even knew what I was doing. It was as if I was possessed by something. And I got kicked in the nuts for it.


    Anyway Kira won''t be making any drastic moves until the board of directors call me. The least amount of time I have to wait for that to happen is 5 minutes, and the most a month. So until then, I had a lot of free time to play Lost Descendants, and prepare my battle plans on both fronts.


    The Imperium industries relied heavily on public image to make their mark and money, it''s a weakness that should have been taken care of long ago, but it still made them the most popular company in the world, though not the richest.


    They would have to address my existence, and to do that, they''ll have to acknowledge me too. I''ve deduced a number of scenarios that could and would play out. Chief among them is an attempt to buy me out of the company, when that doesn''t work, they''ll probably try underhanded methods. And when those two forms don''t succeed, that''s when they''ll be forced to acknowledge me as their equal and give me a seat at their table, even if it is a lower one.


    The probability of being attacked made me worried, but Nanny Florence has contacted her old security agency, and by the evening about a dozen highly trained professional bodyguards would be living on the manor grounds with us.


    And I didn''t have to worry about professional assassins, living at the top of society''s ladder meant you''re privy to a certain amount of classified information. The best assassin in the world raised me, and that''s none other than my Nanny Florence.


    And the agency she''s a part of, was just a cover for the most clandestine secret agency on the planet; whose sole purpose was to train assassins for world governments. Well that is until the entire agency went rogue thirty years ago.


    They now have friends in power, making them quite untouchable and legitimate. And one of their rules states that they can''t take jobs against their clients unless necessary. So we were safe.


    After Kira left, Nanny Florence took Aaron shopping for school supplies, and tools to make the house child proof. I grew up around knives, swords, grenades and guns, since it was not just Nanny Florence, who had an appetite for the violent arts, but also my grandfather. So I spent the time I had to myself researching. First of all, I needed to see if there was a way to heal my wings faster, and if players had experienced something like what I have before the update.


    Apparently there were a lot of cases when it became possible for players to use winged races. Most of the time a spell from a cleric or priest would solve it, but to avoid it happening again, the players had to take certain decisions.


    The game is played in assist mode by default, in this mode all movements and skills are guided by the system. Which means you have to fly according to the system, and use skills the same way the system wants you to. That was not the best way. All of the best player use what''s known as free mode.


    In free mode, you rely on your learning abilities to understand your skills, and movements and guided by the system, but rather by a players own intuition and perception. This was the reason why I could not maneuver around those rocks, the system assist mode, would not allow me used the glide skill to perform any complex aerial maneuvers.


    That''s why it was easier for me to swim with my wings rather than fly, because when I was in the water, I was not using a skill. Also the free mode has the ability to generate skills, as long as a player is willing to experiment, especially with his or her mana.


    After that I learnt that the XP needed to level up has increased immensely. It was not like this before the updates, and to make matters worse, equal leveled monsters gave really tiny XP. Making quests or stupid dare devil risks; like me chucking explosive crystals in the mouth a shark 140 levels higher than me, the only way to level up. While many people were complaining about it, the amount of people happy about the new updates surpassed the complainers. New quests, skills, classes, races, locations, and monsters. It was like playing a brand new game.


    Classes were obtained by a variety of ways, you can learn from a class trainer, generate one for yourself by sticking to a particular play style. Get awarded one by the system, find a legacy class or buy it from another player.


    But ultimately you can also play classless, though that''s not recommended since classless players don''t level up above level 25,and since your class didn''t grow along with your level, since classes gave bonus stats, that meant you would be quite weak compared to your peers.


    After learning all I could about the game, I had to log back in to apply all of my newly acquired knowledge. That and the fact that I was now stranded on an island with broken wings did not seem to make situation all that shiny. I also needed to get a class before level 25,though at this point I''m not sure what kind of class I would be playing.


    Because my racial build, while carefully leaning fully towards magic, was also one of the best for close combat and ranged combat, not to mention a little crafting talent. It was a jack of all trades, but I already planned to go the mage or maybe a ranger''s route, close quarters combat was not really my thing.


    Of course that''s a lie, I just had wanted to avoid getting up close and personal with anybody or thing, and not because I''m afraid, well it''s because I''m afraid of what I''ll do. I was trained by a monster of a woman, it would be pretty weird if the person she trained did not turn out to be a monster as well.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    I had to spit out the sand in my mouth, and a simple slap shoved the crustacean hanging onto my shirt to the side. With a very painful groan, I pushed myself to a sitting position, trying my best to ignore the blinding pain from my wings. I looked around and noticed that I was under a shade of palm trees, almost fifty to seventy meters away from the shore. Seems my tinier than normal elephant friend had dragged me out of the sun, though how it did that was a mystery with such a tiny form.


    There was pile of fruits in the corner, and a cracked coconut that was still leaking out it''s milk. I felt parched, so I reached for the coconut and let it''s juices dribble down into my throat, leaving me refreshed, and the pain in my back and wings surprisingly reduced. I looked to my left, and saw the remaining two bags of fire rubies, gleaming under the sun.


    The compass I earned was still hanging around my neck, though I still had no idea where that big energy book went. I spent the next five minutes enjoying the fruits that the elephant left. I didn''t recognize any of them, but they burst in my mouth, releasing a variety of flavor a fruit punch or tropical cocktail could not compare to.


    [Are You sure You want to Switch to Free Mode Gameplay. You would not be able to change it for another three to five weeks.]


    [Free Mode activated.]


    I didn''t feel any different, but I guess the changes would be show itself sooner or later. I brought my knees close to my body and watched the water recede and approach shoreline, taking more and more of the sand with each wave that crested. This place was beautiful, this world was beautiful, too bad I''m stranded in the middle of nowhere.


    A few minutes later, I felt someone sit beside me. It was the elephant and it was staring at the sunset on the horizon with me. The jagged rocks that rose up high out of the sea, just seemed to make it even more beautiful, as the setting sun peaked out of their edges. It made the beach light up in magnificent ray of sunlight display.


    Also the sand sparkles, who knew. I turned my head and looked at the elephant, watching as it leisurely grabbed one fruit with it''s strange trunk that seemed to grow extra long when it needed it too. It ate the fruits withchild like ignorance as it carefully stared at the setting sun.


    "What the hell kind of monster are you?" I couldn''t help but ask.


    [Arnetine Sky Elephant (night form)/Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: Legendary]


    [The Arnetine race, are the last of an ancient civilization with very human similarities. The ancient Arnetine warriors were fearsome on any battlefield due to the power of their battle beasts. But this beasts were special. They''re born as animals, with a particular attribute. It could be anything from fire, poison, lightning, even sand. But their true power lies in the ability to transform into fearsome weapons after they have been bonded to. Each of this beasts, have the ability to turn into four different weapons form, for the entirety of their whole lives. Some are very talented, that they could change Into at most seven unique weapon form. Making the ancient Arnetine race, masters of all forms of armed combat. However the Arnetine race died out, leaving behind their fearsome battle beasts as their only legacy. But even then, they slowly have begun to die out, until only ten are left in the world.]


    I guess I know where that book went to. It seems with that book inside of me, there''s no information about a monster I wouldn''t be able to find out in the game. I literally had the system''s own glossary or monster encyclopedia in my virtual body...cool!


    I looked at the elephant and couldn''t help feeling sorry for it. My mom had told me to live this game, not just play it. And I was going to do so with the best of my abilities. I rubbed my hand over the elephant''s head, and this time, it did not smack me, but instead leaned into my embrace. I decided to give it a name, I think that would be better than calling it elephant.


    "lets call you Sky. It''s not female, and it not male either, but it suits you."


    [You have named an Arnetine battle beasts that trusts you wholeheartedly. By ancient Arnetine rights, you are now bonded to the Arnetine Battle beast called Sky. Please chose your first two primary weapon forms.]


    ?	Bastard Sword


    ?	Long Sword


    ?	Iron Whip


    ?	Long Bow


    ?	Short Bow


    ?	Collapsible Metal Bow


    ?	Gauntlets


    ?	Magic Staff


    ?	Magic Battle Staff.


    ....


    [You have chosen Collapsible Metal Bow, and Magic Battle Staff. Increase beast''s level to unlock more forms.]


    As soon as I was done choosing, Sky shone with a piercing midnight blue light, before resting on my lap, turning into a dark midnight blue collapsible bow that was still folded. I grabbed the bow, and it spread open with a loud snap, looking exactly how a modern bows look.


    [Arnetine Sky Elephant (Night Bow Form)/Grade: Earth/Hidden Grade: Legendary]


    [+70% power to all arrow attacks, +85% at night/+50% accuracy during all shooting activities, +65% at night.]


    [Special skill(I): Meteor Shower: Shoot energy arrows in a radius of 30¡Á30 meters for 200% of your total damage value. Cost 150 MP per shot,cool down 80 seconds.]


    Well would you look at that. I''m really am the system''s son.

 12 The Island Of Patmos II : A Giant Snake & A Giant Tree

    So the elephant turned into a bow...¡­.awesome. Though I sort of felt like I had another voice in my head, like an extra conscience. I can''t really explain it, but it was as if I had formed a connection to the bow. But seriously what sort of game was this, how could it mess with someone''s brain to a level such as this. I think I finally understood why my mom asked me to live the game rather than play it. With this level of reality, a lot of people would question what was real and what was not. The easiest result is that you wouldn''t care, and just keep on playing like normal, the worst would mean you go crazy and turn into some sort of conspiracy theorist; telling the rest of the world that Lost Descendants was a real world. Either way I felt a little overwhelmed.


    The sun was coming down, and with broken wings, staying out in the open seems stupid. I wonder how I could turn Sky back to her elephant form. Yes she was a she? This new connection we had; let me know what gender she was, and how old too. She''s eleven days old. Though we''re not able to communicate easily, I had a sort of ''feeling'' for information like this. There was another sparkle of light and she turned back into an elephant. Though going by the fact that she was swaying left and right like a drunk, it seems the transformation made her dizzy.


    I smiled at her antics, it was like owning a very intelligent pet. I opened the compass around my neck, and asked out loud.


    "Where can I find shelter?"


    In response the compass began to spin around crazily, and it did not look like it was going to stop. I had to be specific about what I wanted, rather than being vague and leaving room for my questions to be interpreted wrong. There could be a dozen shelters close to this place, and without being specific about which one.


    "Lead me to the closest most defensible and protected shelter."


    The dial of the compass spun three times before pointing north east. Then the compass flashed, and shot a light into my chest. It was as if there was an invisible rope dragging me towards a particular direction. I turned and grabbed the two remaining sacks of fire rubies, crying out in pain as my broken wings were jostled. I needed to rest the bones in my wings, and put them in a spilt. Or at the very least find an all healing panacea or a health potion. But until I''m sure this island is not completely uninhabited, I''m stuck like this.


    I followed the direction I was being led too, moving east along the beach, before I went into the lines of palm trees that were sparsely scattered along the beach. Twenty meters forward, was the beginning of a forest, first there was the beach, then the palm trees, then the forest, or was it jungle. It was densely packed and humid, and there were a lot of dead leaves on the ground. But it seems to be a rainy season, so the ground was wet, and pungent scent of wet earth assailed my nose.


    I had to be careful, so I stuck close to trees with low hanging branches; that I can scramble on to, should any danger present itself. But who''s to say that the danger wouldn''t come from the trees itself. The jungle was a lot darker than I expected, the trees, shrubs, vines, and branches were so tightly clustered together that I couldn''t see the night sky, making everything almost pitch black.


    But once again dragon senses saved the day, as I could see a little bit in the dark. I walked for almost forty minutes, though I wasn''t attacked by anything, each passing second spent exposed made me nervous. How long will it take to get to this shelter.


    THUD! CRASH! HISSSSSSSSSS


    Loud crashes and a snake like hiss to loud to be a normal snake came from behind me. Griping both sack of rubies in my left hand, I bent down, picked Sky up, and ran like my life depended on it. I was not as fast as I would have liked to be, but even with my broken wings I was surprisingly nimble and dexterous. I kicked of from the side of one tree to the next, slid under a root, and even scaled an enormous fallen tree the size of a two story building. I don''t know if it was the elven or the draconic genes, but I was moving really fast, and really good.


    But what ever was chasing me was still getting closer, thankfully the trees behind me, served as a deterrent, as it''s body seemed too large. But the crashes got louder and closer. Whatever was chasing me couldn''t go around them fast enough, so it was going through them.


    It was at that point I noticed a startling discovery, the trees around were becoming less and less, and I was getting tired. My legs were burning in protest, and it seemed as if my heart would jump out of my chest. I ignored all these symptoms and focused on what''s In front of me. There was a cliff, or to be more exact it looked a basin in the middle of the forest, and all of the trees surrounding the almost 1000 meters in circumference basin; were cleared for a distance of almost 80 feet.


    But that was just the half of it, because right in the middle of the basin, was the biggest tree I''ve ever seen, it was over five hundred meters in diameter, and almost a thousand feet if not more tall. It''s branches spread like a huge canopy, and it''s leaves were a variety of colors, from red, blue, white, green, purple, black, etc. There was only one word to describe it, and that was majestic. The rope that was pulling me was taking me directly towards the tree. That''s my safe haven.


    CRASH!


    I shouldn''t have done it, I shouldn''t have. But I did. And I''m going to regret it for the rest of my life. I turned to see what was after me, and I nearly crapped myself in fright. It was a snake, a very big ass snake the size of the tree in front of me if not bigger. And only it''s head just poked out of the tree line, but that alone was the size of a fuel truck, And that''s just how wide, I couldn''t measure the height.


    The snake shot at me with such speed that it left a sonic boom in it''s wake, but as it was about to take a bite out of me, a fist made of leaves and wind slammed into it jaws and threw it backwards. Then I heard a voice telling me.


    "RUN!"


    You didn''t need to tell me twice as I picked up speed, held Sky closer to my body and raced for the edge of the basin. With the tree in the middle, it made the basin seem like a flower pot, a very huge flower pot. The snake was only stunned for a moment, and due to the knuckle sandwich it just had a taste of, it was beyond pissed. It shot at me again, but by then I had already jumped off the edge of the basin.


    BANG! ZAAAAAANGGGG!


    The sound of the snake hitting something shook the air, so much so that it threw my jump of course, and the air flow from the hit, spun me in the air. I was able to see a barrier of light, spinning with symbols that carried a myriad of colors like a rainbow. The sound of electricity humming was heard as the snake was shocked, burnt, and frozen by the barrier. It let out a God awful screech as it hit the barrier three more times and then turned and fled, but not before shooting my still falling frame a nasty glare. I took a closer look at it.


    [Sortovat: Hellspawn of Lilith, General of the Worldeater Army/ Grade: Mystic/ Level 765/ HP?????? MP??????]


    I fell softly to the ground with my eyes wide open at what I was seeing. I didn''t even notice that I was being carried by a pocket of air. When I finally came to a stop, right on one of the roots of the massive tree, I finally notice my surroundings. Apart from being surrounded by monsters, and I mean practically the entire monsterpopulation on this side of the island, I was also being held at gun point by about a dozen armored green people. I raised my hand up, and Sky seeing me do so, actually stood on her hind legs and raise her two front feet and trunk high up in the air.


    "Hello, my name is Aaren, I come in pea....."


    THWACK!


    As my vision fade to blackness from having my head slammed by the butt of a gun, I had to wonder if everybody in this game, including a certain elephant that shall not be named, threw punches first and asked questions later. Well I guess I''ll answer that later.


    [Due to your unconscious state, you have been logged out of the game. Time for Relogging is 05:59:20]


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    IMPERIUM INDUSTRIES


    LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA U.S.A


    MARCH 26 2174


    BOARD ROOM


    "our stocks have been dropping rapidly for the past six days! This is a disaster Henry! Your family is ruining my company!"


    "Your company! I think your old age is gradually catching up to you Sharman. This company was built by Wades, not Farouks."


    "Who care''s, the only thing that matters is that we''re facing a crisis, a crisis you caused because you couldn''t keep it in your pants and be faithful to your wife. And not just that, you were not even man enough to take responsibility for your actions and raise your son well. Now he''s coming for your head, and we all have to pay the price because your bastard son has daddy issues!"


    "Calm down everyone, this might not actually be a loss yet. From what I''ve gathered, the young man served in the army for two years, as part of a special division that ran international missions for the U.N. after he left he studied law, and graduated law school in a record time of a year and four months. He''s qualified, yes, but he''s doesn''t know anything about this company. I suggest we buy him out, and have his father offer him a public and heartfelt apology. The kid is already rich, he doesn''t need to work with the company, I''m pretty sure he''s going crazy due to how much money he has, so give him more, and kick him out the door. Let all of this just be a bad dream. It would settled our problem, and even tame the sharks that is the media."


    "What if he doesn''t agree to a buy out Mr. Zhang. That could spell even more problems for us. A buy out would have to be a public display to show our sincerity, but if he refuses it would leave a stain on us. And even if we try to do it under the table, he could still refuse."


    "Well Mr. Matthews if he doesn''t accept the buy out, the only thing we can really do it to take him out."


    "You mean kill him! He just a child, don''t we already have enough blood on our hands. Are you guys going to kill him now, just for his money. Henry he''s your son! are you going to stand for this!"


    "Cora I only have two sons. Anybody who stands in the way of my ambitions and dreams for my company is no son of mine. If it comes to that, then kill him, and kill his runt too. We already have blood on our hands, what''s two more to the list."


    "Well I guess the meeting is over. I''ll take care of preparing the buy out contract. But just in case you should reach out to your contacts from the east. I hear they have someone with the skill set we require."


    "No problem Sharman."


    "God have mercy on us all."


    "Cora, you should know by now...¡­there is no God,because if there was one, we would all have been punished a long time ago."

 13 Politics & Mind Games I : Meeting With The Board Of Directors

    I was livid, I didn''t get to play for as long as I wanted before I got kicked out, though my situation seems to have taken a very ridiculous turn. What the hell kind of luck did I have, that I would end up on an island with a monster that for all intents and purposes was a demigod.


    The mystic grade was above legendary, and just below the divine grade. I now have a good understanding of why I''ve been lucky so far, it was just so that I''ll get stuck in this sort of unfortunate situation, and being chased by a snake the size of Godzilla. I hate snakes.


    RIIIIINGGGGG


    The sound of my phone ringing caught my attention, and I made my way out of the gaming pod I was in. The Wade manor was still pretty much old school, so there was no voice activated commands. Most rich folks nowadays live in smart houses, their doors open for them, the food are cooked for them, their phones answered and even the asses wiped for them. My grandfather hated such houses, because he felt it made humans lazy, and it was a sentiment his father shared before him.


    I picked my phone up and hung it over my ear, prompting a holographic display to pop over my eye, as if I was wearing glasses. The caller ID read Old man Jones.


    "Hello, hey old man what''s up."


    "You''ve been calling me old for years, and while I''ll like to argue that I''m in the prime of years, my aching bones beg to differ. I need you to come down to the office."


    "The office? Why?"


    "You''re rich in name only. There''s a multitude of documents you have to sign to fully take control of your inheritance, you also have to meet with the directors of your grandfather''s.....I mean your real estate empire. You''re the boss now, and you have to meet your employees. You should get an assistant, or two, maybe three. Also your father and a couple of his ''associates'' are here. It seems they want to initiate a buy out. So you better get down here, and fast, because I can''t stand one more second of this kid''s arrogance. And please bring the cavalry along, and prepare yourself. I have something I want to tell you."


    "Okay old man, I''ll b there in an hour."


    "Good, I''ll be expecting you."


    I don''t know why I suddenly felt exhausted all of a sudden, but I had this nagging feeling that I''m really going regret meeting a lot of people today. But old man Jones was right about one thing though, I had to bring the cavalry along. It''s the only way my grandfather had always made my dad shut the hell up, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I''ll have to hide behind a woman for now.


    "Nanny Florence! Could you get Ron ready, we need to go see old man Jones at the office. And you have to come along too, my dad''s around."


    While my grandfather was not too kin about making the manor more technological advanced than the normal electricity and water facilities necessary, we also had an intercom installed. And it was very old, kind of like the type that was used In schools during the olden days. God! using it made me feel old too. I''m not my grandfather, the manor was in dire need of a renovation.


    Fifteen minutes later I was in the back of our Cadillac heading to old man Jones''s law firm. The Cadillac was old, vintage, ugly(in my own opinion), and very expensive. But just like the chair in the study, this has been in the family since the time of my great, great, grandfather.


    I think I missed a great or two, or maybe it''s less. While it''s shape remained the same, the Cadillac has had numerous paint jobs done over the years. And just like the manor and that bloody intercom, I needed to make some changes. I had no choice but to use this, seeing as it''s the only car my grandfather owns.


    Nanny Florence was driving, and as she drove out the gates of the manor(thankfully automated) our car was assaulted by a bevy of reporters, with camera''s flashing and questions being asked. Ron seemed fascinated by it, and tapped me, pointing at the window, and the paparazzi doing what they always do best. I didn''t mind the attention, in fact I enjoyed it.


    I''m not going to be like all those guys in the movies who would feel unrealistically uncomfortable when they''re thrust into fame and fortune, and will find every chance they get to be normal. Come on! Who wants to be normal when you''re rich as f*ck,definitely not me.


    Nanny Florence was a veteran in handling the press, as she skillfully drove around and through them, and got us on the road. I drew Ron closer to me, as I pointed and showed him different places and sights to see. Los Angeles was a beautiful city, and he''s spent all of his life in an orphanage, though it''s a rather short one, I still feel the need to make up for lost time.


    I answered his questions as best as I could, laughed at what he laughed at, and stopped to give some homeless guy a fat wad of cash at his insistence. Seems he''s learned how to be a giver from his time in the orphanage, it was inspiring, especially since it''s from a three year old.


    We got to the firm in record time, and unexpectedly there were also reporters there. But the firm had it''s own security, so going past them and headinginto the building was not that much of a problem. I knew a lot of the workers here, back from my time as an intern. Of course there were also a lot of new faces, but not much. The employees here, were extremely loyal to old man Jones. He was kind, and he took care of everyone around him. Nanny Florence was carrying Ron,behind me, while we were led to the top floor by an assistant.


    I was ushered into a conference room, and sitting at the head o the table was old man Jones, and a little ways down was my father, a woman, and another man. The man had skin as dark as mine, if not darker. With head full of luscious black locks of hair, that just seemed to shine, I knew that this had to be Sharman Farouk. And Indian member of the board, who owned 4% of the company''s shares.


    The woman was in her early to mid forties, she''s a brunette, but her hair was braided, and fell to the middle of her back. She had this intense brown eyes, that looked as if it held a secret within them.


    Without a doubt, this was Coralline Stone. One of, if not the youngest self made billionaire ever.Bursting into the corporate scene at the young age of fourteen, by revolutionizing the mechanics of advanced AI and quantum mechanics and computer programming.


    She has an IT company, and owns 9% of the shares of Imperium Industries. She''s an old friend of my mother''s who used to baby sit me, until she stabbed my grandfather in the back and had him kicked off the board of directors. She''s unmarried, has no kids, and lives with a dog and three cats. Her extended family were probably waiting for her to kick the bucket so that they could take over everything she owns.


    "Well it seems like the gang is all here. Nice to see you again aunty Cora, it''s been a long time." She could only smile and nod her head at me. Then I turned to face my father.


    "Father"


    "Aaron."


    That was as good as it gets. Most of the time he doesn''t even acknowledges my presence. But no matter, let''s get this done with, but before that.


    "Who the hell are you?"


    I turned to Mr. Sharman and asked. Of course I knew who he was, and I''m pretty sure he also knew that. But I had to rifle a few feathers, let them know that I wasn''t going to make this easy on them. Not one bit.


    "Mr. Aaron! Sharman Farooq is the name. We''ve met before, back at your grandfather''s 65th birthday."


    "Oh yeah, I remember now. You''re the dude who''s son slapped me for spilling water on him. Called me a servant, a worthless piece of trash not worth his attention, and even tried to throw me off a balcony. And if I remember correctly, you were watching each and every second of it. I''ll look forward to getting reacquainted with you Mr. Sharman Farouk. How is your son these days, Amir was it? I heard he''s playing cricket for the Indian national team, and a gold medalist at that."


    "(Cough) he''s.....he''s doing fine sir...I mean Mr....¡­sir Mr. Aaron."


    I had a wide grin on my face. I played him, he knew it, I knew it, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Regardless of how this meeting goes, they knew that without a doubt, I had all the playing cards stacked in my favor.


    The game, well at least this round of it, was completely rigged. It wouldn''t do for them to get to rowdy, especially now that it''s out in the open that Sharman and I had a little bad blood. And it not that I cared about the actions of teenager from years ago, but it was enough leverage to make his old man uncomfortable. Whoever said being rich and powerful was too much trouble must have lost his mind, this feeling was awesome.


    "Alright that''s enough Enyo, is that little Aaron, bring the little guy over here, let him say hello to his grandpa Jones."


    And then we spent fifteen minutes watching as ''grandpa Jones'' fed cookies to Ron, and Ron, refusing to be outdone, fed cookies back to the old man as well. It was a rather comical scene, and the melancholic smile on Cora''s face was more than enough proof that the lovely scene affected everyone here in different ways. Hope it makes my father''s stomach churn.


    Of course I''m sure his stomach was churning already. Nanny Florence was standing behind me. She took her job to seriously, that even with her age, she refuses to sit down, but rather stand like a true bodyguard. I had to get her a replacement, and thank God she''s already doing that on her own. but that aside, for the whole fifteen minutes, she spent it glaring at my father, intensely.


    He probably wished the ground would open up and swallow him right now. He had a little sheen of sweat on his forehead, even though the room was a little cool. I noticed old man Jones looking at him a few times, but completely ignoring his predicament. He was purposely prolonging the time he spent playing with Ron, just so that Nanny Florence would intimidate him to an early grave, or at least a high blood pressure.


    "Okay enough with the giggles and laughs, we''ve come here for a reason let''s get to it."


    His words were loud, and he banged his hands on the table so loudly Ron was spooked, and his eyes began to water. Thankfully Old man Jones calmed him down, before he went wild with his crying.


    "What crawled up your ass and died?"


    "OWWW!"


    This was me, super rich, not very handsome(not handsome at all), has a cute kid that makes my day all sunshine and rainbows. But my Nanny just slapped the back of my head.


    "Watch your language Master Aaron. The young master should not be hearing such crass words at his age. You can insult the buffoon at a later date."


    I don''t know if my words, or her''s hurt the most. But my father ignored it, and everyone else and just got right to business.


    "Aaron let''s put our differences aside for a moment, and look at the facts here. You''re young, and as far running the Imperium industries go, you have no idea how to maneuver that landscape,it like your brothers and me¡­.."


    "And who''s fault is that?" I interrupted him


    "Without a doubt, it''s mine. I should have been a better father, and for that I''m sorry. But the future of the company is at stake today, and ever since the incident at the burial, we''ve been experiencing some major setbacks. Please understand the Imperium Industries is as much your own, and it is mine. It would have been a legacy that I would have left to you, when I''m gone, even if my father didn''t do so already. I failed you, but you''re my son! And there''s no father who doesn''t love his son."


    I was dumbstruck. The first question that I had in my mind was that was he being sincere. I mean I considered the fact that he was acting and playing at my heart strings, but he was saying the words I always wanted to hear ever since I was a child. He was saying he loved me. Did hearing him say that, wash away twenty four years of pain and abandonment, not it didn''t. But it made me feel better, there was just something about hearing my father tell me he loved me, that shook me. It affected me a little too much than I wanted to admit. I really did have daddy issues. I felt Nanny Florence place a hand on my shoulder.


    It was all I needed to remember what I came here for. About what I have and what I have to do. Whether my father is sincere or not, getting on the company would give me enough time to figure it out, and get justice for my grandfather. If he was honest, then maybe, just maybe he was not as bad as I thought he was, and that truly; he really was a puppet for his wife. But regardless my violent stance had already been doused, my father had made his move, and he had won the advantage.


    "What do you want?" I said with a sigh.


    "I''m happy that you''re at least going to try and listen to me. There''s two options for you now, because in all honesty you''re not ready for a position in the company. You need a little time to mature, and also you need to spend time with your son, my grandson. Give him a life that I was never able to give to you. The first thing you can do, is sell all of your shares."


    My eyes turned sharp and I glared at him. It was not as if I didn''t expect this to happen, but hearing it from his lips after everything he just finished saying pissed me off. He raised his hands up in a placating gesture.


    "Now Son, don''t get angry just yet. Like I said, it''s one of two options. And this one was an offer decided upon by the board of directors. I would really like you working with me, but to them, you''re an unknown factor that they don''t understand. But they also understand that this company is a part of you, and they can''t just say no. Which is why they offered to buy your shares, to prevent you from having any of the stress, and the hardworking and suffering that comes with running a company like that. They''re willing to pay you the sum of 10 billion dollars Aaron, ten billion Us dollars! With that amount of money, you can open up your own company if you like, and you son''s grandchildren''s children would have a comfortable life of their own."


    "Sorry but I''ll pass. My Shares in that company was given to me in good faith by my Baba. Selling it would mean I''m letting him down, all of his hope and dreams, that''s he''s passed on to me would go to waste. I''m sorry but I can''t do that."


    "I understand Aaron, which is why there''s a second option. You could join the company, but since you don''t know much about it, you''ll have to let someone help you manage your part of the shares and your duties. But it has to be someone in the company, and me, your brothers and you''re step mother will be willing to help you run it Aaron. You can think of it as a way for us to make amends. It''s what Megan would have wanted."


    My father was really pulling out the stops. First of all he used our relationship, then my son, and now my dead sister. If I said the sentimental bullshit wasn''t getting to me, then I would be lying. But I''ve been a soldier, and in case he didn''t know, I graduated from law school in half the time required. I knew how to be focused, how to at least keep my emotions aside and look at the bigger picture.


    "The second option, sound''s very promising. I could take a position, but have an assistant of sorts that will help me learn the ropes, and navigate the company until I could do everything by myself. Right?"


    "Yes that''s right, but the assistant has to actually work in the company, and preferably from the already employed executives, or employees with leadership positions."


    He was setting a trap for me, I like to believe that all of the emotional words he had said were sincere, and that right now it was just his business man personality that was trying to push me into a corner. But I have a card of my own to play, something he would never expect.


    "Okay then, I can work with that, but on one condition. Well not one condition, but two conditions."


    This time it was not my father who answered, but Mr. Sharman. The scathing glare my father gave him for interrupting was not missed by me. He probably thought that because of my history with him and his son, Sharman talking would make me angry and back out of the deal. But no worries, we''re all adults here.


    "I want an important position that can affect and really help the company, but it must be autonomous. I don''t want to answer to anybody, not even you Dad. Is that okay."


    I called him Dad. He was playing a game, and so was I. One thing my average looking face has always done for me, was to make people overlook, underestimate me, and think me stupid. And to be honest for most of the time I spent around my father growing up, I acted rather gullible and weak just so that he could notice me. I craved for his approval, maybe somehow, in some other ways, I still did.


    But that''s what he''s using against me, my intense need to have a father figure in my life, my grandfather was amazing, but he was not my dad. That need, was what my father wants to use and trap me. And I need to let him feel as if it''s working.


    "There''s no problem with that Son, we can definitely work something out. But you mentioned two conditions, what''s the second one."


    "Yeah I get to pick my assistant though, and in regards to that, could you send me a list of employees that you feel are good enough for the position. I''ll be by on Monday to tell you my choice, if that''s okay with you."


    "There''s no problem with that Son. I''ll have someone send the list down to you as soon aspossible. Since it''s a Tuesday, you''ll have enough time to make the right choice. But on that note, how about joining me, your mother and brothers for dinner Friday night. It''ll give us time to catch up and bring the boy along, I''m surehis uncles would want to meet him."


    "I definitely will Dad. See you Friday. Mr. Sharman, aunty Cora, have a nice day and drive safely."


    I watched them leave, before I leaned back on my chair, moving my neck left to right as I let out an exhausted groan. Old man Jones looked at me and said.


    "What sinister plot do you have cooking in that African head of yours boy."


    "Well don''t forget this head is also a sinister plot cooking American head. And as for what''s coming, you''ll see, Hahahaha, you''ll all see."

 14 Politics & Mind Games II : Face Slapping The Real Estate Representatives

    "You know he''s just playing with your emotions right?" Nanny Florence said to me.


    "We don''t know that Nanny Florence, maybe this time he''s really honest. We just have to wait and see, maybe Baba dying was what he really needed to change once and for all."


    To be honest it sounded like I was trying to convince myself, more than I was trying to convince Nanny Florence. I don''t know why I was trying so hard, I was still holding on even after I''ve been hurt so many times by him. Why? Honestly I felt pathetic, why was I willing to give my father a benefit of the doubt when there''s a possibility he might be responsible for Baba''s death. I know my grandfather, he was old yes, butthis was the 2170s, if people were going to die of old age they''ll all be in the 90s at minimum and the 100s at maximum.


    "I remember you growing up Master Aaron. You were an intelligent kid, smart, resourceful, and you learnt many things at the feet of some of the brightest minds on the planet. But underneath all that, you were just a boy who was desperately searching for the love and approval of a father who didn''t care about you. You''re a grown man now, an Adult! And to make matters complicated you''re also a father. It''s time for you to stop being that boy, for your sake and your son''s. Or else, you might end up making the same mistakes your father made, and continue this cycle of the Wade family curse, where some fathers aren''t able to see eye to eye with their sons."


    I looked at my son, really looked at him. He had everything he needed to leave a comfortable life, just as I did. But all the comforts of life could not substitute for the love of a father and a family. Nanny Florence was right, I needed to do and be better,not just for my sake, but for his. History was already repeating itself with my son loosing his mother at a young age, way younger than me; when I lost mine at eleven.


    I can''t let him walk down the same road I did because I was too blind to really see what''s in front of me. I''ll take care of him, love him with all of my strength, but maybe if it''s not too much, I''ll still hold out hope, that truly, there was a part of my father that cared about me. But if there''s not, he can go fuck himself.


    "Let''s get the rest of the meeting over with Old man. Where are the real estate directors?"


    "They''re in the lounge. Betty please let in our other guests." Old man Jones answered me, and called to his assistant.


    A few moments later, the assistant led four people into the room. They were properly dressed, but there was one glaring factor about their presence, all of them were way too young. From what I know, my grandfather commits to his business in a very peculiar way, especially for the people who work directly under him.


    My Baba preferred hiring people closer to his age, people with a lot more foresight, patience, wisdom and experience. He felt that young people were always in a hurry and eager to prove themselves, so instead he left the older people as guardians to give the younger employees direction.


    I was supposed to be meeting with the continental heads of the real estate company, for all means and purposes this guys should have been at least in their late fifties to early seventies. Why was it that the oldest of the people in front of me was no more than 35.


    They all took a seat in front of me, two women, one looked really pale, so I guess she''s from European branch, the shifty looking Japanese beauty with an all too flat chest(how unfortunate) has to be from the Asian branch.


    The blond hair, blued eyed Adonis in front of me probably came from the north American branch, and then the Hispanic amigo with freaking sun glasses and gum in his mouth, had to be from the south American branch. Four continents and sixteen countries, my real estate empire, and it looks like they''re not taking me seriously.


    I turned to look at Old man Jones and Nanny Florence, they did not look too happy about this either, but they were willing to let me handle everything the way I saw fit. That was good,because unfortunately for this group of people, none of them were my father or some other relative who left me emotionally scarred and damaged as a child. I''m really going to fuck with them. America decided to go first.


    "Mr. Aaron we''re all very saddened about the passing of your grandfather Mr. Wade, and if there''s anything we at the New horizons real estate agency could do to smooth and ease your transition of power and the acquisition of your inheritance, please let us know."


    The American Adonis knew how to talk that''s for sure. A picture perfect sales boy, no wonder they sent him here. I hate him already, and the main reason being that; he was too handsome. Was I insecure about my looks...¡­yep, definitely. All that bull crap about believing in yourself and the inner you is better than the outer you never worked for me. I wasn''t ugly, heck no and thank God for that. I just wasn''t handsome enough for this gig, leaving me really average. Though I hear being rich does wonders for your skin and looks(Maybe I should bathe in money). But back on point, Mr American Adonis here seems to be their chosen spokesperson.


    They probably thought that I would relate since I''m an American by birth and ancestry, even though I spent most of my adult and some of my childhood years in the country my mom was bred and raised in, no matter where I go, I''m still going to identify as an American.Which makes it a prime factor that they sent someone who could control a conversation and relate to me. Too bad they didn''t get the memo, I absolutely detests pretty boys.


    "Where are your bosses?" there''s no need to play ball with them, I''ll just get straight to the point.


    "The Directors extend their sincerest apologies, but they''re unable to make it here. They''re expanding the agency to the African continent, and felt that you would understand their absence as they have to be absolutely present for the procedures."


    I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Why is that everyone I''ve met today,was trying to play politics and outmaneuver me with smooth words and emotional attachments. Can''t someone be honest for once, maybe I have to really rethink this whole being rich is awesome stuff.Because it''s turning out to be the opposite of what I imagined, not when everyone can look you straight in the eye and lie to you.


    "An expansion to the African continent you say?" is asked him, as I leaned back on my chair, crossed my legs and started drumming my finger tips on the table.


    "Yes sir. I believe you''ve stayed there before right? Specifically Nigeria, it is one of the countries we hope to expand the business into, it''s a really beautiful place and...."


    "Stop." I interrupted him. Keeping my voice level as I stared at him.


    "I''ve gone through my grandfather''s work files from the day of his death, which was almost three weeks ago, all the way back to the past two years. Expansions were planned for islands in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and three Chateau villas in France. There was never anything about expanding the business to the African continent. So since your bosses sent you here, I expect you should be high up the ladder to know what''s going on. So tell me, before I start throwing all four of you out the window. Who the fuck sanctioned an expansion! Because I know for a fact it wasn''t my grandfather."


    Was I too brutal....Nah I don''t think so. They probably thought they were coming here to strong arm and outmaneuver a green horn. A kid who had no idea what he was doing, or was probably still grieved about his grandfather''s death. Why is the world so stupid? Especially when money is involved. Gosh, being rich really was hard.


    "I''m sorry sir, but the directors of the continental branches, all have power to make such decisions, and it is not something you can question as it''s an arrangement that''s stood since the time your grandfather founded this company. Your grandfather''s company has made a lot of money and experienced exponential growth due to the proper allocation of duties and careful planning and decision making of the directors. He''s never questioned them before."


    And here it is. To be honest I don''t think American Adonis realized he''s slipped up one to many times during his short speech. Especially with the aggressive speech he decided to give me. Well then let''s illuminate his feeble and darkened mind shall we.


    "First of all, this is ''My Company'' as soon as I sign the transition paper today that is."


    "But sir! You can''t sign those papers without the directors present, they have to recognize your right of ownership to the company!"


    What the hell is this guy smoking. I turned to look at old man Jones, who shrugged his shoulders to tell me he had absolutely no idea what this guy was talking about. And right at that moment Ron threw a sugar glazed cookie at Mr American Adonis and yelled out.


    "No yelling! Bad manners!"


    And then he glared at everyone sitting on the table, including me as a warning before turning back to his feeble attempts to trim old man Jones''s beard. The cookie had a little cream on it, and it was stuck beautifully on his forehead.


    Oh! How much I love my son, he''s the most amazing, most extraordinary boy that this world has ever seen. So young yet he''s got daddy''s back. I can almost imagine the sheer amount of face slapping we father and son will carry out as he grows older.


    "Listen here ummm, what was your name again?" I asked American Adonis.


    "It''s Mike, Mike Adonis."


    "Whoa! seriously! your name is really Adonis, what are the odds. Wow!"


    Everyone looked at me like I had grown a second head, but it was just going to be my inner mind who understood why I was so surprised. American Adonis was really named Adonis. Weird, I think maybe I''m psychic or something. I should try moving a glass of water with my mind when I get home.


    "Listen to me Mr. American Adonis. Sebastian Amigo, Queen Europe and no Oppai Chan, I''ve looked over the contracts of all four directors. Never in any of the clauses was it stated that they had the deciding power to expand the scope and layout of the business without my grandfather''s express permission or agreement. I understand that my grandfather gave them free reign to carry out such expansions in the past, due to the high amount of trust he placed on them. And yes they''ve delivered and built him an empire. But this empire is mine now, and I''m not going to be so callous as to disregard the people who''ve worked hard and helped build it. But if those idiots disregard me, and refuse to give me the respect and regard I deserve, I''m going to kick their old asses to the curb, consequences be damned. Go back and tell them there''s a new emperor and he say''s if they''re not on my front door step by 8 o''clock next Tuesday, I''m going to bury them. After all I''m not just heir to a real estate empire, but also to the Imperium industries. If they think I''m bluffing they should try me. Now get out!"


    They knew there was nothing left to say, so they all started leaving. But before they left I called out.


    "Hey Adonis, when you go back, tell your boss that I said that he should either fire you, or I''ll fire him. But that shouldn''t be too hard Mr. Adonis, the director is your father is he not? Have a nice day."


    Adonis looked a lot paler leaving than the vibrant tan he had on when he walked in. Unfortunately he still looked handsome, so handsome angels could sing. Well with that out of the way, there was one last order of business. The signing of the documents could wait till after.


    "So old Man Jones, you said you had something to tell me."


    "Yeah that''s true.........¡­Kid I can''t be your lawyer anymore."

 15 Politics & Mind Games III : Criminal Legacy

    "Wait! What?......Why? Did I do something wrong, or is someone threatening you? Tell me their names and I''ll go knock on some doors!"


    SMACK!


    "Owwww!"


    "Calm down master Aaron and let him explain. I''m sure there''s a very good explanation for this.....right?"


    Is it just me or did the room suddenly feel colder. It dawned on me that Nanny Florence was also unaware of hisdecision, just as I was, she was also completely blind sided by it. Which was why she was taking on a rather threatening tone with him. I watched old man Jones choke a bit and break and out in a sweat. He was about to answer when Ron shoved another cookie in his mouth(how can he have so many of those things?). After chewing for a while, swallowing and cleaning his mouth, he moved Ron from on top of the table to his lap. Then he cleared his throat.


    "Aaron, I''ve been a lawyer for 50 years. I went to college with your grandfather, and I remember hating the guts of that rich kid. I had to struggle to pay my way through school, while he had everything handed to him on a silver platter. One day, I fell in with the wrong crowd, in my bid to find an easier avenue to making money.I ended up on the bad side of an old, very old Mafia family. Your grandfather saved me by making a deal with them, a deal that kept him in a partnership with them for his entire life, and soon they''ll be coming to you for the continuation of that deal."


    I was shocked, surprised and honestly I really had no idea how to react to this. But it made total sense, my grandfather was scary rich, yes the Imperium Industries was something he inherited from his family and made a lot of money from, but he had connections. I remember as a teenager there would times when he had meetings in the manor, and those meetings would go on for hours and sometimes through an entire day or night.


    I guess I never really knew him, the same way I didn''t know he was a principal share holder of the Imperium industries. All I had previously known about him, was that he used to work there, and had to leave for a different scenery, leaving his position to my father, who in turn made the company really successful and earned himself a part of the shares. I turned to Nanny Florence and asked.


    "Is this true?"


    "Yes it is. He had another life, a darker one that he let you have glimpse and pieces of to prepare you for this, to groom you to take his place."


    This was a bomb, a very huge one. My grandfather was a criminal, but if he was a criminal why would he have me try to stop my father from doing equally criminal activities, I had to know.


    "But if my grandfather was a criminal, why was he trying to stop my father from creating biological weapons and all that shady deals he said he was making. That would make them a shit ton of money, so why stop him? And even possibly get killed in the process for it."


    Old man Jones looked at Nanny Florence and said to her instead of answering me.


    "Florence he''s ready, if we don''t tell him the truth now, I don''t think there would be a better time than now. It''s his legacy."


    "I know he is, and yes! It''s time for him to know."


    This two old people were not making any sense. They were being cryptic, and it was rapidly beginning to piss me off. But there was nothing I could say as, yelling or throwing a tantrum won''t work with this two. They''ll tell me what''s going on if they want to. Nanny Florence walked around the table and sat opposite me. Her black hair was tied up neatly in a bun, and she had reading glasses to complete her nanny look. But her green eyes, were still as piercing as ever.


    "The Wade family, for generations has always had two fronts. The legitimate side of things, and the organized crime side of things. Just like the mantle of the company, the mantle to the family''s criminal empire is passed from first son to first son, until your father. Strictly speaking, your father is well aware of this part of your family''s history and he has connections and contacts within that world too, but not enough that he would be a threat to the recognized and chosen heir.


    Your father''s bid to delve in bio weaponry and cyber terrorism on a grander scale, put''s him in cahoots with quite a few governments. As far as wars go, it would be a lucrative business for the government, and a few interested private investors. But the advent of such a venture would cause world war 3 to break out, and this time it would go beyond just between countries. The space colonies on mars, the moon, and sector Nineveh would be drawn into the conflict. Since resources on earth are limited, and inter planetary mining and resource farming is gradually becoming a main source of income for countries involved in the space program; there are a couple of countries and companies who would want monopoly over all of those resources, cementing themselves as not just a first class country, but a super power of inter planetary proportions. And there''s only one company that can get them there, and that''s Imperium industries."


    She paused to get a drink of water before Continuing.


    "But a war on such a scale would affect the organized criminal families and organizations on earth. War means borders would be closed, security would be tighter, and the influence these families have built over the years would gradually fall apart. It would be the end of the dark side of the Wade family and a lot of other families too would disappear under the veil of war."


    "But isn''t that a good thing, that means we don''t have to be criminals and we can focus on the legitimate side of things." I said to them.


    "It doesn''t work that way Aaron. This business is not just for show, it''s built upon years of trust, honor and respect. People have bled and died for it, countless generations of people have served and died for this part of your family''s business. Even my own husband."


    I was speechless. For as long as I''ve known Nanny Florence she''s never sad anything about having a family. I once heard a rumor between the servants back when I was young that she had an estranged daughter, but I brushed it off. Now all that may have been true.


    "You may not understand Aaron, but this has to do with your family''s honor, their respect and protecting the common people here on earth. I''m not going to be hypocritical and say that we''re good people or that the deals we''ve made hasn''t hurt a lot of people, even innocents. But if your father''s plan goes through, thousands if not millions will die, it would be total chaos and the world will burn while he makes money from it. The old families have been at the helm of organized crimes for as long a 200 hundred years, they''ve hurt people, made money from suffering. But they''ve paid their dues and helped the world grow and evolve saving countless other lives in the process. This is a duty and a responsibility you can''t turn your back away from, because doing so will put me, you, old man Jones and his family, and lastly your son in danger. You can''t walk away from it, not when you''re the only one that can stop this."


    I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. The part about my son being in danger already ruffled my feathers, I just got him, and I can''t imagine ever having to loose him, such an act, it would kill me. But still why was I the only one who can stop it.


    "You''re the key to everything, and that''s because of your mother and her family. Your mother''s grandfather made Lost Descendants online, and it was improved upon by his son after him, your grandfather. But your maternal grandfather was not as good a game designer or programmer as his father, and that''s because he had another passion. He was a biochemical engineer, pioneering great advancement in cellular dissemination, cloning and evolution, and gene therapy. The bio chemical weapon that your father is trying to create and sell, was made and designed by him. But his creation got him killed, your mother was only seventeen at the time. But he left the formula to that weapon to your mother, and as if that wasn''t enough, your mother went ahead to create a virus specifically designed for cyber warfare. it was capable of infiltrating any country''s or force''s intelligence systems, take whatever information it wanted and systematically dismantle it from the inside. And we live in a digital age, such a virus would destroy countries in a day.


    But your mother was as crafty as they come. She hid both the formula and the virus in the one place that''s easiest to reach, but hardest to find. I''m sure you know what I''m talking about."


    "Lost Descendants Online." I called out in a whisper.


    "Indeed. There are people looking for it inside, its why the popularity and economical value of that game is so big. While smaller corporations have no idea what the bigger ones are after, the bigger corporations have their cronies searching for it whilst also making money from the game. They know it''s there, it''s been seen before. But what they don''t know is that the key to truly finding it, lies with you. Aaron in that game you can and will be a God, it''s was built to serve you. But your mother had to be careful, so she hid it very well, and made sure that even for you to find it, you have to work twice as hard to get it. You have to prove yourself and earn it. That''s why she and your grandfather wanted your identity as a gamer to not be associated with your identity as Aaron Wade.The enemies must not know that you''re also looking for it, because they''ll know that their best chance of finding it, is to control you. And that''s where the organized crime comes in. They''re not the best people, but they have honor and loyalty, they will protect you, and you in turn will have to protect their interests and make sure that formula and virus never falls into the wrong hands. I''m sorry I had to spring this up on you like this, but you really don''t have much of a choice. Running is not an option either because either one of these people I''ve mentioned have the resources to track you down and kill you without the world being the wiser. And you have to think about your son. So what''s it going to be."


    I really need to rephrase, being rich absolutely sucks. But there was more at stake here than I realized, too many secrets that were weaved and interwoven between my two families. With my mother and grandfather being involved in such a huge fate of the world scenario, I had no other choice but to be right in the middle of it.


    "I don''t have much of a choice do I? But this is bigger than me, and I may not know much about honor or loyalty. But I understand family, I understand danger and suffering. And I understand that I love my son and would do everything in my power to keep him safe. So I''ll do what I have to do, this is my burden and my responsibility. I''m not so much of a coward that''ll run away from it, because if I don''t do it, who will. But in the end I still don''t understand why old man Jones say''s he not going to be my lawyer any more."


    "Ahh! My bad, it seems we got completely off track. But all is well that ends well I suppose. The thing is, with your grandfather gone, this law firm, which he built in an elaborate scheme to provide legal services for the crime families falls completely to me. Though he built this firm, he left all of the rights to me. But kid my old bones are killing me, and with him gone I don''t think I can do this anymore. It''s time for someone much younger and exuberant to take my place, and I''ve decided to take a page out of his book."


    "No! Please No! I understand you want to retire and I have no problem with that, but please choose any body but her. She''s a monster!"


    "You do realize that we''re talking about my granddaughter right? You used to have the biggest crush on her, I remembered that summer you interned here, she was also learning the ropes and you followed her around all doe eyed and loopy..."


    "Yeah I did. Until she hung me off the side of the building in my underwear! She''s made my life miserable ever since. She scares me as much as Nanny Florence does. And that''s saying something because Nanny Florence is scarrrrrrr oww!"


    "I''m right here young man." Nanny Florence said with a warning.


    "Well sorry Kid, but the decision has already been made. After we''re done here, and you''ve signed all of the legal mumbo jumbo, I''ll be announcing my retirement , and by Monday, my granddaughter, your one and only childhood first love Penelope Jones will become the head of this law firm and the new personal lawyer of the Wade family. It feels good doesn''t it."


    "My life is ruined." I lamented as I placed my head on the table with a groan. Ron bless his soul came over and patted my head, I guess he understands that his father''s quiet life, will no longer be quiet. Being rich really does sucks.

 16 The Island Of Patmos III : Captive

    When I logged back in into Lost Descendants, I was feeling a whole lot more motivated than I previously was the last time I played the game. The world needs me to play to win, but my mom wants me to live to win. That was the key that many of the people looking for her virus and my grandfather''s formula were missing.


    They had to live in this world, become a part of it, and earn it''s respect. Only then would it put such destructive power in their hands. Nanny Florence was right though, in this world, I can become a god. Except of course my delusions of becoming a god are being grounded in reality by the simple fact that I was in a jail cell.


    Wooden walls, wooden gates, and wooden floor. This people used guns, yet they seemed to prefer wood when constructing their prison, makes sense. They might either be cast always like me, or maybe something else. Can''t jump to Conclusions at the moment. There was a simple bed, which if I should be honest was an upgrade from sleeping on a raft, and on a beach for the past couple of nights.


    But speaking of rafts, I couldn''t find Sky anywhere, I was sure I jumped into the basin with the little guy, well girl, but I guess she was not placed in the same cell as me. I sat on the floor, seeing as there was nothing else in the cell apart from a hole in the ground, that looked like a toilet. Thank God as a player I didn''t need to use such a facilities, it would have been a very uncomfortable experience for me.


    "Hello! Anybody there! You guys made a mistake! I''m not what or who you think I am!"


    "I''m pretty sure we know that, and don''t worry you''re exactly what we think you are, don''t really care who though." A voice said to me.


    A man, well a green man, walked to the front of my cell, wearing a lab coat, glasses and holding a tablet in his hands. This solved one mystery, and proves that at the very least, this was a technologically advanced civilization. Which means they had to be at least civil in what they do, and can be reasoned with. If it were a medieval civilization, I was pretty much screwed as those guys were all about power to the nobles, and as an outsider I would pretty much have no say over my own fate.


    "You''re the owner of the Arnetine battle beast right?" the man asked me with a nonchalant attitude, his nose still stuck in his tablet.


    "Yes that''s me, where is she? Can you guys give her back?" I answered and asked rapidly.


    "She''s undergoing some tests, and I''m afraid you''ll never see her again. She''s a rare specimen, and our nation is interested in raising her for breeding. If she can give birth to more of her kind, she''s sure to make our Patmosian army even more powerful than it already is.So unless you could win five fights in a Patmosian arena and qualify for the trial of revelations, nothing you say would carry any weight here. Looking at how pitiful you look, with you broken wings and all, I doubt you''ll survive even the first fight, not when you''re fighting Maurice the butcher."


    This green Patmosian dude or whatever, likes to talk. All of what he said has given me a rundown of my situation, and with the way things are going, I don''t really like it. But the fact that my tiny little baby elephant was going to be used as a breeding animal, was beginning to piss me off.


    "She''s bound to me, nobody other than me can use her, so give her back!"


    I said to him as I got closer and grabbed the wooden bars to my cell door. That was a mistake as I received a massive shock and was thrown backwards, slamming my already injured back and shoulder on the wall of my cell. I couldn''t help screaming out loud as my vision went dark for a moment, my breathing was erratic, and I opened my eyes in time to see a -6 Hp float into the air.


    "We already know that She''ll only transform as a weapon for you. But since she can''t be used as weapon, She''ll be used to create more. At the moment we''re trying to create an agent that would rapidly increase her to birthing age and size. It should be ready in another week or so, but even then there''s nothing you can do, but prepare for your future as dead meat, and entertainment for my people. I know people like you don''t die, instead you revive, over and over and over again. You have nothing and if not for the fact that strange compass of yours is somehow connected to your soul, we would have taken that and even the clothes on your body too."


    I was shocked by the sudden turn of events, I just escaped starvation from an ocean, escaped being eaten by a rather powerful, supernatural demonic snake, and now I''m captured by a race of green men as a slave in their underground fighting arena. And I lost my friend and totally badass over powered weapon. Shit! Mom you really don''t make anything easy.


    "You''re not going to get away with this, the world would hear about this and people will come stop you."


    "Seriously that''s what you''re going with. Well let me tell you, the trial of revelations is a worldwide broadcasted and participated in event that chooses the next king and master of the isle of Patmos, and the tree of revelations. Whoever wins, gets access to ultimate power, and according to legend, he or she is also the person who would be responsible of getting rid of the serpent that''s been keeping us trapped. But those are just legends, with the advent of teleportation gates, its easy to visit any other part of the world, and as long as the tree keeps us safe, we don''t need to care about that grumpy old snake. Heck you''re the first person in 700 hundred years to arrive here by coming through the barrier, and the fact that the tree protected you has a lot of people curious. But it''s just curiosity and nothing else. Alright, first of all, put this on."


    His tablet lit up, and a brown leather armor was deposited in front of me. Though to call it leather armor alone would be an insult, as the arm guards, leg guards, and tight fitting shoulder guards were all made from wood, even the helmet. The armor included a vest, fashioned in the form of a scale mail, leather pants with a kind of wooden belt, and flexible wooden material lining the side and edge as some sort of design.


    The boots were also brown, and the soles was also made of wood(duh). Then next came pauldrons(shoulder guards), vambraces(arm guards), and shin guards that seemed to connect with the boot some how, and finally a pair of finger less gloves. Thankfully the vest had openings in the back for my wings, how thoughtful of them.


    "What''s this?" I asked him as I picked them up.


    "Stuff to make sure you don''t die too fast."


    [Trial of Revelations Ceremonial Candidate Armor(set)/Grade: Mortal/Durability 50/55. Attack +30% defense +30%,health + 300, speed + 30%,stealth +10%]


    [Equip Armor...¡­Armor Equipped. All bonuses added. Due to increase in health, wings have been healed by 30%]


    There was loud crack and white hot pain lancing through my body as the bones in my wings reset themselves back to their old positions. They were not exactly healed, but at least they were no longer broken. I was on my knees catching my breath, when the man started speaking.


    "There will be competitors coming in from all over New Gaia, most of them otherworlders like you, and others original members of this world. First of all, you have to survive, and not just survive, but actually win five battles. The first battle you win gets you ten battle points that you can use to exchange for either consumables, weapons, armors, women or men if you prefer. The second battle doubles the points you receive, and so does the next, till the fifth. With more points you would have more tricks under your sleeve, but winning is not the only way to gain points. You could get points from sponsors or even the tree of revelations itself, though that''s never happened before, so don''t put your hopes up. You must win all five of your battles consecutively, if you loose at the third, or even the fifth,you loose...¡­.. well it means you''re dead seeing as all battles are to the death. If you miraculously win all five battles, you stop being a candidate, and start being a chosen of the tree, it means you get better treatment, a good house, women, booze, more women or men, and you get all of your confiscated properties back. Including your elephant and rubies. Though you only have a week to get five wins, before that,it''s too late for the little guy."


    "She''s a girl!"


    "I know that. I just don''t care. Also your first fight it compulsory, but after that it''s up to you to challenge and be challenged during a period of fifteen days. So it''s better for you to win in a week, preferably less. If you''re killed, you''re out of the trial. Once you respawn, you''ll be sent to another arena, where you''ll fight for us until you drop dead.Which is the most probable outcome seeing how weak your stats are.Well then I should leave you to get ready, before your fight, which is in three hours by the way, you''ll be given five battle points to purchase either a weapon or armor of choice, though I doubt it''ll do you any good. So prepare yourself, and I''ll see you after you respawn. Bye"


    For all of the time he had spent talking to me, he didn''t even raise his head up from his tablet. I don''t know if it was disregard or what was on that tablet was a whole lot more interesting than me.


    I understood one thing, and that''s the fact that he did not expect me to survive my upcoming battle, which also brings me to a startling realization. Whatever he used to check me, did not show him my level, just my stats. He had judged me based on how weak all of my stats looked, but that could not be helped. I''ve not allocated a single point to it since I started playing. I guess it''s not too late to start now.


    [Quest! Alert!/ Grade: Heaven/ Time Limit: 15 Days/ Rewards: Title- Chosen Of Patmos,5m XP]


    [Win Five consecutive battles in the trial of revelations. The quest is forfeit if you''re defeated or killed. For the duration of this quest all skills can not be grown automatically by practice, only through Skill points.]


    Well isn''t that wonderful, and annoying. I don''t really care about this trial, though it seems my streak of bad luck is not going to be ending anytime soon, I had to win this and fast, so that I can get Sky back. After I win all five battles and get her back, then I''m so out of here. But first I have to allocate my stat and skill points.


    Currently I had 57 stat points and 26 skill points. Since I didn''t have a class, I couldn''t exactly decide what kind of build I''ll be going for, but I would prefer to be a hard hitter with a good amount of speed.


    Besides due to my previous Hoarder title, I now have twice as much skill and stat points than an average person. MyHp and MP were based on my defense and magic stat, and it''s summed up by doubling the amount of points in both my magic and defense stats. So first I''ll share the points in an equal ratio between all four of my stats. So there would be ten to attack, defense, speed and magic. I''ll be left with seventeen, but that should be enough for a rainy day.


    I added 3 skill points to precise aim, and I was given two new skill to choose from, expanding my archery skill tree.


    [Homing shot: level 1 basic: Chase and attack any target in sight with 15% extra damage within a radius of 25 meters./cost 10 MP,cool down 120 seconds]


    [Snipe: level 1 basic: shoot from a distance of 70 meters with +15% to power and piercing, +30% to speed and aim./cost 20 MP,cool down 180 seconds]


    Snipe was pretty much an assassination skill, and it was a skill that needed time to prepare and carry out. Considering I''ll be entering a battle that would have my opponent right in front of me, the better option would be homing shot. After that, I put three of my skill points into it, bringing my entire skill points to 20. Next I placed 5 points into hard punch. I''ve not had a reason to use that skill, but since there''s a possibility that I''ll have to fight in close quarters combat, I had to cover my bases.


    I would have loved if I had a skill for swords or a dagger though, I''ve been trained to use them by Nanny Florence from a young age, so it would have been comfortable. But I was still deadlier without a weapon than with it. I was also given two new skills to choose from after hard punch got to level 5.


    [Due to you dragon and elf race, the auxiliary skills from the hard punch skill tree has been tailored for your racial advantages.]


    [Vacuum Palm: level 1 basic: smash away obstacles and opponents with a wind covered element palm for 20% damage and a knock back effect. Has a 5% of confusing the opponent. /cost 7 MP, cool down 15 seconds.]


    [Hard hitter: level 1 basic: increase the power and damage of all your physical attacks by 5%]


    Hard hitter was a passive that improved the power behind my strikes, but it was a passive that was only good in the long run. I would have preferred to choose it, but I needed something that would serve me immediately, I needed my chances of wining to be as high as possible.


    So I chose the vacuum palm skill, and it helped that I chose that, since I also had a passive skill that would make it stronger. I put three skill points into vacuum palm, and 2 into my wind child passive, bringing my total skill points down to 10. At the very least this should be enough, and whatever is left can save my butt when it counts.


    Name: Aaren/ Level: 20(35.472.480/104.857.600)/Class: N/A


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker


    Attack: 20/Defense: 15/Speed: 20/Magic: 25


    Hp 30/30(300)MP 30/50


    Stat points:17Skill points:10


    Passive skills:


    ?	Nature buff (level 1) basic + 2% to all nature oriented skills, spells, or tasks.


    ?	Wind child(level 4) basic. +5% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 3) basic. +2% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 5) basic. +10% to aim when in motion, +15% to aim when stationary.


    Active skills:


    ?	Shoot(level 6) basic. +10% damage and speed for projectile weapons. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Glide(level 1) basic. Glide in the air for 15 seconds. + 5% to speed during flight. (Cost 20 MP) (cool down 40 seconds)


    ?	Hard punch(level 6) basic. Hit your opponent for 80% extra of your total attack. Speed +10% during skill.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Homing Shot(level 3) basic. Chase and attack any target in sight with projectiles. +15% damage within a radius of 25 meters.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Vacuum Palm (level 3) basic. Hit Targets with a wind element Palm attack. +20% damage and knock back effect. 5% chance to confuse opponents. (Cost 7 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    Augmented racial trait:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    I was as ready as I could be. My HP was way high due to the equipment I''m wearing, and that realization made me understand that in Lost Descendants, personal stats hardly mattered in the long run. The true power came from the equipment''s owned. I didn''t know what to expect, I wasn''t even sure if my preparation was good enough or not, I just had to hope for the best, kick some ass, get my elephant and get the hell out of town. What could possibly go wrong.

 17 The Island Of Patmos IV : The Trial Of Revelations

    The shocking turn of events aside, I was really looking forward to getting out of this cage. So far all I''ve seen of this game was an ocean, a forest, a big ass tree, and a giant snake that wanted to eat me. It would be really nice to experience and see something new, even if I was a slave for an internationally sanctioned gladiator arena. This game keeps on taking more and more interesting turns.


    [WORLD WIDE SYSTEM ALERT: The game event; The Trial Of Revelations are about to begin!]


    [The Great Tree of Revelations was nothing more than a little plant, that was grown and raised by The Disciple; John. This tree had witnessed the prophecy of the end, and witnessed a million other prophesies in the process. Divine and Cosmic energies caused it to transform and grow, giving it the power to divine the future of whoever gains it''s approval.


    It''s also capable of granting skill and abilities based on the unique color of its leaves. And finally as the Disciple John was passing, he gave a prophecy about how an ancient and grand civilization would come to grow within and around the roots and body of the great tree. And one day, it''s chosen king or queen would come to take charge of the City Of Prophets; Zebedee. The trial is a test created by the tree, it takes place every three years, and it''s to search for the chosen king of the tree. Are you the one?]


    [All players participating in the first knockout stage of five compulsorybattles gets +1 skill and stat point for participation.Players who win the knockout stage get + 2 skill point and +3 stat point. Players who participate in the trial of seven rings gets +1 skill and stat point for participating. Players who make it to the 3rd ring gets 3 skill and stat points, and one random earth equipment. Players who make it to the sixth stage and below gets 6 skill and stat point, with ring 4 players getting four and ring 5 getting five,and also one random heaven grade equipment. Players who reach the seventh rings get 10 skill and stat points, 1 random battle skill,500 thousand gold dollars,and one random legendary grade weapon and armor. Further rewards will be kept secret until overall winner is announced.]


    [You have been given one stat and skill point.]


    As soon as I finished reading the message, a uniformed guard came to my cage and banged hard on it. His green skin had a sheen of sweat, and it seemed as if he had ran all the way to get here. He looked up at me and said.


    "Hey Dragon Elf man. It''s time! Follow me and I''ll lead you to where you can use your points. And then it''s off to the arena for you."


    My wooden cell door, turned into tiny little vines, and slid back into the wooden floor. I had my suspicions, but I was reserving judgment. I walked out of the cell and followed the guard, making sure to take a good look at my surroundings. Everything seemed to be made of wood, and even with the sophisticated tech I was seeing, which included display screens and intercom speakers, the place was lit up by bioluminescent fruits that grew out of little vines at the top of walls. We went down a long hall, before coming out around a circular walkway that seemed to surround and was above what looked like a market square.


    There was a giant screen suspended in the air, and it was showing thousands of names and faces, and the voice of a presenter telling the people watching about the favorites for the competition, and the dark horses in it.


    The walkway was a little ways up, like about twenty to thirty feet above, and below was the market area. There were lots of tents, and wooden huts, and apart from the green people, Patmosians was it; there were numerous other races there too. Some were buying, others were selling, while many of them had their attention glued to the giant screen, or the counter placed in front of it, where bets were being placed. I looked up at the ceiling, but all I could see was a wooden ceiling, carrying spiral patterns that lit up with different colors. I think at this point, it was quite obvious, that I was Inside the big ass tree.


    I felt my guard push me forwards, as we went on towards an elevator. It was really baffling to me, how it was possible that nature could integrate so seamlessly with technology. Whatever method these guys used, it worked, and it looked really beautiful.


    When I got to the elevator, there were a couple of other prisoners being pushed into it, along with three other guards. We all crowded into it, and I was pushed to the back. When I got there, I realized the back of the elevator was actually made of glass or a crystal of sorts, and I could see the world outside.


    The basin was bigger than I thought, maybe I mistook the size due to darkness, but from what I could see, it was tall, very tall, almost at the size of the empire state building in New York, or a little bit taller. And funny enough the bloody tree was almost three to four times it''s size. One thing I was sure of was that, the edge of the basin, actually coincided with an area just above the roots of the tree.


    So this tree was big, very big. I could see lights shimmering below, and saw that it''s roots had houses either burrowed into them, or built around and within them. The main city itself was outside with the roots and everything, but the tree was like a castle or an administrative building, that also could house a number of people.


    The elevator went up for almost seven to ten minutes, and even then I still couldn''t see the edge of the basin the tree was in. Honestly I was awe struck, no matter how I looked at it, this place was beautiful and amazing, I wish I could get a chance to see more of it.


    The elevator came to a stop, and we were all pushed out. This time there was no walkway, just a hallway. I realized that we had just come up from the place where the roots connected to the tree, and that my prison cell was within one. We were led into a place that looked like a waiting area, but it was built weirdly. There were cubicles placed at the side, and each of them had numbers on it. There were no more than thirty cubicles here, and some of them were already occupied.


    "All of you, go in to the cubicle with your given number, you can make any purchase with your points, or even gamble on your fights from there. Beware of any stupid actions, this place is under live broadcast, which means occasionally, the rest of the world could see what''s happening here.If your cubicle lights up, then that means it''s time for you to fight, then you can make your way down to the gate at the end of the waiting area. It would take you to the arena within the tree, where your battle would take place. I would say good luck, but it would be wasted. You''re all just here to fill the spots, to make sure the required number of candidates are met. Good riddance."


    The guard left with the rest of the comrades, and we were left to our devices. Everyone chose to mind their own business as they made their way into the cubicles. We all had on the same uniform, and on the shoulders of each uniform was a number, mine was seven. Which was how I found my cubicle and sat in it. It was comfortable, too comfortable in fact, and it was really state of the art. Pristine white seats, a table with a holographic display, and metal plate on the wall, that looked like a dumb waiter. The display in front of me changed and a question was asked.


    [Candidate no 7 you have 5 battle points. Would you like to see the list of available options, that are within your specified price range. YES/NO]


    [Showing list now: Basic Warrior Kit (Long sword, Shield, and Helm) 5 BP/ Basic Mage Kit (Magic wand, Tier 0 defense spell, tier 0 attack spell) 5 BP/ Basic.....]


    There was nothing really good that could be bought here, not for 5 BP at least. But for some reason the basic Marksman Kit came with a few extra surprises. In this game, traditional weapons, as much as modern weapons were used in tandem with your classes. So I was given a short bow, a quiver of arrows, and a revolver with six bullets.


    It might seem like an advantage, but it means nothing. Some people were resilient enough in this game that a bullet would be like throwing cotton at them, and some of them were so fast their bows and arrows could break the sound barrier. It was all a matter of preference.


    All of the weapons I was given were all normal grade, not even mortal, so the damage bonuses were negligible if not nonexistent. I would be relying on my skills, and not just the in game ones, but the dozens of close combat and shooting practice my grandfather and Nanny Florence beat into my body, not to mention the grueling army training.


    It doesn''t matter how strong my opponent might be, Health pool, armor and defense could be circumvented if you hit the right place and hit it hard enough. Just like in real life, in here weak points, blind spots and simple injuries mattered. This might just be me trying to comfort myself, but I could win, I know I can. And no matter what comes my way, I''m going to beat it,just like everything else that''s stood before me. All of a sudden my cubicle lit up, startling me out of my thoughts. I guess it was time now.


    I got up, hung my arrow pouch around my waist, so it was just hanging there for my hand to reach out and carry. I preferred it this was, swords, axes, and spears can remain on my back, it doesn''t take long too bring them out. But an arrow needed to be close by for fast access and reactions. The arrows were sticking out from behind my waist, just at my left hip, and the revolver was hanging on my right hip.


    I grabbed my bow, and made my way out and towards the gate.


    Every move I made was under the gaze of the other candidates, I''m sure in their minds they were thinking, here goes the first one, the guy who''s blood would christen the sands. Damn it! they''re making me feel nervous.


    I got to the gate, and it opened up. There was only a platform, and a long walkway that was lit up, connected to it from both sides. Every other thing was dark, no audience, and no cameras. It was weird, but this was a game.


    "The first fight of the Trial of Revelations is about to BEGIIIIIINNNN! On the right side we have candidate number 7. He''s a Dragon Elf who actually washed up ashore, and escaped the jaws of Sortovat the monstrous serpent! The first person in 700 years to come onto Zebedee from outside the barrier without using a teleportation gate! You have to admit he''s really something.


    And over here on the left, we have one of our local talents. He is the reigning champion of the Patmosian Glory Arena, and one of the defenders of the realm. He is Maurice, The Patmosian Butcher! Hero of the great battles of Condar, where he had slain a thousand and one Minotaurs, of the Dreaded Nukari Herd!


    This is going to be an exciting first fight, and one to be remembered for the ages to come. So without further delay, let the trials begin!"

 18 The Island Of Patmos V : Maurice The Butcher

    My opponentwas rather large, and the axe he was dragging behind himself was nothing short of ridiculous. The handle alone was six feet long, and the axe blade was a meter wide double edged blade with a golden edge. I could see why this guy would be called a butcher. We were both on the long walkway that led to the battling platform, and the way I see it, there''s no reason not to make use of my advantage and attack first.


    As fast as I could, I nocked an arrow on the bow, pulled it back and shot at Maurice. This was just a shot to test the waters, so a skill was not used along with it. Anyway the arrow flew fast, but not fast enough that even I wouldn''t have been able to dodge it. He leaned his head sideways, and the arrow wizzed past. He raised a green eyebrow at me, before hefting his giant axe into the air, and taking off into a running start, heading straight for me.


    In most games, an archer would want to keep their distance and avoid any sort of close confrontation. It''s a testament of skill, that an archer would be able to fight at close combat with just a bow and an arrow. Not everyone could be Legolas or Hawkeye, no matter how much they might wish for it to be true. And that''s because virtual reality games, was not just dependent on how well you can move with your mind, but how trained you real body is.


    While its possible to make moves in the game that you can''t make in real life, real life moves could be executed with more than 300% it''s original efficiency, making virtual reality games, and especially Lost Descendants online, a stomping ground for skilled individuals like martial artists, athletes and even performers with an active body life style.


    Actors and singers who dance especially thrive in this sort of place, as streams of a celebrity''s online adventures, is also quite popular.


    As he ran towards me, I ran towards him. Pulling back my arrows and shooting them at him, with each subsequent shot getting faster and faster.


    He was ten meters away and already on the platform when I noticed that his brows had furrowed in concentration and seriousness. This guy was not stupid, he knew everything that I''ve been doing so far was just to test the waters, and that I was a whole lot stronger than I looked.


    He gripped his axe a little tighter, and a little glow began to show from the axe''s edge. It took a lot for me to observe my opponent and attack at the same time, but that was an important part of all the combat forms I was taught. While I knew how to attack quite well enough, I preferred to always have my opponents act first, unless of course there''s no choice and my advantage would be wasted if I don''t make the first move.


    I was passive aggressive, and would let you throw a punch, just so that I can twist your arm, and have that punch fly right back to your face. But to do so, I had to be able to pay attention to every movement of my opponent, down to the tiniest twitch of their face. That way I already know what was coming, long before the move was made.


    Maurice held the glaive like axe with both hands, and swung it towards me. However, I already anticipated that move and took a leap. I''m not sure which stats was governing the abilities of my body, since all I had was attack, defense, speed and magic, but jumping twenty five feet into the air in one go was beyond terrifying for me. I almost forgot that with the execution of a skill, my opponent would be wide open. A bright beam of green light spread out from his axe, flying towards the place I had already vacated. But while he was making that move, I was making mine.


    "Homing Shot!"


    I shot an arrow, and behind it a silver glow could be see on it''s feather. Thanks to precise aim, I knew exactly where I wanted that arrow to go. Maurice had over extended himself, and the animation for his skill was not yet over, so he could not muster up a defense. And finally since I was using a skill, the speed of my arrow was more than three times my previous speed without using a skill.


    Homing shot would always follow the target, regardless of which angle he''s positioned. And if you have a clear target, then all the more better. The arrow flew straight into Maurice''s left eye, completely blinding him, as he roared in pain and took a step back, making the most rookie mistake you can ever expect from a fighter, he dropped his weapon.


    [You have delivered a crippling blow to Maurice -30 HP, Maurice has been partially blinded, Maurice has incurred the debuff intense pain, Maurice is confused.]


    I was already falling down from my jump, and I was going to be dropping right over Maurice''s head. I nocked another arrow, and since Homing shot was still on cool down. I used shoot instead. This time the arrow was even faster, and my target was still the same left eye, that I had just blinded.


    Of course I could just as easily take out his right eye, but I wanted to make a statement, and maybe show off a little. Since this was a competition where you could get sponsors, and more sponsors meant battle points. And more battle points meant better gear, weapons, and if possible a skill for magic, and maybe a sword.


    He had both hands clutched over his punctured eye, bleeding green blood all over the arena floor. The next arrow, pinned both his hands on his face, as it seamlessly slid between both hands placed on top of each other, and back into the destroyed eye. I moved my bow to my left hand, and pulled my right hand back into a palm. I was using the free mode of the game to activate my skills, relying mostly on my jurisdiction and battle awareness. In the assisted mode, regardless of where you were, or the terrain of your fight, a skill will always give a set amount of damage.


    But in the free mode, a lot of things would be considered and calculated to either increase the intensity of a skill or reduce it. I was falling from a very high point, definitely there''s going to be a little bit of air resistance. What happend next was just as expected.


    [Due to angle of elevation, inertia and speed, Vacuum Palm''s power and range has been increased by 70%]


    FOOOOOOOOSSSHHHHHHH BOOOOOOOOM!


    [You Have dealt a Critical Hit! Maurice Has Been Slain. Due to nature of competition, all Exp rewards will be deferred until the trial of revelations is over.]


    "urghhhh that''s gross! This is a mess. I can''t believe he died just like that. Isn''t he supposed to be the Patmosian champion or something."


    I was complaining as I raised my palm from his smashed skull, brain juice, skull fragments and blood were all over my hand, whoa is that his eyeball. I think I''m going to puke. I wiped my hands on Maurice''s clothes, then stood up. Then I looked around, the Arena was a little too silent, weren''t they supposed to be an announcer by now or something. Almost immediately, I heard the same voice that announced my entrance speak up.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, in the opening fight of the trial or revelations. The Patmosian champion, and one of the defenders of the realm, Maurice the butcher, hero of the battle of Condar has been totally decimated by the dragon elf man, Candidate Seven. Without even scoring a single hit...¡­..this is a totally unprecedented development...¡­..ladies and gentlemen I give you your your winner of the opening fight; Candidate Seven!"


    As soon as he finished speaking, the gate with which I had used in coming here lit up, and shimmered. I guess that means I can leave now. I left the arena and Maurice''s dead body behind. Just like so many people before him, he had underestimated me, and he paid for it.


    When I got back into the waiting area, everyone that was there were staring at me. Dark horses were previously mentioned, but among those dark horses, I was the darkest of them all. They had all watched the fight, though I don''t know what it would have seemed like from their perspective, I was sure I made a huge impression. One that they wouldn''t forget. I made my way to my cubicle, where the hologram was replaying the highlights of my fight.


    I had quite a long way to go before I''m at the level of legendary archers like Legolas, Hawkeye and Green Arrow, but I had to admit I was really good with a bow. I wonder how this people will all feel when the find out, I''m actually better with a sword and a spear. They''ll probably trip.


    This event was sudden, and coming on the heels of my mom''s crazy update, there was barely enough time to prepare for it. However it was still being covered by media companies including Imperium, a rival called Star Sat, and a tiny up and coming streaming service ran by the national gaming and recreational talent institute of virtual entertainment, NGRTIVE also popularly known as Negative.


    For reasons I don''t know about, the holographic screen in the cubicle was connected to Lost Descendants official forum, and it was going wild.


    Many people were wondering who I was, or if I was a part of a guild. Others wanted my contact information and some guilds tried to recruit.


    I''m not going to be an arrogant ass and say or think that I wanted to start my own guild and that I would be on top of the charts conquering and beating everyone as the overlord of the game...¡­..that''s just stupid. I get that I had to be stronger to find what was left hidden within the very fabric of this world by my mother, but I did not have to be a generic webnovel main character for that to happen.


    If worse comes to worse, I would just ride solo until I find what I need. Starting a guild meant commitment, and that was something I was not yet ready for, if ever, not with what I have to do, but it''s not something I can entirely disregard either.


    Most of the people online have taken to calling me Seven. My name was Aaren, but I don''t think that would stick now. Candidate Seven has given me a new identity, or a nickname.


    But I didn''t think it was a bad thing, this was a game, and even though I''m going to be approaching this like real life, there were still some things to be considered. A nickname like Seven built me the reputation that I needed, and got me the sponsors required to beat this competition, get my elephant and get out of town.


    [You have been awarded 10 battle points for winning your first match. You have also received 80 thousand golden dollars from the gambling table due to your win. It is ten percent of their total gains over the bets made for your fight.]


    Well they neglected to mention that I would actually be able to get money from the bets being made. I guess they thought I wouldn''t survive or even be able to win any of my fights. Next time I''ll make sure to bet on my self.


    [You have received Three new sponsors. (1): The Patmosian Royal Family has sponsored you. You have received 50 battle points. (2): The High Elf Royal Mage has sponsored you. You have received 15 battle points and One Royal elven Longbow of Theran''ur''mekir Iron wood. (3): The Tree of Revelations has sponsored you. You have received 200 battle points.]


    Well I''ll be damned. If this doesn''t get the attention of everyone I don''t know what will. I mean come on, it was obvious from the start. This game knew who I was, my identity, and what I wanted from it. I know it sounded weird, but I had this feeling that the entire universe of Lost Descendants online was sentient, and it was watching over me and against me.


    Testing me at every turn, and pushing me in a certain direction. I was told that the tree has never sponsored anyone before, it was not a relevant information to be known, but it was still told to me anyway. And now, I got that sponsorship......what were the odds of that just being a coincidence.

 19 The Island Of Patmos VI : Upgrade

    Well sponsorship aside, it was time for me to see what I could get with my now 275 battle points. I moved the holographic screen, and saw the option for the purchase. At first I was given a standard list without any navigation, just shown what they wanted me to see. But now that I blew the champion''s head off, they were willing to compromise. The battle points trading station had quite a few different categories. They were.


    ?	SKILLS-


    ?	ARMOR-


    ?	WEAPONS-


    ?	CONSUMABLES


    ?	ACCESSORIES


    ?	ENTERTAINMENT


    Well that''s nice but it was really hard to choose. Each of the options had hundreds of items to choose from. Though I don''t see how Fuc**ng An orcish maiden from the entertainment option was appealing to anyone. I mean she did look beautiful...¡­.for an orc, but those muscles were the size of my head. She needed a more manly man, so I could only helplessly pass such an opportunity.


    In the consumables directory, I spent a whooping 50 battle points for two potions. One was higher healing potion and it cost thirty points, the last was called a bone hardening potion. And from it''s name it was obvious it hardened bones. If anyone was to pay attention, they would know that my wings were the weakest part of my body, and even if I healed them, the idea of them being broken again, due to how frail they were did not sit well with me. The hardening potion was actually five points a bottle, but it did not seem like something people would spend their battle point upon,not during a competition like this. That''s why it was so cheap, that and because it tasted terrible.


    Next was for skills, preferably some magically oriented. I narrowed them down to five choices.


    ?	Mana Arrow (active)¨C 40 points


    ?	Nature Heal- (Passive/Active)25 points


    ?	Wind School: Lightening Coat- (Active)80 points


    ?	Wind Stride: Wings- (Active)25 points


    ?	 Mana Slash- (Active) 15 points.


    Many of the skills were really good. But this were chosen not because of how cheap they were, but because of the potential they had in helping my situation. The most expensive was a defensive skill, and it surprised me a bit, that lightening was not an element of it''s own, but rather a sub element of wind. Finding that out, sort of made me happy. Lightening was a lot more destructive than wind, and also gave a ridiculous boost to speed, of course it was not as versatile or adaptive as wind. Wind was free and unfettered, without focus or direction. When wind is given direction, then lightening is born. I bought the skill, and it brought my points down to 145.


    A defensive skill looked like a really amazing thing to have, who knows how helpful it would be in the future and when. I''m not aiming to have many skills, but I needed just enough to cover all my basis, as I seem to be an all rounder, even though I was using a bow. There would be time when certain situations would require a different sort of approach.


    Wind Stride: Wings and Nature heal were skills I didn''t need at the moment, so I placed them in a virtual shopping list. So that after my next fight, if I win, they would be the first things shown to me to purchase. Mana slash needed a bladed weapon to be performed, which covered armed melee combat since I already had unarmed combat skills. I didn''t hesitate to buy it, and the Mana arrow skill too.


    The mana arrow skill was a magic skill or in this case spell. Compared to normal skills, the damage magic does it a little bit different than normal.Buying them both left me with 90 battle points. I spent fifteen to get a steel longsword of the mortal grade, and 30 to get new gloves.


    The gloves seemed to be something new and different as they were actually tailored as weapons for spell casters. It reduced casting speed for all magic spells by 10 seconds, cool down time by another 10 seconds,and increased focus and damage output by 5%. And for the mana arrow skill that only had a 5 second cast time, and a twenty second cool down, it meant I could use it almost as much as I like and only have to worry about running out of mana. And finally I spent 10 points to buy an enchanted quiver that held a thousand steel tipped arrows.


    It was like an inventory, but only arrows could be placed in it. It was used by archers during huge battles, this way they wouldn''t immediately run out.


    With all of this out of the way, I think I can finally relax and pay a little attention to the fights that were now being held. Since I had won my first fight, it meant my next fights have to all be either me challenging others, or others challenging me. So it was time to scope out the competition.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    Within a span of two hours, there were hundreds of fights. And there were quite a few talents and notable fighters to pay attention to. In a nutshell, the talents were divided between NPCS and players. For the players, there were eleven of them, with the most noteworthy three, being a part of both the top and second best guild in the whole of lost Descendants.


    The number one player in the game, was here, along with the number two and three. Number one was a girl from Mexico with the in game name Uno Acero. Of course that name meant one steel in Spanish, I''m sure there was a hidden meaning to it, but I can''t be too sure about it though.


    The second was guy from the new York called Zane. It''s also his real life name, and he was quite the celebrity. Both of them belong to the most powerful guild in the game, The Jupiter Council, and the final person to watch out for was a Chinese player. Talented and ruthless to the core, the only reason he was not number one was because he had started a little later than the others, but now with the update and everyone having their levels reset down to zero. I''m sure he would take the lead, he was the guild master of the Holy Dragons Of East Heavens, and it was by far the most populated guild in the game.


    The NPCs to watch out for was a Selanir from the High elves, Morrison and Vila from two different human kingdoms, Krka from the dark elves, and Onork from the barbarians. But funny thing about this people is that, none of them were full members of the race, all of them were hybrids, or some off shoot of the original race. Making it quite difficult to gauge their skills, and they were powerful, each in their own right.


    But either way, the battles were coming to an end, and I was sure that it would now be time for me to return back to my cell. As for the other fighters in my waiting area, they were all gone. I find it hard to believe that I was the only player around, but in lost Descendants, there''s no way to differentiate if someone was a player or an NPC. The NPCs only difference was the ability to give quests, and the easier way to recognize them would be from observing them and seeing how at home they are in the game. Either way, I think all of my other fellow captors were NPCs, and they were all unequivocally dead.


    It''s hard to believe, that not one of them could have survived, but still it was the obvious truth. The people placed in this waiting area were all supposed to be cannon fodder. They just didn''t expect me to be so deviant and different. The very thought was somewhat depressing, but there was nothing I could do about it. Any way, I guess you could say I made my peace with that.


    [Alert! You have been challenged by Qitar Sun Captain Of The Golden Vines Of Patmos. Accept challenge YES/NO]


    There''s bound to be vindictive action against me, not after I splattered their national champions head like a melon. But I was happy for the challenge, I really didn''t like this guys, and I couldn''t waste too much time worrying about who I fought against. As far as the Patmosians go, I was confident, because according to the announcer the person I killed was their number one. But underestimating them would also be stupid, this was a game so real that it was like being in an alternate reality. There''s always the unexpected to be expected.


    "I accept the challenge."


    [confirmed. Battle has been slotted as the final battle for the day. It begins in Fifteen minutes.]


    The Patmosians had good marketing strategies, that much I could give them. I was in the first fight with their number one champion, and I ruthlessly decimated him. Now they placed me in the final fight with another of their talents, making it so, that they could regain their lost honor and respect. A battle to redeem themselves, and punish me for my transgressions. Some would say it was petty, but I say it''s tactics; because this puts the focus of the entire competition on them.


    They were working an angle and creating a story to make the match more riveting and exciting, it was just like professional wrestling. With a story behind this fight, there''s going to be more gamblers and watchers, giving them higher ratings, and making them a boat load of money.


    So just to be safe I made bets. I had a sort of account opened up for me since I won, and then I opened the gambling panel. There were three gambling tables, one was a general betting pool; where money was used, the other was between the candidates and fighters in the trial where battle points were used.


    And the final pool was exclusively limited to the sponsors and higher powers like the guilds and kingdoms etc. What they used in betting was resources, and it was not limited to manpower, weapons, fleets, for both on world battles, and off world battles. Rare magical treasures, lands, vassal kingdoms, and even political and trade alliances. Those were the big dogs.


    I placed 15 battle points in the fighter''s betting pool, and placed all of my money in the general pool. The Patmosians outnumbered every visitor here a hundred to one, and I was hoping that they were all quite patriotic and believed their new fighter could kick my ass. Which means I win a whole lot of money when I do win. Was I beings arrogant and overconfident...¡­.yes I was.Because I knew, I could not afford to loose.

 20 The Island Of Patmos VII : Qitar

    I didn''t have much time left until my fight, so I took the healing potion, and all four bottles of bone hardening potion. At first it was the terrible taste, then came the intense pain as my wings were mended, and the bones in my body and wings became stronger. Though I''m not sure to what degree, I think it had to be strong enough to not break just as easily as before. I had two minutes left, and I spent that time to check out my competition. I was fighting a woman, and she''s a Marksman just like me, or to be more precise a sniper.


    She''s had a single battle, and her mastery over her sniper rifle was unorthodox and insane. She never stays in a single spot, and was so agile and flexible that she could even use her sniper rifle as a sword and shield.


    It''s like she was trained to be a close quarters combatant, and her gun was the weapon of choice for it. Either way, I was ready, I''ve not exactly learnt my new skills, and that would probably be because I don''t know how. It was embarrassing but, Lost Descendants online had a perfect mesh of fantasy and sci fi elements.


    But it no longer had skill books, rather tiny disk like cases were given, with the skill name on it. I had no idea how to use them, which means I have to rely on what I already have, but there was no problem with that, I was more familiar with my old skills anyway.


    When the time came, I made my way to the gate that led to the arena and went through it. There was a shimmer of light and I came up to the arena where I had fought and killed Maurice. My opponent was on the other side, and it was obvious from the way she was armored, that she has better gear than me. This would be harder than I expected. I bent my head down and looked at the grey wooden bow in my hands and inspected it.


    [Elven Longbow of Theran''ur''mekir Iron wood./GRADE: EARTH/ HIDDEN GRADE: NONE]


    [+45% arrow speed and pierce, +25% Power + 30 damage. + 15% wind element damage]


    [Skill (I): Wind Mark: For every arrow fired, the speed of the subsequent arrow will increase by 10% for a maximum of 10 stacks.]


    Equipment in Lost Descendants are divided into grades, and regardless of your level, you can use any weapon from any grade. Though some really special weapons have stat and skill requirements to allow usage. This bow was powerful and a very good piece of equipment. Among earth grade weapons, I would say this bow would find itself among the top players, so I really owed the elven minister a session of sincere thanks and ass kissing.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, in a bid to redeem the Patmosian honor; that had been so brutally lost to the hands of the dark horse known as seven. The captain of Zebedee''s own golden vines; Qitar has challenged and hopes to defeat seven to get back that honor. It would be a tough fight, but what many don''t know is that Maurice was trained as a fighter by Qitar''s own father, the two of them grew up together, fought together and were the best friends. Until the phenomenon that is Seven burst into the scene. This has now become personal, and talented as he may be, can seven withstand or even defeat Qitar the ferocious, an expert stronger, and faster than Maurice the butcher. Let it begin."


    BAAANG!


    It more to instinct than skill that I was able to duck down as a bullet flew over my head. She was fast, way faster than me. But this fight would not be won with just speed. She lifted her gun up to her shoulder, the five foot long and ten inch wide sniper rifle coming to life as she pointed it straight at my face.


    The same green glow that I had noticed from Maurice''s axe was seen, I flapped my wings and took a small jump, and in response she raised her gun up in the air too.


    I couldn''t help laughing at her a bit. Everything she''s done so far, has been a replay of my fight with Maurice, and she was either trying to humiliate me,by having me use the same kind of moves I made during that fight. That way if she won, then it would to be to my great shame, and her glory. She was smart, very smart, and also very skillful too. But that did not change one very important fact, and it was that she was a crafty, vindictive green lady who knew how to plot her revenge in an extravagant way.


    She noticed that I had only baited her, and then she brought her gun down to face it at my incoming form. Even though she was armored, she was not wearing a helmet, only an optical device on her left eye. She closed her right eye, and that was all the warning I needed.


    I pulled out three arrows, put two in my mouth, nocked the last one and went down in a base ball slide, and just in time, as a green beam of light flew over my head with an electrical hum.


    There was a smell of ozone, burnt hair and the feeling of scalded skin, I was like seven inches under the beam, yet a few strands of my silver hair and some of my skin was burnt off. But the pain was just fleeting, I''ve learnt to deal with it during my time in the army.


    I let the arrow fly, with a better bow, it''s speed was comparable or even superior to when I used shoot with an ordinary common bow. And this was just a warning shot, not even followed with a skill. She brought her gun down, and deflected the arrow away, but by then the second one was already on it''s way.


    She crossed her gun and intercepted the arrow, and turned her body sideways as the third arrow went past her face, taking off a few strands of her black hair and slicing a thin line on her forehead that trickled with tiny amounts of green blood.


    I nocked another arrow as she whipped her gun at my face. No one was moving yet, we were just watching, waiting and anticipating the each other''s move. She was waiting for me to make mine, and I was waiting for her to make hers.


    A battle of attrition and patience, who would cave first. Neither one of us could close our eyes, as we focused on each other, and curse this game for how realistic it was, I could actually feel my eyes beginning to water and my vision blur.


    So far I had kept my wings close to my body to make myself less of a target. But now, I released a little bit of my right wing from my back, letting the edge of it feathers poke out of my side and then.


    BAANG!


    Damn she works fast, but she took the bait. Though she was not as stupid as her dead friend. I moved my self sideways and moved back, using my wings in a way that''s too hard to describe to drag myself back.


    That''s when I released the fourth arrow, and she deflected this one too, but barely as it glanced off the shoulders of armor, letting out a shower of sparks in protest. Her gun glowed silver at the tip, and my eyes narrowed to a pin prick. I knew that move, that was the animation for homing Shot!


    I picked up the fifth arrow nocked it and released it too, using homing shot too, and setting it''s target for the bullet aiming at me. Qitar fired almost at the same time as I did, her bullet a silver streak flying towards me, but my arrow moved to intercept, slamming into the bullet as both ammunitions exploded into a cloud of sliver fire. She let off more shots, but I had already jumped up high, and pulled the bow back for the sixth shot.


    The skill of the bow was a passive, and it would stack with all of the speed and other bonus that was already active.By now, my entire attack speed with the arrow would increase by 95%. What came next was not pretty. I fired my bow, and the arrow streaked across the arena with a whoosh. She blocked it again, but she was incapable of holding her self steady as it pushed her backwards a few steps, throwingher off her game.


    And that was all I needed to finish it as I nocked the seventh arrow, and used shoot. At first I aimed it at her head, it was the most undefended part of her body, which means a hit would kill her, but I change my mind at the last second and shot at her right arm instead.


    It was like a beam of blue light tore through her hand. It just wasn''t her who couldn''t see it, but me also. And then came the screams, it was grating, and painful. To be honest it made me feel bad. But this was a fight to the death, showing mercy to your enemies was foolish.


    I walked up to her as she clutched the stump that was her right hand, and tears flowed down her face. She looked up at me defiantly, almost as if she was challenging me, telling me she wouldn''t die with her head down. I squatted down, so that my face was level with hers and said.


    "Forfeit."


    "What?" she asked back confused.


    "I said you should forfeit. That way you can get your arm fixed up quickly." I explained to her.


    "Who do you think you are? Do you think you would make me throw away my respect and my honor,the expectations of my people. Aren''t you done humiliating us!" she shouted at me. And then I got mad.


    "Are you stupid or something! Your people humiliated me! I was running for my life and came here for help. What the fuck did your people do? You guys locked me up and took my friend away. You took my elephant away, a battle beast that''s bonded to me, to raise her as a brood mare so that your people can have powerful sentient weapons. Fuck you and your self righteous honor, is it worth it to die for people who lie and are not straight forward. They sent me to this place to die! Was I supposed to let that happen. (Sigh) please don''t let any more blood be on my hands. I''m fighting just so that I can get my friend back and get the hell out of here. I don''t care about this trial, all I want is to get Sky back."


    She was silent, I bet she didn''t expect such an outburst from me. To be honest I didn''t expect it either. She clutched at her wound and looked as if she was not so sure about what choice to make. Just before the fight I checked up on the rules, someone could forfeit a match if they want too, but since it''s a death match, the person would have to leave a limb behind to appease his or her opponent. It was a rather brutal rule, but in this case it worked well for me.


    "I understand how you feel; you chose to fight me because of your friend, well that''s the reason why I''m also fighting. So that I can get the chance to find and be reunited with my friend. I''m sure your friend wouldn''t want you to die here, and definitely not at the hands of his killer. How else are you going to get revenge if you die?" I said to her.


    "You''re going to let me have revenge against you? Is there something wrong with your head?" She asked me.


    "Sure why not, that way I can beat you again. Though I can''t promise I would be this forgiving the next time we fight. But I''m sure it would be quite a challenge, and more honorable than fighting for other people''s amusement. Please Qitar, do right by yourself, it''s the only way to do right by your people. You''re the captain of the golden Vine, whatever that is, and I''m sure your people look up to you. It would hurt for them to loose two of their heroes in the same day and to the same person. There''s a better choice here, so take it."


    She looked up at me and sighed. Then raised her head to look at me. All the while saying.


    "I forfeit."


    Both gates on the opposite end of the arena lit up, and team of doctors came running out from the gate Qitar had come out of. At least I think they were doctors, because they were just wearing green dresses, had flower bands around their head, wrists and ankles. And they floated off the ground too. I got up to leave, but Qitar clutched at me with her left arm.


    "Our story is not over yet Seven, I''ll come find you soon enough." She said to me.


    "Hahahaha, Qitar I''ll be expecting you. I believe our paths will cross again. And as an added incentive, to make it easier for you, I''ll tell you my name. It''s Aaren, don''t forget it beautiful."


    And then I turned and left the arena, feeling all too good about myself. I was given a 20 battle points, and nothing else. Seems like my sponsors are not happy I spared her, or something. Though I don''t get this tree, it seems to be sentient, but entirely aloof to everything that''s been happening. Oh well, I''m not worried about it anyway.


    I was led back to my cell, and unceremoniously thrown in by the guard that escorted me (the jerk!) But either way I was tired. I came, I saw and I conquered, now I''m going to log out. I have yoga in the morning with my son, don''t want to be late.

 21 The Secret Of Aarons Birth & Rons Autism

    The morning air was crisp and smooth, and a walk around the garden was in order. At first I thought it was just going to be me and Ron; enjoying the sunshine and deepening our father and son bond.


    But then I realized I now had almost a dozen people now living on the manor grounds. And they had all come over during the night, or probably when I was in the game.


    I had three groundskeeper, all three being a trio of Italian brothers, three maids, one Chinese, one Japanese, and one Russian. You see where I''m going with this? I had a very sexy looking Mexican butler in his late forties to early fifties. Not that I cared that he looked sexy, I just had to appreciate that he was a well made specimen.


    And then I had two bodyguards/drivers,both being women. Twins actually, and both were Americans. I needed an explanation from Nanny Florence, because while she did say she was going to get new employees, the amount of people strutting around the house was a little unsettling to say the least, and it was making me nervous. Ron on the other hand seemed happy that there were new faces around, he''s been running around the house with the maids in tow.


    "Don''t be too alarmed master Kael, this are our people." Nanny Florence said to me, as she came up from behind me, while I was watching the garden.


    "I don''t understand what you mean by our people?" I asked her.


    "They have been trained from young, using resources of the Wade family. The only reasons they have not been around, is because they were each assigned to different places, or crime families to learn from them. There''s a private training facility and housing estate for the retainers of the Wade family just outside the San Francisco bay, or to be more precise, the facility is under it. It''s a mobile base that moves around the world, completely invisible to the eyes and ears of other organization or the government. That''s where all our soldiers are hidden, and much of the remaining families soldiers are also stationed there."


    "Okay I understand us having a secret underwater base that moves around the planet to avoid detection, but why would the members of other crime families be there?"


    "Because that''s what we do. We train their soldiers, and we provide their technology. Of course we don''t deal in weapons, we never had and never will." She said to me, almost as if she was warning me.


    "But if we''re not selling weapons, what do we have that they would be tied so closely to us. It doesn''t make any sense that we could be of any importance to crime families, when all we do was train their men, and give them a more expensive microwave?" I asked her confused.


    "Good! You''re asking the right questions and going straight to the point, that''s a mark of a leader. Do you know that cocaine, heroin, and much of the hard drugs of the last century has become obsolete and rendered completely useless."


    "I know that. The government couldn''t stop yapping about it, and I was only six years old then. Apparently they had won the war on drugs, and completely cleaned earth of it''s influence. That''s until four months later a new kind of drug invaded the market, taking the monopoly and cementing itself as the number 1 and only drug being pushed around. Wait...¡­don''t tell me we...."


    She didn''t even let me finish my sentence before she cut me off. Though to be honest I didn''t really mind. My head was so full at the moment, and with the bombardment of one massive secret after another, I didn''t know how much of this I could handle anymore.


    "The Bacchus Nectar was your grandfather''s solution to a planet with no drugs. There''s no long term side effects or health danger in using it. Addiction was still very much a possibility, but it is practically the safest drug ever invented.


    The government tried to crack down on it too, but considering it was your grandfather who gave them the means to end the drug trade of the old world, I''ll say he was pretty untouchable.


    The Bacchus Nectar is more than just a drug that induces a high and causes delightful hallucinations: it''s also a military grade body enhancement serum, that can increase the strength, speed, and resilience of any body from 1 to a 100 in a second.


    There are stronger versions of the drug being sold to the military and the governments of other countries who use it to train their soldiers for advanced combat both on world, and off world.


    And yes; you might think this is also a weapon, but there''s a different view point to it. The Bacchus Nectar drives people almost insane with a high a 100 times more intense than adrenaline, but it only last for ten minutes, and within that ten minutes, great feats of strength can be displayed.


    But the drug never truly leaves a persons system, as the cells, and tissues integrate with the drug, helping them build a resistance to it, and giving them stronger immune systems, bones, and organs etc. For now, such advancements can not really be shown or seen in the bodies of people who take the nectar, but their children on the other hand, are a different matter all together. And I have proof of that, two in fact!"


    Mind blown? Check, completely freaked out....still a work in progress. At this point nothing she says would surprise me anymore. It''s not as if she''s been keeping secrets, but the nature of those secrets cant; allow them to be spoke all at once. Which was why she was exposing everything to me, when it came up and was required.


    "Both your father and mother had been addicts to the Bacchus Nectar in their younger years. You could say they were the first test subjects.


    They had broken into one of your grandfather''s secret pharmaceutical lab in Wyoming, apparently your father being the brash teenager that he was, wanted to be rebellious and put your grandfather in his place.


    They both ended up driving away with a truck full of the nectar, and burning the rest to the ground, almost compromising years of hard work and research. Then they went on a month long drive around the country, drinking, partying, and doing what typical teenagers high on experimental biological enhancement drugs did.


    We found them, put them both in rehab, and then they went their separate ways. Seven years later they met at a party and seemed to rekindle their old spark, and even began working together on different Imperium projects. Almost a year and a half later you were born.


    You were stronger than most kids your age, smarter, faster. You took to martial arts like a fish to water, and you have one of the most strategic minds I''ve ever seen. But you have a sort of learning disorder, and can not for the life of anything, tell me what 1+1 is. Arts, political maneuvering, planning operations, battle executions and martial arts are things you''re good at. Your brain is hard wired for arts and practical skill applications. But subjects like physics, biology, chemistry and mathematics are completely out of your reach, but not for your son."


    I looked up at her shocked, I mean I just found out I''m super human(in a manner of speaking), but the knowledge that my son might be even more super than me, made me feel weird, and guilty.


    "He''s three years old, yet he''s solving mathematical equations an eleven year old will understand. When doctor Burton arrived; the last time you fed him ice cream, we discovered a whole lot of amazing things. Your son''s metabolism rate is insane, at his age he could eat three times as much as a child his size should be able too, uses a full 10% of his brain capacity, and have bones and organs ten times denser than an average human. If you''re a sign of wonder, then your son is a miracle. But just like you, it seems children born from parents whose body has been affected by the Bacchus Nectar would have some sort of mental disorder."


    I felt my heart skip a beat. Even in the 22nd century, mental illnesses were still the most feared, (apart from sexually transmitted diseases) and I really hoped that whatever it is, my baby had, that it wouldn''t put his life in danger, because I don''t think I''ll ever be able to forgive myself if that ever happened.


    "Young Master Aaron is autistic. Not bad enough that it would affect his relationship with other people, and not good enough either. He could spend hours lost in a world of his own, totally unresponsive to stimuli or any other person around him. Doctor Burton is looking into ''options'' that would make his life a lot more easier. I''m sorry Master Aaron, I truly am. But know that its not your fault, this could have happened to anyone."


    I swallowed the lump in my throat and asked her.


    "Does Kira know.....have you told her yet?"


    "You''re his father, So Ibelieve that responsibility would fall to you. Should I invite her for dinner?" Nanny Florence asked me. I gave her a smile and nodded my head.


    "But after this, what''s next?"


    I asked her a little confused and unsure of myself, given everything that''s happened and has been revealed, it''s a wonder why I''m still here. The old me would have turned tail and ran by now, because that''s what I did the most in my life, I ran away.


    "Well today''s Wednesday. There''s not going to be any crucial change in our lives till Monday. And young master Aaron is well taken care of and protected. So I guess the best thing for you to do now, would be to place your sole focus on the game. There''s a tournament going on, and you should use a less obvious name than Aaren. The whole world saw that, and people with smarter skulls would know who you are if word gets out that your playing Lost Descendants online. Most of them might not be sure, because any number of people can have their name be Aaren. So stick with seven, and try to cruise under the radar, if possible lose the tournament and have the world forget about you for a while. Then use the alias 7,that should work better for you."


    I just nodded my head. I didn''t tell her that I couldn''t afford to loose the trial, I should''ve, but I was a little overwhelmed.


    I knew of my learning deficiency, and I made my peace with it. I never knew it came about as a side effect to my parents being addicted to drugs.


    Now I find out, that because of that same drug my learning deficiency was actually a mental illness of sorts, and I''ve transferred that same sickness to my son. It meant I was already a bad father before he was even born.


    I spent the rest of the day moping and spending as much time as I could with Ron. Kira couldn''t make it to dinner because she had something come up with her family: so she postponed the dinner for a later date.


    So after the dinner I pushed my focus to researching what I could about the changes in Lost Descendants online. I found out that skills were now placed in devices called memory disks, but for the sake of functionality they''re called skill disks.


    It was a modern upgrade from the traditional and fantasy like skill books, and it uses were quite varied as a skill disk does not loose the skill it holds after someone has learnt it. Instead it would retain the skill, and other players and NPCs could learn from it, over and over again.


    This way guilds would have really powerful skills circulate around their players, giving everyone equal chances to use legendary skills. But it''s also been discovered that, skills no longer had grades; before the update skills were given grades by order of their rarity and power, but now all skills had equal potential to be legendary or even divine as long as a player is willing to train and use it.


    But those were just some of the lesser known changes, more notable changes included the fact that: NPCs could now create guilds, factions, mercenary groups and parties of their own, and could also just as easily join the organizations created by players. So in a nutshell players were no longer just contesting against each other, but also against the NPCs.


    In that regard the ranking lists that had the players with highest level, power, guild, equipment etc. Has been scraped. Now the only list there, was the list of the most powerful individual on ''the current planet''. And that list doesn''t open up till the first player gets to level 30.


    And a list of the most powerful individuals in the galaxy, wouldn''t be available until there''s a player at level 50. And finally there''s a final ranking list of the most power individuals universally, and it won''t be available until at least 600 players are at level 85. And all of these lists, have both players and NPCs equally listed on it.


    If there was any fact needed to prove that Lost Descendants online was a living world or universe of its own, then this was it. Finding this out, made me rethink my approach about how I would go about ''living'' in this game. I needed to be strong, but I realize that I needed more than just an individual strength.


    Before the update there was a secret and elite ranking list that showed the most powerful players, and they were ranked not by individual power alone, but by the strength of the forces, connections and allies behind them. To live in this new world alone, is a recipe for mediocrity and weakness.


    I think I don''t need to just win the knockout stage of the trial of Revelations, I had to aim for the very top...¡­..I had to win everything.

 22 The Island Of Patmos VIII : Next Figh

    When I logged in I was not in my cell, but rather my cubicle in the waiting area. I looked up and discovered that a Patmosian guard was standing watch over me. As soon ad he saw that I was awake, he turned and left, without saying a single thing.


    It hit me a moment later, that since I was logged off, my avatar would have been just a lifeless body that they had to carry around. I was left defenseless within a city of hostiles, that was stupid, but I didn''t really have a choice. I still had twenty battle points from wining my last fight, and a whooping 1211 from the betting pool. And as if that was not enough, I had 10.202 million gold dollars from the general betting pool.


    I was rich, but that was not the end of it. I made 10 million by putting up my previous 80 thousand, but the gambling company or whatever was in charge of the gambling paid me 25 million gold dollars, as a ten percent cut for winning my match and winning them a lot of money.


    It made me realize quite a few things, one: Patmosians are very rich, really rich! I deduced that they would be the ones betting against me the most, and because of patriotism or something, they would be betting a lot and banking on Qitar to defeat me. They must have been really sure of her strength, and she would have beaten me if not for the bow given to me by the elven minister. Two: fighting and gambling seems to be quite a lucrative business, which is why it was probably endorsed and accepted by the governing bodies of lost Descendants online.


    But now the problem seems to be that, I have no idea what to do with this much money. Which was why I pushed that dilemma aside and chose to focus on pressing matters. I bought the skill Nature Heal and Wind Stride: wings, completing the arsenal of skills I felt I needed at the moment. After my research I learnt that skills were learnt by placing them against the forehead for a few moments, and the memory disks would transfer knowledge of the skill straight into the mind of my Avatar.


    It wasn''t exactly a pleasant experience for me, learning five skills in a row sort of made me feel a little woozy, but at least I was okay. With the learning of the skills taken care of, I felt the need to allocate a few stat and skill points, just to be prepared. At the moment I had 18 stat points and 11 skill points. I was still stockpiling, so instead spending everything, I raised the level of all new skills by 1. Though in the long run I don''t think it mattered, because I realized that skills only had qualitative changes to their power at level 5. But even then, this was better than nothing.


    I allocated 2 stat points to each of my stats, without a class I was going in blind here, though I felt that there was no reason to be too worried about it. I''ve been doing fine without classes so far. With these preparations done, I checked my status.


    Name: Aaren/ Level: 20(35.472.480/104.857.600)/Class: N/A


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker


    Attack: 22/Defense: 17/Speed: 22/Magic: 27


    Hp 34/34(300)MP 54/54


    Stat points:10Skill points:6


    Passive skills:


    ?	Nature buff (level 1) basic + 2% to all nature oriented skills, spells, or tasks.


    ?	Wind child(level 4) basic. +5% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 3) basic. +2% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 5) basic. +10% to aim when in motion, +15% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Heal(level 2)basic. +15% to HP and MP regeneration around things of nature like forests, seas, or even simple plants. /Active Activation: Heals 15% of HP and MP by drawing essence from nature. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 45 seconds)


    Active skills:


    ?	Shoot(level 6) basic. +10% damage and speed for projectile weapons. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Glide(level 1) basic. Glide in the air for 15 seconds. + 5% to speed during flight. (Cost 20 MP) (cool down 40 seconds)


    ?	Hard punch(level 6) basic. Hit your opponent for 80% extra of your total attack. Speed +10% during skill.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Homing Shot(level 3) basic. Chase and attack any target in sight with projectiles. +15% damage within a radius of 25 meters.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Vacuum Palm (level 3) basic. Hit Targets with a wind element Palm attack. +20% damage and knock back effect. 5% chance to confuse opponents. (Cost 7 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Wind Stride: Wings(level 2 ) basic. Use the power of wind to increase movement speed by 100% for 10 seconds. (Cost 15 MP) (cool down 35 seconds)


    ?	Wind School: Lightening Coat(level 2 ) basic: use the power of lightening and wind to cover your body, increases defense against magical attacks by 10%,defense against physical attacks by 12% and increase speed by 40%. (Cost 25 MP) (Cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 2) basic. Summon an arrow of pure mana to cause 20% magical and physical damage in a range of 15 meters. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Mana Slash(level 2) basic.Coat a bladed weapon with mana an attack for +25% magical and physical damage. Has a 15% chance to ignore magical and physical defense. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 10 seconds)


    Augmented racial trait:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    I felt that maybe I could buy a new armor or something, but I was not really feeling the need to get a new one. So far I''ve been doing good with the old one, and going on a spending spree was not my style. I had to plan my expenditure and allocate my funds properly. Who knows what might come up in the future, and I suddenly find my self in need of money. So barring that, I checked my account balance, to see how much money I currently owned.


    ?	GOLDEN TREE BANK OF NEW GAIA


    ?	CUSTOMER: AAREN/7


    ?	RACE: TRIBRID DRAGON KIN


    ?	ACCOUNT BALANCE: 35.282 (MILLION ) GOLDEN DOLLARS/0 SILVER DOLLARS/ 0 BRONZE DOLLARS


    ?	CURRENT DEBTS: NONE


    ?	ASSETS: NONE


    After I checked my balance with the hologram in the cubicle, the metal grate beside me opened up, and a fancy looking wristband with a golden color scheme and silver highlights was thrust at me. It took me a whole of ten minutes to figure out what it was, and that was because there were a lot of numbers in it. I realized later on that it was like an identification card, but also a credit card, a drivers license, and watch that told the time and my location.


    I felt stupid and could only blame my intense hate for numbers,we had something like this in the real world. It''s quite shocking that I didn''t get what it was the moment I saw it. But there was no need dwelling on that, I had to keep my focus and get this damn thing over with.


    I opened the challenge panel to see if there was anyone I could challenge, that was a mistake. There was not going to be a problem with searching for people to challenge, because it seems like at the moment, everyone, was challenging me.


    It took me a while to sort through the lists of challengers, before settling on my third opponent.He''s or it, considering this species did not have any confirmed male or female gender. But for the sake of functionality I''ll say he''s a he. My next opponent was Perivocle. An aquatic humanoid species with spiral coral shells on their back, and hair made of tentacles that ended with a bright glowing luminescent ball sack.


    Not much was known about this species: apparently they were reclusive, and hardly ever came out of their underwater coral cities. This Perivocle is a water mage, and his name...¡­..was just to insane for me to pronounce, so I''ll call him what everyone else was calling him, and that was Shell.


    I accepted his challenge, and almost immediately we were slotted to have a battle in two minutes. It was quite hurried, but I had no problem with that. I''m sure that by now, nobody would be underestimating me, which meant people would be betting for me rather than against me. So joining a betting pool this time doesn''t seem to plausible, though just to be safe, I''ll place 50 battle points in the fighters betting pool, and a 100 thousand in the general betting pool. Let''s get this part started, the sooner I finish with this tournament, the faster I can get my overpowered weapon/pet back from this annoying Patmosians. Time to dance with a crustacean jelly fish man, what could go wrong.

 23 The Island Of Patmos IX : The Telekinetic

    What could possibly go wrong? How about everything. I had barely stepped out of the gate when my opponents tentacles/hair started glowing. What happened next was me being lifted into the air by and invisible pressure, and slammed right back on the ground.


    I was under the impression that the Perivocle was a water mage. And for the most part that was true, but it seems like the race was also capable of telekinesis. There was a lack of information about my opponent''s race in the first place, so this was probably as much a surprise to everyone watching as it was to me. The only thing that really annoyed me was that it had to come at my expense.


    The moment he first slammed me on the ground, I was so rattled and dazed that I lost my grip over my bow. A huge -50HP floated across my face. It was funny really, given the level of realism this game had, the idea that Hp values would still be shown was weird. But that was not something to worry about at the moment.


    My opponent''s telekinesis locked any and all movements of my body, I couldn''t do anything but be held suspended in the air as he brought me down face first to concrete below me.


    BANG! CRUNCH!


    Whether it was my nose or my skull that cracked I wasn''t really sure; the only thing definite was that, I was hurt really bad. I felt the pressure holding me falter a bit, and I dropped down from the air. The pressure came back again, but this time it''s hold was just on my ankle. Dazed as I was at the moment, I realized that my opponent was probably tired.


    Telekinesis was not a simple ability to have, especially since the brain was not like ordinary muscles. As long as you were awake, even when you''re sleeping, there''s always a strain on your brain due to the amount of work it has to do.


    Lifting a person of my weight, completely locking my movements, and moving me up and down had to be like bench pressing. The strain would be too much, so the most viable option would be to reduce the weight and pressure.


    I felt a hold on my ankles as I was turned upside down. Apparently this guy wanted to drop me on my head. And doing so from ten meters above the ground, especially with the inertia from his telekinetic pull, was sure to kill me. The only mistake he made was thinking I was still out of it, and leaving my hands free.


    I whipped out my revolver and fired off a shot. Since I was still using a common gun, the damage was not that strong, and neither was it''s speed good enough. But it did exactly what I wanted it to do.


    Shell created a shield of ice that intercepted the bullet. But he lost concentration and I was released from his telekinetic hold. Hiding behind a shield would give him time to come up with a plan, but since he can''t see me, I''m banking on him not being able to use his telekinesis.


    But I rather not take any chances. My bow was to far away for me to grab, and any number of things could go wrong before I got to it. So I used homing shot. Simple as this skill seemed, it could do some really amazing things when you put your mind to it. The bullet I fired curved around the ice shield, and slammed into Shell''s shoulder.


    There was a muffled yell, and almost immediately the ice shield exploded into numerous pieces that shaped themselves into tiny ice spikes, and came flying towards me.


    I unfurled my wings and flapped as hard as I could, taking to the air as I fired two more shots point blank on shell''s body. The damage he receive was almost negligible, but the pain was not. The two shots had him hunched over as he clutched his midsection, I couldn''t help but muse that his build was that of a typical mage. They had absolutely crappy defense and close combat skill, the only reason he was still alive was because the gun was not good enough.


    Suddenly he jerked up, eyes glowing and the tip of his tentacle began emitting undulating pulse waves that I could actually see! I felt him yank the gun out of my grasp and squeezed it into a chunk of steel. I didn''t wait to see what happened next as I activated wind stride and shot towards.


    My wings began to vibrate, and like the exhaust of a car when a nitro boost has been used, my wings released a stream of visible wind fumes as I picked up speed and drew closer to Shell. As a precaution I fired off a mana Arrow, only for it to bounce of some sort of invisible energy shield that was close to Shell''s body.


    However I noticed something peculiar. The mana arrow actually pierced through the shield a bit before it was thrown backwards, leading me to the assumption that mental skills, like telekinesis and telepathy were weak against magical attacks. Luckily for me, I had two such skills.


    But Shell was not standing ideal either, as he began to wave his hand, sending telekinetic or some sort of psionic blasts at me. I flapped my wings and dodged left, twirling just in time to feel another one of those blast graze the edge of my nose. It was then that I realized that I was actually flying, really flying! Not relying on my glide skill to do it. Which would probably explain why I was feeling a mild ache from between my shoulder blades.


    I used Glide, and flew around the edge of the ring, moving fast enough and just ahead that all the psionic blasts flew into the darkness behind me. I kept a close watch on my opponent, hoping that this super powered mode of his had a very short duration.


    My assumption was correct, barely five seconds later his breath hitched and his tentacles lost their glow. Almost at the same time both my glide and wind stride skill came to an end, but I banked left sharply, heading straight for him. He seemed startled by the sudden action as it seemed as if I wanted to make this a close quarters combat scenario. And as a marksmangoing up against a mage, it would have been suicide.


    Mages were not good at close quarters combat and had a very poor defense. But that didn''t mean they were completely helpless, but long range fighters like rangers, archers, and marksman had a zero close combat skill, unless they had a class that allowed for versatility.


    This Perivocle was underestimating me, because if he wasn''t, he would have realized that there was a sword hanging on my back.


    As I got closer to him, he summoned his ice shield again to protect himself while he regains his strength for the next round of our battle. The ice shield his time was different, as instead of a shield, he was covered by a dome. But I don''t think that would help him either.


    "Mana Slash!"


    Calling out the name of the skill was not really necessary, but it felt really good to do so. I pulled the sword from my back and slashed it''s glowing blue form at the dome in one movement. But I didn''t feel the sword go through anything at all.


    The dome was still in front of me, though the Perivocle was eerily silent. Suddenly there was a light crackling sound, and I stepped back a bit, crossing the sword across my chest in a defensive position. Then the dome seemed to developed a hairline crack right at the middle, then it fell apart, like two halves of a coconut, sliced open.


    And the Perivocle looked at me with startled eyes, before blood began to seep from the middle of his forehead, and then his body fell to the right and left, both halves split evenly.


    The sight of his dead body was too bloody, even for me. But this was the cost of victory, I just consoled myself and reminded my mind that even though I had to live in this world, it was still just a game. And what I had just killed was not really a real person, but ones and zeroes.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, once again the phenomenon that is seven has triumphed over his opponent. In a very impressive third victory, one has to wonder, can he make it all the way to the very end? Or will he fall during his next fight!"


    I didn''t really pay attention to what the announcer was saying. I picked my bow up, and went out of the arena and back to the waiting area. Ignoring the system message that told me I had slain someone and rewards would be deferred until after the knock out stage, I purchased a healing potion with my battle points, and a fifty slot inventory bag.


    I needed something to carry my equipment as lugging them around seemed really uncomfortable. I placed the skill disks inside of it, along with the old bow, before paying attention to the message flashing on the hologram.


    [Your have received 200 battle points from your sponsor the elven minister, and one royal elven sword of wind blessed mythril.]


    [You have received 500 battle points from your sponsor the tree of Revelations, and one battle suit of draconic prophecies.]


    [The Patmosian royal family has withdrawn the sponsorship!]


    [You have gained three new sponsors. (1) The Organization Shade has sponsored you. You have been given 50 battle points, and the skill disk Stealth. (2) The Church Of Adonai has sponsored you. You have been given 200 battle points, the skill disk purify, and the accessory holy Ring of protection. (3) The Guild Jupiter Council has sponsored you. You have been given 20 battle points, and a guild invite.]


    The guild invite was rejected, but it was sent along with a message. I told the Jupiter Council that I wanted to travel solo for a while, and when the time comes and I feel the need to join a guild, they will be my first choice. I also thanked them for the sponsorship. There was no need not to be polite, but they withdrew their sponsorship a minute after the message was sent. I guess they didn''t do well with rejection.


    The Patmosian royal family withdrawing their sponsorship did not come as a surprise to me, I was shocked they waited till now to do it. My connection with the elven minister and tree seemed to be going strong, and now there was a church included. I''m not that religious, my mother raised me to believe in a higher power of sorts, a god that''s watched out for me and blessed me when I prayed. We just didn''t do other things like go to church, pay tithes or anything that could come off as fanatical.


    My mother was a scientist that believed in God. As a way to honor I did too, so receiving a sponsorship from a church was okay. Hopefully they don''t turn out like the church of 15 to 18 hundreds on earth. Those guys were scary, I mean come on! They burnt women under the premise that they were witches. The world I lived in now, accepted women like that.


    Anyway, back to business. Winning my fight got me an extra 60 battle points, and 14 thousand gold dollars. Apparently not everyone bet against me this round. So in a nutshell I was wealthy enough to buy my way out of this competition if I wanted too. But I wouldn''t do that.


    No matter what, I had to finish the knockout round today! Which means, I''ll be goingfor my fourth and fifth fight. I refreshed the list of challengers, and was quite shocked to see it had reduced to a measly 11. Seems people were beginning to see me as a threat, and no longer had confidence in facing me.


    I picked my fourth opponent, a dwarf like man, without ear lobes and a slitted nose with pink tentacle like whiskers. His skin was a healthy shade of pink, and he had really large hands and feet, each ending with finger nails the size of throwing knives and glinting like sharpened steel. This guy, was Molenhume. Simple translation; a mole man, and expectedly, an earth mage, and unexpectedly a warrior.


    Two classes, meant this guy was at a very high level, his defenses would be insane, and he was good fighting both at close quarters and at a distance. Taking a look at his previous fights, of which he has had four! Making me his last and final opponent: I discovered that he was also quite fast, in conjunction with his superior defense he was quite a challenge. But for some reason, his attack was not up to par, well the physical aspects anyway.


    He was a good fighter, but not a great one. His attacks were rigid and predictable, almost as if he lacked imagination in the ways to use his skill. He has been relying on defense to wear his opponent out, and using his control over the earth element to disturb the terrain and make it difficult for his opponent to outmaneuver him.


    This guy was not stupid, but the rigid display of skills, has let me understand that this moleman was a player using his skills in the assist mode. And to be honest he has done quite a good job, but he''s never fought anybody like me. Going through his defense would be easy, I just needed a high ground and a clear shot. Luckily for me I had wings.


    So I picked my next challenger. The moleman with the name I-Am-Supreme-On-Ground. As if I needed any other proof that this was a player.

 24 The Island Of Patmos X : I-Am-Supreme-On-Ground

    The moment the fight began, I shot towards the moleman. Running towards him with an arrow nocked in my bow. When I was just ten meters away from him, the earth beneath my feet lurched up, and threw me into the air. Almost immediately, an earth spike was also heading for my face, but I flapped my wings and moved higher into the air, and then released the arrow I had prepared.


    It flew through the air and slammed into the grey rock like helmet I Am Supreme On...¡­..fuck it! I''m just going to call him Supreme.


    A significant part of the helmet was chipped away, and his beady black eyes were exposed to the world. But almost immediately, the helmet regenerated and I was left gaping like an idiot. And then I remembered I also had an armor given to me, but I had forgotten about it in my haste to finish all my fights...¡­.I''m really stupid.


    Another spike flew towards me from the ground, stretching upwards in the form of a pillar. I banked left, and then right dodging another spike, and then flapping upward and back flipping to dodge another that flew right pastmy face.


    The spikes rose up from the ground at an incline, and as Supreme sent more and more of them at me, the ground was rapidly turning into an earth cage of sorts. But all good things must come to an end, as Supreme either ran out of Mana, or his skill was going into a cool down. Which works fine for me.


    I alighted on one of the spikes, and began to slide down it''s frame as it sloped downwards. And as I did so, I nocked another arrow and fired. The shoulder guards of his grey rock armor was cracked as my arrow lodged itself firmly in the armor''s frame.


    The speed of the second arrow was faster than the first, and the third would be faster too. This was the wind mark skill of my bow, and someone as fast as Qitar could only deflect five of it, with six and seven being direct hits. Supreme was fast, but not as fast as Qitar.


    While he was shocked by the impact of the second arrow, I had already nocked the third and released it. This time the arrow slammed into his abdomen, and by the gasp released behind his helmet, I was sure this one went in.


    Enrage he gabbed a double edged axe hanging on his back, and slammed it on the ground. A ridge of earth spikes shot out of the ground and headed in my direction with a vengeance. I moved back a few steps, but still the ridge followed, popping out more spikes in it''s attempts to catch me. I flapped my wings, in an attempt to fly over it since this earth spike ridge seemed to be a little closer to the ground. Scarcely had I gone up into the air when another earth spike suddenly appeared and speared through my foot.


    "ARGHHHHHHHHH!"


    My screams sounded desperate, even to me. I was forced to come down, forcing even more of the earth spike into my leg, enlarging the wound until it burst out the top of my foot. Supreme had a rather nasty grin on his face as he ran towards me, his axe gleaming with his nefarious intentions.


    But pain was something I was familiar with, and I was not going to let that stop me. I pulled out the fourth arrow and shot it almost immediately without stopping to aim. The fourth arrow missed, but it slowed Supreme down as he wanted to be cautious. Big mistake.


    I pulled out the fifth and fired. He swung his axe downwards to intercept, but the arrow was faster as it went past his falling axe, sticking close to it''s shaft until the arrow tip met his fingers and sliced through three of them.


    Supreme let out a yell of intense pain as he lost his grip on his axe, and backpedaled a bit in pain as red blood flowed from the stump where his missing fingers once stood. I pulled out the sixth arrow and used homing shot, sending it straight to his forehead.


    The arrow slammed into his grey helmet, splitting much of it into pieces and exposing his soft pink forehead. The helmet was rapidly degenerating, but by then it was too late. I had already nocked the seventh arrow, and used shoot to release it.


    The arrow shot out of my bow with an intense silver light, splitting the air as it went and drove right through his forehead and coming out the back of his skull. The arrow kept it''s trajectory until it went ahead an disappeared into the shimmering curtain that was the gate to the arena.


    Supreme looked shocked, and could hardly believe he had lost. This was his fifth and final battle, if he won this, he would have qualified for the next stage of the trials. But I knocked him out, and from the murderous gaze in his beady black eyes, he absolutely hated my guts.


    His body burst into a shower of light and floated up into the darkness, probably heading to the next respawn point. I pulled my sword out, and sliced the top of the spike that was holding my leg in place. Then I painfully pulled it up, blood dripping from it and rapidly pooling on the ground.


    "Ladies and gentlemen! What a sight! Just like his battle with Qitar, the phenomenon that is Seven had taken out his opponent with the seventh shot of his bow. It makes me wonder if there''s anyone who could live to see him string his eight arrow, much less shoot it. Marvelous, just marvelous. Ladies and gentlemen, winning his fourth battle, I give you Seven!"


    I hated the announcers voice, I really did. But it''s best that I don''t let that worry me. I had a wound to take care of. I hobbled my way back to my cubicle, leaving a trail of bloody foot prints in the process. I could feel myself healing, courtesy of my nature heal skill, but it was not fast enough for me.


    So I bought two health potions, a mana potion and helpful serving of Jitusat steamed ocean delight. It was fish, lot''s of it, chopped into numerous tiny pieces and glazed with a sauce that made my stomach rumble. I really wish Sky was here to enjoy this with me.


    By the time I finished eating, I was already healed up and ready for my next and final fight. However my armor had already been ruined and messed up by the constant fights, and it''s durability was really low. It was time to upgrade my equipment, because if my previous fight has taught me anything, it''s that a player''s real strength was mainly but not always determined by the kind of equipment they had on.


    [Battle Suit Of Draconic Prophecies(Full body leveling armor)/ Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: Undetermined/ Requirements: Recognition of the tree of Revelations, Draconic bloodline.]


    [+ 50% to physical strength, + 50% to movement speed, + 60% to attack, + 60% to attack speed, + 60% to defense, + 700 to health and Mana pool]


    [Skill(1). Dragon Wrath: increase all stats by 500% for 5 minutes, during skill duration, immune to all control skills, debuffs, and curses. After skill duration ends, all stats would be weakened by 100% for three hours. (Cost 450 mp) (cool down 24 hours)]


    [Devour 5 normal armors and 1 draconic armor of the earth grade to increase grade to heaven. Bound to player Aaren/7]


    What the hell! Is there something wrong with this tree or something. I couldn''t wrap my head around the fact that a tree, whose people intended to use me as a slave, who would fight to entertain them: would be so generous.


    With armor like this, as long as I was willing to keep upgrading it, I don''t think I''ll ever need to change or buy any other armor. This was plenty strong to last me the entire duration of playing this game. Though the cost of getting it stronger seems insanely expensive.


    I equipped the armor, and I had to say it was tailored for me. It was not bulky, just a battle suit that clung to my body, with metallic highlights that covered my abdomen, shoulders and my fore arm. It had boots that were a deep shade of dark blue, almost to the point of looking black. But the main attraction had to be my wings: they were completely encased and covered in a sort of soft metal that felt really comfortable to me.


    My wings were weird, dragon wings are usually all membrane, and skin, just like bats or pterodactyls. But mine was a mixture. The bones were just like those of bats, and from where they extended from my back they looked the same, stretching down with veins and all that. But midway, the skin and membrane gave way to soft grey feathers, just like those of an eagle or an angel.


    Now the battle suit completely covered my wings with a metal casing, and at the end, my feathers, were edge and sharpened. Bringing another weapon into my arsenal, and one that was deadly. Next on the agenda would be the accessory from the church of Adonai.


    [Holy Ring Of Protection(blessed item)/Grade: Mortal/ Hidden Grade: Earth/ Requirements: Acknowledgment of the church of Adonai, conversion(optional]


    [Creates an invisible halo of protection and blessing around the wearer. +10 to hidden stat luck, + 50% extra damage against undead and followers of evil. + 40% to defense against dark spells and skills of the evil alignment. Immunity against mesmerizing spells and skills.]


    Okay Hallelujah. I guess this is just telling me to dive head first against all of the bad dudes and things of this world, a real hero of the light...¡­..shit! For some reason; I feel that accepting this cross would put me in a boat load of trouble. But I was not in the habit of refusing free gifts, so I guess I''m keeping it.


    [Elven Royal Sword (Wind blessed)/ Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: none]


    [+ 60% to attack speed and damage. + 40% wind element damage]


    Well the sword didn''t seem as overpowered as the other equips, but it was ornately crafted with golden highlights, and a hole right in the middle of the blade, that stretched from the hilt, to four inches below the tip. The sword was shaped like a saber, only thinner, however both edges were sharp. One edge was curved like a falchion or Jian sword, while the other was straight like a traditional double edged long sword. It found it''s place nicely on my back.


    After my fight with Supreme I actually made 40 thousand gold dollars, it was surprising, but it seems someone or a lot of people thought supreme could beat me, well he almost did. But it''s the outcome that counts, not the way I got here.


    So far I''ve only been online for an hour, and I''ve completed two fights in record time, and I was going to go for the third one, right after I finish learning the two extra skills I got.


    1 and 2 and there! Done. It was not as unpleasant as the first time, but my brain still shook a bit. Maybe I should take a minute before my next fight, I guess a stat overview is in order.


    Name: Aaren/ Level: 20(35.472.480/104.857.600)/Class: N/A


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker


    Attack: 22/Defense: 17/Speed: 22/Magic: 27


    Hp 34/34(700)MP 54/54(700)


    Stat points:10Skill points:6


    Passive skills:


    ?	Nature buff (level 1) basic + 2% to all nature oriented skills, spells, or tasks.


    ?	Wind child(level 4) basic. +5% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 3) basic. +2% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 5) basic. +10% to aim when in motion, +15% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Heal(level 2)basic. +15% to HP and MP regeneration around things of nature like forests, seas, or even simple plants. /Active Activation: Heals 15% of HP and MP by drawing essence from nature. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 45 seconds)


    Active skills:


    ?	Shoot(level 6) basic. +10% damage and speed for projectile weapons. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Glide(level 1) basic. Glide in the air for 15 seconds. + 5% to speed during flight. (Cost 20 MP) (cool down 40 seconds)


    ?	Hard punch(level 6) basic. Hit your opponent for 80% extra of your total attack. Speed +10% during skill.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Homing Shot(level 3) basic. Chase and attack any target in sight with projectiles. +15% damage within a radius of 25 meters.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Vacuum Palm (level 3) basic. Hit Targets with a wind element Palm attack. +20% damage and knock back effect. 5% chance to confuse opponents. (Cost 7 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Wind Stride: Wings(level 2 ) basic. Use the power of wind to increase movement speed by 100% for 10 seconds. (Cost 15 MP) (cool down 35 seconds)


    ?	Wind School: Lightening Coat(level 2 ) basic: use the power of lightening and wind to cover your body, increases defense against magical attacks by 10%,defense against physical attacks by 12% and increase speed by 40%. (Cost 25 MP) (Cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 2) basic. Summon an arrow of pure mana to cause 20% magical and physical damage in a range of 15 meters. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Mana Slash(level 2) basic.Coat a bladed weapon with mana an attack for +25% magical and physical damage. Has a 15% chance to ignore magical and physical defense. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 10 seconds)


    ?	Stealth(level 1) basic. Turn invisible for sixty seconds. Stealth is broken when attacked or attacking. Every first hit from stealth is a critical. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Purify(level 1) basic. Purify all things unclean and unholy. +100% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison. + 70% damage against the undead,+40% damage against dark creatures. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 60 seconds)


    Augmented racial trait:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures

 25 The Trial Of The First Ring I : Dragons On A Warpath

    I was shocked, surprised, shaken. What the hell was going on, I looked at the paladin in front of me and his cut off arm and had to ask him again just to be sure I heard him correctly.


    "What did you say?"


    "I said I forfeit."


    "But we haven''t even started fighting yet!" I complained to him


    "Does it matter?" He asked me with a slight smile on his face.


    "Well no...but¡­"


    "I forfeit. I believe that you deserve to win this, not after what you''ve been through to get your friend back. Let''s be real here, you''re a formidable fighter, skilled, deadly in all forms of combat as I''ve seen, though you''re a bit lacking when it comes to magic. But you''re not knowledgeable enough of your opponents and their builds to beat them. It''s obvious to more experienced players that you''re a noob, just an incredibly skilled one. And I didn''t really want to fight in this trial in the first place, I was forced to by my guild...¡­..oh! I guess that''s them sending me a message, and I''ve just been kicked out."


    I was completely baffled by the current turn of events. The paladin in front of me seems to be some sort of dark elf, which is funny considering the paladin class was aligned with the light and holy elements and dark elves like the dark. He was a player, his name being Conrad Silverbones.


    From the beginning of the fight till now, he had; and in a very carefree manner, cut of his left arm and forfeited the match. It really surprised me, especially how cool he seems with being kicked out of his guild.


    "So please win this shit for me and all that stuff. I''m much too lazy to care about it anyway. Well congratulations and all that stuff, see you around 7."


    And then he turned around and walked off, leaving me still baffled and very much shocked. Though one thought was running through my mind, and that was the fact that his dude was so cool.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen, he''s done it! Though it went down in the most unexpected way, but it has happened! Candidate Seven is the first to pass the knockout stage. And by rules of the trials, he is no longer a candidate, but a chosen! The first chosen of this year''s trial of Revelations! Marvelous, just Marvelous!........but what is this I''m hearing! It can''t be! Or the angels above!


    Ladies and gentlemen it has just come to my attention, that one of the sponsors of Seven, the phenomenon that has captured our hearts in these two days with how hard he''s been fighting: to be reunited with his friend; that one of the powers responsible for his strength and even the magnificent armor he now has on, is actually the tree or revelations itself! Never has there been such a sight or scenario, not in the two thousand years this trial has been going on. I think I speak for everyone here, when I say well done and then ask.....Who In The World Are You Aaren Seven?"


    This announcer rubbed me off the wrong way, like he was some sort of boss, sitting behind his desk and microphone plotting nefarious things against the people fighting, all to the benefit of his own amusement. Though that could just be my imagination getting carried away.


    [You have received 2 skill points and 3 stat points for completing the knockout stage of the trial of Revelations. You can now proceed to the first ring of the trials.]


    [All remaining battle points would be converted into monetary gain. You have received500 thousand gold dollars, 500 thousand silver dollars, and 500 thousand bronze dollars.]


    Suddenly a pillar of light splashed right down from the darkness. I looked up to see it stretching into nothingness,and as it touched the ground, there was a single golden ring being shown.


    I guess I was supposed to walk into that ring. Which was exactly what I did. However the moment I did, the pillar of light rapidly shrunk, and I was dragged up by a force I couldn''t fight or resist.


    But the feeling of being pulled in a certain direction only lasted for a moment before I found myself in another dark arena. I was standing on a walkway that led to a platform, and this platform was colored with seven different rings: that flowed inward, concentric to each other.


    The outer most ring was actually black, and currently it was lit up and pulsing with a dim light. I was beginning to get really confused with no idea what to do until I heard a voice,a voice I actually recognized!


    "Step into the first circle and receive your task!"


    I couldn''t tell if the voice was male of female, but even in a game, I could feel such an aura of power from it. Something that was timeless and old, and somewhat wise. This was the voice that told me to run when I was being chased by Sortovat; that big ass demonic snake.


    I stepped forward and into the black ring. The arena on it''s own was freaking huge, almost at the size of an Olympic stadium if not a little bit larger. The circles shrunk as they went inwards, with the seventh being white and taking up the entire central area. But the rest of the circles were all dull and somewhat dim, with only the black having any sort of light.


    The moment I stepped my foot into the black circle, I could feel an electric jolt go through me. Then just three feet away from me, a black stand/platform about one and a half meter tall, and about 25 inches long and wide rose up from the ground.


    I walked up to it, and could see that words were written on it''s slick surface. At first it seems to be like another stat sheet of sorts. Though this one seemed to be entirely focused on aspects that dealt with the trial.


    CHOSEN: AAREN SEVEN


    RING: 1


    TASK: ONGOING


    SPONSORS: 4


    PUBLIC APPROVAL: 3.8


    [TASK: GO TO THE WORLD WHERE THE WAVE RIDERS LAY THEIR BONES, AND FIND THE VESSEL OF THE SEA THAT CALLS TO YOU. SAVE IT! AND STRENGTHEN IT, FOR IT''S POWER WOULD SAVE YOU IN THE TRIALS TO COME. SHOULD YOU FAIL, YOU WOULD BE FORGOTTEN, UNREMEMBERED, UNLOVED AND EXPIRED!/ DURATION: 5:11:58:20]


    [YOUR SPONSOR THE TREE OF REVELATIONS HAS GIVEN YOU A MEMORY DISK]


    A riddle, seriously! Why the heck was it so easy! I mean sure most of it was game/sci fi talk, but I knew with at least a 89% chance what it meant.


    I''m supposed to go to a world that''s without a doubt a junkyard, and the wave riders have to be ships of all kinds. I don''t know if space ships ride waves, but sea vessels do, and I have to find one and fix it in five days. Okay? that''s just...¡­..nice?


    I looked up to see the so called memory disk floating above me, and it was a weird rainbow of sparkling silver, green, blue, gold, black, purple and red colors. This looked spooky no matter how you look at it.


    I grabbed the memory disk and placed it on my forehead (since that''s the way they''re used.) Almost immediately there was a flash of light and I felt myself falling, however before I reached the ground, the light flashed again and this time I was falling downwards...¡­..from the sky.


    I wanted to panic, I really did. But I remembered I had wings, so there was no need to go all crazy about my situation. However before I could implement their use, my body suddenly suspended in the air, and that''s when I saw them.


    Huge, like freaking! colossal! They looked very real, and the fact that I was surrounded by them freaked me out! Leathery wings, feathery wings, elemental wings, and even bone wings. Glowing eyes that radiated magic and aura, coupled with a powerful body packed with muscle and scales of resplendent color, made me want to just bow down and say.


    "Wow!"


    "I guess that''s a better reaction than we were hoping for, wouldn''t you say Zephyr, the hatchling seems to be from your bloodline."


    And they can talk too, so which means I wasn''t just experiencing a memory of some sort, I was really here! In front of dragons!


    The dragon who spoke was a gold dragon, he had this amused look within his serpentine eyes that was somewhat infective and exuberant. The dragon he was talking to was a green dragon, who honestly looked like he was high on something and couldn''t be bothered by affairs of the world.


    I''ve read and watched enough fiction to know the different color schemes represented the elemental affinity of the dragons. Green being wind and gold being light? Or earth? I''m not really sure.


    "His blood is not as pure as I would like, but he''s a good seedling, and the fact that he''s here shows that he''s worthy. Let''s give the class and see if he can find and set us free."


    "Um okay, dragon guys, I''m right here. And forgive me for my rather brunt questions your highnesses, but where the fuck am I, what''s happening, and is this a part of the trials of revelations?" I asked as I looked at them.


    "Ahhh, so you came here because you were sent by that tree. Very good, with you, that''s completes the seven required dragon kin that would be responsible for restoring the glory of the original dragon kings. You''re perfect hatchling." Zephyr the green wind dragon said.


    His words were....wispy? Slurry? Untethered. There was just this feeling of freedom he evoked, but yet I could also feel a primal force clinging underneath his skin, roiling, boiling and most importantly blowing. I might be biased but; without a doubt, this was the most powerful dragon in the room or air seeing as we were all floating above the clouds.


    "Thank you very much brothers and sisters, I''ll take if from here."


    Zephyr said to the other dragons, and just as they appeared, they faded into the clouds. Then he turned to me and scrutinized me with eyes that literally had lightening running through them.


    "Excuse me sir, um Mr. Zephyr, can you please tell me what''s going on?" I asked again, this time a little more politely.


    "First of all hatchling, I''m female. And by dragon law, since you carry my bloodline regardless of how thin, you''re my son. You don''t have to be so stiff around me, especially when we have more interactions in the future."


    "uhhhh sure?"


    "Good, now let me explain why you''re here. In an era now lost to time, when a cataclysm of universal proportions scorched our dimension to ash and ruin, everything was destroyed.


    However a planet called earth survived, and she grew to become New Gaia, home to it''s original race the humans, and it''s numerous new visitors from the stars, making it possible for elves, Patmosians, Orcs, and many other races to survive, to live.


    But the power that destroyed the universe still existed, it was untamed, unruly and it had transformed the universe into a place where great power and skill could be had.


    It was at that time the first gods were born, and magic and skills came to exist. But that power still hungered for destruction, so the Gods sought to subdue it, to contain it''s destructive properties and put an end to the threat it posed.


    And so they took fourteen young dragons, and separated them into two groups. One group was the elemental dragons, us, the other were the primal dragons, beings that embodied emotion and feelings rather than elements. I believe you know such emotions as the seven sins.


    The power was split into two, like yin and yang, and good and bad. The bad was given to us, and the good to the sin dragons. And then on account of being given the bad part, we were watched, observed and followed like plagues. We couldn''t live or love in peace without everyone thinking we would go crazy and destroy the world.


    To be honest we weren''t feeling any more or less murdery than normal, I mean come on! We''re dragons, we burn a few villages sometimes, topple kingdoms, and steal treasures, we like treasure!


    When the sin dragons did it, it was seen as a normal act, just dragons being dragons. But when we did it, it was seen as evil, that we were being driven to murder and burn kingdoms because we were under the control of an evil that scrubed the universe clean, turning it into a blank slate.


    So we withdrew, stayed in our lands and mastered our magic and our classes, and we had love and hatchlings, spawning a race of dragons that were beautiful. We led advancements in magic and science and entertainment. But they gathered and they plotted and they said we had built an army, from our own children!


    What kind of a parent would do that! But they didn''t care. There was a war: we were stronger, more powerful, and it wasn''t because of our individual powers. As far as that goes, the sin dragons has us beat in sheer explosiveness of power, but we''re better fighters, and we''re smarter, and we had family. And because of that we had too much to loose.


    With our children dying, we had to surrender, we were left with no choice. Our once illustrious civilization fell, our children killed to the point that only a few remember us, and we were trapped in a realm that only had darkness. (Sigh) the millennia of imprisonment drove us mad, but it also forced us to hone our skills, and learn to use the so called darkness inside of us.


    About five hundred years ago, we manage to create memory messages that was scattered across the cosmos, given to primal and powerful forces of nature, forces who understood our plight. We placed strands of our soul energy into this messages, and once this forces find a suitable candidate of our bloodline, they would give them the disk, and the disk would bring them here, where they would be given an inheritance and tasked to finding not just the keys that would free us from our prison, but the prison itself, and building us an army for our revenge. So what do you think?"


    What do I think, this shit''s some really dark world quest kind of stuff. And her story was quite touching? But I can''t let a sob story cloud my judgment, she had said things that rang warning bells in my mind.


    "You want to start a war? Many innocent people will die!"


    "My children were innocent, yet they were still slaughtered like animals. Do you think we can just let everything go, after all this years of imprisonment?" She said to me with her eyes narrowed in a glare.


    "No I don''t, which is why I would like to suggest a better option than a war which would kill everything, since it was practically you seven against the world. No one would be innocent in your eyes: since their ancestors hated you for something beyond your control.


    There''s another way, a better way and it would give you more satisfaction than burning everything."


    I said to her as I scrambled to come up with a plan to dissuade a dragon from going on a war path. Saying that to myself made me realize how impossible it might seem.


    "and what method is that?" she asked me with an amused look on her face.


    "You take everything they''ve built, and make it your own. You want chaos, I''ll create that chaos for you, and I''ll do it in such a way that there would be less bloodshed, but blood will flow none the less.


    Their children would worship and believe in you like gods. They''ll love you, and offer all of their treasures at your feet. So you wouldn''t have to fight a war, because right under the nose of your enemies, especially the sin dragons, you''ll take what they love, and what they cherish. And when your enemies can''t take it anymore, and attack, then! And only then can you fight back. I believe no one is inherently good or bad, no! Doing evil is a choice, and having a negative source of energy does not make you evil, it''s your actions that does. Prove them wrong, whilst also simultaneously taking everything away from them.


    "Most would call such methods evil, underhanded and unrighteous." Zephyr said to me.


    "Well who would know, I''ll be their hero in shinning armor, and the villain in black that no one sees. Evil is relative, it''s subject to choice and actions and most importantly sight. No one would see me do anything evil, but it doesn''t mean I''m not doing it. So if I''m not seen being evil, how can I be unrighteous?"


    "Hahahaha, I like you young hatchling, you really are the perfect embodiment of the element of wind. We don''t conform, we flow, we encapsulate and divert. And we can be cool and calm, but also raging and destructive. Very well, I''ll convince the others to follow your methods, they can''t say no to me anyway, not at the threat of a beat down session. Now come, let me give you your inheritance, my class."

 26 The Trial Of The First Ring II : Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex

    "Ventus Draconis Vindex!"


    "Hunh! What''s that mean?" I asked in surprise as I couldn''t make sense of the language just used.


    Zephyr flapped her wings, and a gale started around me, it was hot, sort of like a heat wave, and then it was cold, like the chilly breeze on a cold winter morning, and then I felt my hair standing on air, like I was being electrified. Zephyr flew around my body, as her piercing green serpentine eyes appraised my form.


    "The wind is the only element that influences every other element. The wind carries heat across the earth, it carries the cold of the north wind, and it stirs the storms of the sea and the desert. But like all things in life, there are two sides to the wind. You must understand everything about the wind before you can be ready to take on the mantle of Ventus Draconis Vindex! Are you ready?"


    To be honest I don''t think I had any other choice but to be ready. I mean I could say "no I''m not", but why would I do that. Sure the current flow of events was completely out of my expectations, but nothing has gone the way I wanted it to, ever since I got into this game. It was as if an invisible current was gradually pushing me in a certain direction, and there was nothing I could do but go with the flow.


    "I''m ready." I replied.


    "Good. First! You must understand the dual nature of the wind, and you must understand that the word wind is just a secondary name of the true element, and that''s the element of the spirit: air!"


    As she said this, she opened her mouth and unleashed a blast of...¡­.of.....of air? It was not as intense as I expected, and to be honest I couldn''t feel anything. Well not physically at least, but somehow the air became clearer, more pristine and pure. And then I suddenly felt that pristine nature seep into my body.


    At first it clung to my skin, and then it went into my body, seeping into my bones and my mind and organs, creating a certain stillness that I couldn''t explain or fathom. It was an amazing feeling as it made me feel carefree, light and free of burdens.


    "Air in motion is called wind, but since air is always moving, in one way or another its popularly referred to as the wind. The same element, but the power air has is very different from what wind has. The air focuses on the inside, on the spirituality of the element, the mentality and soul. And the wind! It''s the embodiment of the Air''s physical form, the power it holds over the world. Wind, is the element of sovereignty, of freedom, of adventure, it''s the true element of power!"


    ROOOAAARRRRR


    This time I felt it. She shot at me! With a freaking hurricane! Or was it a tornado. I couldn''t tell, because I couldn''t see. The wind buffeted me from ever corner, moving me left and right as it tore and pulled at my armor, turning me upside down and altering my perception of the world. It made me angry, but it also made want to move, to shake and fly and dance in every way possible. The wind was freedom and madness combined, and it suited me just fine, it was who I was, who I am, and who I''ll always be.


    [ALERT: You have been bestowed with the Spirit of Air and The Heart of Wind. You now have +500% resistance against all wind oriented damage and natural phenomenon. You now have the ability to control the element of wind and communicate with air elementals. +100% reputation with all air oriented temples, gods, civilizations, and organizations. Glide skill has been removed and replaced with the passive skill flight.]


    "Now that you have the heart and the spirit, you''re ready for the class. Wind is versatile and encompasses all forms of combat. And funny enough, so are dragons. And wind dragons, are the fastest combatants, and are capable of fighting at all ranges. But as far as attacking power goes, we fall behind the fire, magic and dark dragons. As for defense the earth, water and light dragons have us beat. And as for magic, only the magic dragons have us beat in that aspect. But because we can not be caged, and are ferocious beyond measure, it is our job to serve as both defender, attacker and hunters for the dragons......as their avengers!"


    As she said that, she closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, lightning began to sparkle across her body, she spread her wingsand right underneath them I could see swirling tattoos that looked like a depiction of wind and air. The tattoos glowed, and began to peel off from underneath her wings, floating in the air as they surrounded me.


    "Ventus Draconis Vindex...¡­.Wind Dragon Avenger. Do you accept this duty young hatchling, to be the sword of vengeance and retribution, to be the shield of defense and protection, and the arrow of attack and sacrifice. Do you so swear to protect and in all measure avenge the honor of all dragon kin in the universe?"


    I could only say two words at this point. And I''m sure without a doubt, those two words were the right ones to say.


    "I swear."


    Then she opened her huge jaws and roared at me again, releasing thick streams of air and wind, bolstered by thick arcs of lightening that wove in between it. The floating symbols, gathered together with the breath, and flew towards me, tearing apart my armor, and falling on top of my naked body. The swirls turned into tattoos of yellow, blue, green and white lines and zigzags that covered my entire body except for my head, hand, and feet. Then they disappeared.


    Pieces of my ruined armor flew around me, and gradually began to reform, and then Zephyr blew on it again, prompting more of the swirls and symbols to fall on it. Then the armor flew and clung to my body, changing and transforming until I was wearing a pure white coat with a green lining.


    The border of the coat was a deep blue, and seemed to have tiny arcs of lightening running through it. I was wearing equally white trousers that looked to be made from some sort of synthetic metal, or scales, and tucked into the trousers was white vest that seemed more like scale mail but could pass for a shirt.


    And finally the boots, white and had tiny scales just like trousers and vest, in fact if I looked a little closer, the coat also had something similar.The coat was a little long, stopping just above my thighs and clinging tightly to my body.


    My previous weapons suddenly appeared, with the sword still hung over my back, and the quiver at my left side hanging from my waist, and my bow hanging behind my waist. The revolver was destroyed, but I still had it''s holster. All in all this looked like a fancy set of clothes, but I knew this was probably some high grade armor.


    [ALERT: You have been given the racial class Ventus Draconis Vindex (Wind dragon Avenger)]


    [+100% to all stats when protecting or avengingany dragon, or dragon kin and their interests.+ 7 to all stats for every level gained. All skills advance 30% faster. All wind and lightening attributed skill or spell increased effectiveness by 70%. You have received the skill(s) Dragon Aura, Wing Blade. You have received the spell(s) Spark Wave, Cone of Silence]


    [You have received the title One With The Wind: + 80% to movement and attack speed. +1 to agility and dexterity every level.]


    [Due to the versatile nature of the class, you''re allowed to specify three weapons mastery skills. Please specify.]


    [Archery Mastery, Sword Mastery, And Magic Mastery has been chosen.]


    [For being the first to own this class you have been given 10 skill and stats points and one random chest of the heaven grade.(deposited in inventory)]


    [Friend system unlocked, faction system unlocked,reputation points unlocked,full stat system unlocked.]


    [All stat points has been disallocated and are ready for reallocation.]


    The stream of system messages left me a bit confused as to what to do,and I couldn''t really make heads or tails of what was being written. But regardless, I think I got everything I needed from Zephyr.


    "You are ready young hatchling. Once you get back to the island, you must go about doing what you have promised. Bring down governments and powers, let them all fall at our feet. But keep an eye out for the keys to our prison, and for your fellow chosen brothers and sisters. And if you need anything, remember to ask the wind and air, and they both shall guide you."


    ROOOAARRRRR


    She didn''t even give me a time to say anything as the roar threw me backwards, and made me fall madly towards the ground. I came to a sudden stop and fell over backwards, the memory disk that I had held to my head fell to the ground and evaporated away, like a wisp of air.


    But I felt weak, so weak that even breathing became too hard for me. I quickly checked my stats to see what was wrong.


    Name: Aaren/ Level: 20(35.472.480/104.857.600)/Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker/ One With The Wind


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race


    Reputation: (hidden)


    Strength: 0/Constitution: 0/Agility: 0/Dexterity: 0 Intelligence: 0/ Wisdom:0


    Hp 1/1(1000)MP 1/1(1000)


    Stat points:111Skill points:19


    Passive skills:


    ?	Nature buff (level 1) basic + 2% to all nature oriented skills, spells, or tasks.


    ?	Wind child(level 4) basic. +5% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 4) basic. +2% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 5) basic. +10% to aim when in motion, +15% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Heal(level 2)basic. +15% to HP and MP regeneration around things of nature like forests, seas, or even simple plants. /Active Activation: Heals 15% of HP and MP by drawing essence from nature. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 45 seconds)


    ?	Flight (Level 1) basic. Soar for across the sky for thirty minutes. +10% to flight speed and maneuvering.


    ?	Dragon Aura (level 1) basic. Your constantly covered by a draconic aura that shows the majesty of your bloodline. 80% chance to make opponents of a similar level bewildered, 100% for lower levels, 60% for opponents five levels higher, 40% for ten, 20% for fifteen, and 5% for twenty.


    Active skills:


    ?	Shoot(level 6) basic. +10% damage and speed for projectile weapons. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Hard punch(level 6) basic. Hit your opponent for 80% extra of your total attack. Speed +10% during skill.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Homing Shot(level 3) basic. Chase and attack any target in sight with projectiles. +15% damage within a radius of 25 meters.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Vacuum Palm (level 3) basic. Hit Targets with a wind element Palm attack. +20% damage and knock back effect. 5% chance to confuse opponents. (Cost 7 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Wind Stride: Wings(level 2 ) basic. Use the power of wind to increase movement speed by 100% for 10 seconds. (Cost 15 MP) (cool down 35 seconds)


    ?	Wind School: Lightening Coat(level 2 ) basic: use the power of lightening and wind to cover your body, increases defense against magical attacks by 10%,defense against physical attacks by 12% and increase speed by 40%. (Cost 25 MP) (Cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 2) basic. Summon an arrow of pure mana to cause 20% magical and physical damage in a range of 15 meters. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Mana Slash(level 2) basic.Coat a bladed weapon with mana an attack for +25% magical and physical damage. Has a 15% chance to ignore magical and physical defense. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 10 seconds)


    ?	Stealth(level 1) basic. Turn invisible for sixty seconds. Stealth is broken when attacked or attacking. Every first hit from stealth is a critical. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Purify(level 1) basic. Purify all things unclean and unholy. +100% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison. + 70% damage against the undead,+40% damage against dark creatures. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 60 seconds)


    ?	Wing Blade(level 1) basic. Coat your wings with the wind element and attack. + 20% damage + 40% attack speed. (Cost 30 MP) (cool down 160 seconds)


    ?	Spark Wave(level 1) basic. Release a wave of electricity within a ten meter radius. Causes paralysis for 5 seconds, 5% chance to cause blindness for 10 seconds. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 30 seconds)


    ?	Cone Of Silence(level 1) basic. Create a cone of air over a target, eliminating the release of all skills and spells for ten seconds. (Cost 80 MP) (cool down 300 seconds)


    Masteries:


    ?	Archery Mastery (level 1) basic. +3% to all archery skills and +5% damage from all bows and arrows


    ?	Sword Mastery (level 1) basic. +3% to all sword skills and + 5% damage from swords


    ?	Magic Mastery (Level 1) basic. +3% damage to all magic skills and spells


    Augmented racial trait:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    ?	Spirit Of Air(I): Ability to communicate with air elementals and control air freely


    ?	Heart Of Wind(I): Ability to control wind freely.


    All of my stats, everythingwas a big fat Zero. Though to be honest, they stats were not gone, just unallocated. And my stats had changed too, it was as if, I''ve been playing a tutorial, and the moment I got my class, the real game began.

 27 The Trial Of The First Ring III : Meeting The Sponsors, Skys Return

    I couldn''t believe it, I mean it was happening to me! But I still didn''t believe it! But none the less I think I should stop overreacting and allocate my stat points, because honestly speaking, laying on the ground and being watched by other people was incredibly embarrassing.


    The black ring had other competitors now, at least five of them. And I was sure they had all received the task for the first trial just as I have. And now to avoid any wasted time, and save me from embarrassment, a stat reallocation is in other. But therein lies a big problem.


    My class was a jack of all trades kind of class, so unlike other classes that leaned towards a particular orientation, there was no particular build for what I am. Regardless of which path I chose, I was still going to be an Avenger, and the form of combat I choose would be entirely up to me. And with 111 stat points to allocate, I had to make a decision.


    To do so, I had to know what kind of fighter or what kind of fights I would like to find myself in. That was not a problem though, I already knew how I fought: I didn''t like prolonged fights, and would rather cause as much damage in the shorted time possible and get out of there. I want my battles to end faster, making me more rogue oriented, but I also love to hit hard, really hard.


    So the bottom line means I''ll prioritize my speed and movement stats, followed by my strength stats, and then magic. Of course defense would be neglected in favor of maximizing my benefits, leaving me to rely on equipment to handle all of my defense.


    So for now, I''ll place a little focus on raising my three main stats equally, and then I''ll specialize after subsequent level ups. So I place 25 stat points in agility, strength and intelligence. Then I placed 10 in constitution, 15 in dexterity, and 11 in wisdom. Bringing everything to a big fat 111 stat points.


    With my main stats so balanced, it''s possible that there would be others more stronger than me in certain aspects, but I would be receiving a number of free stats ever level up, which still puts me ahead quite a lot of players. I wasn''t to worried about not maximizing the benefits of my class, because my class would serve me well whatever route I chose.


    Next I had to pay attention to why my armor changed, it seems a lot more different than before, heck it even feels different to me too.


    [Battle suit of the Ventus Vindex(Draconic level 1)/ Grade: Heaven/ Hidden Grade: Heaven/ Requirements: Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex]


    [Strength +50, Constitution +80, Agility +100, Dexterity +50, Intelligence +50, Wisdom +40/ attack speed and damage increased by 35%, every wind skill used deals critical damage on the first and seventh strike. Movement speed +30%, physical strength +30%]


    [Skill (1): Dragon Mode: Transform into a ferocious Wind dragon for 200 seconds. All stats increased by 500%, all skills and physical damage is critical, immune to all control type spells and skills. (Cost 500 MP) (cool down 3 days)


    Skill (2): Air Body: Turn into a wisp or vapor of air for 200 seconds. Immune to all physical damage during duration of skill, + 30 defense against elemental attacks, +100% invisibility. (Cost 120 MP) (Cool down 60 minutes)]


    [Devour 5 rare metals, 5 rare wind or lightening elemental ores, 1 dragon heart of any kind, 3 pounds of dragon bones, two yards of Ariadne & Arachne silk thread, seven scales of legend grade dragon, 15 normal and 7 Draconic Armor. All materials must be of the Heaven Grade to Evolve Armor to Legend Grade]


    What in the actual fuck! This is insane, I mean the armor looked awesome, and I think it''s really strong, but this is Fucking insane! How the hell am I supposed to get all those stuff to evolve it to legend grade, and there were still two grades above legend to consider, what would it cost then.


    "Seven, the royal family would like to request your presence." A voice said to me.


    I looked up, and found that I was staring at a young man, he looked to be about my age, though he was a head shorter. There was a girl behind him, and based on their very green skin color, I deduced that they were Patmosians.


    "Why?" I asked, as I got up, brushing imaginary dust off my body.


    "I do not know, all I know is that you have been summoned. And failure to comply would have consequences for both you and your pet!"


    Someone''s a little angry, after all I put their two great heroes out of commission, and one of them, permanently. It''s expected that the Patmosians would be a little...¡­well a lot! Angry at me. But since this two are here, I don''t see any problem, they did get a pair to the ring trials.


    I didn''t say anything and just opted to follow them. As we stepped away from the black ring, I felt as if I was falling, and then I found myself in an arena of sorts. The chairs were full with hundreds if not thousands of people, and many of them were all of a different race or a combination of some. This was probably where the sponsors stayed to watch the entire trials, considering there''s a giant screen above my head, I''ll say that''s true.


    I turned to look back, and saw that we had just come out of what I could only call a seed. A very huge seed that was placed right in the center of the tree. It pulsed, like a heartbeat, and every few seconds it let out a black glow, almost as if it was signifying that the trial of the black ring had started.


    "Aaren Seven! We congratulate you!" a voice boomed.


    Okay who was that, and why did he sound like he would rather be eating shit than congratulating me. I looked up, and there decked in armor of gold and green was a Patmosian, I think he''s a king or something. Not really sure.


    "Bow down in the presence of the King regent!" The Patmosian dude who brought me here said with a loud voice. His female companion not far behind him as she gave me a rather curios look.


    Now I''m all for giving respect to whom respect is due. I don''t like trouble, but I don''t like being messed with either. People who look down on me most usually end up at the other end of a tongue lashing if you''re higher ranked than me, but if you''re of equal status as me...¡­..I don''t mind imprinting my fist on your forehead.


    "Look here green boy, first of all: old green and gold up there is not my king!, second you bloody people imprisoned me, abducted my friend for experimentation and breeding, took away my rights, and dumped me in the middle of a fight, for my life! So forgive me if my back and neck hurts a bit, because in regards to the pain I feel. I can not, no! I will not bow to someone that chose to mess up my life when all I wanted was help!"


    There were murmurs all over the arena. People whispering about the methods of the Patmosians. I mean any one of these forces would do the same, but I was very sure they were all trying to take a moral high ground for this situation. Leaders and scandals don''t really go hand in hand. And after being called out by a chosen who has quite the talent(if I do say so myself), they would want plausible deniability should I get powerful enough to either win the trials, or come back and kick their asses.


    "How dare you talk to my father the king like that! I''ll have your tongue elf!"


    Please don''t tell me this was happening! I mean shit like this only happens in novels and wuxia dramas. It was generic as hell, and for a moment I had no idea how I would respond, until a wide grin came over my face. I pulled the sword that was hanging over my back, letting the elven blade reflect of the light before pointing it at his face.


    But pointing it at his face was not enough. I had no ides how higher leveled than me he was, since so far it seems that only the monsters in this game had levels, or showed that they did. But a skill of mine would work well in a situation like this.


    I activated Dragon Aura, which was a passive! But could also be mentally simulated for no mana cost at all(Awesome right). A green, blue and whit aura suddenly became visible over my body. It clung really close to my white battle suit, but it was still enough to give off the impression I wanted.


    "If you think you''re man enough to take my tongue, then step up boy!"


    I think he was going to take my invitation, he really was! I don''t think this kid knows that I''m bluffing. Do I know that I''m bluffing. I couldn''t kill him, nit here and definitely not in this manner, it would spell doom for me.


    "Enough of this charade!" an elf in a resplendent white suit called out. But this elf wearing a suit, is actually a female.


    "Young elf, you have two noble bloodlines in you. Do not bring shame by spilling the blood of a foolish son, in front of a dishonest father. Stay your sword and calm you aura. You do the elves and dragons proud."


    Safe to say, I felt really good about myself. I''m sure the elf woman was the minister who has been sponsoring me. The bow and the sword I now own, were all a gift from her. She had already turned to the so called ''dishonest'' king and said.


    "Why have you summoned him? Say what you have to say and send him to his quarters. He needs to rest and strategize with his sponsors. You''re keeping him away from that, or do you want to break the rules of the trials?"


    Damn that elf has a sharp tongue, and an incredibly hot body too. And she had a way with words I haven''t seen since my mom and my grandfather. They would have loved her silly.


    Cough!


    "My apologies fellow sponsors, my son was just trying to defend my honor. And my apologies to you too Aaren Seven! We understand that we have put you through a lot of troubles in the three days that you''ve been here. But we will make amends. We would like to offer you a monetary remuneration of 10 million golden dollars, a villa on one of the best branches of the tree revelations, and a return of all your confiscated properties and you battle beast."


    Ten million! I think I should be captured and tossed in a fight ring more often, but excitement aside, there was a ploy here. The moment that bastard said battle beast, every head in the arena turned to me and their eyes narrowed. I''m twenty four years old, very young, but I''ve swam with enough sharks to know greed when I see one, even the elven minister was not exempted from it.


    To a certain extent it''s understandable. There are only ten known battle beasts in the whole universe? The whole game? Either way, knowing that a talented nobody like me had one, sent a ripple of shock through the entire arena.


    I couldn''t say that I knew what the real value of an Arnetine battle beast was, but based on all the looks I was getting, I would say priceless. A door opened ahead of me, and there was Sky being led in with a chain around her neck. I didn''t think, I just acted.


    Using homing shot, I threw the sword in my hand at the person who was leading her towards me with a chain. The sword took of his hand, prompting the chain to fall on the ground with a loud bang, amidst the screams of a ''disarmed'' man.


    Sky didn''t need an invitation as she ran towards me, waddling her round elephant body in a hasty manner. She jumped into my arms and almost immediately transformed into her bow form. I could feel and hear her again, and she only had one message for me.


    "Kill that bastard!"


    And unfortunately for that bastard, he was not the son of a king.


    "Meteor Shower!"

 28 The Trial Of The First Ring IV : Princess Martha

    I''ve never had an reason to use Sky in a fight before, or to be more exact I''ve never had an opportunity. The only thing I could say was that apart from being flashy, her skill had a kick I didn''t expect.


    I only shot one arrow, but said arrow threw me on my back, and flew into the air as a beam of silver light, then it split into multiple large beams of light, and fell like rain on the unfortunate person who had put a chain on my battle beast, and stupidly offended her.


    It was like watching a scene from a horror movie, rather than fall on a widespread area, the beams fell specifically on his body, drilling multiple holes, until all that was left was a perforated heap of flesh and bones. It was horrifying, but I felt as if I had dislocated my wrist just from shooting that arrow.


    "Why did you do that!" The prince yelled at me in shock and anger.


    It was then that it crossed my mind, my actions could have profound consequences, and based on how I answer, it would decide my fate. Though to be honest I don''t think that the Patmosians could do anything to me. I had an inkling suspicion that the identity of a chosen could not be taken lightly, especially by the Patmosians.


    "He hurt her!" I answered simply.


    "and how would you know that!, we didn''t see anything of the sort!" The prince said, making a rather valid point.


    Sky had turned back into her normal form, and was glaring hard at the prince as she hid behind my legs. Then I felt her trunk reach up behind my waist, but I did not pay attention as I answered the prince.


    "She told me so herself. We''re bonded, so we can communicate with each other, and I don''t think a battle beast would lie just for the fun of it. Normally I have no reason to kill him, when I saw the chain I got angry, so I took his hand. But when she told me he was hurt, there was no room for negotiation. I never allow harm befall my loved ones, and whoever does hurt them, pays for it ten times over."


    My answer was not enough to placate the prince, but since he was keeping silent about it, I knew there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, I just showed the power of a battle beast. It might not be much, but I could see a lot of interests were peaked. It''s not everyday you see a living, breathing biological weapon.


    CRUNCH!


    I wanted to ignore that sound as it came from behind me, instead choosing to focus ahead. But when the sound got progressively louder, and it seemed like everyone else was focused on the direction the sound was coming from, I turned, and almost screamed my head off.


    "What the hell are you doing!"


    CRUNCH!


    She didn''t reply, heck I was sure she was doing this to annoy me on purpose. My elven bow, my precious bow with an amazing passive skill, was being eaten! By Sky no less. Not to delve into the intricacies of how she could digest the bow, or break a material dubbed iron wood into pieces with such ease it was as if she was eaten apples or potatoes, but why was she eating it.


    The answer came almost immediately with the mental bond between us serving as our link of communication. She was angry, jealous! That I''ve actually been using another bow since we separated. To be honest I was so stunned that I didn''t even know what to say to that.


    [Sky''s hidden skill devour has been activated. Level has been increased from 0 to 15.the passive skill Wind Mark has been assimilated for all weapon forms. Sky has grown a little.]


    It was a shocking turn of events, and I watched as Sky grew from being the size of a tiny puppy to the size of a full grown Rottweiler. Of course as an elephant she was bigger and more than a bit rounder, then she turned into the bow form, and floated until she was hanging from the back of my waist, like my previous bow.


    [Arnetine Sky Elephant (Night Bow Form)/ Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: Legendary/ Level: 15]


    [+75% power to all arrow attacks, +90% at night/+55% accuracy during all shooting activities, +65% at night.]


    [Special skill(I): Meteor Shower: Shoot energy arrows in a radius of 30¡Á30 meters for 200% of your total damage value. Cost 150 MP per shot,cool down 80 seconds.


    Special Skill(II): Wind Mark: Every subsequent attack made would increase in speed by 10% for a maximum of 10 stacks]


    It''s hard to remain angry when sudden misfortune turns out into good luck like this. Hopefully she doesn''t destroy any other weapon I might have to use. But the idea of her being able to increase her level by devouring other weapons seemed very in line with some RPG games I used to play from way back.


    Since there''s not much info about battle beasts, and the few that are known are practically kept under lock and key. It was normal that I was a little caught of guard by Sky''s ability to eat weapons and assimilate their skills. Or it could just be that I''m immensely relived that I didn''t lose the wind mark skill.


    "If you''re done disrespecting me chosen Aaren, my daughter here would lead you to your new villa. I believe your debts with the people Patmos is now settle right?"


    "Yes it is." I answered simply.


    I''ve insulted this people, beaten and even killed one of the national heroes. Called them out in front of thousands and done everything possible to spite them. And in the end I got ten million gold and a villa for my troubles.


    I think they''ve paid enough for all of their mistakes, I mean it''s not much, and I''m sure I could wring out more from them, but discretion is adviced. I wouldn''t want to make them too angry until they completely disregard whatever rule is keeping the king from screaming "off with his head!" it''s about time I went low key, stay under the radar, at least for a while.


    I followed the girl who was with the prince, apparently this was the princess. I have to say she was cute? Or pretty. She seemed to be about the same age as her brother, and while she was really nice to look at, her type was the cute and pretty girl next door I''m so nice vibe.


    I''m more of a beautiful, sexy, sultry and hot don''t mess with me vibe. But I had to admit, she had a really great future behind her(if you know what I mean.) She was quiet for the most part, leading me through winding wooden halls and patrolling guards until we were finally alone in an elevator.


    "Do you hate my people?" she suddenly asked out of the blue.


    "That remains to be seen, hate is a word I don''t use lightly. Because if I did hate your people, we would be having a very different conversation in this elevator. After all, you''re a young princess stuck in an enclosed space with a murderous man; what do you think might happen?"


    She had been looking sideways at me, but she quickly turned her face forward as her green cheeks turned a deep shade of red. She was blushing, and it was damn cute too. It crossed my mind that this princess might be an innocent flower, or was a really good actor.


    COUGH!


    "I hope you win the trials." She suddenly said to me.


    I was surprised by her admission, so I turned to face her fully, leaned my back against the wall of the elevator, raised an eyebrow and crossed my hands over each other.


    "And why would you want that. I''m pretty sure your father and brother wants nothing more than to take my head of my shoulders. Why would you be any different?" I asked her with a serious tone.


    "Because you''re sponsored by the tree of revelations. It''s never happened before! The tree sometimes gives gifts special classes and skills to talented Patmosians or visitors who are acknowledged by it. Qitar is one of such people, receiving not just a class or skills, but also a racial upgrade. It was expected that the tree would favor her with a sponsorship, but you had already been sponsored right from your first fight!


    The tree has never done something like this before. And of all the chosen, you''re the only one to receive a memory disk, and what looks like a complete makeover from the tree. It''s as if the tree is blatantly saying that it wants you to be the next king of the city of prophets; Zebedee. And my father and brother are threatened by it.


    My family has ruled the Island of Patmos ever since the idea of a monarchy was invented. And that''s a time that only the historians or the tree itself knows. But we''re only regents until the true king arrives, and I believe it''s you."


    Flowery words, it could work on any other random idiot, but not me. This chosen one crap is the same thing I have to deal with in the real world. And if there''s one thing the real world has taught me, it''s that there''s always a catch to being the chosen one. And little miss princess here, is not as scheming as she thinks she is.


    "Right? But that doesn''t answer my question princess. Whether or not I''m going to be king of this city of prophets, wherever the heck it is, that remains to be seen. It''s much to early to make assumptions, but what I want to know is why are you telling me this, and what would you gain going behind your father and brother''s back. There has to be a risk somewhere for you if I do become king, so what''s with the you''re the chosen one I believe in you crap."


    Was I too harsh? I''m not really sure. When I scheme: hardly anyone ever catches me, but I realize the best way to throw a schemer of their game, is to be as blunt and as truthful as possible. Expose their lies and watch with amusement as they try to cover it up. Or maybe that''s just the kind of guy I am.


    "I...I''m to marry whoever becomes the new king. It''s a law an ancestor of mine put in place to preserve our power, and it was largely supported by the entire population back then. Every generation of rulers, are engineered to have two children and two children only. A son and a daughter.


    And that''s a failsafe in case either a woman or a man win the trials. The trials are held once every generation, and while we''ve ceased to care about the prophecy and what it entailed, only focusing on the trials for the huge amount of money and resources it would bring from the betting pool, the tradition of engineering the birth of a prince and princess has not stopped.


    And then you came along, from outside the barrier, chased by Sortovat; a demon left behind from an old dimensional war. Part dragon part elf, and even human. But as if surviving Sortovat isn''t enough, you were protected by the tree, it actually spoke just so it could save you! No one has ever heard it''s voice before, not until that night. And then you have a battle beast.


    That''s not the weapon of a king, it''s the weapon of an emperor. And in all the milky way galaxy, there are 19 planets, 45 space colonies, 6 pocket dimensions and 320 space stations. 13 of the 19 planets alone fall under the rule of the only 10 emperors in existence. And each of those emperors, own a battle beast.


    That''s why all eyes are on you. Short of going to the frontier and colonizing uncharted planets and dimensions, the fastest way for you to become a ruler, is to win the trial and become a king. That elephant of yours is like a seal of power and proof that you''re destined for great things.And I need a man like that by my side.....if I''m going to change the lives and the way the Island of Patmos is currently being ruled."


    DING!


    The elevator opened up, and she led me forward through another hall. This hall wasn''t too long, and we came to it''s end just under 30 seconds. There was a huge double door in front of us, and it slid aside to let us out into what I could only call a boulevard In the sky...¡­or on the branches of a tree.


    Giant multicolored leaves hung above me, and sunlight peaked through the immensely huge and thick branches that were sinewed and intertwined between each other. The branches gather together to make a sort of bleacher like formation, and on each of those formations, massive and beautiful looking villas were built.


    The edge of the branches had docks of sorts, and all manner of sky ships, space shuttles, hover bikes etc. were docked there. Past the docks, a metal bridge stretched onto a huge platform, that was spread across the entire length of the boulevard, and had a multiple buildings, with some of them having holographic mean advertisement on their body.


    Residence and a place of relaxation over it. There were layers to this place, and I''m sure the people living down at the roots were worse off than those leaving up within and on the branches of the tree.


    The princess who''s name still hasn''t been given to me at this point, turned right, flagged down what could only be a sky taxi of some sort, gave an address and went in, waiting for me to join her. I did, and the taxi moved up, going higher on the bleachers and towards the north west corner. This place was bigger than I thought it was, and the huge platform that seemed to hold another city, stretched in a spiral around the branches of the tree.Moving upwards and having more and more buildings tailored for different things.


    "The top of the branches has a city of it''s own, a city that belongs solely to the rich, and as for the root, I think you can guess about their situation yourself." The princess suddenly said to me as we moved up.


    "What''s your name?" I suddenly asked her.


    She looked startled for a moment before she answered.


    "Martha."


    I raised an eyebrow, that was a little normal than I expected, maybe too normal. But there was no problem with that, Martha is a nice name.


    I can''t say I''m not sympathetic about the plight of the poor or the less privileged. Though how much? for a race that imprisoned me immediately after they found me, I couldn''t say there was a lot. But princess Martha here was so generic and clich¨¦ it''s giving me a headache.


    It''s the same old story that has been told overtime through various forms of media and stories. The sweet princess who wants to save her people from ruining themselves, and the heroic knight in shining armor that conveniently appears to lend his help...¡­hogwash!


    But I had a very different game to play here. I did promise Zephyr that I would bring kingdoms down, so that when the elemental dragons are free, the world or worlds would be at their feet without the need to burn them all to the ground in their war for revenge.


    I could start with the Island of Patmos, and cute little princess Martha is going to help me. She thinks she knows how to scheme and plot all in the name of good. Well then princess let me introduce myself.


    "You can call me Aaren. It''s a pleasure to meet you princess Martha."

 29 The Trial Of The First Ring V : The Coven Of Angeles

    Martha didn''t know it yet, but she had now become an important piece on the chess board that was the island of Patmos. And it might be too early, but I had already designated what piece she was, and which role she was going to play. And that was queen!


    The taxi came to a stop in front of a villa that was smack dab at the edge of the boulevard. Though there were more villas after it, this one was nestled in between two branches, and nestled into the tree like a tree house or a birds nest.


    The taxi parked at the villa''s dock, and waited there as me and Martha alighted. She gave the driver instructions to wait as she led me to the villa, whose massive double doors opened on command. The doors opened up into what I would have really loved the Wade manor to look like.


    It was big, clean, and very sci fi, but there was also a significant amount of nature within the house. The two stairs to the top floor were made from wood that actually had vines of purple, red and blue flowers growing from it. It was beautiful, but I didn''t have enough time to enjoy the beauty of the villa before the doorbell rang.


    I turned to Martha and raised an eyebrow at her. She looked just as surprised as I was, but it didn''t stop me from asking.


    "are you expecting someone?"


    "No! Are you." She asked back.


    I shrugged my shoulders and made my way back to the doors and opened it a bit. I was even more surprised when I saw who was behind the door, but then I remembered she had said that I needed to meet with my sponsors or something like that. My visitor, was invariably the elven minister.


    "Well, you''re even more impressive and handsome up close than I thought you would be." She said to me the moment she walked into the villa


    "Well then you''ll be the first person apart from my mother to think so."


    I answered as the elven minister made her self at home even before I could. Martha gave the elven minister a deep bow and mumbled and excuse, asking to leave. I offered to see her off, a little put off by being left alone with the elf.


    Before she could get into her taxi she turned to me suddenly and said.


    "You have to be careful about the elven minister, her reputation precedes. And she''s not someone to be taken lightly."


    "And what reputation is that?" I asked.


    "She has a thing for young, talented and exotic men. Men with a bright future, men with true power. None of them last long enough to achieve their full potential, and those that do, end up becoming a part of her harem of highly talented men. Each and every single one of them a thrall to her wiles and viles.Please be careful, I''m counting on you."


    The Martha got into the taxi and left, taking with her, her innocent scent of peach and apples. But what she left behind struck a chord within me. I was supposed to start playing this game at level 0,in a starter city, along with other newbies.


    But I was dumped in the middle of an ocean, had to experience a whole lot of misfortune, and now I''m smackdab within the radar of the ruling powers of this game.Even though this is as much a recipe for disaster as it is for great success, my string of bad luck aside. Everything just seemed so convenient.


    I furrowed my eyebrows as I made my way back into the villa. Keeping my eye on the elven minister as she drank wine(which I didn''t know I have) formcrystal wine glass(which I also didn''t know I have!). I couldn''t read her, yes she was drop dead beautiful, and apparently she was also a cougar that preyed on younger men, but she just seemed so...¡­..blank.


    "I take it you''ve heard about my illustrious reputation?" she suddenly asked me as she sat down, crossed her legs and leaned back. The button of her suit was a little to open to be considered normal.


    "If you wish to call it that, then yes. I''ve heard of your rather disreputable reputation." I answered her as I sat down.


    "Well don''t bother yourself thinking too hard about it, they''re all true." She said to me as her golden irises gazed at me.


    "Well that''s good! We can skip all the pretense and the bullshitting that comes with politics. Let''s get down to business woman, what do you want?" I said to her with a straight voice.


    "first of all, my name is not woman boy! Its Lerrianderlei. But you can call me Minister Rian. As for what I want, it''s the same thing the church of Adonai, and the organization Shade wants. We want you."


    *blink* *blink*


    "That doesn''t explain anything miss Rian. Can you give me a little more detail." I said to her as I moved to the edge of my seat, making it seem as if I was attentively listening to her.


    "An alliance has been formed between the church of Adonai, The elven Kingdoms, and Criminal organization shade. From this alliance, a special squad of the best soldiers are going to be chosen from all walks of life and put together to combat the threats that our universe would face. We aim to foster true peace, and we''re going to be doing it with any means necessary. That''s why we need you, think of this as a recruitment for a clandestine secret society or organization."


    Okay, so that''s not what I expected. But everything is still under control right? Because I was worried. She had told me everything, because she was sure I wouldn''t say no. Which means she has a failsafe for if I do refuse, and to be honest I don''t think it would work out well for me.


    "It seems like you want to start a war. That can''t be good for business." I said to her


    "of course it isn''t, that''s why we made this organization. This war can not be fought openly, it would leave a stain on our nations and organizations, and the loss of life and resources would be way too much. The best way would be to fight a secret war, a war that targets information circulation, resources and resource management, men and women in power who have abused it and overstayed their lease in life. You among many others would be given missions ranging from assassinations, to infiltrations, theft, sabotage, underground dealings, etc. So what do you say?"


    Why was this scene all too familiar? Did I not just experience this with Zephyr a few minutes or was it over an hour ago. Now something similar was replaying itself, right in front of me. It was weird, and I was getting a strange sense of Deja vu.


    "I''ll do it, but on one condition." I said to Rian.


    "And what condition is that?" she asked me with a smile.


    "I would not be relegated to the shadows indefinitely. In fact if you want to utilize me best, you have to put me in a place where the whole universe can see me, and love me. Doesn''t mean I''m not down for the clandestine missions, but you need a beacon of light and good to be the face of your operations. I want to be that light."


    "Interesting proposition, but I''m afraid that''s something you have to earn. There are more than four hundred candidates for that position, and each and every single one of them are being watched and graded closely. If you want it, you''ll have to earn it. But aside from that, any of the thing you do for us will see you duly rewarded.


    If you want to be this ''light'' that you spoke about, you will have to fight the others and outshine them with your performance.If you do that, you''ll get what you want. So do you agree?"


    "Yeah where do I sign up."


    "You already have. Congratulations Aaren Seven, you''re now a part of the Coven Of Angeles."


    [You have joined the faction ''Coven Of Angeles''. + 1 to all stats, +3 skill points]


    "Well my job here is done. You''ll receive routine missions from us whenever they''re available, so be ready. Now I''ll give you a few tips, the phone on your wrist, is just a simple account review device. Have it upgraded at a workshop in the city, and get a few change of clothes. Also upgrade your security, but I think I''ll take care of that myself, so don''t worry. The Patmosians would definitely try to keep an eye on you. But don''t worry, the Villa is not bugged or spelled yet, so nothing we''ve said has been heard.


    Next you should get a mode of transportation, it''s too much of a hassle going up and down the elevator. And finally in regards to your trial task, I suggest you get your ass to Medusa Alpha Sigma. It''s a moon whose Terra formation turned out pretty badly, so it''s now a planet where old ships, mechas, computers, pirates and the poor go to die. M.A.S also had some of the best hackers, engineers and blacksmith in the galaxy, so as soon as you get your ship, you should employ some, or preferably someone talented enough in all three. I''ll have a transport ready on your dock in three hours. Make sure you take care of everything else, and you''re ready to roll. You can''t afford to fail at the first trial."


    Then she turned around and left, swinging her hips from left to right in a rather extreme manner. But the force was strong within me, resisting such feminine wiles is child''s play to me. (Thank God! She''s gone.)


    Now that I was alone, Sky turned back into her animal form, and ran off, probably towards the kitchen. I wasn''t too worried she''ll hurt herself, because we were connected. But at least now, I could take a look at my stat page.


    Name: Aaren/ Level: 20(35.472.480/104.857.600)/Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker/ One With The Wind


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/The Coven Of Angeles


    Reputation: <>


    Strength: 26/Constitution: 11/Agility: 26/Dexterity: 16 Intelligence: 26/ Wisdom:12


    Hp 425/425(equip bonus +)MP 332/332(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:0Skill points:19


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    As if I needed any more proof. In lost Descendants online, the true power of a player relied mainly on the equipment rather than their stats. Of course their stat gives them an added bonus, and small as it looks, it still gives players and edge over their enemies.


    But with this done, I had to logout for a bit. Everything I''ve done from, winning my fifth fight to receiving a class, to getting a villa and joining a secret organization had happened to me under two hours. So without a doubt, I still had a lot of time to kill, and I had to check up Ron. At least for an hour or so.


    "Log out."

 30 Trial Of The First Ring VI : Elven Clones

    Ron, and Nanny Florence were not in the house. Apparently it seems like they had quite a few things to go take care off, and since I was a little busy playing the game, she was not willing to leave Ron alone in the house, not even with all the new bodyguards we had.


    So in that regard I just had a quick meal, used the bathroom, and logged back into the game. When I opened my eyes, Sky was resting on one of the numerous white armchairs within the villa. I felt sorry for the little elephant, and it was mainly because I had no idea what she might have gone through during her captivity.


    But I had to go take care of somethings, but I couldn''t leave her behind, neither did I want to wake her up. So I busied myself exploring the villa, and trying to understand the facilities built within.


    It took me a lot less than expected, and that was because I was moving so fast my eyes and head could hardly keep track of my motion. I had a significant amount of bonuses to movement speed and physical strength, from the equipment I have.


    But it seems the bonuses have to be in balance with a players stats to have the most optimum effects. I had good speed, but not the body or the mental capacity to use it to it''s fullest capacity. I was barely coasting through at the moment, and any attempt to move really fast, usually ends up with me having a headache.


    I think to offset that balance, I need to place a little focus on improving my constitution and intelligence stat. Maybe a little bit of wisdom and dexterity too; to make sure I could move properly with such speed.


    But that aside, I discovered the villa had five bedrooms, each with it''s own bathrooms. Two kitchens, a garden, a pool, a massive garage that looked more like a airport hanger to me, and an expansive lawn with well trimmed grass.


    I also discover that it had a holographic device, just like the one in the cubicle, back in the waiting area. It was through that I was able to apply for a new communication device, and a little air car. Both things cost me a little over 300 thousand gold dollars. There were less expensive ones, and if I didn''t ask for a delivery straight to my doorstep, I could have spent less. But I had the money to spend, and I really didn''t want to explore at the moment, not with my departure to another planet looming and happening in under two hours.


    The air car and communication device were delivered right to my doorstep in under forty minutes. I had the Patmosian movers place the car in the garage, said goodbye and placed the new communications device around my wrist.


    It was a lot sleeker than the one issued by the bank, and it seemed to be made from a sort of gleaming silver material. I could''ve changed the color scheme, but the default was just good enough for me. As soon as I placed it on my wrist, the old device lit, followed quickly by the new one.


    Lines of code and words began to flit across the screen of both com devices, almost as if they were sharing data or something. Just after a minute it stopped, and the old devices began to fold itself, like it was some sheet of paper. And it kept folding and folding, becoming smaller until there was nothing there anymore. I wonder if it would keep folding itself for eternity, getting more and more smaller, leaving it stuck in the quantum realm like that old movie ant man.


    ?	UNIVERSAL COMMUNICATION DEVICE (U.C.D)


    ?	OWNER: AAREN/7


    ?	RACE: TRIBRID DRAGON KIN


    ?	CONTACTS: <>


    ?	ACCOUNT BALANCE: 45.005 (MILLION ) GOLDEN DOLLARS/500 SILVER DOLLARS/ 500 BRONZE DOLLARS


    ?	CURRENT DEBTS: NONE


    ?	ASSETS: <> 2


    ?	WEB <>


    ?	EMERGENCY HOTLINES <>


    Well that looks nice. So with that out of the way, what do I do next...¡­..well I guess I''ll just take a nap then. I''ve not slept in the game yet, wonder how that feels.


    DING DONG!


    I shot up with a jerk, turned my head around as I looked for the direction the threat was coming from. I just barely closed my eyes, and now the doorbell wad ringing. Sky was also up, and she turned her head towards the door, probably wondering who had the audacity to come disturb her sleep.


    I made my way towards the door, and opened it up. In front of me were four elves, armors exquisitely, and looking well prepared. Then selling point about all four elves was that they were a complete copy of each other, like clones of the same person.


    "Greetings Master Aaren Seven, I''m elven Shock trooper 0994733219,I''m here with my fellow soldiers and our cargo ship to lead you to M.A.S on orders of the minister. I believe we have to go and pick up a ship."


    *blink* *blink*


    "Don''t you have another name that I can call you. Because all those numbers don''t work for me." I said to him as I shifted my gaze to the other three. I was sure with at least a 85% accuracy, that the rest of them also had numbers for names.


    "Forgive me master Aaren, but we''re clones, we''re made only to serve on the battlefield as the vanguard of the glorious elven civilization. We have no need for names, and even then we''ve never been deemed worthy to be named either, we''re not real people."


    As he said that I could hear his voice dropping to a whisper. Now I''m all for sitting down, and connecting with clone boys here, but there''s somewhere we had to be. So let''s just take the shortest way out.


    "Okay as long as you guys are with me, you''re Mack, Zack, Jack and Darke. Remember your names boys, now let''s get out of here. Sky! Let''s go."


    And then I walked past them, with Sky following close behind me, head and trunk raised high like some sort of queen and all four elves were her retinue. At the docking bay of my villa, a massive space ship was hanging there. It was about the length of a commercial airplane, and but a whole lot wider, and more futuristic, with cannons and stuff.


    "This is a cargo ship, it''s defensive and attacking properties are bad, but it''s speed is quite good. We should be able to get you to your destination in 40 minutes after jumping into hyper space. Since it uses a hyper drive, rather than a warp drive, we have to make three jumps at the minimum to navigate and prevent ourselves from being torn to bits. Since the ship is mainly for transport, I''m afraid it doesn''t do much in the way of luxury. So please bear with it Master Aaren." Zack or was Jack, no this is definitely Mack...¡­Arghhh! I need to find a way to identify these guys.


    Either way, I got the feeling that these guys respected me a lot. Don''t know why, but I''m sure I''ll find out eventually. We made our way onto the grey ship, which was divided into three sections. There was a main section that took up 70% of the ship''s space as a cargo hold, the remaining 30 was shared between the crew quarters and cock pit.


    Since this was not going to be too long a flight, there was no need to place me in s room, so I strapped myself and Sky in, and prepared for the take off. The ship started with a soft hum as one of the elves ran a systems diagnostic check, placing special attention to the power cell capacity, the current state of the hyper drive and how long it would take for it to charge so a jump could be initiated.


    I''m sure it was a lot complicated than that, but they were trying to simplify it for me. Seriously I don''t need them to dumb it down, as long as it had nothing to do with numbers, I could probably take this ship apart and put it back together in seconds. I just won''t be able to do anything about the navigation and other computing systems that had to do with calculations. Give me a wrench and a spanner, and I''ll show you magic.


    The ship moved away from my villa''s bay, rising slowly into the air, going as high as possible until it was right above the tree itself. And then I saw a sight that almost made my heart drop. Right on the top of the tree, amidst a dense foliage of leaves and branches was a majestic city. With how big the tree was, which was bigger than I imagined, this city covered a lot of space.


    "That''s the city of prophets Zebedee. But it''s uninhabited, and would remain so until the chosen that would be king comes, defeats the demon general Sortovat and free the island of Patmos from his oppression. Or so the story goes."


    I was barely listening at this point, and that was because my eyes were glued to the majestic silver towers, the paved streets and the futuristic looking buildings that nestled on the top of tree of revelations. Then we went past the city, and I could see the barrier that covered the entire basin that the tree and the entire Patmosian civilization resided.


    But just before the barrier, ahead of us was a ring made of silver rocks, and their edges were lined with metal. The ring was huge, it covered the entire surface area of the crown of the tree, and would let the entire tree go through it''s hole if it so wished.


    On the stones and metal, symbols were etched onto it, as we got close one of the elves had a tiny device hanging from the control board of the cargo ship. He Inputted a few numbers, and the symbols began to glow, and right at the center of the ring, a storm actually appeared, crackling with lighting and booming with thunder.


    Before I could say anything we flew right through it and a feeling of intense cold suffused my body, cashing every hair on my body to raise on end like I was electrocuted or something. I closed my eyes a bit, and when I opens them, there was a wide expanse of black and twinkling lights in front of me. I turned to Sky and said to her.


    "Welcome to space little one."

 31 Trial Of The First Ring VII : M.A.S, Quadrant 1

    Due to the direction we flew in, I was unable to see what the planet looked like. I could have asked, but I didn''t want to be a bother, more than satisfied to just watch the stars and the peculiar things that were around the planet''s atmosphere.


    I knew the planet I was on was most probably Earth, billions of years in the future, which was why I was surprised to see that it actually had rings of it''s own. And the there were six of those rings, each made of some sort of polished limestone like meteorite. There were a couple of black meteorites amongst them too, and they seemed to share one trait in common; they had runes, just like the space gate or whatever we just went through to get here.


    "This are the rings of Mignerfir. They serve as one of the primary defenses for new Gaia. Keeping the planet safe from not just foreign space invasions, but also foreign dimensional invasions."


    I understood what he was talking about: this was basically a fire wall and a password encrypted lock screen. The lock screen would keep unwanted shoppers away from the planet, and the firewall would keep hackers away to. Of course it might work an entirely differentway than what I envision.


    "Initiating Hyper Drive. Calculating long distance jump, coordinates acquired. Powering up, activating spatial influx shield. Jump!"


    I felt as if my stomach was completely excavated and the urge to vomit came over me. I held it in, but Sky had no such disposition as she poured the contents of her previous meals on the floor of the ship, I could even see the handle and string of my old bow.


    I looked up to see that we seemed to be moving really fast, as lights ran past us like an illusionists light show. I''ve read and watched enough sci fi materials to know that this was probably hyper space.


    My discomfort aside, I felt really happy to be out here. I''ve not been to space in real life, and to suddenly have a chance to do so here in the game was really satisfying. But my satisfaction came to an abrupt end as we came out of hyper space abruptly, making my stomach feel as if it was filled with lead and shaken very hard. This time I could resist, and whatever was in my virtual body was deposited speedily on the ground.


    "So sorry Master Aaren, but this is the first jump. We have to initiate the second while the hyper engine is still hot. Sorry!"


    "uhhh, wait! Oh fuck!"


    "Jump!"


    VOOOOOOM!


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    I had no idea how many jumps were made. The only thing I was sure was the fact that my virtual and maybe even my real stomach was now completely empty. I was feeling dizzy, even to the point that I was not even aware that we had arrived. Because of that, I couldn''t see what the planet we heading to looked like.


    "Now entering stratosphere, initiation heat shields and preparing landing gear. Head for quadrant seventeen, it''s right at the edge of M.A.S, we should be able to deduce and come up with a plan of action from there."


    Next there was almost five minutes of intense turbulence, I could see flames licking the side of the ship as we entered the atmosphere of the planet. The first things I noticed were the clouds; rather the fluffy white clouds that I was used too, all I was seeing were thick black clouds rife with thunderstorms.


    Soon we were past the clouds and the planet wad spread our in front of me. It was like a scene from a apocalyptic steam punk movie. Massive refineries that constantly belches out smoke. Air ships shaped like dirigibles, with their massive air bags and metallic frames, and then the small patches of buildings or cities that had lights shining within them.


    But one thing that I had to say I hated was the darkness. Due to the intense amount of smoke being released, the clouds had grown black, blocking any and all light from the sun. And next were the lands around the cities: all I could see were massive trash heaps the size of cities.


    Ships, cars, boats, satellites, battle ship and even space stations!Were all over. This place truly was a burial ground for machines. But then how was he supposed to choose what he wanted from among this literal planet sized trash.


    "We''re heading to quadrant seventeen, there''s a broker who sells a special kind of high quality scanner compass with abilities to trace energy signatures and learn the composition of a machine. If we can get one of those scanners, our search time would be cut down, and you''ll be able to find the perfect ship sooner."


    "Wait!"


    How could I have forgotten! Though it''s not really my fault since I''ve been through a roller coaster ride of events, and to be fair I''ve only had a chance to use it once. I looked down at my chest, and there hanging leisurely was the mythical compass of Jack Sparrow.


    I opened the compass and watched as it''s dial spun around haphazardly. To use it, I had to ask it to lead me where I wanted to go. And I had to be specific about my question, or it would be completely useless. The elven clones looked at me with confusion etched all over their face, but never the less they still chose to wait for me as I stared at the compass.


    "Lead me to the best sea faring ship, that''s very fast, resilient and has very good battling capabilities."


    The compass shook in my hand, and lit up, creating a huge holographic display of itself. But it went beyond that, the compass had its form placed over a map of the planet, and it was pointing north, with a red dot appearing over what I could only call the dead center of the planet.


    "That''s Quadrant 1! Nobody goes there, not if you want to live M.A.S alive. That part of the planet is filed with pirates, smugglers, murderers, thieves, and infernal creatures that were born from the amalgamation of metal and flesh, by a cursed magic no one knows about. It''s suicide!" one of the elves said to me with panic all over his face.


    "Don''t worry Zack, I won''t put you and your brothers in danger. Just take me to the closest and safest placed there, and then I''ll find my way towards where I need to be." I said to them, as I strapped myself back in.


    "Absolutely not master Aaren!We were ordered to look after your safety, how can you expect us to abandon you. We''re going with you, even to the gates of hell itself. It''s our duty, so don''t worry."


    "Thank you Jack."


    I really couldn''t differentiate them from their looks, but I could from their characters. The one who worries a lot is Zack, their leader and the most loyal is Jack. Their silent brother and also the main pilot of the cargo ship was Darke,and finally their talk active co pilot was Mack.


    We all settle into a quiet atmosphere as the ship made it''s way towards the fabled quadrant 1. They were nervous, and I could also feel the same nervousness because of them. I wasn''t really sure about what made them so wary of this place, but I guess we''ll find out soon enough.


    Almost an hour later, the ship came to a stop in a dock, right at the edge of an expansive city. It was huge, made completely of metal, and incredibly crowded. As we made our way of the ship we were stopped by a hulking grey skinned man or ram?


    He was exactly like the minotaur''s from earth''s mythology, but instead of being a cow, he was a ram. His pitch black horns curved backwards over his bald head, which had bionic implants on one side of it. One of his arm and leg, were metal prosthetics; prosthetics that moved like the real thing.


    "Halt! You have to pay a total to get into the city¡­.elves. (Ptui!) I hate elves."


    Well congratulations I hate you too. He actually just spit at me, of course a spit flying in slow motion could not be allowed to touch me, but still how dare he. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, but seeing how subdued the clones were being, I suspected that this was not the place to raise a fuss. Jack moved forward and asked.


    "How much is the toll?"


    "50 gold dollars each." The Ram man said with a nasty grin, showing a pair of yellowed teeth that made me cringe.


    "but that''s too much. I just saw you let in someone else for 1 gold dollars, why would you increase the price by 50 times?" Jack asked with an aggrieved expression on his face.


    I really want to say something, or even make a move on this brute. But Darke had his hands on my wrist. And he shook his head slowly as if to tell me that any threatening actions won''t end well for us.


    "Well I''m the gate keeper, and this gate keeper hates elves. So if I say you money is 50 gold dollars, it''s fifty gold dollars. If you don''t like it, you dainty skinned elves can carry your gigolo faces and get off my planet."


    I raised an eyebrow at that. Gigolo? Seriously. Somebody let me kill this mutton. I''m sure he''s going to taste bland on my mouth, but food was talking back at me, and I didn''t like it. Damn! I seem really irritated about something, don''t really know what though.


    Jack sighed and paid the toll, and we walked past him and into the city proper. Thankfully Sky was in her bow form, so he didn''t give us any problem about that. Though I wonder what her staff form looked like, I bet it''s really cool.


    The city was like new York at night, only much dirtier, crowded, lawless, and smoky. Of course it wasn''t as big as the real world city, but they gave off the same feeling. However this place was crazy, if you ask me, this was a stoner''s paradise. I can''t pretend that I knew what sort of effects drugs used in a virtual reality game had. But I could see people using them around every street corner and all with smiles on their faces.


    Though in other corners, someone was either getting stabbed to death, or beaten to within an inch of his or her life. And others...¡­..we''re getting really hot an steamy as intense moans and loud smacks echoed from alleys and even right on a side walk, uncaring of who or whatever was passing by. Suffice it to say, this was not the kind of place you would bring your kid.


    We followed the compass as it led us on a straightforward path to the center of the city. At the end of our journey we came to a square that was filled with a lot of people. There was a set of fountain, and right on that fountain was a ship.


    This ship was weird though, because apart from being dilapidated, it was completely made of a pitch black metal. It was shaped like the normal battle ships from earths early 1800 hundreds, but there were scratches on it''s hull and sides, and it''s anchor was rusted and hanging helplessly on the square of the floor.


    But the weirdness didn''t end there, as there was a file of people paying money to go into the ship. I looked at the compass and saw that it was pointing exactly at that ship, and I even had that same tugging feeling I had from last time when I found the tree of revelations.


    "Are you serious master Kael! That''s the most famous ship on this planet. We can''t just take it! And even if you beat the dungeon and take the ship I doubt the pirates that have been making money of it would let it go easily." Zack said as he whispered furiously, scared of others hearing him.


    I gave him a look that said I didn''t understand what was going on here. But Mack came to his rescue.


    "That ship has had many names after it was owned by numerous captains from the ancient eras, when the universe was just reborn. First it was called the Nautilus, captained by a merman who fashioned it into a submarine. This captain was called Nemo. But after him, it belong to another captain, a pirate of intense evil called Blackbeard. And he called it Queen Ann''s revenge, giving the ship the power to ride the wind and even become sentient as he controlled it with a special saber. But even he wouldn''t last long enough as it also fell into the hands of a cursed man. One of the first who discovered the curse that could change the race of a person. This man gave the ship the ability to travel through multiple planes of existence or dimensions. But he only ever visited the land of the dead, and the realm of the sea goddess Calypso who was at the time his lover, he named the ship the flying Dutchman. And after his tragic end, with the ship being taken over by a simple young man who didn''t change it''s name, and chose to ferry the spirits of the departed to the land of the living. And finally the ship fell into the hands, of the most incongruous, selfish, greedy, insane, but yet known as one of the greatest pirate that''s eve lived. He was the last captain of the ship which he renamed the Black Pearl, and he made it the fastest sea faring vessel in all of history. The name of this captain of this man was......¡­."


    "Captain Jack Sparrow." I finished with a whisper.


    "You know about him?" Mack asked confused.


    "I don''t just know him Mack, I have his compass. It led us here; which means this ship is my destiny. Tell me, how do I get to become the captain of the greatest ships in the history of earths media."


    "What?"

 32 Trial Of The First Ring VIII : The Cursed Ship Of Death

    "The ship was rediscovered almost three hundred years ago, and since then, numerous adventurers have all tried to subdue it, to become the next captain of such a ship would be nothing less than a dream come through for many. However the ship has somehow transformed into a dungeon, and only one person can clear it.


    Unfortunately in the three hundred years that it''s been here, no one has beaten the dungeon, and travelers like you, who have the ability to resurrect after death, only have one chance and one chance only to get on that ship and attempt to clear it." Mack explained.


    "but even with the guaranteed death, more and more people still kept coming, I. an attempt to try out their luck and win the ship. So in response to that, the pirates in charge of quadrant 1 decided to start collecting fees from others, should they want to challenge the dungeon. And since everyone that goes in there dies, it made them very rich." Jack added.


    "Don''t do it,too dangerous." Darke said.


    And that shocked me, because those were the first words he''s spoken since we''ve met. But there was no way I was not goingto challenge this dungeon, because I knew that without a doubt even if I failed, I could just as always go get another one. I turned to Jack and Zack and said to them.


    "I need your help with something. I need you to find me a very good blacksmith, an engineer, and a systems analyst, preferably someone with hacking capabilities, who is very good with all sort of computers. I would prefer if either one of this guys are young, and as trust worthy as possible. Also make sure they''re willing to travel too."


    All four of them looked at me with confusion, not at all sure why I wanted people like that. But Jack and Zack gave me a simple nod as they turned around and left, blending into the crowd as they went to carry out my impromptu recruitment mission.


    "You two wait here for me, and stay out of sight if you don''t mind. This place is not the kind of place you would like to draw attention from." I said Darke and Mack.


    "Understood." Darke answered as he and Mack went to join the onlookers, blending into the crowd so fast that, by the time I just blinked my eyes, I had no idea where they were.


    I shrugged my shoulders, not at all worried about the intricacies of elven stealth. I made my way and joined the long queue of people going to their deaths. Of course any one of the guys ahead of me, could actually clear the dungeon, and then, it would mean I was here for nothing. So all I could do was selfishly pray that they all kept dying.


    There were 9 people in front of me, however the line seemed to be moving really fast as most of them had their dead bodies thrown out of the ship in under five minutes. Daunting as such a sight looked, nobody looked like they wanted to back down, they were determined to see this through to the end.


    Eventually it got to my turn, with the person ahead of me not even lasting five minutes before his badly mangled body and decapitated head came flying out of the ship, splattering blood all over the pavement and some unlucky onlookers, who seemed to be taking bets about how long each new challenger would last.


    "It''s a 100 silver dollars to register." A voice said to me as I got closer.


    All I could see was a floating tablet, probably an AI companion responsible for taking the entry fee. I raised my wrist, and my communication''s device beeped. After agreeing and signing a couple of documents to facilitate the transfer, I paid the fee and stepped into the ship through the huge hole at it''s side.


    [You have entered Single player dungeon: The cursed Ship of death/Timer: 4:58:11]


    Okay so this dungeon has a timer, and I have no less than five hours to beat it. I''ve not experienced a dungeon like this before, unless it''s the kind that needed players to beat the fastest clear time. Usually that means there would be rewards from the system, and whatever guild or player could clear the dungeon, they were guaranteed to have some bragging rights.


    WHOOSH! THUNK!


    "Jesus Christ!"


    I just got attacked by a big weird cyborg with an Axe for an arm. But whatever this guy was, he was more machine than man, and he had blades sticking out of his body. His red eyes gleamed as he powered over me at almost nine foot tall, and his skin seemed have boil like protrusions over it.


    He attacked again, moving a whole lot faster than you would expect someone of his size to be able to do. I grabbed Sky and jumped back a bit, flapping my wings from speed as I shotan arrow at his body. A force field appeared, and the arrow bounced of it''s surface.


    I was dumbfounded, how the hell were you supposed to beat something that had and impenetrable defense. No time to think though, as I ducked under a Wilde swing, and moved forward to slam my shoulder into it''s mid section. The nine foot cyborg was actually picked up and thrown halfway across what I now understood was an engine room.


    So that''s how it works. Weapons attacks would be defended, especially projectiles. If I wanted to beat this thing, I had to pound it to death with my fist. Though I''m sure I could probably penetrate that shield just be relying on the wind mark ability of Sky''s bow form,but it would take too much time and include of lot of differing variables.


    [You have attacked cursed cyborg pirate(elite)/Grade: Mortal/ hidden Grade: none/ level: 150/ Hp: 910/1000]


    Okay? Why is it''s health so small, and would a simple shoulder bash throw it almost five meters away from me, and deal 90 whole damage? But the answer was right in front of me. My armor had a specific bonus that related to physical strength, which means I was probably strong enough to give captain America or Spiderman a run for their money.


    GROOOOAAAAR


    "I know, I know! I hate your face too."


    I charged at it, ducking under another wild swing as I slide in between his legs, and punched at his knees. There was a loud creak as his right leg bent sideways awkwardly, forcing him to lean on a dingy looking pipe, that seems to have seen better days. I got back up to my feet, and threw a punch right at the middle of his spine.


    [Critical hit ¨C 1500 Hp, you have slain cursed cyborg pirate level 150. All Exp rewards are deferred until trial or revelations is over.]


    That was easier than I expected, but I don''t think I''m out of the woods yet. I could hear shuffling sounds around the engine room, so there should probably be more of these cyborgs around. I had to sneak around and avoid battle as much as possible until I can figure out what the particular aim for this dungeon is. It can''t just be about killing every cyborg in sight.


    "Stealth".


    Contrary to my expectations as I didn''t turn invisible. This bloody skill description was incredibly misleading. All I felt was that my footsteps were more silent, and the shadows in the engine room seemed to wrap around my body as I moved.


    I moved right, picking my steps as quietly as possible, going down the hallway until I came to a bend. I turned and saw that it sort of led into an open area. It was circular and right in the middle of it, there was some sort of giant black pearl that was floating between two massive magnets. The entire engine room seemed to be built around it, which means this should or would probably be the ship''s power source.


    But it can''t be that easy can it. I counted six cyborgs, and finally there was some sort mermaid, cyborg man,who was floating above ground, as if the very air itself was made of water.


    [Coritane Water Jacker(Boss)/ Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: none/ Level: 150]


    "I can smell your stench elf! It is so thick and revolting that my skin itches in annoyance." Coritane spoke out, completely dashing my delusions of being a super spy stealth master.


    " ow that''s just rude. I''ll have you know that I shower everyday. Of course some times I''m just to lazy to go into a bathroom, so all I can do is just laze around and eat. I especially like fish, they''re so tasty you know, especially when you grill them. Mmmmmmmm Mama! It''s like a slice from heaven."


    Was he mad, yep he definitely was mad. And since this was not like ordinary VRMMORPG where you have to beat the boss''s minions before you kick his ass, Coritane could break protocol and attack. And he did, so fast that I didn''t even see it coming.


    A stream of water slammed into my figure and threw me at the wall. It hurt, but not as much as I expected it to. Then the same stream of water grabbed me, and trapped me in a water prison of sorts.


    "Now you''ll drown for you affronts against the fish people! And I''ll enjoy watching you drown."


    Oh no! I can''t breathe. My chest was getting heavy and I was rapidly running out of air. I clawed at the walls of the water prison, trying everything I could to break through, but I couldn''t. I couldn''t fail here! Not to the smug grin of this weird merman. But I was helpless, I was dying, no! I''m¡­....I''m.....I''m only kidding!


    But Coritane here didn''t need to know that. I could swim in this thing with ease for eight hours straight. After all, I had the body parts of a fish, but no one but me and Sky knows that.


    I kept up with my pretense, and three minutes later I died. Coritane wanted to be sure, so he left me within the prison for another ten minutes before releasing it and unceremoniously letting me drop to the metal floor below me with a bang. I had to admit, that hurt.


    He turned around to walk/swim/float away as he gave orders to his six cyborg subordinates. "Throw his disrespectful corpse back outside¡­..ahhhh!"


    "You know you should really make sure that the person you want to kill is truly dead before you make plans to ditch the body."


    I said to him as I got up, both my hands wrapped tightly around what I now realized was a metallic fish tail. It was like some sort of prosthetic that helped him swim around above water like a fish. Was this guy really a merman.


    His cyborg subordinates,seeing that their boss was captured, made a beeline straight for me, hoping to save him. But I had other plans and none of them, especially Coritane here was going to like it. Because I could almost guarantee, that it''s going to hurt.....a lot!

 33 The Trial Of The First Ring IX : Captain Davy Jones Of The Flying Dutchman.

    With my hands still wrapped around the tail of the merman, I swung him towards the approaching cyborgs. There was a loud smack as the first cyborg was sent flying across the engine room, then I threw a kick out towards another cyborg, and actually succeed in caving in his chest as a loud mechanical whirl was heard and a shower of sparks burst out from his caved in chest.


    I swung Coritane towards another one of the cyborg, hearing a loud crack as their heads impacted, and the cyborg crumbled to the ground, spasming about like he wad having a seizure. Then I stepped forward, and sliced outward with Coritaneheld like a two handed sword, slamming him into the chests of the three remaining cyborgs.


    They flew back, past the black sphere suspended in the air between two magnets, and crashed into the wall of the engine room where a plethora of wires and a huge circuit board was exposed. Massive sparks were released as the cyborgs were electrocuted and they fell to the ground seconds later, burnt to a crisp, with their bionic parts glowing a deep shade of red, almost as if it had been super heated.


    You would think that as cyborgs, they had a higher tolerance of electrical currents than a normal human being, but I guess the ship was packing a lot more juice, even though it looked like it was completely out of commission.


    All of a sudden I bared witness to an intense display of stupidity, as the first cyborg, still very much injured raised a gun with a massive barrel and without hesitation fired at me. I had enough warning to raise Coritane and use him as a shield, but the bullet was powerful enough to slam into Coritane, go through his body, and smash into my armor, throwing me backwards till I hit my back on a set of ladders that led up and out of the engine room, completely crumpling it''s metallic frame.


    My wings ached, but they were also encased in armor, and a lot stronger than before, so they were invariably still safe. The cyborg opened a slot on the gun, and popped out a cartridge, and prepared to add in another one. But I was not going to give a chance to use that gun on me again.


    "Mana arrow!"


    An arrow of pure blue mana shot out of my hand towards the cyborg. But his protective shield blocked it and prevented it from taking any damage. I expected that, and I was not too worried, all I wanted to do was create a diversion, and I succeeded.


    I grabbed Sky, and started firing arrows from my quiver. The first arrow pinged harmlessly off his shield, and so did the second and the third. But the fourth caused a ripple, the fifth a wave. And when I was firing the sixth arrow, Soused homing shot, adding more damage to the already ridiculous speed buff that my arrows had.


    The sixth arrow caused cracks to appear, and since the homing shot skill had a little explosive effect, the cyborg was pushed back and unsettled. And that was enough for me to pull back my seventh arrow and use (shoot) piercing through his shield and through his skull. The arrow flew onwards to ping harmlessly off the metal walls.


    I moved my shoulder a bit, and then looked around. All of the cyborgs were dead or heavily incapacitated, and Coritane was in a very bad situation. But this dude was the boss, or at least a boss. So I walked towards him, raised my foot up high in the air, and smashed it downwards as hard as I could.


    [You have slain Coritane Water Jacker(boss) all exp rewards would be deferred until trial of revelations is over]


    Guess that was that. I turned and left the engine room, going up the crumpled ladder as I came up to another hallway. Though this was a little shorter, but based on the cell doors that I was seeing, this was probably a brig or something. I moved forward, and saw that within those cell doors, were numerous skeletons and rotting bodies in various state of decay. I had to fight the urge to puke as I made my way out.


    The end of the hallway, came up to another ladder, and I did not hesitate to climb up, coming up into a room that I could only call a mess hall or something of the sort. The only problem I had right now, was the fact this mess hall was chock full of humanoid Aquatic life forms, and each and everyone one of them had augmented bionics and prosthetics. It was a cafeteria filled with Fish men cyborgs.


    "Umm! Hi! My name is Aaren and I''m looking for your captain. You see I think I might have taken a wrong turn, because I have absolutely no idea how I got here..."


    PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!


    "I invoke the rights of parley! Parley?...oh fuck!"


    PEW! PEW! PEW!


    Lasers! Lovely. I quickly ducked behind a table, which thankfully was made of a metal that could resist laser fire, at least for a short while, because I could see the table was turning red, rapidly heating up under the onslaught from the fish men cyborgs. I took a deep breath and pointed Sky to my left, and used homing shot.


    I didn''t need to look to know that the arrow had hit it''s target, bring my current wind mark stack to eight. The arrow attack had shocked some of them, since they did not expect I would have been able to attack them, much less with a bow and arrow. So some of them went for barricades of their own, giving me time to jump up, pull back on Sky''s string and use shoot again for the ninth stack.


    Just before I got back down, I saw the arrow fly through the forehead of three cyborg fishmen, the chest of two others that towered above the rest at ten feet tall each, and slammed into the air of tentacle haired fish cyborg. And then the lasers fell like rain on top of me like the was no tomorrow. That was my ninth stack for wind mark, which means the next arrow would increase all of my attack speed bonuses by 100%, giving the arrow more speed, penetration and power. But I had a surprise in store for them. Let''s do this!


    "Meteor Shower!"


    TWANG! DI! DI! DI! DI! DI!


    It was like the pounding feet of a hundred.....or a hundred thousand men. Huddled behind my barricade I could hear screams, and even smell burnt flesh and molten metal from where I was hiding. There was smoke, and another thick scent in the air that felt toxic to inhale, I couldn''t help coughing, as I raised my head a bit to see what carnage I had left behind.


    Most, if not almost all of the tables had all been melted through. The cafeteria was heavily damaged, and it did not look like any area apart from where I was hiding was untouched. The power behind meteor shower was almost 10 no! 15 times more powerful than when I first used it against that Patmosian guy that put chains on Sky. I''m shocked, and I really couldn''t put my finger on what''s wrong, at least not until I realized that, at the time, Sky was only just level 0 battle beast. She was now level 15, and from the looks of this damage, every level she gains, would increase the power of her skills by one. Which means the wind mark skill probably increased too.


    And it did! All fifteen levels that she has gained, added three more stacks to it, making the speed of every attack increase by 10% for a maximum of 13, raising all attack speed bonuses by a 130%. That''s just insane!


    I looked around to see that almost all the cyborgs were dead, heck!I was surprised that some of them even survived, because based on the damage I''ve just witnessed, Meteor shower is not a skill that''s to be used in enclosed spaces. Especially in a place like this! I came here for this ship, and now I''m destroying it. This is so not fair.


    "Yer power is impressive young elf. Of all the people who have come aboard me ship, Yer the one to have made this far. I commend yer bravery boy! So I will give yer a chance and ask nicely, before I dice yer up into little bits. Get off me ship!"


    This dude was tall, and bulky, and slimy. He was at lest seven foot tall, well muscled, and had metallic tentacles for hair and beard. Had a big ass titanium looking clawed hand, and sword on the other. He was missing one leg, and instead of having a bionic prosthetic, he had the wooden leg synonymous to pirates from mainstream media.


    [Captain Davy Jones (Cursed Boss)/ Grade: Heaven/ Hidden Grade: none/ Level: 300/ HP- 2000/2000]


    I was confused about something though. If this guys were as high leveled as they''re supposed to be, and of a higher grade, it makes this a dungeon that players or a player (since it''s a single instance dungeon) would have to be at least level 250 to be able to beat. Yet their Hp value are so low, making them all just a bit stronger than me.


    "yer discovered the secret of me crews enchanted shields, and even overpowered them with just the strength of yer body alone. You''re not an ordinary elf are yer?" Davy Jones said to me, as he moved his body out of the doorway he was standing at.


    "Well I''m not just an elf, I''m also part dragon and a little bit human."


    "Interesting two noble magical bloodlines, and the bloodline of balance to keep them both in harmony. No wonder yer could make it this far, but this is as far as yer would go boy. No one is taking me ship."


    And as he finished speaking, he pointed his sword at me, where a ball of light was beginning to show and build up. I didn''t doubt for one second that should whatever that wad touch me, I would be disintegrated...¡­..maybe not as dramatic as disintegration, but something really bad.


    "This ship has not sailed in thousands of years, it''s dying and already on its last breath. People out there make a mockery of it, they pay money to see who would be able to conquer it, and they bet on how long each person would survive. Your ship, is being made a mockery of." I said to him


    "No! The flying Dutchman is the glory of the seven seas, my glory! It can never be made a mockery off! Me ship and I instilled fear in the hearts and souls of the living and the dead alike. The seas tremble at my calling and the monsters of the deep heed me commands. Me ship is the greatest to have existed!"


    He was frenzied, angry and very upset. But I couldn''t let up, only my mouth can truly save me now. I had this feeling that Davy Jones was powerful, way too powerful for me to challenge him. I needed to find a way to bring this fight down to my level.


    "Glory? You and this ship have no glory left, just legends. In an Era where there are ships which sail the stars, and the suns, and many worlds, your pride and joy is nothing more than an obsolete heap of metal, that''s being used to make money by lesser pirates than yourself. You should move one while you still can, give the mantle of this ship to me, and I promise I''ll make it just a great if not better than it was during your time. Because your time has passed, you''re not even known as the greatest captain this ship has ever known."


    "What do you mean boy! You better pick yer words carefully, me blade has not tasted blood! In quite a while." He threatened as he drew closer to me.


    "I''m sorry, but it''s true. This ship is no longer known as the Flying Dutchman, but rather, the Black Pearl. The pride and joy of the greatest pirate to roam the seven seas."


    "That bastard cabin boy stole me ship! How dare he! Arghhh, what''s his name?"


    "You know his name captain Jones. Didn''t you say he was your cabin boy? Call it out! Say it!" I shouted back at him, essentially driving the crazy old pirate to the edge.


    "Jack SPARROOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!"


    My work here is done. Now it''s time for the proverbial nail in the coffin.


    "Captain Davy Jones of the Flying Dutchman. I Aaren Seven, Son of a dragon, Son of an elf, Chosen of the tree of revelations. Challenges you for the right to captain this ship. If you want to keep whatever is left of your glory, your honor. If you feel that your day has not turned to dusk and you could still instill fear into the hearts of many. Prove your worth to me once again, and honor me and yourself in the ancient tradition of combat. My sword against your sword, my glory against your glory, winner takes all."


    I said to him as I hung Sky behind my waist and slowly pulled my sword out, a ringing sound filling the entire cafeteria. Davy Jones chuckled as he flipped the sword in his hands and asked me.


    "And the prize?"


    "You ship!"

 34 Trial Of The First Ring X : The Duel

    Davy Jones moved forward, slashing his sword downwards with a speed that could very well rival mine. I raised my sword to intercept, using the side rather than the edge to redirect the fall of his saber. It was a defensive and evasive technique to sword fighting, it''s what I''m used to. But I don''t think it would help me in this situation.


    "I take it you acceptmy challenge?" I asked him with a grin on my face.


    "Accepting Yer challenge is beneath me boy, but I decided to humor yer. Don''t disappoint me. En garde"


    He pulled back and got into a basic fencing pose, and quickly moved forward, flicking his saber towards my neck. I hate fencing, I absolutely abhorred that sword style. The idea of attacking and retreating in a straight line, performing rigid and very predictable movements did not sit well with me. I very much preferred the Asian style of swordsmanship, from the resolute samurais to the versatile sword dance of Chinese kung Fu.


    I stepped back and inclined my sword so that the flat side was facing upwards. I sent it above Davy Jones''s approaching saber and flicked it down, making sure it slammed into it, completely derailing it''s trajectory.


    I threw my left hand out, hitting Davy Jones on the jaw and then taking advantage of his confusion to kick him on the chest, pushing him back a few steps. I didn''t let up on my attack as I moved forward, slicing my sword up from top to bottom, he anticipated that moved and used his bionic clawed hand to grab the blade of my sword, firmly holding it in place as he sent his sword towards my chest.


    CLANG!


    I had to grit my teeth as I felt the vibrations dance through my wings and wing bones. But regardless, my armored wings had stopped the advancement of his sword, and kept me safe. For a moment Davy Jones was surprised by the turn of events, giving me the chance to pull my sword out of his grasp, and spread my wings out as I began to twirl towards him.


    "Wing blade!"


    CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! BANG!


    Every rotation I made sent the sharpened edge of my wings against him. But he successful defended each cut my wings made at his body with his saber, and when I finished turning, I pushed forward my palm as wind appeared and slammed into his chest, picking him up and throwing him across the cafeteria.


    The vacuum palm skill bought me a little breathing room, but since this was a sword fight rather than an ordinary fight where anything goes, I couldn''t use my bow to drill holes into his body from a distance. Of course I could just as easily not care about the proper rules of a duel, and just shoot him to oblivion; but for some reason I rather enjoyed the challenge getting physical with a sword could bring me.


    "Wind School: Lightening Coat."


    While spells are also considered skills, their manner of activation was very different. A chant is needed for every spell, and if you do use the chant, you could increase the effectiveness and power of the spell by an entire 50%. But not all players could memorize the dozens of chants for all their spells, so it just easier to call out the spell name for activation.


    Tiny arcs of electricity began to flicker all around my body, increasing my speed and defense as I shot towards Davy Jones, sword pointed out in a piercing motion. He partied the frontal attack, pushing our swords aside as he slammed his clawed hand into my gut.


    My entire body folded around his fist, and I felt all my lunch threaten to come out. Of course there was nothing there, multiple hyper space jumps had left my stomach completely empty. I fell down to my knees, where I noticed his own knee heading right for my face, I pulled my sword back to defend; but it was hardly enough as I felt the cold steel of my sword slam into my nose.


    I fell back on my ass dazed,it I felt the air around me get significantly wetter? And then I looked up to see his saber coated with a thin film of glowing water. Then he slashed down at me, but I moved to the side quickly, as his saber fell to the floor, releasing a sword wave that dug furrows into the metal floor.


    I didn''t want to even imagine what could have happened to me had that skill touched me. Which was why I ignored it, and attacked again. He was overextended, so I quickly slashed forward with both hands holding my sword for more power.


    "Mana Blade!"


    My own sword let out a shower of blue light that almost rivaled his, as a wave was shot out of my sword towards him. Another force field appeared to protect him, blocking the mana blade. But the attack was not over! The mana blade wad an energy wave shot out of my sword, but that didn''t mean my sword''s momentum had slowed down.


    CLANG! "Hard Punch!"


    He used his metallic clawed hand to block the strike, but the force behind it, still forced him to bend down a bit, leaving the side of his head unprotected enough for me to slam my fist into. The punch was hard enough that some of his metallic tentacles were cut of, and Davy Jones was forced into a mini spin that left his back exposed to me.


    SHICKT! ARGHHHHHHHHH!


    I drove my sword into his back, and pushed it so hard it came out the front of his chest. Invariably this was the first through injury and strike in a fight that''s barely lasted three minutes. We were moving so fast I could hardly keep up. I pulled my sword back, and Davy Jones stumbled forward, black blood pouring from the hole on his chest.


    He turned back towards me with fury etched on his face as he threw his sword aside, and pointed his hand at me. Then he opened his mouth and began to utter words in a guttural language I couldn''t understand. The wind picked up, and the ship began to shake, and I knew without a doubt, he was probably preparing some sort of huge spell. There was not way, I was going to sit still and let that happen.


    "Cone of Silence!"


    Davy Jones went silent, his spell and the phenomenon it caused, completely faded away like it was never there in the first place. But this would only last for 5 seconds, and I had to make the best of his scenario, seeing as he was now unarmed.


    I moved closer, ducked under a wild swing, as I slashed left and right, ignoring his silent screams, as I move back, evading his outstretched leg. Then I moved forward again, slashing upwards, as my sword tore a furrow from his groin all the way to his chin. The wound was not too deep, but damn if this game didn''t feel so real as he stepped back in shock and almost fell over from tripping over one of the tables that was overturned during my fight with his crew.


    That was all the opening I needed as moved forward and stabbed my sword through his heart. Twisting it the blade to cause as much damage as possible. It was then that the cone of silence faded, and I could hear his deep gasp for breath.


    "Yer won boy, never should have bet against a fool willing to fight a legendary captain like me self, should have know something be wrong and smell a lot fishy with yer presence on me ship.....(cough!) It was....a...¡­good fight boy!....(cough!) Please treat her well."


    [You have slain Captain Davy Jones Of The Flying Dutchman. All exp rewards are deferred until trial of revelations are complete.]


    [World Alert! Player Aaren Seven is the first and only person to have cleared one man instance dungeon the cursed Ship of death. He has been awarded +5 to all stat points,to 5+ skill points, 1 million gold dollars and + 1000 to universal reputation.]


    [For killing a heaven grade enemy at the common grade, you''ve been given +20 to all stats,+5 skill points. One random treasure box of the heavens grade, and the sword of Blackbeard.]


    [You''re now the captain of this ship, congratulations!]


    Davy Jones and his crew began to slowly evaporate, turning into wisps of black gas as they floated up and away to the great beyond. It was a rather challenging fight if I do say so myself, however it was insightful and quite therapeutic. I don''t remember the last time I actually let myself go like that, enjoying a very physical and vigorous task...¡­..I really need to get laid, stat!


    The compass around my neck started glowing, and then the next thing that happened was for it to start dragging me around the cafeteria, and through the doorway Jones had used to come in. We climbed a short flight of stairs, and came up unto the deck. As soon as I did so, I was exposed to the entirety of Quadrant 1. No doubt I was sure a lot of people started asking questions when I wasn''t thrown out as quickly as they thought I would be.


    Darke and Mark were still nowhere to be seen and I had to give them credit for that; elves really knew how to hide. The compass dragged my body and led me straight towards the ships steering wheel. But it was not so simple, apart from the steering wheel, there was a massive control station built around it. It was completely covered in dust, and a lot of wires were sticking out of it.


    The compass snapped open, and floated right over the center of the steering wheel, and that''s when I noticed the open port on it. A port that the compass fit into perfectly. The compass felt into the port, the string holding it around my neck turned into a golden string that wrapped around it''s edge, and the lid of the compass split into two halves, fitting themselves into two extra ports on the wheels, and looking like the open wings of a beetle.


    Then all of a sudden there was a suction force towards my hand, forcing it to fall right in the middle of the wheel, over the compass as a massive needle shot into my palm and began to drain my blood. Suddenly there was a loud beep, and a holographic screen came up in front of me.


    SHIP NAME: BLACK PEARL- CHANGE


    CAPATAIN: AAREN SEVEN


    SHIP LEVEL: -5/ SHIP GRADE: NORMAL


    STATUS: HEAVILY DAMAGED


    CREW: 0


    SUB-MARINE FORM: DAMAGED(OFFLINE)


    SKY-SHIP FORM: DAMAGED(OFFLINE)


    DIMENSION SHIP FORM: DAMAGED (OFFLINE)


    WEAPONS: N/A


    DEFENSES: N/A


    SKILLS: NO SKILLS LEARNT


    Well fuck me this ship is completely useless. How in God''s name do you get a minus five level! I think I just bought myself a literal ship load of trouble. And in other matters.


    "What the hell mom!"

 35 Trial Of The First Ring XI : Escaping From Pirates

    So the ship was already loaded onto the cargo ship? There was nothing we could do about it''s current state, not without the help of a mechanic or engineer. Preferably an engineer as those guys work well with both the electrical and mechanical stuffs.


    I could learn to fix the ship myself, but without prior knowledge or a schematic to work from, it would take me a long ass time. which is why Darke and Mack were standing beside me at the docking bay, waiting for Jack and Zack who I had sent looking for someone who would fix the ship.


    But our waiting was not exactly comfortable, seeing as we were being stared at by a couple hundred shifty looking pirate dudes. It was unsettling, and the fact that none of the could hide the greed and murderous tendencies in their eyes, totally unsettled me. I was a battle maniac, but fighting hundreds of pirates was nothing but suicide.


    As if on cue, Jack and Zack made their way through the crowd, a d they were dragging a fourteen year old girl behind themselves...¡­.wait a minute, that''s no fourteen year old! She looks at least 30. But she was so short,barely reaching five feet, and she had on this massive bag pack.


    "Master Aaren, if we hope to keep our lives, I believe we should get the hell of this trash heap!" Jack said to me as he drew closer.


    "Hunh! Why? What''s wrong?"


    "No time for questions bird boy, let''s get out of here now, or our corpse would become dinner to the outland scavengers!"


    The short girl...err woman said to me as we all rushed up the ramp and into the cargo ship, coming up to the cargo hold where the black pearl was currently lying.


    "Sweet mother of elven tits, you won the ship! How?"


    Mack screamed as it Impressive but still very damaged form of the legendary ship loomed over his figure.


    We all ignored him, and got into the cockpit, everybody findinga seat and strapping themselves in. The short woman who threw her incredibly large bag over a seat and strapped it in too. The she sat opposite me, and watched as with a worried look on her face as Darke initiated the take off procedures.


    It was then I got to take a closer look at her. She had fiery red hair, white horns that curved to her back like crescent moons, slitted pink eyes, fair skin that was smudges with grease and dirt, and tipped ears like an elf, only a bit shorter and broader.


    She had on a mechanics jumpsuit, and over her head, an aviator goggle was hanging precariously. But even with her small size, and the fact that she was wearing a rather baggy jumpsuit, her curves and incredible bust size could not be hidden. She was a bit on the plump side, but my if she wasn''t voluptuous. And that chest! How could she move with those?


    "Hey! Keep your eye''s straight you pervert!"


    To say I felt embarrassed was an understatement, at the moment all I could was thank all the gods that I knew for my darker skin. If not, I''m sure I would probably be blushing from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head. Guess my flirting/charismatic mode was currently deactivated.


    Thankfully the cargo ship began to move, dragging our attention away from the somewhat awkward atmosphere. We''ve only begun to move for about ten minutes, when the cargo ship came to a jarring stop. This was the reason why seat belts were invented.


    "Incoming hail from a pirate ship Jack." Mack said from his position beside Darke.


    "Patch it through." Jack said as we all turned our attention to the massive ship almost ten times the size of ours flying opposite ours in the air.


    (Hohoho! Greetings elflings. My name is captain Tobias Clint, the pirate king of this here Quadrant 1. Nice to meet you.)


    "What can we do for you Captain Tobias Clint?" Jack asked


    (Oh! It''s nothing much, or troublesome. It''s just that you guys visited, and didn''t stay long enough to properly enjoy the hospitality of our fine city, not to mention you''re leaving with a very important historical relic of great city. Now that''s not so nice, so in regards to our well know hospitality: which we''re so eager to show you, why don''t you land your cargo ship and join me for a cup of tea.)


    The voice of captain Tobias Clint was edgy and deep. However there was a crazy like cackle to it, sort of like the Joker. I couldn''t help but shudder.Darke noticed something and put the communication on hold for a moment, before turning to us.


    "We''re being surrounded by pirate ships! And the ship in front of us has us stuck in a tractor beam. But it''s charge is not strong enough, so we can break free from it. However I don''t think we can escape the planet with this much pirates around us. We might have no other choice but to land."


    That was the most I''ve ever heard him speak, of course I''m sure the situation calls for it, but now how the hell were we supposed to get the hell out of here. Jack ran his hand through his yellow blond elven hair, as he turned to reply the captain.


    "Captain Tobias, I''m afraid, we can''t land this ship as we''re on an urgent mission for the elven diplomatic minister. This cargo ship is registered under her name, and I''m afraid your actions would cause a lot diplomatic problems." Jack explained.


    "Okay look here elf boy, I don''t give a shit which bitch! Owns the bloody cargo ship. This trash heap of a planet is mine! And no elven whore has the power to come make trouble for me, not if she doesn''t want to be shot out of the sky. Now I''m done asking, take your bloody ass down to the ground, and hand the black pearl to me, and maybe then I can consider killing you slowly. But by all means, please resist, it would make shooting you out of the sky all the more pleasant."


    I guess there was no talking our way out of this. Since this was a cargo ship, I doubted it was strong enough to withstand damage from the dozens of custom made and enhanced pirate space ships caving us. And not just defense, I doubt it''s weapons system could dish out enough damage to threaten them.


    "Master Aaren I''m afraid we have no choice but to land. As we are right now, I''m afraid we can''t fight them." Jack said to me as he turned around.


    "Like hell you will, jump into hyper space now! They hyper engine should be charged enough to get you clear of the planet. From there you should have enough chances to get away!" the short red haired new addition to our ship shouted at Jack.


    "Are you crazy or something?" Zack asked with his eyebrow raised


    "First it''s almost guaranteed that jumping into hyper space within a planet''s atmosphere would cause severe damage to it''s ecosystem, or at least within the area where the jump was initiated.And this close to the city, I''m afraid we''re going to be leveling at least a quarter of it, if not half. And then the danger of jumping out of a planet since the start charts don''t function well under a planet''s gravitational pull. We have to be in orbit to plot a course and navigate! If we jump now, we''ll be jumping blind, and could very well end up in the middle of a star, a solar storm, through an asteroid or the gods forbid, a black hole!" Zack said with a panicked look on his face.


    "What other choice do you have?" She asked back with her hands folded in challenge.


    Zack couldn''t say anything, because without a doubt she was right. If we stay here and land, there''s a 100% chance we''re all going to be killed and the ship taken away by this bloody pirate.


    But if we initiate the hyper space jump, there''s a 99.99999% that we''ll survive. Really small odds, but I''ll take it either way. Of course if we should all go burn in a star, I''ll survive, and so would Sky. But the others and the ship wouldn''t make it, but this was a risk we had to take.


    "Do it! Make the jump!" I said to them with a hard voice.


    "But master Aaren!...."


    "I said do it! Now!" I shouted cutting off Zack.


    Darke turned around and pushed a lever forward, slowly powering up the ship as we prepared to jump into hyper space.


    (What are you doing? Stop! I command you to stop now!Shit!....fire the EMP cannon, fire it!........what do you mean firing it will knock all of the other fleets out!....fuck you Monty! Fire the cannon now! Now! Now!Or we''re all going to die, you should do as I say I''m the captain.....)


    VOOOOOOM!


    Space, stars, moons and an asteroid belt in the distance. But my stomach was terribly upset and I felt like puking my guts out. What the hell! I''m never getting on a space ship again, never! Not in the game, and definitely not in the real world.


    [Your orders have taken the life of 4679 pirates,and 8483 inhabitants of the Quadrant 1 city. 1000 of which are children below the age of twelve. For your actions in destroying a criminal city, you''ve been given 3000 fame, and 3000 infamy. You''ve received the title Bronze Blood Commander, Mass Murderer/ all exp are deferred until trial of revelations is over. / you''ve been given +15 to all stats and +15 skill points. You''ve received blueprints for (Ion Pulse Cannon) (Dragon Star Engine) / You''ve received passive skills, Navigator, and Command/ You''ve received three Skill combining Gem.]


    So we''re alive, very good. But why do I feel a pit in my stomach, why did I feel like it would have been better to be dead rather than alive. And I don''t feel like hearing all this crap about this being a game, I''m not sure I can that lecture to myself right now.


    With every second that I''ve spent in here, this was becoming more and more like a real world rather than a simple game. I didn''t feel like the so called NPCs were only lines of codes and programming, I''ve felt connected to some of them, I could relate. Jack and his brothers were an example, they all felt so alive, and now I''ve murdered thousands with just a word. And children to boot, what have I done?


    "Log out!"

 36 A Talk, A Kiss, A Punch And Being Unreasonable

    KIRA


    I couldn''t understand what was wrong with him, of course there''s always the fact that maybe Ron being autistic was a little too hard on him. But I couldn''t shake the feeling that there was something more going on, I could feel that he was conflicted, and guilty.


    So I watched him, and he in turn watched Ron. Ron was having one of his lock outs: at times like this, he tends to ignore everyone and everything around him while he focused on what he was doing. No amount of shouting, or shaking would bring him out of it, not unless he was done with what he had in mind.


    Aaron sat behind Ron, his legs crossed and his elbow resting his thigh while his jaw rested on his clenched fist. He had this faraway look in his eyes that was all too similar with his son''s. He looked really attractive with that look of concentration and loss on his face, like a drowning man searching for help.


    "What''s wrong with you Aaron? Something''s eating you up. If it''s about Ron''s autism, you should stop. This isn''t your fault."


    I said to him with a soft voice. But why? Why should I care. Weren''t we supposed to be using each other, I mean we''re going to be working together soon. And he had an endgame I didn''t know about, but still that didn''t mean I should care. But I couldn''t help myself, from a young age I''ve always been articulate and precise about everything in my life.


    And even though right now, there''s so many things wrong with it, I couldn''t live around or be around someone or something that''s out of place. I had an obsessive compulsive disorder, I liked to fix things, because doing so is the only way I could live with the fact that I''m unable to fix myself or my own life. At least until he came around.


    He was no my radar, my senses were tingling with the need for me to get to know him. Now the sexual tension between us aside, Aaron was broken piece of shit who''s very existence seems to annoy me all the time. But I wanted to fix him so bad it scared me, I had no idea what''s wrong with me.


    "The NPCs within lost Descendants online. Do you thing they''re alive?" He asked me, as he brushed his hands through Ron''s hair.


    I was surprised that he actually replied without dragging it out, and then forcing me to beat a reply out of him. I expected him to say nothing was wrong, and I had to coax the answer out of him, but I guess Aaron Wade never does what is expected of him.


    "I don''t think they''re alive Aaron, I know they''re alive!" I answered him, and then he turned looking at me with shock and fear? It was almost as if he wanted what I just said to be a lie.


    "You''re not the first person to bring this up, especially with how advanced Lost Descendants online is, there''s been quite a few petitions to have AIs recognized as fully functional and living beings. Of course the government has been dragging their feet, acknowledging that these are sentient beings capable of thought and free will, means that there would be unable to utilize and use them the way they want to. They stop being tools, but rather people that can''t be exploited without their own consent. In the past seventeen years, there''s been five very vocal voices regarding this issue.


    Three of them wanted AIs to be recognized as living beings capable of thought, that way lost Descendants online would no longer just be an ordinary game, but a freaking world, bringing things like immigration, border laws, human rights etc. into play between the virtual world and reality.


    There are too many angles to consider when it comes to AIs, so there''s not been an agreement reached ever since your mom died. She was one of those voices that advocated for AI rights, along with your grandfather and her best friend Cora. Of course one of the people against it, was actually your step mother, and since she comes from a family of world renowned neurological engineers, her words had a lot of sway. She made your mother seem like a programmer who was just too sentimental about her creations. I was really young then, but I remember watching it on the news, their fight back then was really high profile and public. What brought this on?" I asked him, just to know why he was so moody and dark.


    "I killed thousands of AIs in the game, not on purpose, but still because of me, and quite a few them were children. With how real the gam...¡­That world has been for me, it''s left me feeling sick inside. I''m a soldier, a freaking member of an international special forces unit that works with and from the U.N. killing is nothing new to me, giving the orders to kill is nothing new to me either. But not children, never children. And now, now it''s...¡­I don''t know what''s wrong with me." He said as his shoulders dropped down a little.


    "And now that you''re a father, you''re a whole lot more affected than you thought you would be. Because you can''t help but wonder, what if one of those kids had been Ron, or were actually his age. Right?" I asked him as I comer my head to the side.


    He raised his eyebrows in surprise as he looked at me. Well that''s right Aaron Wade, you''re not the only person who can read people, or understand the reason for their pain.


    "Yes."


    I shook my head as I dropped the file in my hand with the list of candidates chosen to be his assistant. My name was already circled out, but that was besides the point. I sat beside him and realized I was sitting a little too close for comfort, ignoring the weird racing of my heart, I said to him.


    "With all that you''ve experienced, you''re finding it hard to remove fantasy from reality. You''re still trying to convince yourself that it''s only a game, but trust me Aaron it''s not! You''ve been in Lost Descendants before, especially after your mother''s update. The players are no longer the chosen ones, or people capable of causing change within that world. Everyone has been so preoccupied with everything happening, that they didn''t notice the real secret behind the update, it gave the AIs, I''m not calling them NPCs, that''s rude. As I wad saying, it gives the AIs their freedom, now they can make changes and fight for their own destiny rather than bend and suffer at the will of the players and their antics.


    You can disconnect yourself from this world, rather just accept it. And you don''t have to be a different person either, yes you have a secret to keep, and you have two lives to live. But that doesn''t mean you have to be a different person in there, just do your thing and accept everything. And if you''ve messed up this bad, then make amends. Take responsibility rather than running away, just do right by the people who has been hurt. You don''t have to be some clich¨¦ tortured hero or villain or anti hero. Just be a good person and keep your conci...¡­.Mhmm!"


    He was kissing me! What the hell! But that''s not the shocking part, it''s the fact that I was actually kissing him back. I can''t lean into this kiss, no don''t lean in Kira, pull back! Fuck! I leaned in. And he''s a surprisingly good kisser, I wonder what else he can do with that mouth of his, maybe we should Stop!


    CRASH!


    I pulled back away from his so fast it was as if I had seen a ghost. And for good measure I threw my fist straight towards his nose, and heard an audible crunch, followed by a muffled yell as he fell back in pain.


    I turned to look at Ron and had my eyes widen to see that he was looking at both me and his father, a couple of building blocks in his hand had fallen to the ground, and he was picking them up. I felt embarrassed, blushing from my toes all the way to the tip of my ears. Ron picked up his blocks and looked at me with a smile, before turning to his father and saying.


    "Pops is hurt."


    Then he turned back to building, what I now understood was a complete depiction of the wade Manor, built from a kids toy, damn! If I needed anymore proof about the drug being capable of enhancing or evolving a human being, then this was it. Ron was only three years old.


    But then again, Pops? What the hell has Aaron been teaching my son. But speaking about Aaron he was sitting up, and he was glaring at me, blood seeping in between his hands from his injured nose. I hope it wasn''t broken, I didn''t mean to hit him, but it was just a reflex of min, I panicked.


    "Don''t ever touch me again! Or I''ll be breaking more than just your nose you bastard!" I said to him in the angriest voice I could muster.


    One of the perks of being a woman: you can be totally unreasonable about everything you do or that happens to you. And while I did enjoy kissing a younger man, much less one that''s as intelligent and damaged as Aaron, he was not my type(right?) And I was embarrassed, so behaving like this was the only way I can get a little payback and dignity. I turned around and left, flipping my hair behind me as I made my way to the kitchen. As I left Ron''s play room I heard Aaron curse.


    "What the actual Fuck just happened!"


    Indeed, he was right about that. What the hell just happened back there?

 37 Trial Of The First Ring XII : Legendary Weapon: Thalasio Spathi

    When I logged back into the game what faced me was a blank ceiling. I heard the sounds of birds, the wind, and the softness of the bed underneath me, letting me know that I was probably back on New Gaia, and in my villa. My involuntary genocide aside, I felt at home here, like this was a place that was meant for me.


    I was alone in the room with Sky nowhere to be found. I''m sure she was somewhere in the villa, as I could feel through our connection that she was close by. Either way, I felt that it was about time I checked on my gains after practically carrying out a grand theft auto on a planet full of thieves.


    [Sea Sword{

 38 Trial Of The First Ring XIII : Ship Problems

    Of course it''s not going to be that easy. I had two days left into the deadline for the first trial, and to successfully pass it, I had to present a fully functional ship. At the very least I believe that''s what the ''give it life'' part of the riddle meant. So without a doubt, at this point in time, there could not be any complications.


    "Okay first things first, what''s your name, and what are you?" I asked the woman as she raised an eyebrow at me.


    "You''re a weirdo, but okay. The names Dinah, I''m a Maenad, well only half anyway. My other half happens to be a dwarf, which explains my height." She answered me.


    "Ummmm? Okay? That''s nice I guess. But what''s a Maenad?"


    I was sure I''ve heard about them before, and not in the game, but rather outside, in the real world, but I couldn''t remember where. It was Mack who offered an explanation.


    "Maenad''s are for lack of a better term, supernatural party animals. Just like fauns or satyrs, they usually have a discerning trait of a wool or pelt based animal. The Common ones are usually either the horns and legs of a goat, ram or sheep. Those with more rarer features tend to be quite powerful. They''re or were servants of the wine Gods, and are for lack of another better term, Sultry and sexy, Orgy loving, blood sacrifice making, wild party dancing cultists. Have excellent abilities with illusions, can party harder than anything, quite good with witchcraft, and love sex beyond what you can consider normal unless your were a succubus or siren."


    I blinked my eyes, and then I blinked it again, looking from Mack back to Dinah as I tried to picture the diminutive but still sexy looking woman in front of me as an Orgy loving party freak. I can''t say that I see it, but at least she''s got the sultry and sexy part down.


    "Okay, now that we''re done knowing what we all are. Can you guys please tell me how the hell I''m supposed to fix that ship? That is what you guys broke me out of pirate jail for right?"


    "Okay what! You guy''s broke her out of pirate jail?" I asked as I turned to face Jack and Mack.


    "When you asked us to look for a blacksmith and those other professions. We were told of a legendary engineer and Alchemist that was being held prisoner by the pirate king because she spiked his drink and those of his crew when they forcefully suggested having a gangbang with her as their prime candidate. They had their gangbang alright, but the unfortunate female was the pirate king''s favorite wife."


    Well my God! That was sinister. I couldn''t help but have some sort of new found respect for this woman whose head just reached underneath my jaw. This sort of proves that she was more than capable of taking care of herself, and she had principles, despite being a member of an Orgy loving race.


    "All right Dinah, tell me what''s wrong, and what do you need?"


    "Thanks. The ship''s engine room is toast, heck the engine that powers it is in complete shambles. But that''s the least of our problems, the ships structural integrity is totally and completely messed up, it needs an entirely new frame, and shields for it. And it has to be made of metals strong enough to not just resist the elementsand the ravages of time, but resistant against magic, skills and any other sort of scientific threats.


    Problem is it''s going to cost a pretty penny, and a shit load of manpower to carry out. We need to get a new engine, but it can''t be something already made, we have to custom make an engine for the ship ourselves, as it runs on a power source I''ve never seen or heard of before. That big ass black pearl, has enough juice in it to dwarf a freaking star ten times the size of this planet! The only reason we''re not burnt to a crisp, is because the pearl is layered, and each layer is protected by spell barriers and wards.


    That pearl is not a power source, it''s more like the gem that''s placed on top of a magic staff, with skills of it''s own. Though all of them are sealed now, and it would take me a really long time to hack into it. The ship''s electrical system has to be remade from bottom up, so does it''s computer system. You''re lucky it''s navigation system is magical and locked onto that compass, which means there''snot much of a problem. And those are the only two good news I can give you, you have a power source, and the ship knows it''s left from it''s right even though it''s crippled. Oh! And also your weapon''s system is toast, and very, very old."


    "Wow, that''s...¡­..that''s a lot of problems. Okay tell me what we need to fix all this, and the fastest method to do so. Also outline the best and fastest, and the cheapest and fastest."


    "seriously, are you that cheap. How''re you going to pay me once I''m done fixing your damn ship?" She asked me with her eyes narrowed in a glare.


    "Don''t your worry your pretty little head, money is not a problem. Also have this, can it help?" I said as I gave her the blueprints for the Ion Pulse Cannon and the Dragon Star engine.


    "Sweet heavens above! The Ion Pulse Cannon is rare, but it''s still quite mainstream and could be gotten if you have the right connections. However the materials and even the blueprints required to build the damn thing cost up to two hundred gold dollars, not mention the coupling and manpower. It''s a good piece of tech, usable in all terrains including space!


    But the real treasure, is this star dragon engine. This shit is a legend, a bedtime story engineers tell their apprentices and their children. About a couple million years ago, there was a thriving civilization of elemental dragons: and while the mainstream story will tell you about how evil and tyrannical their reign was, what really fascinates archeologist and history buffs is the fact that the elemental dragons are hands down the progenitors of modern science and technology. And this engine is one of their crowing jewels. With it, there''s no need for a hyper drive or a warp drive engine. According to legends, this baby could bend and fold space on it''s own, traveling great distances in seconds and sometimes, even through time!


    But we still need more. While this does solve our problems, it opens up an avenue of new ones. The fastest way to fix this ship, is to take it to an auto shop which uses Industrial nanites to break down and build up its form quickly and according to tailored programming. But even then we will need to buy the materials needed for the repairs, and according to my estimates, we''ll be spending three to five million gold dollars. The cheapest way...¡­."


    "Wait! Did you say nanites?" I interrupted her.


    "Yeah that''s what I said." She answered me, looking a little confused at my outburst.


    I gave her a wide grin as I opened my inventory and brought out three twelve inch tall and five inch wide cylinders, along with a glass case that had a golden beetle trapped in it. I handed them both to her, and I couldn''t help but smile as I saw her eyes widen and her hands began to shake.


    "I''m not going to ask you where you got this from. But having a chance to work with these has me so hot for you right now. With this I could cut down the repair time to eight maybe ten hours. I still need money for the materials needed to rebuild the ship, and with the master Nanite, I can Incorporate it into the ship''s new computer system. Which means as long as you have enough materials, and a good engineer on board the ship, any and all damage and faults will be fixed in seconds. They''ll be like the ship''s very own red blood cells or something. So give me the money I need now, I''ll have your ship ready to sail by tomorrow morning, thankfully this Patmosian city nestled within the branches of the tree has a massive hardware outlet. I could build a freaking starship if I wanted."


    I shrugged my shoulders and transferred 15 million into her account. At first she wanted to leave, but when she saw the amount of money she paused and turned to me.


    "This is a little much than what I asked for?"


    "I know. Use what you need, and whatever is left is your salary for the next three months. You did say I needed a good engineer on board, so congratulations you got the job." I said to her.


    "I''ve not even said yes, neither did I say anything about needing a job. I could run away with this much money and leave a very comfortable life, without you being none the wiser, not to mention the blueprints in my hand will make me a whole lot of money if sold to the right people. You can''t be this gullible right?" She asked me with a perplexed look on her face.


    "No I''m not. But I like you, I like what you can do, and I want you to work for me. If you do so, I''m sure I can make you the greatest, the most respected, and the richest engineer the universe has ever seen. Plus you get to have awesome adventures, and not have to look over your shoulder your entire life. Because let me be honest with you, if you betray me, I''ll kill you, and I''ll find everyone you love and kill them too. I protect my people, give them the best of what life has to offer and make sure no one hurts them. But if you break my trust, even the sin dragons won''t save you from me. So please stick with me for a bit, at least for a month. If you don''t want to stay after that, you can take the money and leave."


    She didn''t say anything else, but I was sure she knew the threat was real. But what really surprised me was the fact that I knew I wasn''t bluffing. Something''s changed in me, I just hope it''s not a bad change. She nodded her head and left the room.


    "I take it you guys are now my bodyguards right?" I asked Jack with a smile on my face.


    "The minister felt it was better for us to be by your side, due to recent events. We''ll be protecting you with all that we have." Jack answered.


    I wanted to scoff at that answer, Dinah was right, I wasn''t that gullible. They''re not bodyguards, they''re baby sitters. Left here to watch over me and everything that I''ll be doing. I didn''t mind though, having them around made things a little easy for me. After all, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.


    "Darke keep an eye on Dinah for me, but keep out of sight would you. And Mack, Zack I need you two to look for someone for me, well two people actually. I need you to find a Patmosian called Qitar, and the paladin I faced during my fifth and final fight in the knockout round. Can you guys do that?" I asked them both.


    They nodded their heads and left the room in a very soldier like manner. Then I turned to Jack with a grin on my face that was so sinister that even Sky felt shivers from it.


    "Jack, first let''s get a scabbard for my new sword, and then how about a friendly spar?"

 39 Trial Of The First Ring XIV : King Acherons Grace

    Waiting eight hours for the ship to get fixed was nerve wracking. I could have chosen to go sight seeing, but with the political upheaval caused by my last outing, I felt it best to remain indoors and keep a low profile. But thankfully the eight hours Dinah asked for was almost up, but these last few minutes were really getting me frustrated with impatience. The seconds and minutes seemed to stretch way longer than they''re supposed to.


    With my mind to full, I guess the best thing to would be to check my skills, and se which one I could actually use the skill combining gems on. Instead of having to many skills, it would be good to have a single skill that was strong and versatile enough for a couple of different situations.


    And skills in lost Descendants online were not overpowered by having grades, all that matters is if you''re willing to train those skills to highest possible heights they could reach. That way you don''t need to have too many skills, rather just a really strong one that you''re quite familiar with.


    The skill combining gems functioned in a peculiar way: to combine two skills, you only need one gem, two if you''re combining three, and three gems if you''re combining four. Based on my estimation, I believe this skill combining gems were really rare, and quite valuable, especially to players. But even so I didn''t have any plans of selling them off.


    So the first skill I combined was my nature buff skill with my nature heal skill. Since the two were quite similar, and were both passives, with nature heal being a passive and active skill at the same time, I was hoping to get something good from them.


    [USE ONE SKILL COMBINING GEM TO COMBINE THE SKILLS NATURE HEAL AND NATURE BUFF]


    [Skill Combining......¡­.Combination Successful. The Skill Nature Born Has Been Generated.]


    [USE ONE SKILL GEM TO COMBINE THE SKILLS SPARK WAVE AND MANA SLASH]


    [Skill Combining.......Combination Successful. The Skill Lightning Blade Has Been Generated.]


    [USE ONE SKILL GEM TO COMBINE THE SKILLS WING BLADE AND WIND STRIDE: WINGS]


    [Skill Combining........Combination Successful. The Skill Wild Wind Dance Has Been Generated.]


    I Guess that''s that. It would take a while to get used to the new skills, but at the very least I should be able to manage my smiles easily from now on.


    PASSIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Wind child(level 4) basic. +5% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 4) basic. +2% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 5) basic. +10% to aim when in motion, +15% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Born(level 1)basic. Wherever you are the power of Nature is with you. HP regeneration 30% + 60% in Forests, Jungles and any other place Nature can be found. All attacks within nature oriented areas +30%, +100% favorability with all Nature attuned entities.


    ?	Flight (Level 1) basic. Soar for across the sky for thirty minutes. +10% to flight speed and maneuvering.


    ?	Dragon Aura (level 1) basic. Your constantly covered by a draconic aura that shows the majesty of your bloodline. 80% chance to make opponents of a similar level bewildered, 100% for lower levels, 60% for opponents five levels higher, 40% for ten, 20% for fifteen, and 5% for twenty.


    ?	Navigator: level 1 (basic): +20 to awareness and effectiveness in searching for directions. +20 effectiveness to navigating all seas and land terrain.


    ?	Command: level 1 (basic): + 5 increase to stats and effectiveness when you give orders to your subordinates.


    ACTIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Shoot(level 6) basic. +10% damage and speed for projectile weapons. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Hard punch(level 6) basic. Hit your opponent for 80% extra of your total attack. Speed +10% during skill.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 20 seconds)


    ?	Homing Shot(level 3) basic. Chase and attack any target in sight with projectiles. +15% damage within a radius of 25 meters.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Vacuum Palm (level 3) basic. Hit Targets with a wind element Palm attack. +20% damage and knock back effect. 5% chance to confuse opponents. (Cost 7 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Wind Dance(level 1 ) basic. Become one with the wind, increasing attack and movement speed by 300% defense and evasiveness against attacks raised by 150% for 10 seconds. (Cost 60 MP) (cool down 200 seconds)


    ?	Wind School: Lightening Coat(level 2 ) basic: use the power of lightening and wind to cover your body, increases defense against magical attacks by 10%,defense against physical attacks by 12% and increase speed by 40%. (Cost 25 MP) (Cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 2) basic. Summon an arrow of pure mana to cause 20% magical and physical damage in a range of 15 meters. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Stealth(level 1) basic. Turn invisible for sixty seconds. Stealth is broken when attacked or attacking. Every first hit from stealth is a critical. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Purify(level 1) basic. Purify all things unclean and unholy. +100% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison. + 70% damage against the undead,+40% damage against dark creatures. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 60 seconds)


    ?	Lightning Blade(level 1) basic. Coat your blade with lightening mana for 5 seconds. Every attack made would have extra lightening damage stacked on top by 15% and all slashes are AOE strike of 3x3 meters. Attack speed increases by 10%. (Cost 20 MP) (Cool down 100 seconds)


    ?	Cone Of Silence(level 1) basic. Create a cone of air over a target, eliminating the release of all skills and spells for ten seconds. (Cost 80 MP) (cool down 300 seconds)


    MASTERIES:


    ?	Archery Mastery (level 3) basic. +3% to all archery skills and +5% damage from all bows and arrows


    ?	Sword Mastery (level 2) basic. +3% to all sword skills and + 5% damage from swords


    ?	Magic Mastery (Level 1) basic. +3% damage to all magic skills and spells


    AUGMENTED RACIAL TRAIT:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    ?	Spirit Of Air(I): Ability to communicate with air elementals and control air freely


    ?	Heart Of Wind(I): Ability to control wind freely.


    Well there''s still a lot of skills to keep track of, but there was nothing to worry about. I believed each and every single one of them would get their time to shine in battle of whatever situation might call for it.


    Anyway looking at the time, I had to log of soon. I had to attend dinner with my father and my step brothers, not to mention my step mother, and to be honest I was not looking forward to it.


    "Master Aaren, she''s done! Please follow me to the hanger!" Zack shouted as he came into the room with panic written all over his face.


    I couldn''t help but shake my head at his fervent and excited expression. Even though all four elves were clones of the same person, whoever the fuck the original was; their characters were nothing alike. Jack was a responsible leader, Mack was a know it all nerd, Zack here was an impressionable and anxious person, like some teenager hyped on sugar. And Darke was exactly as his name suggests, all dark and mysterious.


    I followed behind him, going downstairs to the sitting room, and taking a side door into the hanger that was a lot bigger than I imagined. The ship seemed to be suspended above two massive clamps,it was now completely different from the scrap metal we left M.A.S with.


    For one there were no more holes, and it was now shaped more like a yacht, than a galleon ship, but it still had traces of it''s old design lingering around. It''s e tire body was a deep shade of black, but it didn''t gleam or reflect light like you would expect most metallic surface to do. Instead it was as if I was looking at a massive black spot that sucked in all the light. But apart from that there was nothing else, no patterns or designs, just a really big black ship.


    "I''m done with the repairs, and you would love what I''ve done with the ship."


    Dinah said as she walked up to me in a jumpsuit that was a little too tight for her succulent body. She had on a massive grin on her face, but her hair was a mess, and there were smudges of dirt and grime on her face and her horns.


    "You notice how the ships coating is so black right, well it''s coated with carbon yet biological paint of the blackest black color in existence. It might not make sense to you now, but it will later. The coating absorbs light in any form, and stores the heat for redistribution, using it as an alternative energy for the dragon engine, or as ammunition for the 78 solar flare guns I have all over the ship. Those things don''t cause as much damage as the Ion Pulse Cannon, but damn can they burn a hole through steel and titanium like they were made from paper.


    Now of course the interior has been entirely remodeled, built for both luxury and functionality, since it''s nice to have a pretty ship both on the inside and outside. The computer system of the ship had top of the line surveillance and communications technology, which I route and bounce from highly powerful yet restricted satellites belonging to quite a few powers on New Gaia. It just a tiny piggy back connection, any more than that and we would be hacking into each nations intelligence archives, stealing national secrets like we were fishing.


    If that happens we''re toast, because there''ll be a massive bounty on our heads. But for now, until I complete building our own satellites, we have to make do with theirs. There wouldn''t be any problem as long as we''re not noticed. The frame and body of the ship was built out of a very powerful and synthetic metal I created in the past three hours.


    I combined both Admantium, Mythril and Orichalum to make it. I don''t really know what to call it, so for now it''s go to name is Void steel. It''s incredible malleable, and has the ability to reduce the damage received from attacks by a whooping 60%. Like I said before, the ship''snavigation system is magical, completely dependent on that compass on the steering wheel. But just in case, I wrote a navigational program for it, though we would need a certified and highly accurate world map for it. Though I suggest you wait until we get our own satellites up and running, then we''ll be able to map this entire planet down to the tiniest rock. Of course there''s also a lot of danger with that, but I believe we''ll cross that bridge when we get there.


    The engine room now houses the star dragon engine, and that shit is as powerful as hell. On water, the ship would be so fast, that its very speed would raise tidal waves every time it moves. Using this ship on sea, is just a waste, which is why I''m currently working a sky ship upgrade for it. It wouldn''t be ready to sail the stars, not for quite a while at least, but it would absolutely dominate the atmosphere of whatever planet we find ourselves on.


    All in all the only thing left, is to give it a name and take it out for a spin. Now do you have any questions...¡­..captain?"


    Did I have any questions, of course I did. But I''m not going to be asking any of them yet. After all the upgrades she''s done,I realized she was not a simple person. Being able to hack into a nation of world satellite, bracing the risk of discovery, with the very real possibility of being able to hack into said nations Intelligence network and leak all of their secrets. She could blackmail whoever that fuck she wants as long as she could get away with it. Damn! She''s so cool.


    "The underworld has five rivers, each with their own effects and abilities. But there''s one river that intrigues me. You see this ship was originally made as a vessel to ferry the dead to the underworld. It''s not Charon''s dingy boat which was formed in the bowels of the underworld itself, but a ship built here, in the world of the living, for the purpose of traveling to and fro from the undersold. The ship reminds me of the river Acheron: the river that flows between life and death. And because of that, I''ll name this ship King Acheron''s Grace."


    Dinah nodded her head and started tapping on a screen around her left wrist. Soon the body of the ship began to ripple, as the name I had just give to the ship appeared on it''s side. Then she turned to me and said.


    "Congratulations, The Ship Acheron''s Grace has been born. May it''s days be long and it''s adventures great.".

 40 Dinner I : My Way

    Well the ship''s completed, which means I have to report to the tree''s heart core, or whatever the hell that place with the rings was called. Problem was I didn''t know my way back there, however, thankfully, there were a lot of guards around my villa. Coincidence? Please, it''s bloody obvious these idiots are trying to keep an eye on me. Either way I had to get this over really fast, I needed to prepare for that family dinner.


    I was led back to the arena; where I had met the bloody king of the Patmosians and his stuck up son. There weren''t as much people here asthe last time though, however the king was here. I didn''t even so much as spare him a glance as I made my way towards the pillar of light that teleported me towards that room with the different colors rings.


    I walked into it, and in a moment I found myself in the area with the rings. The second ring was actually lit up at this point and it was a deep shade of neon green that pulsed like a heartbeat. As soon as I stepped into the black ring, I felt a sort of traction as I was drawn straight into the green ring, and a familiar meter tall podium rose up out of the ground and was placed in front of me.


    CHOSEN: AAREN SEVEN


    RING: 2


    TASK: 1st completed/ 2nd ongoing


    SPONSORS: 3


    PUBLIC APPROVAL: 1.33


    [TASK: 900 kilometers northwest of the Patmosian island is a string of islands known as the hollows. It is home to fearsome creatures of the deep seas, and pirates that still roam the seas. On one of those islands, a fruit called the Shade Of Amara grows from a single tree. Sail to the hollows with a crew of your choosing and retrieve that fruit and bring it here.]


    [For clearing the first task and getting to the second ring, you''ve been given +1 to all stats, and + 1 skill point.]


    [All prior Exp bonus can now be used after every task is completed and the chosen goes to a new ring. Would you like to level up Y/N]


    [Calculating exp bonus......¡­Calculation completed.You''re now level 34]


    [Level rankings unlocked! For being the first player to reach level 30 you''ve been given +30 to all stats, + 10 skill points, 5 million gold dollars, and 3 skill combining gems, and the REGISTERED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MINERAL AND BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS. R.E.M.B.M]


    {Level Rankings: Players}


    1: Aaren Seven


    2:????????


    3:???????


    Well that''s a surprising turn of events, but I didn''t really mind. With this all out of the way, I was strong enough to prepare for the next task, and I''m sure it was not going to be easy. But I''ve been given a month, which is a whole lot more time than I expected


    Name: Aaren Seven/ Level: 34(800.385.480/1.3B)/Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker/ One With The Wind/ Bronze Blood Commander


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/The Coven Of Angeles


    Reputation: <>


    Strength: 103/Constitution: 88/Agility: 104/Dexterity: 102 Intelligence: 103/ Wisdom:89


    Hp 1260 /1260(equip bonus +)MP 1467/1467(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:100Skill points:112


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    With that all out of the way, I watched as the podium went back into the ground, and became one with the green ring, releasing a resounding click that vibrated across this entire place. I didn''t feel the need to allocate my stat points, or my skill points because I''ve not needed to increase anything of the sort so far. Not to mention all of the bonus stats from my leveling up, more than made up for it.


    As for my skills, I''ll deal with them once I got back in the game, as for right now, I just needed to get back to my villa and log out. I had a dinner to attend.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    Deciding what to wear for a family dinner that might turn out to be a disaster was quite troubling, but thankfully I had Nanny Florence around. Because of how much time I''ve had to spend in the game, there has not been a reason for me to get used to the presence of new maids, bodyguards etc.


    Though it would be quite foolish of me to say I trusted any one of them, but nanny Florence assured me many times, that either one of them would lay down their lives for me and my son. They were my people, I just had to make a connection of my own with them just as my grandfather did.


    I was wearing a simple dimmer shirt, slacks and shoes that were much to fancy to be on my body. A gold Rolex, and simple gold chain to top if off, really giving off the ''I''m a gangster'' look to anybody who cared to look. However I didn''t care to comb my hair, and why is that? You might ask, well it''s simple. I can''t all be perfect now can I.


    I made my way downstairs where Nanny Florence had Ron dressed in a similar manner. The three new maids, were now wearing suits, complete with the neck tie and leather glove combination synonymous with the legendary hitman games. And based on the bulges at the side of their suit jackets, all three of them were well armed.


    "Suyin, Markova, Shinoka, I see you guys are joining us today for dinner?"


    I asked them as I picked Ron from the ground. He wrapped his hands around my neck, and almost immediately whatever tension it was that I''ve been feeling due to this dinner was completely washed away. He made everything clearer, and a lot more better.


    "Yes boss.....I mean Master Aaron."


    Markova answered, correcting herself from saying boss when Nanny Florence gave her a scathing glare. I guess they''re not as perfect as they looked.


    "Master Aaron, Ms. Florence, when will I be expecting you guys and the young master back. Should I have dinner prepared, just in case this doesn''t go well?" A deep voice asked as my new butler walked up to us.


    "There''s no need Manuel, if it does go sideways, then I doubt I would have enough appetite to eat anything else. But thanks for gesture anyway." I said to him as I walked out of the house.


    "It''s my pleasure Master Aaron."


    He called out as I went towards the Cadillac. Behind it was an SUV, sure this one had wheels too, but it was infinitely better than the old heap of junk I have to drive around in just to keep up appearances. It was really annoying, how can I be driving something like this!


    "You don''t have to make that face master Aaron, I''ve sent for a car that''s more to the taste of you and your generation. With a few modifications of course, but you''ll get to roll around in ''Style'' just like you wanted. But you must use the Cadillac for any and all official outings, it''s important we keep up appearances."


    I didn''t even feel I had the strength to ask her who it was, we had to keep appearances up for. All I knew is that I had a very long night ahead of me, and I had to go deal with it.


    The drive to my father''s house was quiet, and that was probably because Ron fell asleep on the way there. It gave me time to think and reflect on something other than Lost Descendants online. At the moment, it would seem as if playing this game would get me no where, but so far things have been happening in a way that was beginning to seem more and more like a carefully calculated plot, rather coincidences that left me with extremely useful tools.


    But that was besides the point. A lot of people were depending on me, and sooner or later I had to have something to show for all of my efforts, or things won''t be looking too good. While the issue of finding the virus and the formula was a race against my father and his allies, I doubt the crime families would be patient enough to see that race to the end. Not when there''s a possibility that they might loose it.


    Of course it would be convenient if we could keep searching forever, but they would still be living under the threat of the virus and formula finally showing up and disrupting their way of life. And people like them would not hesitate to pull triggers when they begin to feel uncomfortable about anything at all.


    But that was just one part, I still had the huge yet monumental task of taking over the imperium industries, of taking a hold of my future and my inheritance. And that''s the very real war that was placed right in front of me. At first, I wanted to do it my grandfather''s way, to wear a mask, be stupid and somewhat useless yet effective so that no one would see me as a threat, whilst working to completely undermine my enemies.


    That was a good, scheming idea, and it would have worked, and all at the expense of sullying my name. Of course they say history is written by the victor, but if earth''s history is anything to learn from, the real story always comes to the surface, and then the heroes, the villains, and the victims would all have their roles switched or completely reversed.


    I could have banked on that, and hoped that when I finally won, there would still be enough people willing to listen to the truth, thereby redeeming my name. But I have a son now. If I do this my grandfather''s way, then Ron would forever be the boy whose dad did this, or whose dad did that. That was not the kind of life I wanted for my son, because autism or not, he''s still going to grow into this. A life like that was hard in and out of itself, because you would be judged by your parent''s actions. I understood how painful and lonely that kind of life was, because I lived it, heck, I''m still living it.

 41 Dinner II : Dysfunctional Family

    My dad was definitely surprised once he saw me show up with bodyguards, so were my brothers and steps mother, but I was not all to willing to let them know why or how, I just said hello, gave each of them a deep smile and walked into their mansion.


    I''ve hated this place for a very long time, this was the house my brothers were privileged enough to grow in, along with my dearly departed sister. I can''t tell how many times I wished my dad would have just showed up and brought me here, heck they could have just placed me in the cupboard under the stairs like harry potter and I wouldn''t have minded, just as long as I could stay close to my family.


    Nanny Florence and my trio of body guards/maids ended up standing just a few feet away from where Ron and I sat, I could tell their presence unsettled everyone here, especially that of Nanny Florence, but I guess they had to deal with it. My elder brother Matt was here alone, his wife and children nowhere to be found, but Marcus was here with his fianc¨¦e Monica, my very annoying ex girlfriend, and with the sheer amount of PDA(Public Display Of Affection) they were putting on, I think they were trying to get me jealous. Such children.


    "So Aaron, how''s life back in the states? I know you''ve spent most of the past few years in a joint international Special task force, and I''ve read that sometimes soldiers find it hard to reacquaint themselves with society after fighting for a long time." My stepmother asked me, probably hoping to get a conversation rolling.


    "Its fine." I answered, as I turned to wipe a smudge of Ron''s dinner of the side of his lips.


    "I know you might not want to talk about it, it just that I wanted to know if you''re okay. And that if things are hard for you, you can trust us to look after you and your son, after all we''re family." She added as she gave me a soft gaze.


    I looked around to see my father giving me the same concerned look, Matt just chose to focus on his dinner, but Marcus looked like he had been given a plate full of worms to eat, Monica just seemed indifferent to the whole thing. But I guess there was nothing she could say now, she''s got one foot into the door and a life of wealth and a high profile status. With our history she would really want to keep her mouth shut, lest I ruin everything for her.


    "Listen Denise, I appreciate your concern, but I''m fine. To be honest if there''s anything really messing with my mind right now, it''s the death of my Baba. But there''s nothing to be done about it, even though it felt really strange to me. I just want to make the most of the time I have now, and be a good father to my son." I answered as I placed a forkful of salad into my mouth, and staring at my stepmother as I chewed.


    "Of course Aaron I understand, just know that we''re all here for you." She said to me with a smile.


    Then we all settled back into the meal, letting silence reign as we tried to digest what was obviously a painfully awkward dinner. But there was a silver lining for me, and that was the fact that Ron didn''t seem to care, and was busy turning a boat load of salt on the table.


    From the corner of my eye, I could see Marcus''s eyebrow twitching as he obviously wanted to say something, but based on the smile I had on my face, which to be honest was damn near maniacal, he knew if he interrupted my son''s play time, I will deal with him, as ruthlessly as possible. So he had to tread with discretion.


    We finished eating, and the table was cleared, on the other Ron''s side of the table was left alone, because he had started making spiral designs with the salt he had turned over, and it was amazing. It was like watching an accomplished artist make something really beautiful, and I had no idea how he was able to do that, but it was amazing and really nice.


    "The little guy is really talented, you must be proud of him little brother, though I can''t imagine things are easy for you...¡­you know, with his mental illness and stuff."


    "Marcus! Watch what you say at my dinner table boy!"


    I knew this was coming, and it was bloody annoying. Ron''s Autism is not exactly a secret, and I expected one of them to use it as ammunition to fire a few attacks against me. I expected this to happen, doesn''t mean it didn''t hurt any less, I wasn''t angry about this though, I was hurt.


    Ron could live a normal life, but I think it''s obvious that my son''s life won''t eve be normal. Not among his peers, or mine, his pedigree alone means he''s going to be under constant scrutiny, but his Autism would also paint a target on his back.


    And it''s not that I was worried that people would hurt him, or bully him for something that''s beyond his reach and totally not his fault. But comments like this can break a man, especially a child. And they will point fingers, they''ll pity him, treat him like an egg and be completely unable to relate with him because they''re not sure how to act normal to a kid that isn''t normal. That''s how life''s going to be for my boy, and I knew this was something I couldn''t shelter him from.


    "I don''t mean any disrespect little brother, but when we found out about his Autism, Monica and I took the time to ask around and check on a few doctors. It''s possible for him to have a normal life, we can also get him a special teacher or nanny to help him with his daily needs, once you start working at the company. I''m sorry if it offends you, but I''m just looking out for you and my nephew." Marcus said to me with a fake melancholic expression on his face.


    "Are you really? Are you really looking out for me, or are you saying those things just to piss me off and hurt me? If that''s the case, and I''m a 100% sure it is, then you''re a bigger fool than I expected. By now you should know what kind of a person I am big brother. The people who piss me off, tend to get embarrassed and disgraced. But the people who hurt me, or even be so stupid as to mess with my son, well.....those guys disappear forever........but you don''t have to worry about anything. You''re only looking out for me an my son, and I appreciate it."


    The entire dinning room was silent, so silent that you could hear a pin drop. The atmosphere seemed a little heavy and gloomy, and there was an invisible kind of pressure hanging around everyone. My father looked really pissed as he glared at Marcus, I''m sure the old man went through a significant amount of effort to get this dinner set up, and Marcus was ruining it with his big mouth.


    I already made up my mind about what I was going to do once I got here, but my father needed this dinner to work. Because leading Imperium industries was like playing politics, especially when you''re a company that relies greatly on public opinion. So as a family we had to provide a united front, because apart from the fact that the media would eat that shit up so fast, you''ll think it''s real food. Most customers and consumers would prefer to make use of a company''s products,when said company seems to work and function from a family oriented angle. It made us more appealing and trustworthy, and it would also make us more money.


    Given the tense atmosphere, and the fact that no one seems ready to break it, my father cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak.


    "So Aaron have you made a decision on who would be your assistant? I know it''s an important decision, but I need you to make it fast. That way we can schedule a press conference on Monday, and announce your joining of the company, it''s your birthright after all." My father asked.


    "Indeed I have made my decision dad. I chose someone with a lot of experience working for the company, and who''s talents I believe are better served helping me learn the ropes and navigate the company''s landscape. Her name is Kira, Kira Lee Zhang."


    "Oh! That''s a rather unexpected choice, but it''s actually a good one. I know of Kira, her dad and I have been friends since young and she''s a very bright and smart young lady. I''m really happy with your choice Aaron, it''s the most probable decision, and since she''s such a hard worker, and is loved by her subordinates, I believe things would be go quite smoothly for you. Good decision making son, I''m proud of you."


    Wow, so it seems he''s not going to be stingy with his praise, and he was not going to be hesitant about showering it on me in front of everybody here. Though Marcus looked like he had swallowed a stone the size of an egg. Matt still chose to remain silent throughout the entire thing, choosing to observe. My step mother had a bright smile on her face, it was so radiant and calm, but the clenched fists told me what she was feeling was anything but radiant or calm.


    But I liked it, this chaos, the uncertainty, and the stupid look of victory on my father''s face. Kira was the daughter of a board member, his friend. So I''m sure he believes he would be able to influence her through her father, and in turn me. Which means the ball was in Kira''s hands now, and she had to choose which team she wanted to play for.


    Would she play for her father who may or may not have chosen her over her brother, or would she play for me. The father of the adopted son she so much loves and cares for. I betting I already won in the encounter, because what my father doesn''t know is that, I''m already in Kira''s head. I don''t know how I''m doing it, but I was in her head!


    It was only a matter of time before it''s her heart, her underwear and then on her bed. And maybe I''m a bad person manipulating the life of the woman who has cared and loved my son for so long. But I couldn''t afford to be gentle, or kind, not when the fate of the world was at stake.


    There was an arms race going on, and the only way to prevent a war, was to have Kira completely and solely by my side. She had to be my inside person, my spy. But I didn''t trust her, not yet anyway. I needed her to do what was required, and she might get hurt in the process, but I don''t think I have much of a choice. This is how it''s supposed to be.


    The fact that she made me feel like butterflies were nesting in my stomach didn''t count, it couldn''t. Because that would be a mistake I couldn''t afford to make with what I had to do, I can''t fall in love with her. That would make all my choices that much harder to make, and I needed to be resolute.


    I looked up at my father and raised my wine glass towards him, and said.


    "Here''s to working together, and to family."


    "To family....."

 42 The Second Trial I : Recruiting Qitar

    The dinner was awkward, at least we''ve established that much, and it was beyond annoying. However I achieved what I wanted to achieve, and that was to throw my father off my scent, and make him think he gas gotten what he wanted. For now though, I still had to take care of my affairs in the game, which was why I was logging in, almost as soon as we got back home and I was sure Ron was in bed. Tomorrow was a Saturday, and I wanted to spend the whole of it with my boy and Kira.....you know to foster relationship and all that stuff.


    I opened my eyes to a rather silent villa. It was quiet, and somewhat cold, but I think that''s to be expected. If the game''s time is actually correct, this should be the early hours of the morning, while in the real world it was getting a little close to midnight.


    Sky was sleeping on the bed beside me, and a soft tap from me woke her up. I made my way downstairs where I saw that everyone was actually up, and around. Honestly I thought that they would all be sleeping, so it was quite a surprise for me to see them here.


    "Master Aaron, good morning. How was your night?" Mack greeted me.


    "Hey guys what''s up? My night was great Mack how was yours. Good I hope?" I asked rapid fire as I sat on the dining table beside them, Sky followed as she scrambled on top of the chair beside me.


    Everyone including Dinah gave me varying degrees of answers, but ultimately they were all doing okay. Good, I guess it''s time to get to work.


    "Alright guys how far have you all gone with your assignments." I asked them.


    It was Mack who answered me, pulling a bundle of papers out of an inventory as he placed them in front of me. For a moment I was dumbfounded, I just asked them to find some people for me, what brought an official report into the equation. Either way, I guess this was better than nothing.


    "The Dark elf paladin is just like you master Aaren, someone from another world. However my sources tell me he''s currently staying in an inn within the red light district of root city. He''s just been discharged from his guild, and is known as a socially inept and lazy person. However he''s an accomplished fighter, and a good dungeon hunter. According to the profile his guild has on him, he has the single highest record for solo dungeon clears among all his guild mates. Now I don''t know how that record translates to the rest of the world, but he has a reputation as a capable fighter, his character just leaves much to be desired. This is the eight time he''s been kicked off the guild, they''ll probably come recruit him again, and he would be too lazy to say no. His name is Raven Song."


    Well this guy''s certainly complicated, and I had no idea how I would be able to rope him in, but I could just try my best anyway. I had a good impression of him, and the fact that he seems to be a good fighter was only just a bonus. As soon as I''m done here, I''m going to go look for him.


    "And what about Qitar, did you find her?" I asked him.


    "I did. Apart from the fact that it seems, everybody who survives a fight with you, gets thrown out of whatever organization they''re a part of. She''s just undergone surgery to have a bionic arm replace the one she lost. She was the captain of the golden suns, a special task force on the island of Patmos that dealt with investigating crimes the normal police force has no jurisdiction over. The king gave her a dishonorable discharge, and sentenced her by having her original arm replaced with a bionic one. She''s currently recuperating in her personal villa, just and hour away from yours. Since she''s the daughter of a noble, and a general, the king could not go too far with his punishment, but from what I''ve seen, this has caused a lot of dissent among the ruling power of the island.


    The opinions of the people are split between being angry that she lost to you, and being angry at the king for punishing such a loyal soldier. But there''s nothing to be done about it, Qitar was born and bred a soldier, with no other skills in hand rather than being a good detective, and very able markswoman. Her discharge has made it so that she won''t be able to serve in any sort of military outlet on the island, heck because of the king''s influence not many civilian outlets, if any would be willing to accept her. The only options left for her is to either just continue living her life, relying on all the money she''s made, leave this place and go start life anew somewhere else, or become a mercenary. Safe to say she''s hit rock bottom sir."


    I felt bad for her, and that was mainly because she was in this mess because of me. I had to find some way to make this right, and my original plans for her might just be the answer I need. I wanted to help her, that and I also needed her skills.


    "Alright Dinah, Jack and Darke, you guys are coming with me to go see Qitar. Mack and Zack, you''re the eccentric duo, go get Raven Song here. Knock him out and put him in a bag if you have to. I have a feeling that guy just goes with the flow, so he wouldn''t give you guys too much trouble. All right let''s go!" I said to them all as I got up from my seat.


    "Why do I have to go with you?" Dinah asked, feeling wronged.


    "Well because I say so. Come on, move that sexy ass of yours, we''re on the clock here."


    "Fuck you captain!"


    "Maybe later Dinah."


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    *ding dong*


    I waited for the door to open, trying to not get annoyed at Dinah as she scuffed and dragged her feet on the ground from annoyance. I get that she didn''t want to be here, but this was getting childish. Jack just stood politely to the side, a victim of Sky''s pranks as she took her time to whip her trunk at his but, releasing loud smacks into the crisp morning air.


    The door opened, and Qitar stuck her face out, she looked at everyone in front of her, before turning her gaze to mine. Her eyes narrowed, and to be honest I felt as if she was about to attack me.


    "What do you want?" she asked me, not at all masking the coldness in her voice.


    "Well nice to see you too Qitar, long time no see." I said to her with a smile on my face. But all she did was blink and stare at me, making me feel very awkward and like a complete idiot.


    "I came to talk, and to see how you''re doing."


    "We have nothing to talk about, and as you can see I''m fine." She turned around about to slam the door in my face. But I moved fast and slipped into her villa, and Dinah, Jack and Sky followed close behind.


    Qitar looked flustered as she didn''t expect such a brazen action from me. I placed my focus on her, as I looked at her new left arm. Whatever the fuck that was, I don''t think that''s how a bionic arms is supposed to look like. It was Incredibly messy, and looked more like a robot crane built by a kid in the fifth grade.


    "What the fuck is that! Which bastard made such a shoddy and shitty work? How could you let them do this to you? Damn it, this gives engineers with a PhD in bio mechanical prosthetics a bad name. Hey captain, we need to take her back to the ship, using it''s new Nanite immune matrix system, I can build something better for her with the remaining materials. If we leave her arm like this, she''s going to be in constant pain, and her nerves would suffer irreparable damage, not even magic would be able to help her." Dinah complained as she closely examined Qitar''s very ugly looking prosthetic.


    "I don''t need any help from you people!" Qitar said as she wrenches her metal arm back from Dinah''s grasp, wincing in the process as she was wracked with intense pain.


    "Listen to me Qitar, I came here for you. And I''m not leaving without you, especially now that I know that you''re in such pain." I said to her.


    "And who''s fault is that!?" she yelled at me.


    "It''s your governments fault, totally not mine I can assure you that." I said to her as I raised my hands up in a placating gesture.


    "......"


    Yeah,she was not the only one with dumbfounded expression on her face. Even Sky had a look on her face that screamed ''what the hell''. I''m sure they were thinking that Qitar was in a very fragile position right now, and an answer like mine, was probably insensitive. But I knew what I was doing...¡­.I think.


    Qitar was somewhat like me, a soldier who served her country. And she''s as hard as a soldier can get, which is why I know sympathizing and coddling her won''t work. She was fighter, and she needed to be approached with a fighters tenacity, I had to give her that respect. But I also had to be honest too.


    "Your people captured me, took my battle beast away, and put me in a life and death fight. Heck they even set me up with someone they were guaranteed would kill me in the first fight. So what the fuck was I supposed to do! Just roll over and die. I''m a soldier Qitar, and a father too. I''m here for a reason, and the fate your people had planned for me, threatened everything I was fighting for. You should understand better than anyone Qitar, we fight for our loved ones, for our country, regardless of the situations we find ourselves in.


    And I admit, this whole trial of revelations is just one big cluster fuck of problems. And shit tends to hit the fan every ten seconds. But the only thing I can do, that we can do, is to make right our wrongs in whatever way we can. So please let me help you, I understand what it''s like to loose everything and have nothing, to be left without a purpose and be lost.


    So let me give you that purpose, let me help you. To make right the wrongs that mind you aren''t my fault. If you want revenge, I''ll let you take it. But you could be meant for......"


    "Okay let''s go."


    "Yes you must understand that you must let go to.....wait what?" I asked confused.


    "Your speech is annoying, and it''s making both my missing arm and my head ache. I know what the second trial is all about, you need a crew, and I need to get off my ass and stop feeling betrayed and sorry for myself. Not when I can''t do anything about it, so let''s go. If I help you win, then that''s the best revenge imaginable. So whatever it is you''re offering, I''m taking."


    "Ummmm? Okay I guess? Let''s go." I said to her, completely confused by the sudden turn of events.


    "Great let me go get my stuff." And then she walked away.


    "No offense captain, but with your boring and cringe worthy speech giving skills, do you reckon it was supposed to be this easy?" Dinah asked me as she watched Qitar move up her stairs.


    "I have no fucking idea, what the heck just happened?"

 43 The Second Trial II : Recruiting Raven Song & The First Mission.

    When we got back to the Villa, we were met with a rather peculiar sight. Zack and Mack, had Raven Song tied up on a chair, and that chair was being hung upside down, over the railing of the stair case. I was quite shocked by the sudden turn of events, and with how messed up Zack and Mack looked, this was probably a lot harder to carry out than I imagined.


    "Did you send this cronies of yours to kidnap me? Not cool dude, not cool at all!" He shouted at me.


    "Sorry, I asked them to get you here, no matter what. I didn''t expect things would get this complicated and weird." I apologized as I gave Mack a signal to let him down.


    "Well no worries, this is not the first time I''ve been kidnapped, so I''m quite used to it. But to be honest I didn''t expect that the one doing the kidnappings would be you, is something the matter?" He asked me, as he dusted his clothes, throwing off imaginary dust.


    "Yes, I''m putting together a crew of sorts for the next task, and I want you to join me. If you don''t mind."


    "And you couldn''t just come ask me that instead, rather than kidnapping me?" he asked again, folding his hands as he raised his eyebrow.


    "Like I said, I''m sorry. But you have quite the reputation, and I thought it would be better if I had you brought here instead, where we can have a talk. I didn''t expect it to get so wild."


    "Okay apology accepted, and yes please I''ll join this crew of yours. I''ve been a part of Iron Eagles guild for the better part of three years, and in all that time, all they had me do was explore and clear dungeons, grind to raise my levels, and then participate in some events and tournaments, the rinse and repeat. I really didn''t get to have a sense of adventure in this game, but now, I''m finally free of that blasted guild, so let''s get the fuck out of here, before they come back for me." He said, as he relaxed on the couch behind him.


    "Well sure, no problem. Dinah could you get Qitar a room, and Jack could you take care of Raven Song here?" I ordered.


    Jack gave a simple nod, before leading Raven Song upstairs to get him a room, Dinah on the other hand, felt the need to give me the middle finger, before grabbing Qitar and leading her towards the garage instead, she was probably going to work on her prosthetic bionic arm. Suddenly my communicator rang, and a message was on the screen.


    [Come outside.....Alone!] Sender: Minister Lerrianderlei


    Well I was a little put off and surprised that she had access to my come, but I guess she was that resourceful, or careful.No doubt she was keeping a close eye on me, and the fact that she had this number was more than enough proof. I excused myself and went outside, since she said to come alone, I left Sky behind, she was a weapon, but I also considered her a person.


    As soon as I got outside, I noticed a limo parked in my villas docking bay, there was two female elves standing guard outside, and as I got closer, ne of them opened the door. I looked around first, then at both elves, trying to figure out what was going on before I heard her voice call out to me.


    "Well what are you waiting for, get in."


    I moved into the limo, and couldn''t help but leave my jaw hanging on the floor. I figured this was not social call, seeing as I would be leaving soon to go complete the second task, so why the hell was the minister dressed so casually, and in a night gown no less. Weird right?


    "I''m so sorry about my current state of dress, or undress,it something came up and it was quite urgent."


    She said to me, as she crossed her legs, making her short pink night gown ride up her pale thighs, but the really sight came when she was crossing her legs, based on what I saw, it''s safe to say, she wasn''t wearing anything underneath.


    "Well what''s so urgent that you had to see me this early in the morning?"


    I asked her, as I simultaneously swallowed hard. This woman was playing with me, I knew that much, and I would be lessor a man if I say I wasn''t affected by her sultry actions. She was a woman who knew her body had power, and she was not gun shy about using that power.


    "A mission has come up, and the coven feels it''s perfect for your first operation. And since you''ll be completing your task around the same vicinity, I believe it''s a pretty convenient proposition." She said to me as she handed me a tablet, with the map of a couple of islands on it.


    "Okay, what am I looking at?" I asked her, as the image of the islands zoomed in on each other.


    "Those string of islands, as you already might have heard of, are the hollows. That''s one of the few places left on New Gaia, that''s still lawless and quite wild. Anyway, there seventeen great islands, 30 major islands, and over a 100 large islands, and a little over 600 minor islands. It''s a quite like M.A.S where you got your ship from.


    There are four main powers there, first are the original human inhabitants of those islands, known as the Maui. Fearsome warriors, and masters over any fire, water and most berserker classes. They have a king, a few queens, and quite a lot of princesses and princes.The Maui''s power are absolute, and they restrain the other three powers, so they can not be messed with.


    The next would be the mercenary/smuggling organization Gemini. They''re cutthroat and ruthless, but they have a good reputation, and are very good business men and women. They have quite a significant amount of islands under their control, including three great islands. However they''re quite ambitious, and would like to obtain total control of the Hollows. Unfortunately that won''t be happening anything soon.


    The next has to be a nation of sea folk. They''re not limited to Sahagins, Mermaids, Sirens, and even a few krakens. They''re pirates, and they''re the scourge of the seas surrounding the entirety of the Hollows islands. The fruit you''re supposed to steal is smack dab in the middle of their capital, a great island called Runt."


    "Seriously?" I asked surprised by the name.


    "Yes seriously." She answered, before she continued.


    "Though they only have one major island under their control, they have the most minor islands under their control, at almost 270 of the entire six hundred.


    They''re common thugs, but still quite dangerous, and are not to be underestimated, they''re ruled by 6 pirate lords, who are quite powerful enough to damage and even destroy a small nation. So be careful of them, don''t get caught, and under no circumstances are you allowed to expose Sky''s living form to them, if they find out a battle beast is running around the hollows, whether or not they care of the bond between the two of you, they''ll kill you, and sell her to the highest bidder.


    And then the final power is an off shoot kingdom of sea elves, they''re exiles, and belong to a faction of a former traitor of the elven nation. Though it''s been many years, they''ve grown stronger over time. Apart from the royal family of the Maui, they''re the most dangerous and powerful there, even though their faction is The smallest. They have five great islands under their control, and that alone is a testament of their abilities. They call themselves the Pure Forgotten, and they are your target this time." I nodded my head in acceptance at what she said, and listened closely for what came next.


    "They''re holding an important Elven dignitary hostage, of course we could just as well negotiate with them for his release, but they will not let him go. Said dignitary, is actually the old head of research for the elven biochemical tech and weapons lab. He has knowledge that could completely destabilize the entire elven nation. Your secondary objective is to retrieve him, before he tells them anything. My spies on the island says he''s keeping quiet, but only because he hopes to wring out as much benefits from both the sea elves, and the elven empire as a whole.


    It would be his ploy at revenge after he was fired from his position for illegal experimentation. Now listen closely, while your secondary objective is to retrieve him, I didn''t say exactly what state he''s supposed to be in, I''m sure you know what I mean. All I need is a body, your primary objective is to make sure he dies, and cause enough damage to anything of import to the sea elves, if you can get us important information or even a hostage, then that''s even better.


    This is not a rescue operation Aaren, you know that right?" She asked me, as the tablet in my hands showed me the face of my target.


    "No it''s not, it''s an assassination mission." I answered her in return.


    "Good, then I guess I don''t need to tell you anything else."


    And then she moved towards me, grabbed the tablet and threw it aside, and then proceeded to sit on my lap, looking all hot and heavy as she brought her lips down to my face. Game or not, I''m definitely going to like what comes next.

 44 The Second Trial III : Fu**ing The Elven Minister 18+

    She was forceful with her kisses. And she dropped herself over my body, grinding her lithe elven frame on me as she aimed to bring us close together. I''ve been with to few women in my life, so I had no ides how to react to Rian''s aggressive nature, so all I could do was sit there as she kissed me and grinding her crotch over my groin. She brought her lips to my ear, and then whispered wordscould swear were spells.


    My clothes disappeared and so did hers, as our skin touched and caressed each other. She kissed me again, and this time she shoved her soft velvet lips into my mouth, as she massaged my soft tongue, kissing me in the most sensual way I''ve ever experienced.


    For a mine my mind went blank, and the feeling of her soft tongue in my mouth was all I could think about. My dick was hard, raging and ready. And with it being trapped in between her still moving vagina and my stomach, it was experiencing pleasure to the point of insanity.


    I wanted her to shove my dick into her wet hole, to experience the feeling of her warmth as she wraps herself around my rod. But it seems she has other plans, and penchant to tease. She stopped kissing me and slid over my lap, coming to rest on the floor of limo as she took my dick, and shoved it into her hot, wet mouth.


    "Arghhh!"


    I couldn''t help the gasp that escaped from my lips as she wrapped her pink lips around the head of my dick. She licked around it like a lollipop, around and around and then shoved her tongue on the tip of if, causing me to release a glob of precum as I grabbed a fist full of her hair.


    Then she grabbed my balls in her hand, as she licked, from the tip to base, and back again. She massaged my balls, before she wrapped her breasts around my dick, and sent everything into her mouth.


    She had this peculiar technique as she would deep throat my dick, shoving it deep, and when she was coming up, she would encase my rod in-between her breasts, and rub them both vigorously, before shoving my dick into her mouth again. She continued this routine for a few more rounds,before I began to feel the pressure build up in my dick.


    My breathing became heavier, and my grip on hair got tighter. She let go of her breasts, and began to bob her head up and down, as fast as she could. But that speed wasn''t enough for me, as I grabbed her head with both hands, and I got up as best as I could in the car, and began to furiously drive my dick in and out of her mouth.


    She grabbed onto my thighs and seemed to add a little more speed to my movements. Her tongue wrapped around my dick in ways I never expected, and it drew me closer and closer to the edge until I just let go.


    "Urgh, fuck! Yes!"


    This was a game, so I really didn''t understand how sex could feel so real, so intense and so enjoyable. And to be honest for a moment there I forgot where I was, like I was really having sex with a real person, in a real world. She pushed me back to the seat and climbed over me, angling my dick at her vagina as she dropped down in one fell swoop.


    The warmth was real, the feeling of her inner walls clenching tightly around my rod was real. It was euphoric, and I loved it. She brought her face to mine, as she kissed me, again, shoving her tongue into my mouth, as she examined every nook and cranny with a lustful fervor. Then she pulled back and looked at me and said.


    "Now I''m going to fuck you, and I''m going to enjoy it. I expect you to do your best to satisfy me, because I''ll be doing the same."


    And then she began to move, bouncing up and down on my dick as her juices sprayed from where we connected. She vagina gripped me tightly, and each upward and downward stroke brought new levels of pleasure that I''ve never experienced before.


    I couldn''t help but wonder, that for a lady that had as much sex as she did, if the rumors are to be believed. How come she was still so...¡­.tight. I felt like I was being massaged by heaven, and she went up and down, with her lustful gaze on my face, I lost all forms of reasoning.


    I moved my hands to her back as I grabbed her firm and soft ass, kneading the pale skinned goodies as she rode me to a climax. I could feel the limo shaking, and I was pretty sure, everyone outside could also see it doing the same thing. Only a fool, or a child wouldn''t know what was going on in here.


    "Arghhh, hah! Yes! Oh! I''m Cumming! Ahhhh! Yeah!"


    This was a minister of the elven empire, a diplomat with one of the highest authority in this bloody game. And she was reduced into a mewling pile of goo, as she came all over me. I had a feeling that this was more fun for her than it was for me, even though it was plenty fun.


    This could turn out into a scandal, and the very idea of getting caught seemed to have her arousal all the way up at 110%. I growled and turned her over, surprising her as she opened her eyes wide at the sudden change of position.She was probably used to being in charge, but I didn''t want to be just a plaything for her, let her remember this day.


    I raised her legs up, spread them wide, and just drove my dick back into her body in one full stroke. She screamed as she came again, wrapping her legs around my waist so hard, I felt bruised. Then I pulled out slowly, until only the tip of my dick was touch the entrance of her pussy. And then I slammed into her again, watching as her body quivered under me.


    And so I kept on slamming, smacking our groins together and my dick went in and out of her pussy in a fervor of my own making and direction. My pace was even more frantic than hers, as I lost myself into the feeling of fucking a woman who should be way above my pay grade in this game.


    The sounds of our flesh slapping against each other was so loud, I''m sure anyone around the limo could hear. Her moans were loud and unrestrained, she was loving this fuck session, and she didn''t really care if the entire world could hear us fuck each other.


    "Go faster! I''m so close! Harder!"


    Well her wish is my command. I picked up speed, moving so fast that I utilized every single aspect of my speed, and all of the buffs on me. I pounded away into her wet cave, and every piston movement I made, had her love juices spraying all over the leather seats of her limo. But she was not the only one close to the edge, and every second spent within her body, drew me closer and closer until.


    "Oh! Yesss? Fuck me!"


    "Urgh!"


    I had wanted to pull out, you know, for safety and all that stuff. But her legs were wrapped tightly around my waist, and I let it all pour into her, and with an orgasms as intense as what I just had, I doubted what ever was within her canals was small. I gave a few more strokes for good measure before I pulled out of her pussy. Almost immediately my clothes were back on my body.


    She came close to me, still naked and kissed me softly. It was gentler, more tender and more emotional than the first time. I may not have much experience with women, but I knew she was playing me. And then she looked at me with a tender gaze and said.


    "That was amazing. We should do this again, if you don''t mind." She whispered with a suddenly shy voice.


    If it was any other guy, it would have worked. But I don''t like my women demure of gentle. I very much preferred the Rian that rode me with a careless abandon. I opened the door of the limo and got out, then I said to her.


    "Have a good day Minister Lerrianderlei." And then I turned and walked towards my villa, not even looking back once. Simple mind game, play hard to get, and she''ll come looking for me again. Damn I''m so smart.

 45 The Second Trial IV : All Hands On Deck

    Spending a Saturday with Ron was quite illuminating, he was rather spirited for some reason, and I had to run after him half the time to make sure he didn''t hurt himself or anything. The only problem with that, has to stem from the fact that I was the one who ended up getting hurt. Which is why when he started sleeping, I welcomed the respite. But at the very least, I could officially begin my voyage in lost descendants, so I logged back in.


    When I opened my eyes, I wasn''t in my spacious bedroom in the villa, rather I was in a smaller room, a little bit futuristic with it''s all metal interior, the display screens, work table, and sliding glass door that led to a balcony on the back of the ship. I was on the Acheron''s Grace. But with how steady the ship was, it''s obvious we''ve not started moving yet.


    I got up, and went towards the balcony, the glass doors sliding open as I got close to them, they seem to work on motion sensors. I looked out towards the island behind us, watching closely as jagged rocks rose around it''s entire perimeter, thick storm clouds hung over it''s head, and the huge body of the demon Sortovat, rustling the tree line, as he moved to and fro.


    To be honest I wasn''t exactly sure how me and Sky had survived being noticed by the demon, but I''m glad he didn''t. We would have been having a very different conversation right now if I should be honest, and such conversations only means that I''m screwed.


    I closed my eyes, and spread my wings. I loved the feeling in them as they caught the wind and sweet scent of the sea''s breeze assailed by nose. Was this really a virtual world? Technology was awesome, but to simulate something this grand, this wonderful...¡­I feel like we''re a century to early for that.But I could be wrong and this was just a really good game, besides the idea of this being a real world...¡­..forget it! I think I might have read a little too many webnovels.


    I turned around and went back into what I now think should be the captain''s quarters. I was wearing simple clothes, and my armor was hung on a mannequin at the edge of the room. There was a walk in closet that had a few clothes and shoes in it, but it was almost bare, and it made me feel sort of ashamed. I needed to get more clothes, but that''s trouble for another day.


    There was a bathroom, and while I didn''t feel the need to shower, I guess it wouldn''t hurt to give it a try. And I did. The bathroom wasn''t really that big, I mean after all this was a ship, but I had to say it was nice. Though I was beginning to hate the silvery black coating of everything on this ship, even the furniture''s had the same coating.


    I got out of the bathroom, and equipped my armor, then I hung both the elven sword and Thalasio Spathi on my back. It wasn''t really necessary for me to use two swords, but it was badass, so why the hell not. But before I went out, I went to the display screen on the wall, it was placed over a desk, so in s manner of speaking it was more like the monitor of a computer.


    After fiddling around with for a bit, I realized that it was actually a port to the ships computer systems. And while I couldn''t do anything like browse the internet, since the ship was piggy backing of the satellites of very powerful nations. I could at least check the current status of the ship.


    Connection to an open network like the internet within lost descendants online was looking for trouble. But a local computer like that of the ship won''t b raising any flags, since it''s not required to connect to any network for it to be utilized. It was as simple as that.


    SHIP NAME: KING ACHERONS GRACE - CHANGE


    CAPATAIN: AAREN SEVEN


    SHIP LEVEL: 9/ SHIP GRADE: EARTH


    STATUS: GREEN (FULLY FUNCTIONAL)


    CREW: 7


    FUEL: GREEN (100%)


    SUB-MARINE FORM: UPGRADE REQUIRED (OFFLINE)


    SKY-SHIP FORM: UPGRADE REQUIRED (OFFLINE)


    DIMENSION SHIP FORM: UPGRADE REQUIRED (OFFLINE)


    WEAPONS: ION PULSE CANNON (ONLINE) / STAR DRAGON TURRETS (ONLINE)


    DEFENSES: POWER SHIELD LEVEL 1 (100%) / ENERGY ABSORBER LEVEL 1 (100%)


    SKILLS: CAMOUFLAGE/ SEA SPRINT/ NANO CELLS


    There''s not nearly enough skills, for me to be satisfied with what I was seeing, but at the very least this was enough. Though not everything the ship was capable of was actuallymentioned. But the skills it had at the moment was good enough for me, besides with the engine and the pulse cannon, this wasn''t just a ship that was fast and could take a hit, but it could also dish out a serious amount of damage when you take things into consideration.


    I was satisfied with everything I''ve seen, so I made my way out of the room, coming up into a tiny hallway just five meters long. It led me out to what to the cafeteria, and to be honest it was a whole lot different than what it looked like the last time.


    It looked like the lounge of a fancy hotel. Fancy leather couches were arranged in a circle around a holographic display of the ship, highlighting all of it''s weapons system and, engine and computer system. Dinah was interacting with it, while Qitar, with a new and proper bionic arm the same color and shade of the ship, moved said arms erratically.


    It wasn''t until after I took a closer look that I realized that every time she moved her cybernetic arm, the ships weapons system responded to her. Though from the looks of it, she was having a little too much problem with controlling all of the guns on the ship. I saw her close her fists, and most of the weapons lit up, almost as if they were preparing to fire, but even then that was only about 10% of the turrets installed on the ship, she was not even close to making the pulse cannon budge.


    "You have to keep at it Qitar. The ship''s just not familiar with you yet, and since it has a growing consciousness that''s pretty much like a baby. It only really recognizes me and the captain as it''s family, or you could say it''s parents. Once you receive it''s acknowledgement, and get a little practice in, you should be able to link you mind to every firing weapons system on board."


    The analogy of me being the ship''s father was weird, but understandable. Qitar becoming connected to the ship due to her new arm was a surprise, but quite welcomed. And at this point I think it was time we prepared for our maiden voyage, or something of the sort. But before that, I think everyone needed to know their work stations or positions.


    I was standing on a balcony over the lounge, I pretended I didn''t see the bar at the edge of the lounge, with Mack mixing drinks like a professional server. He looks really happy standing behind that counter. Darke was no where to be seen, and if I had to hazard a guess I would say he was at the helm. The dude was a pilot after all.


    Raven Song was spread out on one of the couches, relaxing as he rubbed his hands over Sky''s purple head. Jack looked totally out of place with his intensely vigilant look. I don''t think that guy knew how to take a break, and finally Zack was looking out the window.


    I placed my hand on the railing of the balcony, and just jumped over, flapping my wings so that I landed lighter than normal. I drew everyone''s attention to myself as I walked towards them, and sat on the conspicuously huge leather armchair, and then crossed my legs, trying to look as cool as possible.


    "Dinah, you''re the ship''s mechanic, logistics officer, and one of the resident eye candy. Please work hard. Qitar you''re the ships battle officer, or a gunner if you prefer. And also as of this moment, my first mate! Which means if I''m not here, your in charge. Darke wherever the fuck he is, is our navigator, Jack is the second mate and our diplomat, because I think the rest of us sucks in that regard.


    Zack is our look out, or our surveillance officer. The dude is just so paranoid I don''t think there''s any other position suitable for him. Mack that bar is yours to handle from now on, and if you don''t know how to cook, you better start learning, because not only are you now in charge of the bar, you''re also the ships cook, and it''s information officer. You always seem to know something about everything, and with the proper tools, I believe you''ll make a great spy.


    And as for you Raven Song...¡­..just stay out of trouble until I figure out what to do with you." I said to him with a smile. He returned the smile with a thumbs up and said to me.


    "Aye, Aye captain."


    "All right, everybody head up to the deck." I ordered, as Sky ran towards my side with teary eyes.


    She was such an attention seeker, but looking as cute as she did, I didn''t think I had it in me to refuse her a rube behind her ears. She was so much like a dog sometimes, you would wonder if she really was an elephant, or just some other creature wearing her skin.


    When we got JP to the deck, Darke was already standing at the steering wheel. The difference about the deck this time was, that I was covered. Making the ship more like a yacht than a ship. But a few taps from the tablet Dinah always seems to be carrying around, and voila.Like some sort of transformer movie, the roof of the deck melted away, leaving us exposed to the wonders of the open sea and the harsh glare of the sun.


    I took a step forward to savor it, to feel the wind on my skin, and sea in my sights. I just felt so¡­.so...free. Anyway, I''m sure I had to say something or the like, to get this voyage started, I think it was protocol or tradition, or something of the sort, who knows how these things work.


    "So I''m not going to beat around the bush on going into some extremely tiring long tirade, that''s going to be filled with bullshit none of us care about, so I''m going to keep it simple." I turned and pointed at the sea.


    "You see that vast ocean of blue out there? It''s brutal, and wild and untamed. But! We''re going to make the sea our bitch,make it so that every time we coast her waters, she moans in delight at our touch. We''re going to conquer her, until every single part of her belongs to us. And when we''re done!"


    I paused, and then looked up with a wild grin, it ignoring the hovering drone that seeks to be filming everything going on here. Then I pointed upwards, towards the sky, and beyond to the stars we couldn''t see.


    "And when we''re done fucking the sea in every position and with every fetish you can think of. We''re going to bang her elder sister the sky, make her our bitch too, and then we''ll go for their momma, that big, endless, black sea of stars...¡­and then we''ll bang that mild too. Until everything that was, and everything that is and will be, will remember our name for it...¡­.so let''s go fuck shit up!"


    "That was beautifully said captain!" Dinah spoke out as she and Raven Song clapped their hands. Qitar and the others looks totally out of place, completely shocked by my crass words and blatant sexual innuendos. But they clapped too.


    "Darke take us out to sea, full steam ahead!"


    And then the Acheron began to rumble, his engines powering up as he took his first stride on the oceans of this world. The currants accepted his first step, guided him, as the wind pushed him softly, like a mother whispering a fare well song to a voyaging child. I guess the game, has truly begun.

 46 The Second Trial V : Sea Battles 1

    I was forced awake by a loud explosion. The journey to our destination has been somewhat bland and uneventful, so I may have spent the past hour or two dozing off. Acheron shook violently, almost as if the sea itself was against her movements. I had no idea how close we were to our destination, but I couldn''t help the surge of anticipation that went through me. A battle was what I needed right now.


    *BOOOM!*


    "Shit! What the fuck was that?" I asked as I ran up to the deck, Sky and Raven song close behind me.


    "That would probably be some pirates shooting at our ass!" Raven song replied as we came up to see Qatar moving her bionic arm in the direction of three rapidly approaching ships.


    "Well then what the fuck are you waiting for, shoot back!"


    The pirates were coming from the right side of the ship, though if that side is called the starboard or port I have no idea. But our destination was about three hundred or so meters in front of us. There was a naval outpost of sorts, and it was currently on fire, which should explain why pirates were trying to shoot us down. It''s not going to be easy, but we had to go through them to get to where we were going.


    "Why don''t you speed up".


    Raven song asked Darke who was still at the helm and moving the ship at a cruising speed, maneuvering it, so that Qitar could get a clean shot at pirates who were rapidly drawing closer. That would seem like a probable option in order for us to avoid taking any damage from the pirates, but it would also be suicide.


    "If we speed up without taking care of the enemies behind us, then we''re going to be facing attacks from both the front and that back. Acheron is strong and fast enough to go through that barricade ahead, but she''s not invisible. If we''re not careful this baby will get sunk!" Dinah spoke up as she joined us on the deck.


    Qitar pointed her bionic arm in the direction of the rapidly approaching ships, the joints of her hand began to glow and in tandem sigh that, hundreds of ports opened up from the side of the ship, and the turrets came flying out. And then Qitar clenched her fist, causing all hell to break loose.


    *Pew* *Pew*


    The turrets spat out laser and fire like a machine gun. Or maybe it was just one at a time, but because there was so much of them it made it seem as if there was only one gun shooting so rapidly. We were being attacked by three ships, and all three ships were reduced to a smoking pile of metal and smoke in seconds. I blinked for a while, wholeheartedly surprised by the sheer fire power Acheron had, I guess we could all say that my investment had paid off.


    Ahead of us, a blockade of pirate ships were rapidly forming, and each and every single one of them had their cannons and guns pointed in our direction. It was a freaking fleet, and while it''s possible for us to punch a hole through their blockade, we had to get close enough to be able to do that. But with all the fire power we had on this ship, not to mention a certain piece of equipment that was of the legendary grade, I doubted these ships in front of us would even stand a chance.


    "Qitar prepare the Ion pulse cannon, and fire on my command."


    "You got it captain!" She replied, as she shifted her bionic arm in the direction of the blockade and opened her palm wide.


    There was a soft him coming from the ship, and her arm as pattern made to light showed up on her bionic arm. It began from her shoulders, all the way to her fingers before converging in the center of her palm, kind of like iron man''s repulsors. The front of the ship opened up with a loud clang as the Ion pulse cannon rolled out, glowing an eerie silver blue. It would take a few moments for the cannon to charge, and it would be stupid to expect our enemies go what for us while our weapon of mass destruction got ready, so we needed a distraction, a very big one.


    I walked forward until I was standing at the prow of the Acheron, Sky right beside me, and the sword of the sea clutched tightly in my hand as I pointed it at our incoming enemies. I felt the wind on the sea, the way it caresses her surface like a lover or a parent, but more like a lover because the winds touch would be wild and untamed at times, passionate in the way it shows it''s affection, or it could be gentle and soft and filled with extreme care. But I was not just feeling the wind or the sea itself, I felt the life within it, their voices became a part of me as I became a part of them. I heard it clearly even before I called it out, I closed my eyes and I felt it, deeply, all the way to the depths of my bones. This was the¡­.


    "Call Of The Sea" *Whoooooooosh*


    I opened my eyes and couldn''t help but take a step back in shock and amazement as I looked at the sight in front of me, and looked at the sword in my hand. I didn''t expect this to be honest, and the damn sword was not even my main weapon, but the power it had was insane. At this point in the game; after the update I wasn''t sure if an equipment like this wasn''t breaking the mechanics of the game, because right in front of me was a tidal wave of epic proportions, it was so large that the Acheron was like an ant at the foot of an elephant.


    It completely protected us from the fleet of pirates ships on the other side, and it was not just horrifyingly majestic, it was also one of the most beautiful things I''ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. True power like I''ve never experienced it before, in a way I think I understand why this game was so damn addictive, or should I say this life. In here, fantasies become a reality, and you have power over your own destiny and future, you become your own god.


    "Captain! The cannon is ready for discharge." Qatar spoke up from behind me.


    "Very well then, fire at will!" as soon as I finished speaking I swung the sword of the seas to the side, parting the huge tidal wave in front of me in half, creating a path in the middle for Qatar to shoot through.


    Based on the schematics of the Ion pulse cannon, it was mounted on a semi-gyroscopic swivel. With little corrections, the Ion cannon could release it''s energy beam from sixty degrees to the left, right, upwards and downwards. With enough distance, that angle would be enough for us to take out an entire formation of fleets if they''re lined side by side. Unfortunately we did not have as much distance as I would have liked, but at the very least we were far enough to do some serous damage.


    *Hoooong!* *Boom!* *Swoosh!* *Bang!*


    The cannon firing through all of us backwards as it''s discharge roughly shook the ship and threw everyone on their asses including Qitar who was responsible for aiming the damn thing at out enemies. While she got some of them, reducing whole ships to molten metal on the sea, her falling back had angled the cannon''s beam a little ways up, and straight towards an island in the horizon.


    The entire thing went up in a fiery explosion as we could see the once green paradise go up in smoke and flames. We all looked at each other very confused as the players which was me and Raven Song received alerts about gaining a shit ton of exp. Dinah looked a little embarrassed as she said.


    "I might need to upgrade the ships resistance to shock as soon as we get to a stable and safe workshop. This one is on me."


    I had no idea what to say, and to be honest this was a little annoying. This might be a game, but I have stopped treating it as such, and I''m choosing to experience it as a chance for another life. However my reputation was already in the gutters due to the massacre at M.A.R.S, and now this shit has gone and happened. How the hell was I supposed to be a force for good when I kept killing people, many of them innocent of any crime. I could say that this was war, and as a soldier war was something I understood, but in the end that would be bullshit. This came as a result of recklessness on both my part, and the part of my engineer.


    I can''t go around and be throwing blames, seeing as I''m not perfect and everyone makes mistakes. So I''m sure one way or another, we would be making up for this. But that did not mean we were out of the clear yet, while Qitar had made a straight path forward for us, we still had enemies on both sides. Sure the shot from the cannon had probably put them in shock, and you would expect them to run away for their lives, but this were pirates. You couldn''t use logic against them savvy.


    But there was not a problem a swing of my trusty sword won''t solve, at least for this situation anyway. Call of the ocean was overpower as fuck, anywhere I was on sea, as long as I used it, I could control the ocean for thirty whole fucking minutes. The four day cool down that follows made it totally worth it when you consider the kind of damage I could cause with this sword in thirty minutes.


    Maybe I should have just used only sword from the start, if would have saved us a lot of trouble, and also I should have taken the ship out for a test run before we set sail. That way we would have been able to figure out all the little problems it had and fixed it in time too. This was just another proof of how lifeline this game was, even a ship would have performance issues after it''s been built, just like real life.


    I swung the sword, letting my intention be known to the sea as a huge tidal wave swept past, from the left to the right, grabbing all of the ships and smashing them together into a huge pile that soon caught on fire. I felt really stupid when I saw the outcome of me just swinging my sword, I could have avoided a whole lot of problems. But what''s done is done and it can not be undone.


    "Darke full steam ahead, get us out of here."


    "Yes captain¡­"


    *Booom!*


    "Oh what the fuck is it now goddammit!" I yelled out in frustration as I was thrown forward onto my face.


    "Captain we''re under attack, and it''s from another chosen of the trial." Mark explained as he cams up to the deck from the ships interior.


    There was an ugly look on my face as I turned to see a trio of ships chasing after us, with their cannons smoking and aiming at us. I swung Thalasio Spathi in anger, sending a tidal wave towards them, but right in front of my eyes, my huge curtain of ship destroying water was turned into bubbles. And I was not the only one who''s jaw was hanging halfway to the ground right now.


    "What the hell was that?" Raven song asked as we all looked at the approaching ships.


    "I don''t know Raven, but Qitar what are you waiting for? Shoot those bastards!"

 47 The Second Trial VI : Sea Battles 2

    The ships turrets came to life as they spun backwards, pointing at the enemy behind us. Qitar didn''t stand on ceremony as she opened fire on the ship that shot at us, pelting a ridiculous amount of laser fire at it. However contrary to my expectations, said ship did not go up in a ball of flames like I wanted it to, instead a massive golden shield came to life around the structure of the ship, intercepting our assault.


    "Mack what the hell kind of ship is that, and who the fuck owns it?" I asked Mack as I turned my gaze towards the ship.


    "I have no idea captain, they must have left Patmos after we did, and even then development of that ship must have been kept under wraps. I don''t know who we''re dealing with." He replied.


    The feeling of annoyance in the pit of my stomach was not one I''ve felt in quite a while, but it was there. Just from their first attack alone, I knewmy ship did not have a strong enough defense to withstandan open sea gun battle with whoever owns that ship, plus seeing as they just turned a tidal wave into bubbles, I''m sure a weapon or artifact as powerful or even more so than Thalasio Spathi was within the hands of our assailants. We had to give this one up.


    "Darke full speed ahead, get us the fuck away from this place, and do it fast! I get you some cover. The rest of you go below deck, Qitar give me some suppressive fire, and Dinah, pull up the deck''s shielding, the sea''s about to get wild."


    They all scrambled to do as I said, with Darke moving the ship forwards. Even though Acheron seems a little to frail to handle the weapons she has on board, the girl was pretty damn fast. Heck I don''t want to brag but, this baby might be the fastest sea faring vessel in new Gaia, just like the black pearl once was.


    Qitar did not stop firing the turrets at the ship chasing us, though all of our shots were intercepted by the shield covering the ship. In contrast to the Acheron, the enemy ship was our opposite in every way. First of all, it''s color scheme was a mixture of white and gold, and then it was three times bigger than the Acheron, both in size and height.


    That ship looked like the vessel of a great general, why Acheron just looked like a black bandit. But no matter, this black bandit would achieve great things, I will make sure of it. We pulled away from them in record time, in fact if this was a race, it would be like comparing a cheetah competing against a baboon.


    But just puling away wasn''t enough, we needed cover, or at the very least to slow them down. And this would not be about me protecting my ship from their assault, it would just be my attempt at Letty revenge. With the shielding over the deck, the Acheron looked like a black bullet on the calm sea. The shield protects the deck from the elements, and works the same way tinted windows functioned. They couldn''t see in, but we could see outside.


    I swung Thalasio Spathi, loving how much power it gave me over the seas. It was rather intoxicating to be honest, but I kept my goal in sight. Since these guys could turn a 70 foot tidal wave into a cloud of bubbles, let''s see if they can do the same to the sea they''re sailing on.


    I started twirling the sea sword, moving around like I was practicing a sword routine, and if I had to be honest, I actually was, but for now this was the motion I was most comfortable with, to do exactly what I had in mind. And what was that you might ask,...I was making a storm.


    *BOOoooOoooM!*


    And there comes the thunder, followed quite closely by dark clouds, rain and rolling, churning and turning of the very ocean itself. My anger fueled her, and she responded, carrying out my wrath to my enemies. Darke took us out of the range of the storm, but as for that other ship, they can kiss sunshine good bye for the next day or more. I made it so that the storm would only keel carrying them round a and round in circles, until it dissipates by itself.


    [You have created a Storm at Sea. The Gods of the Sea have taken notice of your actions.

 48 Taking A Throne I : Penny Jones

    While I was a little worried about what would happen in game, I had different fishes to fry today. I was going to be taking an official position within imperium industries, and since I wasn''t really that conversant with business as a whole, I needed to have a shark at my side. And it''s quite unfortunate that old man Jones was not around to hunt my enemies for me, I just had to deal with her.


    "What are you looking at?" an annoyed voice said to me.


    "I''m just thinking about how much of a monster you still are, maybe I should add bitch to that equation. Penny the monster bitch."


    "Awww thanks, that''s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, but judging by how bitter you sound, I know one thing for sure." She said to me with a smile.


    "Oh! And what''s that Penny the Monster Bitch." I asked her bitterly.


    "I broke your heart, and you still hate me for it. I''m so sorry, do you need a tissue?"


    God I wanted to hit her, and I wanted to kiss her too, weird right. Who knew Penny would grow up to be such a bombshell, and while I still hated her guts, some other part of my body had different ideas. But I had to focus, maybe think of Kira instead, yeah, her! She''s better looking than Penny, an Asian bombshell with the body of stripper, plus she''s older too.


    "You two should stop acting like children, Penelope you''re now in charge of a very powerful law firm, and you master Aaron, you''re a father. Please act your bloody age, or I''ll stop this car and beat some sense into the both of you. I can''t believe you''re both so crass with your words, especially in front of a child. You two, you''re just dying to tell each other how much you missed the other, you fought all the time as children, but you were such great friends. Don''t let an old wound sour a great partnership, it''s up to you two to keep your grandfather''s friendship alive. Now hug and make up!" Nanny Florence said from the driver''s seat.


    I smartly kept my mouth shut, not because I was afraid of Nanny Florence(though I am), but because I really want to know what hugging Penny would feel like. Penny on the other hand looked like she''d rather eat a bucket of grass than touch me, but she grew up at the feet of Nanny Florence just like I did. It would be beyond stupid to refuse her.


    I had a rather wide grin on my face as I hugged Penny, the feeling of her breast was something else and I couldn''t help but tease her. I mean come on, I had to take a cheap shot, this is the perfect opportunity to do so.


    "Wow they got bigger, either you''re a late bloomer, or your prayers got answered, though I''m not sure which breasts increasing deity you asked for help this time. But I have to say they''re quite squishy."


    "Aaron once this is all done, I''m going to throw you off a building and smile while doing it." She whispered to me as she tightened her arms around my neck trying to choke me.


    "okay!...looking forward to it...now¡­.please...please let go!"


    She got the better of me in this exchange, but that didn''t mean that this battle was over. I relaxed and focused on the city was we moved towards Imperium industries headquarters. Playing around with Penny was therapeutic in a way, and that''s because she made me less comfortable about what''s coming.


    I wasn''t really anticipating becoming a part of the company, I had this feeling like I was about to be thrown into a nest of snakes, and the very idea scared the shit out of me. If it was before my grandfather died, I don''t think I would have cared this much, but now I had to many things to lose should things go wrong.


    I shifted my gaze to my side, Ron was asleep with his hands tightly clutching his Spiderman action figure. The idea that I could love someone this much was still new to me, and because of that, I was scared of loosing him. This feeling was intoxicating, exhilarating, and scary. But I knew at this point, I couldn''t live without my kid.


    "Don''t worry Aaron, he''ll be okay. I promise you I''ll keep him safe, I will never let anything happen to him." Penny said to me with a soft voice.


    I smiled, childish fights and broken thirteen year old heart aside, Penny was my oldest friend, my only friend this side of the world to be honest. And even though we''ve not seen each other for a few years, I knew I could trust her, she was the Robin to my Batman.


    "We''re here master Aaron, shall we proceed." I heard Nanny Florence say.


    It was somewhat embarrassing that I was being driven by my Nanny, but the old lady didn''t trust anyone but herself to do so. Plus she''s hoping to make some sort of statement, she was my grandfather''s assistant, and here she was also serving me, this more than validates my identity and legitimacy in the eyes of the public and the media.


    And speaking of media, there were reporters of all race and gender waiting at the front of the company, hoping to get an interview of sorts. But there was no need for that, after the closed door meeting with the board of directors, there would be a press conference where an official statement would be released.The reporters outside are the ones who didn''t get the invite to the press conference.


    The door was opened by one of my the company''s security officers, I mumbled a silent thanks as I came out carrying the still sleeping Ron on my chest. Thankfully the reporters were kept away from me and most especially my son, but to be honest the flashes of the cameras and their bloody questions were really annoying.


    I made my way into the company with Penny and nanny Florence right on my heels, and they in turn were followed by a couple of security guards dressed impeccably in a suit, with black sun glasses to top it off¡­..cool.


    Even though I did a really good job of ignoring the questions, the ridiculousness of some of them almost forced me to stop and give some really scathing remarks, are they even allowed to ask such questions. Thankfully that didn''t last long, and I was already through the front doors of the company.


    What was most probably the entire employees in the company were lined up in front of me, they were probably here to welcome me. That''s to be expected, technically I''m the top dog, the owner of the entire company on account of the fact that I was the principal share holder. I paused for a bit and gave all them a good look, probably spooking half, and making the other half very nervous.


    "Hey guys how are you all doing this fine morning? " I asked them with a smile on my face.


    For a while no one knew what to say, until a Hispanic man came forward and said that they were all doing okay.Rather than leaving it at that, I went over those them, and spent the next 45 minutes taking the names of every single employee standing there at the moment, all 528 of them, including the janitors and the security guards. After that I made my way to the elevator and headed for the top floor.


    "What''s the use of asking for all their names Aaron, you won''t able to remember it all." Penny said to me, a little angry that we had wasted so much time doing something meaningless. I smiled and said to her.


    "You''ll be surprised about what I can remember, I have a really good memory, like really, really good."


    "Oh really, so what do you remember!" she asked with sarcasm dripping down her words.


    "You remember that bathroom incident, the one where I caught you and Marcus playing honkey tonkey willy willy wawa!"


    "Seriously, first of all what sort of game is that, and second what I was doing with your brother is none of your business, it''s my body! Also you said you didn''t see anything."


    "I know who I am, because the world doesn''t know who I might be!Those were the words tattooed on your side, right over your ribs. I remember thinking about how deep those words were, right as I contemplated throwing you off a building for having sex with my brother, and right in my own bathroom.


    But now I realize that those words just don''t make sense, and that Marcus has a smaller dick at 15 than I did at 13. So I guess it was your loss." I said to her with a smile.


    "You really have no shame do you Aaron?" she asked me with a smile.


    "If I did, I''m sure you wouldn''t even be here with me now."


    "unfortunately that''s true."


    The elevator slid open, and we came up into a hall way. The conference room was at the end of the hall, so I guess this is it. I hesitated a bit, only for Nanny Florence to come hold my hands and say to me.


    "It''s okay to be afraid, that''s human. But destiny calls, and you carry the a big responsibility on your shoulder. So from now on, even if your afraid, or terrified, especially of what lies ahead. Just keep moving forward, fear is an enemy and ally, how it affects you is a choice you can make. Now go!"

 49 Taking A Throne II : Ambush, Blackmail, Face Slapping

    We stepped into the conference room with as much confidence as we could muster, or¡­.I think I was the one who was really lacking in confidence at the moment. But at this point there was no need to give myself any charge or a pep talk, I was already here.


    There were six members amongst the board of directors, and if you include me, that would be seven. My father looked smart, and there was a smile to bright to be normal on his face. I took a seat at the head of the long conference table, Penny took another seat besides me while Nanny Florence took Ron with her and went out of the conference room. This was a battle that I had to face on my own¡­.well with Penny anyway.


    "alright you old farts, I don''t have time for any sort small talk, so I''ll get straight down to business. Aaron here has agreed to take a position within the company, and also get an assistant from one of your executives. I understand that the assistant who would help him run the company has been chosen yes?" Penny asked, taking charge and not mincing words with them.


    "Yes of course, little girl. My daughter Kira was chosen by young Aaron, she would help make his transition into the company as smooth as possible. And in time, he would be able to work together with us to make the Imperium industries reach greater heights unknown." An Asian man in his mid fifties answered.


    "Work together with you? Please correct yourself Mr. Lee. You''re the board of directors, and the board of directors answer to the chairman of the company. And since the last chairman has passed away, the person with the principal shares, and the recognized heir of the Imperium industries will become the next chairman. You do not work together with him, Mr. Lee, you work for him!"


    I was so shocked I almost fell of my chair, what the fuck is she doing! What chairman. I''m just here for an executive position, what made her think she could just go ahead and spring the idea of me being chairman to this people, they wouldn''t accept it.


    "Young Penny I think you have it all mistaken, Aaron agreed to take an executive position, that''s what we discussed." My dad said to her as the smile on his face disappeared.


    "Mr. Wade we''re in an office space, please address me with the proper title. You can address me as Attorney Jones or Miss Penelope. Also this discussion that you say you had with my client, he never made any mention of it to me, and I don''tthink you have said agreement documented to make it valid for this meeting. And as such, that agreement was made without a binding document and has no weight in this discussion."


    My father had his mouth opened wide in indignation and anger, almost like a fish out of water. He looked from Penny''s face to mine, and back again looking so shocked it was as if he was going to catch a stroke. But I was not so sure my expression was a little better than his.


    I knew what sort of person Penny was, ultimately she was just a tomboy with a good heart. However she was wild, reckless and very vindictive. And obviously somebody here had pissed her off. But while this caught me off guard, I had no choice but to go with it. I couldn''t contradict my own lawyer, not when she was fighting for my own benefit.


    "Listen to me Penny, we can''t make Aaron the chairman of the company, while you''re right that the position is his to occupy, it''s obvious that he''s not ready, and some of his decisions might impact the way the company is run. We have to be careful about this sort of thing."


    My father said, but it did not sound like he was making a statement or refusing. It was more like he was pleading, or trying to convince Penny not pursue her current course of actions.


    But Penny had smelled blood, she had already dank her teeth into their flesh, and there was no way in hell she was going to let go until she got what she came here for and more.


    "but isn''t that why you decided to get him an assistant. At the very least he wouldn''t make too much of a blunder seeing as the assistant chosen is someone already familiar with the workings of the company." Penny said to them as she flicked imaginary dirt out of her immaculately painted nails.


    "What assistant! There was never any written agreement about us agreeing to letting him have an assistant. He''s not fit to be chairman and that''s the end of it." Sharman Farouk the Indian member of the board spoke out with a little sting in his words.


    Obviously he was trying to use Penny''s own schemes against her, without a provided written agreement that there would be an assistant helping me, we''re all back to square one, with me having nothing and them still being in danger of loosing everything. To be honest I didn''t see this coming, and too many shit was happening at too fast a pace for me to keep up with.


    "Well Mr. Sharman, it''s good to see that you''re a part of the discussion. I was hoping to ask, how''s your illegal weapons factory in Bangladesh, or that brothel you own in new York. I''ve been meaning to pay a visit to those establishments of yours, especially since the FBI are currently investigating them. But that''s besides the point, I mean it can''t as bad as Mr. Lee''s off world drug operations. But I have a recording here of Mr. Lee and the rest of you confirming that A Miss Kira is the chosen assistant of Aaron. But if you all think what I''m saying is bullshit, we could just as easily take this court and have ourselves a nice grand battle. I can say for sure that some sensitive information won''t leak out, and by that time some of you might actually go to jail." Kira said to them with a smile.


    I was so shocked I was left speechless with my jaw hanging unhinged from my mouth. She was actually blackmailing them! Fuck what the hell is going on here! She was playing their game, and she wasn''t just winning, she was kicking the hell out of their butts. And as if to prove her point she even played the recording of Lee confirming that his daughter was the one who had been chosen to become my assistant.


    "Gentlemen and lady of the board, the ball is in your court. Or do you really want to go to war with me and my client. Believe it would be more fun for me, but an entire army of lawyers won''t save you. I''ll break every single one of you, until all that''s left is a pack of sniveling, spineless cowards. Give us what belongs to us and we''ll get out of your hair. So what would it be?"


    I only had one word to describe Penny at the moment, and that word was badass! And badass¡­.maybe that''s two words, or the same word repeated twice. However I had never experienced a tongue lashing like this before, the respect I had for her was at an all time high.


    Eventually Kira''s father spoke up with a rather straight and bland look on his face.


    "I think if you all ponder on the option laid in front of us properly, ignoring the threats from miss Penelope here, having Aaron become the chairman of the board and the company is not a bad idea. He''s the heir to the company, and that position belongs to him, also he would be learning from an assistant that has an in depth knowledge from the company. And with us to give a little guidance and advice, I believe this would be a good move on our part. It would also restore the faith of the public back in our company."


    That was bullshit, it just that Lee had seen a way togain more power over the company. After all it''s his daughter that would become my assistant, and working from that angle, he might be able to influence a whole lot of my decisions, especially if said daughter ends up in my bed.


    That''s guaranteed to happen no matter what schemes might be put into play, but at the very least this works well for me. I did not have to fight to get to the top, I just had to find a way to stomp on the snakes nipping at my heels. Penny had pulled a miracle, and to be honest I had no way to thank her. Of course now I had a big bloody target painted on my back.


    "Well I think this is a good decision. Which father wouldn''t want to see his son excel. This is his birthright, let''s welcome him with open arms!" my father said with a forced smile on his face as he got up to clap his hands.


    The rest of the board members joined him, but they all looked like they had shit shoved into their mouth. They would rather be dead than to be here, but life works in mysterious ways, and they had no choice but to give way and let me sit on a throne that had been unceremoniously given to me after my Baba''s death.


    "Good, I see that the agreement to make Aaron the chairman of the board and Imperium industries is unanimous. I''ve prepared the documents that would signify the occupancy of the position and your explicit agreement to have him take the position. Thank you for your vote, now all of you come sign this, so that we can go home, and you guys can go cry into your pillows."


    Penny was brutal as usual, and she left them no face or dignity, nothing at all. But when all is said and done, she had come through for me, and here I am standing, shocked, the new Chairman of Imperium Industries. This would look good on my resume, a little too good.

 50 Taking A Throne III : ? ? Sparks ? ?

    I managed to avoid the press conference and the whole debacle that came with it, that''s where Kira came in, taking up her post immediately it was made official that I was now the chairman of Imperium industries.Even now the whole thing felt so surreal and I was still shocked about the entire turn of events.


    We were waiting in a secure and private room, there were a couple of these built around the headquarters, to prevent any form of corporate espionage, and to keep most secret deals...secret. Penny has not stopped stuffing herself of food since the meeting, apparently sticking it to the bosses¡­.well former bosses was exhausting, and it left her really hungry.


    Me I just stared at her while she occasionally shoved food into Ron''s mouth. I''ve notice that my precious boy loves food a little too much; not that his father is any better, but is that supposed to be normal for a kid his age,well I''m not sure, this whole parenting crap is new to me, and it''s quite exhausting too.The door to the room opened up, and Kira walked in, smartly dressed and looking every bit like a dame to die, or maybe kill for.


    "The press conference was a success sir, and while your absence was felt, I believe that could be rectified at a later date. The public would like to know who the new Chairman of Imperium industries is, so I would like to schedule a private interview with Eden at a later date, maybe when all the excitement about your taking over has died down. Is that okay with you sir?" Kira asked with a stoic expression on her face.


    Okay what the fuck was going on here, why was she acting so stiff and business like with me, we''re friends right? I think. I was about to say something, but she cut me off as she started giving me more reports, reading from tablet that''s nestled snugly in the crook of her arm.


    "The chairman''s office has been occupied by the CEO Mr. Henry since the last chairman left the company roughly 28 years ago. He would be moving out of the office tomorrow, and the construction branch would need at least four days to renovate the office and model it to a design of your choosing. I would be coming over to your residence tomorrow to show a catalog of designs where you can make your choice from, or if you would prefer a more customized option, you can relay that to me so that I can let the engineers in charge of renovation know.


    Next there would be an official party to celebrate your new position this Saturday, it''s imperative that you attend the function. I will be coming with a tailor tomorrow to get you outfitted with the proper corporate attire, for not just the function, but for work hours.Next I would also like you to review a list of specially handpicked employees that would work under you, or would you rather prefer if we hire fresh hands rather than old ones."


    At that point Penny seemed to have had enough, as she dropped the plate in her hands with a thump and got up to her feet glaring at Kira.


    "Listen here bitch, I know ya probably have your panties in a bunch because we disgraced your snake of a father, but that doesn''t mean you can come up all in our business and disrespect my client like that, what''s wrong with ya girl. I advice you don''t fuck with us and be a good little assistant before we kick you and yo papa''s ass to the curb, I don''t like your attitude, so ya gotta fix it bitch! Catch my drift?"


    I could have sworn I saw sparks flying, the door to the room was wide open, and a couple of employees were staring into the room wide eyed with shock and surprise. There''s bound to be a rumor mill circulating around, not to mention every employee that had watched this altercation now had enough juice in their gossip engine to last them a thousand years.


    Kira did not react to Penny''s crass words,with how sophisticated Penny looked, you would think she was a refined woman. Now I''m sure all my employees would soon know what I''ve already know since I was a lot more younger, and that''s the fact that though Penny might look like an angel, she was a thug. A rich kid with a lot of money, a great job, but with a street wise hustle and vibe that would leave most street kids red with embarrassment, plus to top it all of, she was white.Though I dare say she would have fit right at home in a ghetto.


    The world might not be so prejudiced about color as it once was a hundred or so years ago, but it was still driven by stereotypes. And penny threw every stereotype of how a rich white girl is supposed to behave right out the window. To put it simply, she''s a grade A bitch with a good heart. What was it Vin Diesel said again about girls like her, 80% devil and 20% angel.She''s crazy, unfortunately I know Kira can match that crazy, nut for nut, and bolt for bolt.


    Kira turned around and closed the door into the room, smiling as she did so. Then she pressed a keypad at the side of the door, and a display light at the top of the door shone red. At this point the room was sound proof, and every communications system in and out of it has been disabled. We''re currently in a dead zone, and couldn''t be spied on. Kira took of her jacket, folded the arms of her shirt as some of her tattoos was revealed, then she looked at Penny, about to say something or maybe beat her to within an inch of her life, only Ron to save us all from a rather awkward situation.


    "Mommy dinner." He said to her as he pointed to the discarded plate of macaroni Penny had dropped to harass Kira.


    At first Penny thought that Ron was talking to her, and was about to answer when Kira walked past her and picked Ron up, placing him on her lap as she said to him.


    "Baby it''s not dinner yet, and I know you''ve been eaten all day, you can''t take too much or you''ll get a tummy ache." She spoke in a soft voice.


    "But I''m fine, just a little more please, the angry lady let me have some, please can I have some more."


    Penny''s Jaw was halfway to the floor, and this case so was mine, but it w as for an entirely different reason. That''s the most I''ve ever heard Ron speak, and it was to his mother, not me his awesome and very real and legitimate father. What a betrayal, this woman is stealing my son from me!


    While I was feeling indignant, Penny was still shocked. Kira being Ron''s adopted/godmother was not something that was known, heck only the people involved know about it, which was why I didn''t blame her. Of course everything was still somewhat awkward, I mean Kira was just about as rude to me as a lion who''s breakfast had been stolen by a hyena, I still didn''t know what''s up.


    Nanny Florence who had been silent throughout this entire altercation came up to me and said.


    "I think its about time you introduced Penny to Kira, and vice versa. Also stop looking so hurt, you would never be able to replace Kira in his heart, after she''s his mother. And you''re proof enough that all boys are pretty attached to their mothers."


    I didn''t know how, but it feels as if Nanny Florence just called me a mama''s boy, but she wouldn''t, right? Anyway she was right though, Penny didn''t know Kira and neither did Kira know Penny, so to avoid any more misunderstanding, I should probably strike while the iron is hot.


    "Kira this Penny, she''s one of my oldest friends, and now the family lawyer for the Wade family, or at least our side of the family. And Penny this is Kira, you''re already know she''s Board Member Lee''s daughter, plus she''s also Ron''s Adopted mother."


    Now Penny was a very intelligent woman, wise beyond her years, and very perceptive. But she had this problem of sometimes only hearing what she wants to hear, which in this case was the word adoptive. Which led to this next situation.


    "Whoa you knocked this cougar up, isn''t she like four of five years older than you? Damn I underestimated you, well done player." And she proceeded to give me a tap on the back that was a little heavy than normal, almost as if she wanted me to feel pain.


    "What the fuck did you just called me? Bitch!"


    Fuck, I should say something before this gets out of hand. There''s Penny, and then there''s Kira. Both about to blow a gasket, two very wild women, like ice and fire, or maybe fire and gas¡­..nope! No way in hell am I getting in the middle of that, besides, what''s the worse that can happen.


    *Bang!*


    *Crash!*


    *RiiiiiP!*


    "Fuck my life!"

 51 A Dungeon, The Angry Pawn

    When I logged back into the game, I couldn''t help but give a sigh of relief, the real world was important, but there were just too many drama to take care of. I couldn''t really be who I want to be out there, and that was because even with all the power that has been given to me, they were also saddled with responsibility.


    But in here, in this world, even with responsibilities, I could go wild an at least be myself as much as I wanted to. I made my way to the lounge of the ship and discovered everyone sitting around looking somewhat bored, they didn''t even notice that I was there until I cleared my throat.


    "Captain! You''re back! That''s great." Dinah said as she got up from her seat.


    I gave her a nod and exchanged a round of pleasantries with the others before I took a sit, and just in time for Sky to jump into my arms. She looked bigger than before, she was previously the size of a dog, but now she was the size of a cheetah or at least a growing lion. I turned to Qitar who had been standing somewhat sticky ever since I got back and asked.


    "So what''s up?" Somehow, that''s the moment when she actually calmed down, when I asked for a report. Looks like her military background was not something she didcould do without.


    "We''ve all been carrying out the orders you left, and have achieved success to varying degrees. The only person feeling a little stumped would be Dinah seeing as she''s not been able to get the ship to a workshop and work on it.Without the proper tools and facilities she''s unable to fully access the state of the ship and what it needs for an upgrade.


    Also we''ve arrived at our target, the island of a Runt. Due to this place being the location for the second trial, the locals seems to have placed an embargo on the ships that are coming and leaving the island. Security is at an all time high, and as of this moment, three other candidates have been killed, and thus eliminated from the trials, thankfully they''re other worlders like you, so their deaths aren''t permanent."


    I furrowed my eyebrows at her choice of words. ''Thankfully they''reother worlders like you''.She might not have noticed it, but she made a clear distinction between the players and the AIs of the game. Seems like the relationship between players and the AIs is not as simpleas expected, something is wrong.


    "We''re anchored off a secret cove on the island, apparently it''s the entrance to an ancient dungeon and we were led here by Raven Song. Though it seems a lot has changed, as the dungeon has increased in scope and size if the reports of Raven Song are to be believed. But that''s not the only problem though, the dungeon seems to be a labyrinth of sorts, and serves as a secret entrance into Runt''s capital city. We''ve been waiting for your return to decide what we should do next."


    I clasped my hands under my jaw as I watched a holographic display of the dungeon''s entrance. There was a significant amount of activity there, and also guards and lookouts, though they don''t seem to be a lot of them. I turned to Mark and asked.


    "Did you guys find out anything else about this dungeon, what manner of monsters calls it home, and how do we navigate the labyrinth?"


    "To navigate that labyrinth we need a guide, however I have it on good authority that none of the guides here can be trusted. Apparently they make it a habit of leading their clients to unexplored parts of the dungeon robbing them and leaving them to die, sometimes if the guides are unlucky, the dungeon itself would be responsible for killing them.


    The monsters in the dungeon are Nereids, ocean spirits. But according to reports these Nereids were born from a dungeon core, making them nothing more than berserk copies of the original. It is also believed that a map of the dungeon can be found within it, and since the labyrinth stretches through the entire island of runt, it would give anyone who owns it the ability to come and go as they please. Plus like all dungeons, there are an abundance of precious materials, treasures and equipment to be gained. Oh!And one more thing, the labyrinth itself is like a sewer system, or an underground carnal. Its large enough that ships as huge as that white monstrosity we escaped from could sail in.But most people prefer to dock their ships on one of the platforms and walk, that way they can avoid confrontation with the larger Nereids hidden in the water. "


    So far nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, however having access to the entire island might actually be a good thing.The cove that served as an entrance into the dungeon was large enough for the ship to sail into, and while most people wouldn''t use their ship, I had every intention of sailing in, and that''s because I have a bloody magic compass that can find any one, anything,and any treasure, as long as it''s what your heart desires.


    "Very well, everyone should get ready, we''re sailing into the dungeon, anchors up in 15 minutes!"


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    ZHANG FAMILY HOUSE: LOS ANGELES BRANCH


    KIRA LEE ZHANG


    "Is it true what they''re saying Kira, that you had a fight with that brats lawyer, not to mention you were rude to him." My father asked as his moderately aged face creased a bit with anger.


    "Yes it is father, I''m sorry if I stepped out of line, but seeing bow comfortable that bastard was after he overturned our entire lives made me angry. Who the fuck does he think he is, I''m really not too keen about being his assistant, father is there no way that someone else can be chosen?" I asked with a troubled look on my face.


    "Kira my daughter, your crass display of anger has shamed me, but never the less some part of me feels pride to you for your ability to stand up to him. However at this point there''s nothing that I can do about this, so we just have follow the plan Henry has put to ground and bid our time¡­.but that is not our way my child, while others see a nuisance, I see an opportunity for our family.


    Kira as a father I have not been very good for you, so allow me to give you the greatest gift that I could possibly give to you in this life as an apology for my mistakes, I know I must have hurt you quite a bit."


    "No father! You don''t have to! I understand that everything I''ve been through so far, is so that our family can grow and be better than ever. I might have felt hurt a few times, but I never resented you father, we''re family! And whatever it is we have to experience, we will do it together. So you don''t have to give me a gift, let''s first deal with this intruder, and then after you can give me the gift you want to." I said to him with a smile.


    "Kira the intruder is the gift I want to give to you.Like I said while the other members of the board with the exception of Coralline are simmering in anger and hatred at Aaron, I believe that we might be able to use him to our advantage. Since I can''t give you my shares on the company or any other asset of mine; on the account that you''re a woman and your younger brother is the true heir, I''ve decided that the best way to secure you future is to marry you to a good husband.


    Your dowry would be the Imperium Industries, your groom would be the recently appointed chairman, Aaron Wade. Though to get to him would not be easy, I have faith in your abilities as a woman. In three months Kira, you''re to have his child growing in your belly, a heir to the Imperium industries, someone to compete with his son and make our family one of, if not the most powerful in the entire world. Seduce him to your bed my daughter, then find a way to make it official and marry him. We will completely pull the rug from under the other board members, and come out on top as the most influential and power force in that company, so you must not fail! If you do I can''t guarantee that you would be able to keep your name."


    "Yes father, I understand what I have to do. I won''tlet the family down." I said to him with a soft smile on my face.


    My father came forward and placed his hands on my head, pushing my locks aside as he gazed down on me with much more love than I''ve seen since my younger brother was born, it made me feel warmth and brought tears to my eyes. Then he sighed and left the room, leaving me behind with a burning hatred and simmering wrath.


    Everyone wanted to use me, my father, Aaron, my brother even my own mother. Fine they call stick to their schemes and plans, but they''re not the only one capable of scheming, maybe to them I was nothing more than a pawn on a board, but there was no problem with that. Because even a pawn can become a queen.

 52 The Nereids Of Njord I : Preparing

    When we sailed into the cove and straight into the dungeon, we were ignored, at least for the most part. A lot of ragged looking fellows had ran besides the ship on the platforms that seemed to serve as a demarcation for canal like labyrinth. These shady fellows were without a doubt, the guides that was supposed to lead us through the labyrinth, but I completely ignored them, much to the chagrin of my crew.


    "Captain why are we ignoring the guides, though we really can''t trust any of them, it''s imperative that we have someone lead us through the labyrinth." Dinah said to me.


    "You rebuilt this ship, but it seems you don''t know anything, about what she can, that''s bad. But I don''t think it entirely your fault, after all I''ve not made mention of it yet.Acheron has a special compass that can find anything your heart desires, plus it has a definite chance of finding legendary ranked equipment. So you don''t have to worry, Acheron herself will lead us through the labyrinth, and to be honest this is a dungeon, it would be beyond stupid for us not to take advantage of it and improve our strength. Let''s use this as a grind stone to improve our strength and become stronger. All of you should checks your stats, and see what you need to take care of, prepare for battle."


    Since I asked them to get prepared, I guess I also had to do the same thing. I had to check my stats, and probably increase the levels of some of my skills. I had quite a few skill points left from the last time I used it, and while I''ve ignored upgrading most of my skills, I think it would be smart to at least get my main skills out of the basic grade and into the advanced grade, there should be a lot more damage and versatility to them from that point on.


    Name: Aaren Seven/ Level: 20(35.472.480/604.997.500)/Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker/ One With The Wind/ Bronze Blood Commander


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/The Coven Of Angeles


    Reputation: <>


    Strength: 66/Constitution: 51/Agility: 66/Dexterity: 56 Intelligence: 66/ Wisdom:52


    Hp 1075/1075(equip bonus +)MP 1282/1282(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:0Skill points:44


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    The idea of not being able to level up as soon as I received exp was quite annoying, but that''s the rule of the trial. All I can do is accumulate exp until I''ve finished my current task, and went back to report it''s completion. Once that''s done, I''ll be able to level up again, but for now I just had to keep accumulating exp. The only thing I could focus on was training my skills to make them stronger, speaking of skills, I guess it''s about time I leveled up my basic skills.


    Passive skills:


    ?	Wind child(level 4) basic. +5% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 4) basic. +2% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 1) Advanced. +30% to aim when in motion, +35% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Born(level 1)basic. Wherever you are the power of Nature is with you. HP regeneration 30% + 60% in Forests, Jungles and any other place Nature can be found. All attacks within nature oriented areas +30%, +100% favorability with all Nature attuned entities.


    ?	Flight (Level 1) Advanced. Soar for across the sky for 30 minutes. +30% to flight speed and maneuvering.


    ?	Dragon Aura (level 1) basic. Your constantly covered by a draconic aura that shows the majesty of your bloodline. 80% chance to make opponents of a similar level bewildered, 100% for lower levels, 60% for opponents five levels higher, 40% for ten, 20% for fifteen, and 5% for twenty.


    ?	Navigator: level 1 (basic): +20 to awareness and effectiveness in searching for directions. +20 effectiveness to navigating all seas and land terrain.


    ?	Command: level 1 (basic): + 5 increase to stats and effectiveness when you give orders to your subordinates.


    Active skills:


    ?	Shoot(level 1) Advanced. +25% damage and speed for projectile weapons. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 10 seconds)


    ?	Hard punch(level 1) Advanced. Hit your opponent for 165% extra of your total attack. Speed +40% during skill.(cost 20 MP) (cool down 10 seconds)


    ?	Homing Shot(level 3) basic. Chase and attack any target in sight with projectiles. +15% damage within a radius of 25 meters.(cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Vacuum Palm (level 3) basic. Hit Targets with a wind element Palm attack. +20% damage and knock back effect. 5% chance to confuse opponents. (Cost 7 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Wind Dance(level 1 ) basic. Become one with the wind, increasing attack and movement speed by 300% defense and evasiveness against attacks raised by 150% for 10 seconds. (Cost 60 MP) (cool down 200 seconds)


    ?	Wind School: Lightening Coat(level 4 ) basic: use the power of lightening and wind to cover your body, increases defense against magical attacks by 14%,defense against physical attacks by 16% and increase speed by 44%. (Cost 25 MP) (Cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 4) basic. Summon an arrow of pure mana to cause 20% magical and physical damage in a range of 15 meters. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 15 seconds)


    ?	Stealth(level 1) basic. Turn invisible for sixty seconds. Stealth is broken when attacked or attacking. Every first hit from stealth is a critical. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 120 seconds)


    ?	Purify(level 1) basic. Purify all things unclean and unholy. +100% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison. + 70% damage against the undead,+40% damage against dark creatures. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 60 seconds)


    ?	Lightning Blade(level 4) basic. Coat your blade with lightening mana for 5 seconds. Every attack made would have extra lightening damage stacked on top by 15% and all slashes are AOE strike of 3x3 meters. Attack speed increases by 10%. (Cost 20 MP) (Cool down 100 seconds)


    ?	Cone Of Silence(level 1) basic. Create a cone of air over a target, eliminating the release of all skills and spells for ten seconds. (Cost 80 MP) (cool down 300 seconds)


    Masteries:


    ?	Archery Mastery (level 3) basic. +3% to all archery skills and +5% damage from all bows and arrows


    ?	Sword Mastery (level 2) basic. +3% to all sword skills and + 5% damage from swords


    ?	Magic Mastery (Level 1) basic. +3% damage to all magic skills and spells


    Augmented racial trait:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    ?	Spirit Of Air(I): Ability to communicate with air elementals and control air freely


    ?	Heart Of Wind(I): Ability to control wind freely.


    I increased the levels of precise aim, shoot, hard punch and flight to level 1 advanced from their basic ranks, spending 22 skill points out of my 44, and then I spent 11 points increasing the levels of lightening coat, lightening blade, and mana arrow. For now these are the skills I had to focus on, and there were quite a lot of skills for me to keep track off. And it was because I had too many skills that I decided we should attempt to take on this dungeon, as completing a dungeon would normally awarded the players some gifts, with the elusive skill combining gems being amongst them.That''s what I''m really after anyway.


    I got my armor on, and hung Thalasio Spathi on my back, and sky already in her bow form was hanging behind my waist with my quiver hanging at the side of my body. Every other person except for Dinah was geared up for battle, but that''s to be expected, seeing as she had a production class.


    Mark, Zack, Jack and Darke had on the customary elven armor, which if you ask me we have to change, and get them something better. One special aspect of lost descendants online as a game is the fact that the issue of constantly changing gears is not required, you could always find a way to upgrade the current armor you have, letting you have the same armor for the entire duration of your game play, all you had to take care of was the normal clothes you wore.


    Raven Song was decked head to toe in a very thick and bulky armor, and he had a war hammer in one hand, a great sword hung on his back, and a shield almost as wide as his body. His helmet completely covered his face, with only his elven ears leaking out from the side of it. A paladin, four common elven guards(we need to get them better classes), a disgraced Patmosian Sniper, a sex crazy masked engineer and then me, the guy with a weird class. Well we could not be any more dysfunctional than this, but I feel as if we could make this work.


    [You have discovered the Buried Sea Labyrinth Of Njord]


    [Due to supernatural interference all communications devices is cut off. Due to the special nature of this dungeon, resistance against water and ice type attacks has been reduced by 20% and recovery speed has been reduced by 5%]


    "all right guys, let''s go hunting."

 53 The Nereids Of Njord II : First Fight & Boss

    At first everything was silent with only the sound of the Acheron coasting through the dark murky waters of the giant labyrinth around. When we first came in, the cove looked like a normal cavern formed on a cliff on the edge of an island, but the moment we got into it, passed the point where there were a lot of guides and a simple shanty market, we found myself in dungeon fully.


    Huge walls with wide platforms underneath them were to the left and right of us, creating a tunnel that led straight ahead for almost a hundred meters. There were murals and hieroglyphs depicting giant blue skinned women and men, not to mention one very buff dude with a trident and a beard so full I could probably hide a lunch box within it.


    Though the platforms on both sides were devoid of anyone, I could see that tunnels have been made into the walls themselves, probably the route the guides used in traversing the labyrinth. But eventually we came to the end of the main tunnel, the entrance to the dungeon dozens of meters behind us, and along with the open sea. Our path split to the left and right, which means we had to make a decision. But I was confident about our course so I just turned to Darke and said.


    "Whatever direction the compass is pointing at follow it." They all looked at me like I might have grown a second head, but I''m the captain, they had no choice but to do what I wanted.


    Darke steered the ship left, going into another passage way, but this time the whole place seemed a little dark, like we had left any sort of safe zone and were now in dangerous waters. Raven Song went to the prowl of the ship, his massive tower shield in one hand as he focused on the path in front of us. Qitar stood on the deck right beside Darke who was still sailing the ship, while Mark, Zack and Jack took up different positions on the remaining cardinal points of the ship covering all our bases. As for me, I was on top of the crows nest, wings outstretched and bow at the ready as I kept my eyes peeled for any sort of danger.


    The ship kept on going forwards for another eighty meters before we made a right, and then a left, and then another right and a left and another left. Safe to say at this point I had no idea how many turns we''ve made, and all of our nerves were already on edge as we''ve not been attacked by any monster yet. We were all keeping our focus, but it was the Acheron who warned us of the danger ahead.


    *RUMBLE!!!*


    The entire ship shook softly, like a soft vibration from a cellphone on silent, and almost immediately a blue skinned woman flew out of the water with her jaws stretched to inhuman proportions, and within them were actually rows, upon rows of teeth like some sort of weird monster worm. Raven Song slammed his shield on the floor, and a golden shield made of thousands of helix like tiles appeared in front of him and intercepted the flying fish lady.


    She hit the shield with a splat, roaring in anger at the interception. But that was all the time I needed to send an arrow through her skull. She fell right back into the waters below as the Acheron sailed right over the blood stained water where her dead body had dropped.


    I had ready nocked another arrow when another Nereid jumped out of the water arms outstretched and heading straight for Jack. There was a loud bang as one of the turrets at the back of the ship came to life and blasted the Nereid to bits at the behest of Qitar.They were coming from ahead of us, but if Darke kept on moving the ship forwards, we could be surrounded, so he had to stop.


    "Darke! Drop anchors! Now! Zack and Mack meet up and defend the starboard bow, and Jack take up position on port side. Qitar serves as Raven Song''s sword while he keep defending. He''s limiting the amount of Nereids we have to fight, but make sure he''s not overwhelmed. Let''s just hope this dungeon behaves like every other dungeon created, I''ll keep and eye out for you and take out any strays."


    When you think about it, everyone here apart from Dinah has had some sort of military training. Raven song was part of a guild, so that counts, while every other person apart from Sky(who''s a sky beast) has been a soldier. And because of that previous discipline, they were able to respond to my orders in a very efficient and perfect manner.


    [Dungeon Nereid/Level: 30/ Grade: NA/ Hidden Grade: NA]


    [The dungeon created copy of a noble race of sea spirits and beings.]


    I had no idea if I would agree with the noble race part, but meh, the system can call them whatever it wants to, but for now these things are just expected to be earned.


    Since this was not a one on one fight, I didn''t see a reason to use my skills in this fight, not to mention just one normal shot with Sky was enough to get rid of the Nereids. I so loved the fact that conventional game rules did not apply in lost descendants online. Having a HP of 1 million means squat in the face of decapitation of a bullet to the head. Of course a lot of other things would have to be considered, like defense, speed and even the strength of the attacks used. But you would only have to worry about those kind of things when fighting the Advanced AIs of the game, and example would be Qitar. But when facing common monsters without a shred of armor, just relying on their natural form and magical abilities then, even a slap from you might be enough to kill them if their level is close enough to yours.


    The Nereids were not organized at all, and just kept on jumping out of the water in scattered batches rather than a united front. It kept the pressure off us, and made it easier for us to kill them. But lost descendants was not a loot based game, rather it thrived on achievements. If you kill a monster you don''t get loots, you get a corpse, and depending on the way you kill it, you get rewards aka money or a special skill and equipment if you''re badass enough.


    But in this case, it left behind a real mess for us to take care of. Blood was allover my deck, and even the waters of the carnal below us had lost its dark murky form and was painted red with blood. That would definitely be a hassle to wash off, but I had no time to worry as I heard a loud groan and something rammed into the ship, almost throwing out of the crows nest.


    I quickly regained my balance and looked up just in time for a thirty foot half crocodile half shark to jump out of the water, go almost seventy feet in into the air and go over the ship, but not before smacking me with it''s massive claw and throwing right of the ship and into the dark bloody waters below. I could hear my crew shouting at me, but there was nothing I could do to assuage their doubts and worries. Due to how realistic this game was, party members don''tthe whisper or chat function, you talk to everyone normally, or learn a telepathy skill.


    But I was not bothered by the sudden change of events, I mean at this point in time it''s already established that I''m sort of half fish. The side of my neck split into segments as gills appeared, I stretched my wings in the murky waters and dived down, moving with a speed that would have definitely made Aquaman proud. I met my assailant a few dozen feet below me, swimming on the ground of the carnal, amidst weird looking bio pods that looked like eggs. It''s bight blue body made it a walking target.


    [Dungeon Nereid: Boss Crosharkile/Level: 45/Grade: NA/ Hidden Grade: NA]


    [HP: 40,000/41,482]


    [A creature born from the stripping of the ancient aquatic genes within the DNA strands of a Thousand Nereids. It is a top predator of the sea, too bad it is forever confined to the gloomy halls of the dungeon that birth it.]


    Well I was thankful that it was confined, but it looks like croco-shark here was made after real Nereids were experimented on. Not sure that was my problem since I have no idea what kind of people the real Nereids were, but in a situation like this you just have to be the good guy and right a few wrongs.


    With wind mark in effect the speed of my arrows increased with every subsequent shot for a stack of ten. And if the speed increases, so too does the piercing power of an arrow, and the damage it would cause on impact. I was already on my tenth stack, but I was not going to be sending my arrow out alone.


    *Shoot! Homing Shot!*


    Have you ever seen a missile shot underwater, the way it''s bullet like form slices through the currents and travels with great speed, parting the sea before it. The arrow flew through, right for the right side of the croco-shark''s torso(it''s real name is a bloody mouthful). Homing shot does not have any sort of explosive properties, but the speed with which the arrow hit the monster, made it seem like I had shot at it with a shot gun, a very powerful one as more than half it''s chest was blown off.


    But it was still alive, a huge chunk of it''s HP had disappeared, but that doesn''t seem to be enough to kill it. I was surprised, but it seems that it''s a lot tougher than I thought, and right now, I''ve pissed it off. The part of it''sI had blow off was slowly regenerating, but it didn''t let it slow it down as it chased me under the ship, past it''s side and up as flapped my wings and flew out of the water, spraying water around and getting shot at by a startled Qitar.


    "What the Hell!" I shouted at her as I flew higher.


    "Sorry!" She screamed back, but to be honest I don''t she was.


    The croco-shark jumped out of the water, but with it''s terribly injured body it couldn''t go as high as it did before, so it unceremoniously flopped mid air and fell down straight for the prow of the ship. Raven Song opened his eyes wide in surprise seeing as he and Qitar were directly under the falling monster''s huge body. He slammed his shield down so hard I could feel it rumble even from the sir and heard him scream.


    "Mountain Bastion!"


    A projection of a mountain appeared over his and Qitar''s head to protect them from the falling monster, but he was not the only one who had taken action when the monster had started falling. Qitar had aimed over a dozen turrets at the croco-shark, and sprayed an unhealthy doze of laser fire at it, practically ripping it to shreds before its destroyed guts and blood landed with a wet plop on the shield Raven song had projected. At the very least it protected them from being covered in fish guts or reptile guts?


    I landed on the ship a and joined Jack and the rest to clean up what was left of the Nereids. I guess you could say we''ve passed the first stage and would not be heading to the next. We''ve also dealt with the boss, though quite easily I might add. But all is well that ends well.All of a sudden we heard Dinah''s voice from the ships intercom as she asked.


    "Are you guys dead yet." I shook my head and turned to Darke.


    "Retrieve the anchor and continue following the compass, the rest of us¡­..grab a mop and start cleaning."

 54 The Nereids Of Njord III : The Water Shaman

    After the fight, I was the only one who didn''t get to level up, but that''s because all of my exp was being gathered into one huge chunk, and I would only be able to level up once the second trial ends. At this point in time I had no idea where we were, and even though I''ve been telling everyone that we should all put our faith in the compass, I was beginning to have doubts myself.


    So far we''ve not encountered any monster for over an hour since we killed the first boss, which more than proves the point that the dungeons in lost descendants online, are completely unlike the dungeons in other games. Looks like we really have our work cut out for us. We kept on following the compass, until finally it brought us to a hallway with a dead end, and based on the twitching eyebrows pointing in my direction, I would say I was only five seconds away from a mutiny.


    But the compass was pointing at that direction, and I knew that without a doubt it wasn''t broken, or at least I hoped not. But the idea of ramming my ship through a solid wall did not sit well with me, so I shot an arrow at the wall, and low and behold the arrow went through the wall like all we were seeing was just some sort of hologram. I gave everyone a smug look, ignoring their rolling eyes as the Acheron sailed right into the wall, leading us into another section of the labyrinth that was much different from the first.


    The first labyrinth had straight walls, just a simple maze. However this sectional had curved walls and some completely circular walls too that made navigating it''s waters a little tricky. To be honest I don''t think the guide have ever been this far into the dungeon, and that was because the platforms on which the walls once stood, platforms that were wide enough to carry a dozen men, serving as a pathway through the dungeon so that ships would not be used. All those platforms were gone. Now it just seems as if the walls themselves rose out of the water.


    *Splash!*


    A blue skinned man with a tattered robe, the spine of a fish, gills on the size of his neck, round black eyes that were a little too big for his face, and a mouth filled with sharp serrated fish, like a humanoid piranha stood on deck. Funny thing is we don''t know how he got there.


    We heard the splash of water, but we didn''t notice any disturbance, one second he wasn''t here, and the next he was. He was standing at almost eight feet tall, which was quite a lot of height, and he was also carrying a staff made from stone, with a blue orb glowing on it. All in all he looked like a hobo,but a very scary one none the less.


    He opened his mouth as if to speak, raising his staff and spreading both of his hands like he was Moses parting the red sea. And then he brought his hands together and slammed his weird looking staff down on the deck with a metallic clang. And then he started screaming.


    "Ayayayayayayayayaya!"


    It was more like a guttural screech that left your stomach churning,utter as soon as he finished, massive tentacles made of water stretched out of the canal below us, and wrapped around the ship, bringing us to a screeching halt, as most of us was thrown off our feet. But the monster was not done yet as he swung his staff, and wave of water washed over the deck and pushed all of us towards the other end of the ship with the intention of throwing us off.


    I don''t know what to expect, but I knew falling into that canal was not a good idea. I spread my wings and flapped them harder than normal, using my connection to wind to create a powerful gust that brought our momentum to a halt. It didn''t cause any damage, but it hurt like a bitch.We scrambled to our feet quickly, with Raven Song standing in front of us with his shield held high.


    "Raven Song keep that monster''s attack away from us, but keep an out for any others. Qitar the ships guns can''t fire on the ship, so you will have to use a normal gun. Jack, Zack, Mack and Darke, you guys lack any long range attacks, so just keep our rear safe, make sure we''re not attacked from behind. Dinah is still below deck so she should be able to monitor the situation from there. Qitar and I will be responsible for dealing damage to the monster."


    [Dungeon Nereid: Water Shaman/ Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: NA/ Level: 50]


    If this was a common monster, then based on the principles of dungeons, there''s bound to be more. And to be honest that''s not really fair seeing as just this one almost kicked our ass in more ways than one. Qitar stretched her hands in front of her, and just like magic a sniper rifle appeared out of thin air (of course it was magic.) She took a stance and aimed, while the Water Shaman who at this point has been throwing exploding spears of water at us, took a deep breath and yelled again. This time in a different frequency.


    "Yuyiyuyiyuyiyuyiyuyiyuyi!"


    The water tentacle that was holding the ship in place shook as it moved the ship left and right a bit, throwing us off balance enough that Raven Song wasn''t able to defend with his shield and one of those exploding water spears slammed into his chest. He was thrown backwards with a massive dent on his armor, and he would fallen overboard if Darke didn''t step in to catch him.


    "Qitar use the ships turrets to get rid of those tentacles, Raven Song heal yourself and get back to the front line, I will lay down some suppressive fire. Jack and the others hold your positions for now."


    I ordered as I started firing at the water shaman. But for some reason the first four arrows I fired slowed to a crawl when they reached a certain distance from the shaman, it was as if they had been shot into water. But with wind mark active, every subsequent arrow had a faster speed, and much more piercing power than was normal, so they went further.


    From the looks of it, whatever skill that was preventing my arrows from touching this shaman was a passive, because I didn''t seem him speak or wave his staff to cast a spell. But who knows maybe he already did so before he came aboard the ship. But in response to my arrows that were getting more and more closer to his body, he slammed his staff on the ground, and a wall of ice rose up to block my ninth arrow.


    Massive chunks of ice exploded every which way as the arrow slammed into the ice wall, there was substantial damage, but the wall had kept the water shaman protected. I was annoyed, which was why I buffed up the speed and damage of the tenth arrow by using [SHOOT]. The wall was blasted apart, but the debris was still stopped by the invisible watery forced field around the shaman.


    Qitar had already carried out my orders and used the ship''s turrets to get rid of the tentacles holding us in place. So the ship was moving once again, but we still had to deal with the shaman. Though the ice wall protected him from us, it also prevented him from attacking, looks like he could not attack what he couldn''t see. Raven Song moved to the front once again and slammed his shield down, a golden glow suffusing his bodyas he intercepted a barrage of water blades from the shaman.


    With Raven Song now serving as a tank for us, Qitar turned her focus back to the Shaman, and pointed her sniper rifle at him. The gun began to glow a deep red, looking as if it was charging up a shot. Five seconds later a bullet fast as a laser shot out of the gun''s barrel, went through the protective force field and blasted a hole right in the chest of the shaman.


    The fact that he could die that easily annoyed me since he was so troublesome, but looking at the exhausted look on Qitar''s face, it was obvious that the skill she used drained her a lot. But unfortunately that bloody shaman did not want to die that easily, he fell to his knees, using his staff to hold himself up as he started chanting.


    "Shomulumulumulumutututututurijirijirijririji"


    The entire thing happened so fast that we were unable to react on time. The shaman fell to the ground dead as his body slowly turned into a watery portal that floated in the air above the ship. There was a sound of waves crashing and storms raging as bony hand stretched out of the portal, and soon enough a half corporeal form came out of the portal.


    The monster standing in front of us had on a hood, the hood itself was white and it covered it entire body, all we could see where it''s glowing blue eyes, and it''s genie like body as if located in the air. One of it''s bleached white bone hands was holding a trident, and it washing it around pretty menacingly.


    [Dungeon Nereid: Boss: Ocean Wraith/ Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: Spirit/ Level 70]


    [HP: 55000/55000]


    And there were seven of them, one for each of us. At this point, I think its safe to say we would all be loosing our lives here.

 55 The Nereids Of Njord IV : Boss Ocean Wraith

    The wraiths released a synchronized roar that made me and everyone else feel week in the knees. Whatever the heck this bloody things were, they were far above our pay grade, but as powerful as they looked, I had already come up with a couple of different ways to beat them.


    "Raven Song, I need them off this ship, can you do that?" I asked him as I unfurled my wings and took to the air.


    "I can try!" He yelled at me.


    "Don''t try, do it! Qitar charge the pulse cannon and get ready to fire at my command! Darke as soon as Raven Song gets them off the ship, you need to make a U-turn, get enough distance so that the discharge from the cannon does not affect the ship. The rest of you hang on and avoid drawing their attention."


    As soon as I finished giving out my orders, Raven song ran forwards towards the seven ocean wraiths that had conveniently lined themselves up for him in one straight line. It was almost as if we were seeing the mirror image of one particular monster. Raven song slammed his massive shield on the deck again as he called out loud.


    "Mountain Bastion: Earth Pulse!"


    The golden silhouette of a mountain showed up above his head, large and imposing with a sense of reality that seemed to belong to the element of earth itself. This skill he used was similar to my [wind school: lightening coat] skill, it could be said to be a subskill of a particular school of magic, however in his case, it would be a school of defensive martial techniques.


    The skill stopped the wraiths from advancing before it''s secondary function was activated and the wraiths were pushed back five meters every three seconds by the pulse of energy that was being released from the magical projection of the mountain above Raven''s head. Based on the surprise on his face, it seems the skill worked a whole lot better than we all imagined.


    The ship began to move, turning sideways as Darke turned it around, taking every advantage of the ships engine to move so rapidly that our speed was not any different from that of a speed boat, even though we were more than ten times larger. Qitar''s bionic arm began to glow at the joints as Jon pulse cannon stated charging, but it did not seem like we would make it in time as Raven Song''s skill deactivated after thirty seconds.


    The ocean wraiths were already a distance away from the ship, but based on their speed, they would already be on top of us before we have the chance to completely turn the ship around and face them. Raven song was catching his breath as it looked like the skill he used had taken a lot out of him, which means until he was back in peak shape and that skill was out of it''s cool down, there was nothing he could do to help us, which means it was up to me, and I had just the thing.


    I pulled back on Sky''s strings, taking a deep breath as I felt her drain a colossal amount of management from me to power our next skill. Her form shook a bit as it seems this entire fight had had been excited her beyond normal, but her excitement was not the problem right now, it was the rapidly approaching team of boss monsters we had to beat the shit out of.


    [Meteor Shower!]


    The sky above the monsters seemed to light up as tiny pinpricks of light appeared hanging still in the air for only a second, and then they fell like falling stars from the sky. The meteor shower skill was a freaking cheat skill that could be used every three minutes for a low MP cost. Every arrow carried 200% of my total damage value, and even with this dungeon placing restrictions on us, that damage was still a lot.


    *Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*


    "Screeeeeeeecccccchhhhhh!"


    *Splash! Splash! Splash!*


    The wraiths were screaming in rage and anger as they took damage loosing almost thirty percent of their health.To be honest even I was surprised by the amount of damage I was dishing out, but I guess that''s to be expected. I was decked head to toe in not just gear that improved my damage and defense, but also titles. As it stands my armor alone had a sure hit skill that could kill all of this wraiths in one hit, but as I''ve already used the trump card of the Sea sword, I rather keep the trump card of my dragon armor a secret.


    The barrage from the [Meteor shower] skill had lasted for five seconds, and then it took the ocean wraiths another ten seconds to reorient themselves and press on with their attack. But at this point, that was enough time for Darke to have the ship make a complete 360 turn, with enough distance to spear for Qitar to fire the Iron pulse cannon. And she did not stand on ceremony, she just went ahead and fired.


    *Voooop! BOOoooOoooM!"


    The shot from the cannon was so intense most of the circular walls that made up this section of the labyrinth was blown to nothing, creating a straight path for us. The ocean wraiths were buried under the light of the intense beam from the pukes cannon for over 15 seconds, but even then I still didn''t receive a system alert that the bosses has been slayed.


    When the light finally faded, what was standing in front of us was a single ocean wraith, but this one had legs, and he was taller, like 60 feet tall and about 7 to 10 meters wide. He was covered head to toe in really bad injuries and he was pointing a trident at us. And that was when for the first a monster in the dungeon spoke.


    "Water Orb: barrage!"


    Numerous orbs made of water rose up out of the unsettled canal below us that was still reeling from the shock of the cannon''s fire, just like we were. But it doesn''t look like this...combined form of the ocean wraithseven cared about what just happened except for the fact that we tried to kill him, and now he was after revenge.


    [Dungeon Nereid: Boss: Chief Ocean Wraith/ Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: Spirit/ Level: 70]


    [HP: 10,000/110,000]


    The orbs flew with speeds akin to a bullet as they slammed into the ship, creating massive dents the size of basket balls. But the person even more unlucky than the ship was me, I was still in the air when four of those water orbs slammed into my chest, stomach and head one after the other. Safe to say I couldn''t remain flying for long as my vision went dark for a moment and I fell from the air.


    Thankfully I was able to get back to myself before I fell into the canal, but our troubles did not seem to be at an end as the boss slammed his trident on the water, instantly a jet of water flew towards us, almost as if something was moving underneath the water. Whatever spell the boss used, slammed into the ship and raised the front part of it up, the ship went so high it almost tipped over. This was a dangerous situation, so I pulled back on Sky''s strings and used [Meteor shower] again.


    But this was not the ordinary bosses from past RPG games, this bloody thing has a consciousness, a very advanced AI capable of learning and adapting to a fight. Which means it remembered the amount of damage [Meteor shower] caused when it was used. Just like the shaman that summoned it, the boss created some sort of watery force field around himself that slowed and stopped all of the arrows from touching him.


    It seems long ranged attacks are out of the question for me, and considering that the boss can also use long ranged attacks, it stands to reason that even though he was a giant his close combat capabilities should not be too great (hopefully). I looked down and saw that Raven song and the rest were barely hanging on, with the ship almost tipping over and slamming back down to the water, the movements would have caused a variety of injuries, heck even Zack had passed out.


    Raven song did not look to be in any position to use his mountain Bastion skill, so for the next three to five minutes, it was entirely up to me to buy them time so that they can rejoin this fight. But with the half my MP and HP gone, whatever I had to do next, has deal a decisive blow to the boss.


    [Wind Dance!] [Wind School: Lightning Coat] [Lightning Blade] [Stealth]


    Wind dance increased my attack and movement speed by 300% for a few seconds, the lightening coat increased my defense, speed and attack power by a small margin, but it mainly offered my protection against magical attacks, and the lightening blade had to be used in tandem with a sword, so I hung sky on my waist, and drew Thalasio Spathi from my back. The problem was that all these skills were too eye catching, which is to say that the boss would see me coming.


    Now I don''t know if it''s supposed to work this way, but after activating all these skills and going into Stealth, they also vanished along with me, giving me just a minute to launch an attack against the boss before stealth runs out. I shot towards the boss at my highest speed, flapping my wings so hard that I left a sonic boom behind me. I could feel my wings creaking and protesting at the strain I was putting them under, they were strong, but not yet strong enough to withstand prolonged flight or overly complex maneuvers.


    Due to the speed I had used, I was able to bypassthe shield around the boss, and landed a slash on his body. But one was not enough for me, as I flew around him landing one strike after another, and yet for some reason the boss refused to fight back. It was screaming in pain and anger, but it just stood there with it''s body, almost as if it was paralyzed.


    But I wouldn''t look a gift horse in the mouth as I kept attacking, chipping away at it''s health points until it was in the hundreds. And with the defense of this boss, which I''m sure was not that small, it only took me about a dozen hits to get to this point. But by then stealth had run it''s course, but the surprises were not over yet.A layer of frost started to spreadfrom the toes of the boss, expanding slowly as it''s translucent blue giant body was slowly turned into a massive ice sculpture. I was so shocked by the turn of events that I almost lost control of my flight skill.


    I returned to the deck where everyone was finally beginning to get to their feet and took a long hard look at the sword in my hand. With all the excitement, I had forgotten that the sword in my hand was a legendary weapon, if you block a strike from Thalasio Spathi for too long, the cold would penetrate your body and paralyze you. But If that can happen to those who just blocks a strike, then what happens to someone or something that''s been cut by it multiple times...I guess we now have our answer.


    "Qitar aim all guns at the ice sculpture and blow it all to hell!" I ordered Qitar as I made my way towards the still unconscious Zack.


    The sound of the ships turrets turning and firing at the boss was accompanied by the sounds of a system alert.


    [You have slain Dungeon Nereid: Boss: Chief Ocean Wraith. All rewards would be deferred until dungeon is completed, or you leave.]


    I couldn''t help the sigh if relief that came out of my mouth. This fight was somewhat easy, but that was probably due to the fact that the monsters we''ve fought up till now were not really active, the only difference was the boss, and even then it gave us too many chances to actually react and come up with a plan to beat it. I doubt other dungeons would be as easy as this, plus to be honest the fucking boss was more than twice my level, on a normal day I wouldn''t even be able to put a scratch on it. I''m just really lucky I have all the equipment that I do, my armor, sword and sky herself are total life savers.


    But after this fight we now had one very big problem¡­.the ship was trashed.

 56 The Nereids Of Njord V : Nereids

    In the aftermath of our boss battle, we were all exhausted, and everyone was pretty much pissed at me. They had all wanted to go the easy route, of course I had to choose the hard way, citing the need for us to actually take on the dungeon the right way rather than relying on those shady guides that could mess things up for us....or maybe that''s just my self righteousness talking.


    I went through this dungeon in the hopes that I could clear it, and get awarded skill combining gems. And mayhem have enough Exp to raise my level by ten or so, and also get the treasures that were sure to be hidden somewhere here. So far we''ve found nothing, and based on bright this area is rapidly become, we might be at the end of the dungeon.


    Dinah walked around with her tablet, observing the ship ad parts of it surface rippled like the surface of a serene pool. The nanites of the ship were at work repairing the previous damage it received from our fight against the shaman and the wraith. I knew things were a little tense right now, because everyone here believed that we could have avoided going into that fight if I had just hired a guide rather than jump right into the problem in front of us like some sort of child.


    And to be honest if I was in their shoes, I would be mad at me too. Being a leader is new to me, and maybe next time I should be a little more considerate about the choices I make. Whatever path we have to take in the future, I have to make sure it''s worth it for everyone else other than me, the loss we might have had if none of us were as strong as we needed to be, would not have outweighed the gain, especially not when I was the one who was going to get said gains.


    I reaffirmed my decision and looked forwards as the ship went through an archway, entering was looked like a large cavernwith an island right in the middle. Up above there was an opening that met sunlight in, making me realize that this was not just a simple cavern, but rather the inside of a dead volcano.Around the shores of the island, precious and valuable crystals seemed to be growing out of the ground like plants, and even though there was an abundance of vegetation and trees, the crystals seem to be the only eye catching thing around.


    There was a simple house build in the middle of the island, but I think it would be better to call it a warehouse. Or a barn that''s built to look more like a house. It was in shambles with most of it''s walls and roof caved in and rubble, but other parts of it seems to be intact.


    I heard disturbances from the island and saw more Nereids on it, however this bunch looked nothing like the dungeon Nereids that we''ve fought so far, rather they looked conscious as they walked around the island, picking fruits from the trees, and squeezing water out of a bunch of weeds growing close to the canal water. But suddenly something shot out of the water, it was one of the dungeon Nereid, and he took a big bite out of the calf of the normal Nereid walking around the shoals of the little island.


    He screamed, but his voice was drowned out by the screams of other Nereids as they too were attacked by the dungeon Nereids. There was panic all over the island as most of the normal Nereids took their heels and ran deep into the small forest that had grown around the island, a fright on their heels the dungeonNereids followed with prejudice and bloodlust etched on their face. I turned to Qitar and shouted at her.


    "What are you waiting for, take those abominations down. Darke prepared to weigh anchor, Raven Song!You, me and Jack would go down to that island to find out what''s going on and help out where we can. Qitar and the rest would remain on the ship to cover our six and protect our ship. Let''s go!"


    Qitar raised her bionic arm, and just ad she did so, the ships weapons system came online, and her turrets started spitting out master fire in prejudice and anger as Raven Song, Jack and I jumped off the ship and onto the island, unleashing as much hell as we possibly could on the dungeon Nereids.


    The Nereids coming out of the water and attacking the others were a dull shade of blue, while the real Nereids were bright and clear and had silver glowing tattoos allover their bodies. The dungeon Nereids weren''t as strong as expected, though there was quite a few of them, dispatching them wad quite easy.


    I offered support from the rear with my arrows as Raven song and Jack completely bulldozed their way through a simply endless swarm of enemies. But the assault didn''t last long as the dungeon Nereids turned around after a few minutes of dying at our hands. It didn''t make much sense about why there was two different types of Nereids but there was always an explanation and maybe a quest also attached to it.


    We made our way off the beach and into the forest, moving forward almost twenty meters before we came to a glade. The Nereids were huddle together with what looked like harpoons for weapons, and around the glade there were structures that looked like huts, but on a closer look, I realized they were tanks, fish tanks but more sophisticated in the fact that they grew Nereids in there.


    The tanks were empty though, and based on the damage that I could see around them, whatever was in those tanks had broken out, or had been broken out. I shifted my gaze back to the Nereids, there were about two dozen of them, and most of them were injured, emancipated, sickly, and very much afraid of me and my crew. However one thing I could confirm was the fact that they were all starving, and they were all young.


    Except for an old dude being hidden in the middle of their huddle, every Nereid that I could see did not look any older than seventeen with some looking as young as 4 or 5 years.


    Seeing such a sight did not allow me to keep pointing a weapon at them, so I had Sky transformed back into her elephant form. I raised my hands as I walked closer to them, making my self seem as harmless as possible.


    "Please don''t be afraid, I''m not here to hurt you, and I helped you fight off those dungeonNereids remember? So let me help you guys some more, can you tell me what''s going on here, how did you guys get here?"


    The Nereids looked between each other before mustering up the courage to answer me. Though the way they answered freaked me the fuck out as all 27 of them spoke together, and at the same time.


    "We were born here!"


    Based on how wide eyed I looked, it was obvious I was shocked. But it was not the fact that they were born in the dungeon, it had to deal with how unsettled I felt by them answering my questions with the same answer, and all at the same time. When it was obvious I was taking a little longer than normal to answer, the old Nereid they younger ones were protecting came forwards and said to me.


    "Forgive the young ones if they startled you. Nereids are telepathically linked to each other in one form or another,and this group of children are able to pull their minds together into one, making it so their mannerisms and answers are similar to each other. Plus being captives down here, they''ve not had many interactions with others apart from themselves, so they''re not well versed in the proper way to answer outsiders." The elder explained with an apologetic tone.


    "It''s okay sir, I understand. My name is Aaren, Aaren Seven. And if you don''t mind, can you please tell me what happened here, and why is it that you''re besieged by the dungeon Nereids?" I asked him.


    "Well it''s quite a tale, but if you insist I will tell you. This dungeon use to be one of four temples of our great god and creator Njord. We are his Nereids, servants of his holy temple, his messengers, children and prophets. A little over five hundred years ago a calamity of some sort befell the world, no one really knows what it was, but it broke the enchantments of this temple, and an evil man, a scientist and a master of the magical arts, came here and perverted our very existence.


    He kept us locked down here for ages, experimenting on us, breeding us like animals until he found all of the secrets that he wanted. After that he destroyed his lab and left, but as he was leaving he didn''t take his abominations with him, rather he left them here as watchdogs, as a threat that continued to wear down my people until all of the adults were dead and eaten by the abominations.


    We can''t leave, not with those things acting as guards for me and what''s left of my people. But you seem strong, and you have a ship! Please can you take us away from here, back into the embrace of the ocean, back to other temples where our kin reside."


    I know this might probably make me seem likejerk but...Bingo!

 57 The Nereids Of Njord VI : The Shade Of Amara

    [Quest Alert!] [Difficulty: C-]


    [Call Of The Sea 1: A group of Nereids cut off from their kin and their god after being subjected to centuries of brutal experiments and attacks, has asked you for help in locating the remaining kin and temples.]


    [Time: 4:21:33:07] [Rewards: +5 to all stats, + 5 skill points,2 million exp]


    I accepted the quest, though to be honest the rewards were a little underwhelming. But either way the stat points and skill points are basically free, because to be honest completing this quest won''t be that hard. As long as the ship''s compass still works, there''s no location I won''t be able to find.


    The island was under siege, so moving the Nereids back to the ship would be a little bit difficult, especially since not one of them have a class, and the old Nereid was much too old to be of any help event though his class was (WATER SAGE). It seems to be a unique advanced class of the water shaman class, but he''s really old so, there''s not much he could do to help us.


    So in that regard I decided it was better for all of them to stay put while I completed the rest of the mission myself. We were in a volcano, and I''m the only one with wings. By now we should be past any sort of checkpoint, which means no one would expect me to come out from here, and I should be able to get the fruit that my task requires me to get.


    "Are you sure about this captain, you won''t have any one of us to back you up, things might get quite messy." Jack said to me as he tried convincing me to use another method. But I shook my head and placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.


    "I''m not alone, I have Sky with me, and she''s all the help that I need. So don''t worry too much, I should be back in a hour or less. Keep the Nereids safe, and tell Darke to start up the engines in twenty minutes and keep it running till I get back, and if you guys can figure out a way to get the Nereids on board before I return, that would be nice."


    {FLY!}


    I spread my wings and activated the skill, taking off with a flap as I made my way straight for the opening above me.My wings ached a bit, but I knew it was because according to the games mechanics and rules, I was still not mature, for whatever race I am. And it''s not until my maturity that I would be able to fly for as long as I want, making flying a passive skill rather than active one that I can only sustain for thirty minutes. And the only way to grow in age here, is to be at a higher level than normal.


    I flew out of the volcano and into the air, loving the feel of the wind on my face and the pull of gravity against my body as I fought against it''s hold. I looked down to see that the volcano was hundreds of feet in the air, and it''s entire side was pitch black, almost as it was some sort of barren land.However at the base of the volcano a beautiful forest of massive and very beautiful fruit trees were spread for miles upon miles of land, and somewhere in the middle was a glade with a single tree who''s fruit was shining splendidly, so much so that I could even see it from here.


    But that tree was heavily guarded, there was a ring of guards around it, and they looked quite fierce. The guards were a combination of Sahagins, Mer folk, human like people that I suspected were atlanteans, and a giant squid with it''s tentacles wrapped around the tree. Those guys would see me coming, but luckily for me the sun just set, and in another fifteen minutes, it would be fully dark out. I just had to drop in from above with my friendsfastest speed possible grab the fruit and hide in the clouds, then I''ll be able to drop down into the volcano under the cover of darkness. So all I have to do now is wait.


    I glided down until I got to a ledge on the surface of the volcano and landed there, this seems like a good place to wait for the right moment to move. However in the meantime, I think I should check my Status, see if there''s been any change. I had an excess of stat points and skill points, and even though I''ve used a little bit of my skill points, there was still quite enough there to improve all my skills.


    However if I should do that, I would most probably end up getting a ton of new skills I''m not ready for, so its better if I just took things slow for now. Besides the skills I have now were powerful enough for me as it is, the only thing that can truly offset and improve my current abilities would be my personal stats, and thankfully I have a 100 stat points to burn.


    But as usual my dilemma stands about how to allocate my stat points, my current build makes me a jack of all trades and a master of none. However I know I''m more oriented to speed and fast paced battles, so I would go with that, but I feel it would be nice to get all my outstanding stats to a 100 and see if there''s going to be any sort of change, after all the system for lost descendants online rewards based on achievement, and the bigger the achievement the greater the reward.And a complete three number figure on all my stats seem like a pretty big achievement.


    At the moment constitution was at 88 and wisdom was at 89. So I allocated 12 points to constitution, and 11 to wisdom.And then I added 2 points to strength and intelligence, 1 to agility and 3 to dexterity, making all of them 105 each. Making the total amounts of stat points used 31.


    {Congratulations on being the first Player to achieve 100 or above points in all basic stats. You''ve been Awarded the title Limit Breaker (I)and +10 to all stats.}


    {Limit Breaker (I): +2 to all stats every level up, and + 1 extra skill point every level.}


    Name: Aaren Seven/ Level: 34(800.385.480/1.3B)/Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker/ One With The Wind/ Bronze Blood Commander/ Limit Breaker


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/The Coven Of Angeles


    Reputation: <>


    Strength: 115/Constitution: 110/Agility: 115/Dexterity: 115 Intelligence: 115/ Wisdom:110


    Hp 1406 /1406(equip bonus +)MP 1590/1590(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:69Skill points:112


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    Everything seemed okay, and I was ready, so all I had to do was wait until the sun went down fully and everything became dark, which should be right about now!.


    I jumped from the ledge in a free fall, keeping my eyes wide open and appreciating the sights of my natural night vision. This wasn''t listed as a skill, so I guess it had to do with my race, which means there was no improving this ability, not unless I get an eye related skill that''s similar, but for now, seeing in the dark was in my genes.


    I relapsed my wings, and let them catch the wind as I ended my free fall and glided over the tree line. I did not want to be noticed by anyone of the guards that seem to be patrolling this forest. It was rather beautiful place, and it''s a little bit hard to believe that this was the capital island of abunch of pirates. I flew closer and closer to the glade, and when I reached a certain distance from it, I angled upwards, going up, high enough that I would be dismissed as nothing more than a tiny bird in the night sky.


    However I couldn''t see that much clearly either, even with my superior vision. I guess all things has it''s limits, so I had to plan my next step carefully. I wanted to dive down immediately, but I was not really sure if there were no traps laying around the tree, which means my safest bet was to cause a distraction and get out of there with fastest speed I can muster.


    I flapped my wings and pulled the strings on sky''s body. I felt her tremble in my hands as I began shooting arrows as fast as possible, while also falling from the sky in a free fall. When I had rescued the tenth arrow, I simultaneously activated (SHOOT) (HOMING SHOT) and (METERO SHOWER) all of it targeted at the massive kraken that was chilling with it''s tentacles wrapped around the tree''s trunk.


    I would like to tell you that my arrows caught the beast unawares and pelted it full of holes, but the kraken had seen my attacks coming from a mile away and wrapped itself with it''s tentacles whilst shouting out a warning in a very human like voice.


    "Intruders! From the north!"


    I guess it didn''t know which direction the arrows were coming from and just made a hypothetical guess. Either way it brought me the time I needed to do what I had in mind.


    (WILD WIND DANCE)


    My overall speed got a massive boost of 300% as I swept forwards, moving so fast the air parting due to my body going through air resistance was visible. I angled myself and twisted through a particular branch on the tree and swept my wings out, grabbing an entire bunch of fruits on the tree and quickly depositing them into my bag as I flew into the fruit forest, all in just under 5 seconds.


    {You Have acquired Shade Of Amara}


    I didn''t have time to properly inspect the fruits as I was very much focused on flying through the branches of the trees. It was getting a little harder because it flat as if the trees were interlocking themselves, trying to prevent me from living, like the forest itself was alive. But luckily for me, there was a small opening to my left, where two threes were too spaced apart to be able to quickly lock their branches and leaves together.


    I ducked left only to see a fruit shaped very much like a pineapple, but looking like a pinecone fly past me. Seconds later I had to dodge and weave, using both my wings, legs and hands to defend myself from the onslaught of fruit bombs being thrown at me. Luck was on my side as I slipped out of the opening and into free sky above. I started flapping my wings as hard as I could, hoping I could reach a high enough altitude where I won''t noticed. It was then I felt the most intense pain I''ve ever felt since I started playing this game.


    {You have been struck by lightening ¨C 450 HP }


    That was more than a quarter of my HP pool, three more of those strikes and I''m done. I could my back ache as I careened through the sky, unable to fight the winds or gravity as I fell, on part of wings badly burnt even under the protection of my armor. What ever or whomever just fired that lightening, it was pretty freaking powerful.


    But I will not be defeated, I spread my wings and glided forward a bit, and then I tucked them close to my body and went down in a free fall, gaining more and more speed as I fell, heading straight for the mouth of the volcano beneath me.


    Suddenly I felt my senses tingle, almost as if it was warning me, and I shifted to the right, and just into time too as a massive bolt of purple lightning flew and struck the mouth of the volcano, blasting black earth and massive rocks from it.


    I was worried about the Nereids down there, I hoped Raven song had already gotten them out of danger. I looked back to see a guy, a player for that matter, on a flying carpet, holding what I could only honestly say was a lightening bolt chasing me with an intense look on his face. This dude was probably one of the chosen of the trial, and he was after me for the Shade of Amara, at least I think that''s why he''s after me.


    I twisted in the air dodging another of his lightening bolt, but I was already entering the volcano when I did that, and I scratched and slammed my body against it''s rough wall, and to make matters worse, the bolt this time was a lot more heavier and thicker than the last. It completely blasted half the volcano, which was the size of a freaking mountain to rubble. Pieces of which were now falling with me to the ground.


    I looked ahead to see that all the Nereids were already on the ship, and Jack and the rest were already waiting for me. In one last burst of strength, I spread very injured wings and shot forwards, unable to stop as I crashed onto the deck, breaking a few things in the process, before slamming my head against the metal tower the crows nest was built on. I felt my vision going dark as Dinah rushed towards me, but just before I went unconscious I had enough time to tell her.


    "Stealth mode...run!"


    {You have been heavily injured and knocked unconscious¡­you can not log into the game for another 72 hours¡­.thanks for playing lost descendants online}


    "Fuck!"

 58 Feelings

    Dinner was wonderful, plus I felt it was about time I took a break from the game, things seem to be getting a little intense. Though I seriously hope we were able to get away from that crazy dungeon, especially that player with a lightening bolt, I don''t the others would be able to face him without me being there. But the game was not what I had to worry about, but rather this tailor that was taking liberties with my body. She should be thankful she''s hot, or else I would be having words with my lawyer about a sexual harassment suit.


    "What color would you prefer sir, and I expect you would like the suit to be form fitting too."


    "yes I would like it to be form fitting, and the usual black would do, but also shades of blue and a few white would do."


    The tailor nodded her head as she took my measurements and wrote them down on a note book, I was surprised seeing that, because there''s hardly anyone who uses paper these days, everything runs on a digital format. After the tailor finished writing with her note book, she stepped closer, patting my shirt and smoothing it of wrinkles. I felt her slip something thin into my shirt, before she tiptoed and whispered in my ear.


    "Call me."


    Of course it was at that exact moment Kira decided to walk into the room with Ron in her arms. I stepped back so quickly I was sure that to her eyes, I was nothing more than a blur, or that might just be me giving myself too much credit. Kira looked from the tailor to me and then back to the tailor again with a narrowed gaze, and with her narrow eyes, the move seemed all the more pronounced.


    "are you done taking his measurements Trisha?" She asked as walked towards me and the tailor.


    "Yes Kira I''m done with the measurements, the clothes should be ready in a day, so I''ll come over with them tomorrow evening to..."


    "There''s no need to come over Trisha, I''ll come get them myself. There''s no need to stress yourself, plus that way you can focus on your job rather than the client, hmm. I wouldn''t want you to go so far out of your way to take care of him, that''s my job after all. Anyway since you''re finished here, you can leave, one of the maids will see you off, good night Trisha."


    For some reason I felt as if I was in trouble, but I was not exactly sure why but Kira had that look on her face that I''m gradually becoming used to, a look she only gave when she was about to berate me about something. The tailor; Trisha made her way out, but not before brushing past me and lighting a fire at the spot below my waist and I between my legs. I don''t care what sort of look Kira was giving me, I''m calling that tailor first thing in the morning. Plus she had a really nice ass and it was fun to look at.


    "Are you done staring at her ass, want me to call her back so that she can give you a strip tease." Kira asked me with a sarcastic voice, but I opened my eyes wide with wonder as I asked back.


    "You can do that? Please I beg you¡­DO IT!!"


    "You want me to kill you don''t you? Don''t let me catch you looking at other women." She said to me as placed a tablet on my desk and rested Ron''s head on her shoulder, he seems sleepy.


    "Why are you banning me from staring at other women? It''s not as if we''re a thing, are we?" I asked her confused. She looked me straight in the eye and gave me an answer I never expected.


    "We are. It''s important we be together, for Ron''s sake, not to mention us being together would mess up the mind of our fathers a bit. But beyond doing what''s best for our son, I find that I really like you. And as childish as you are, I would like to see where this goes and pursue a relationship with you, unless of course you would rather have Trisha. She has a reputation of sleeping with all her clients, male and female alike, and with her being a world famous designer, it means she''s banged a lot of people."


    "while what you just said seems logical, I can''t help but wonder if there''s another reason behind this, that somehow you''re also scheming." I said to her with a raised eyebrow.


    "And what if I am, will that stop you from having me, because I know you want me, maybe even more than I want you."


    "No it won''t, but you are right I do want you, even though every cell in my body is telling me that you''re going to mess up my life in more ways than one. Fine what''s life without a few risks, how about dinner tomorrow night, I''ll pick you up at your place by seven." I said to her with a smile.


    "Nope that won''t do, that''s a little too early, and without a doubt people will suspect that we''re in league with each other, most of our future plans has to revolve around the fact that we''re supposed to be enemies, and I''m supposed to hate you for forcing me into a job I don''t want."


    Now I''m confused, what the heck was it with this woman. First she says we are a thing and that we should give being together a shot, but now I think she''s telling me we have to be together on in secret.


    "Us being together has to be a process, at least in the eyes of the public. We need to give it time, things like this are really delicate as we''re not only fooling our fathers and the board of directors, but also the world. So you can actually hang out with a few other eye candies that are not Trisha, just to keep up appearances. After all rich young dudes like sexy models, you should play the part."


    Okay what the fuck is going on here, first she says she doesn''t wants to see me looking at other girls, she plays hard to get, now she says we can be together, but not in public, and now I have date other girls so that our relationship would remain a secret. If I didn''t know better, I would say that she was just doing this, so that if it doesn''t work out between the both of us she would have a way out without any publicity. She was playing it safe.


    "Seriously? Everything you''ve just said is a contradiction, it''s like you want to be with me, but you''re finding reasons to keep me at arms length. Though I don''t disagree with the plans you set up, we have to be discreet or the board will back us into a corner, but I''m not going to play games with my heart Kira you either all in or out. Besides what makes you so sure that I won''t fall with anyone of the girls that''s supposed to be a smokescreen for our relationship." I asked her as I took Ron from her and headed towards his room with her following behind me.


    "what makes me so sure that I can keep you wrapped around my fingers is due to quite a few things. One I''m Ron''s mother, two I''m confident in my ability to keep a man, and three I''m sure you know it well enough by now, that you''re crazy about me. And I feel the same, so we just have to make sure these feelings we both have grow into something tangible. But you''re right, this is a gamble and someone can get hurt, so we should hold off on getting together for a little while. Let''s see how well we get along, so we don''ta mistake we might both regret later." She said to me with a shrug of her shoulders.


    Maybe she was right, but my danger senses were tingling and warning about Kira, it''s entirely possible that she had hostile intentions. But she was right, I was really crazy about her, and I knew without a doubt my feelings would blind me to the warnings I was receiving at the moment. But honestly, I don''t think I cared. I wanted her, and I was going to get her, regardless of the consequences.

 59 Loots

    When I logged back into the game, everything was eerily quiet, so much so that I felt a chill allover my body. In would have said that someone was wrong if not for the fact that i was still on my ship, and Sky was sleeping peacefully at the foot of my bed. I got off and went out, going through the ship until I got to the lounge area, and that was where I found everyone¡­.well not everyone, but rather the Nereids we''ve rescued.


    They were huddle in one corner, watching the rest of the crew warily and with their guards up. Dinah was the only person who knowswere actually relating to. The entire atmosphere was so tense that nobody noticed me standing there watching them, until Sky who had just woken up came from behind me and announced her presence with a loud trumpet. It startled me, but also everyone else here on the ship.


    "Captain! You''re back!" Jack said to me as he walked over.


    I gave him a simple nod, and an over enthusiastic smile as I walked towards the Nereids who were huddled around their elder. I didn''t know what to say to calm them down at the moment, but at the very least I had to say something.


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    "I know you guys have been through a lot, but you can relax here. No one on this ship would hurt you, not unless you have any hostile intentions. But apart from that please feel at home. We have one more mission to run in the hollows, and after that we would have to return to Patmos to submit our task.After that is done, I promise that I would take you all to go find the other temples where you''re people might still be living. You''re safe now, so please be at ease"


    The Nereids elder walked towards me and stretched forth his hand, grasping mine within his with a grateful smile that stretched his wrinkled blue skin a little too wide. Walking was a little difficult for him, so he was helped by two of the younger Nereids, when he held my hands I used my own strength to support him as I tried to ignore the wet slimy feeling I was getting with my hands in contact with him. It was almost as if his body was made of solidified water.


    "Captain Seven, thank you so much for the help that you have given me and my family. And the fact that you''re still choosing to help us is something we will never forget, somehow we will find a way to pay you back for all the help you''ve given us, may the old and new gods smile favorably on you and all your ventures."


    {You have been blessed by an Elder Nereids with the Water Shaman class. +10 to hidden stat luck, +20 favorability with all gods.}


    That didn''t seem so bad, and the favorability with all gods was not a bad thing to have, at least for now considering that I was practically the herald of their most hated enemies; the elemental dragons. But what they didn''t know won''t hurt them, besides this was a dangerous game I was playing, it would not be fun if the stakes and rewards weren''t high.


    I turned away from them as Dinah led towards the sleeping quarters, at the edge of my vision there was an ! symbol flashing bright yellow. These were probably thesystem notifications that I''ve missed since I was unconscious. But either way they could still wait a bit longer, it looks like Qitar had a few reports for me. Seeing she had all my attention she started speaking.


    "We were able to loose your pursuer, and so far thanks to the ship''s camouflage skill, we''ve been able to avoid being detected by the pirates from Runt. We''re at a stretch of open waters between Runt and the island Silomere. It''s where the sea elves are stationed, and they''re quite welcoming to outsiders. So we''re heading there for some quick repairs on the ship before we head back to Patmos. We chose that route because you told us you had a mission to carry out on the island.


    We figured it would be best for us to repair the ship while you completed your mission. So far we''ve all been through a lot with this task that was given to you, however we''ve all come out stronger for it, so thanks are in order. But as your first mate I believe it''s my duty to tell you that you have to be careful with the decisions you make. You''re a captain now, which means its not just your survival that rides on your decisions, but that of your entire crew. I hope you consider that the next time you decide to throw us into a dungeon with beings we can''t beat without the help of legendary weapons. Gains are important, but so are our lives."


    She was right, and I felt ashamed on quite a few levels. I know that somehow I have to make it up to them, I didn''t want to be the kind of leader that my subordinates would hate, my team in the army taught me that a unit has to be fully cohesive and on the same page to truly flow and carry out missions with the highest efficiency.The only other results of a teak where there is no trust is nothing but death, and I didn''t want that for anyone of them.


    "I''m sorry, I know the choice of going into that dungeon was really selfish of me, especially when there was an easier and more safer route to take. I won''t say this. Regret taking that route, not when it helped me save the lives of the Nereids we''re currently harboring on our ship. But I''m sorry I put you all in danger for it, saving them was one of the few good things that came out of this, but even I know my intentions weren''t the purest when I said we should take the long way by following the compass. I promise I''ll make it all up to you guys, and this won''t happen again."


    They all nodded in agreement and exchanged a few words with me, before everyone went back to the various duties. I hope they forgave me, I really do. But for now anyway I just had to be carful with the things I did, not if I wanted this teak upfall apart before the fully expose and display their potential. But with that out of the way, I could now turn my attention to the system notifications.


    {YOU HAVE COMPLETED DUNGEON: THE BURIED SEA LABYRINTH OF NJORD. YOU AND YOUR PARTY HAVE BEEN AWARDED 10 MILLION EXP, THE CLASS CHANGE TOKEN FOR WATER ACOLYTE, 10 SKILL COMBINING GEMS, 10 MILLION GOLDEN DOLLARS, THE SCALING EQUIPMENT SET: CHILD OF THE SEA, ONE TERRITORY ORDER TOKEN, ONE GUILD CREATION TOKEN, ONE GUILD AND TERRITORY LEVEL UP TOKEN, AND ONE TREASURE MAP.}


    As soon as I finished reading the notifications, a beam of light covered everyone on the ship, as they all Leveled up, except for me of course. I won''t be able to level up until I submitted the task. This dungeon was generous, like way too generous. If I didn''t know better I would say the recently received +10 luck was already in effect. But of course it was now time to allocate the loot. The first thing that came to my mind was the class change token, and I knew just the person to give.


    "Mack, I know you and your brothers are equipped with a basic guard class, sure your levels are high but there''s nothing special about it. I''ve noticed the way you fight, you favor magic and your prefer to keep your distance, which is why I think this class change token for water Acolyte is meant for you. Will you accept it?" I asked him, and he nodded looking even more eager than I expected.


    {RARE CLASS: WATER ACOLYTE: This class draws power from the spiritual aspect of water to give the wielder defensive and controlling abilities, along with a few healing skills. It evolves toWATER SHAMAN, WATER MEISTER and then WATER SAGE. At higher levels it becomes capable of summoning the true spirits of water and commanding the seas itself.}


    {CHILD OF THE SEA SCALING EQUIPMENT SET: All info locked, available only to players with the WATER ACOLYTE class.}


    Well I guess the equipment also went to Mark, it didn''t look anything great to be honest. It was just a blue leather jacket with a black skin tight top, and a black trouser with blue wave like designs on it.


    There was a blue glove, and a blue bandana, a pair of dark blue boots and finally a dark midnight blue staff with designs of fishes, kraken,and mermaids on it. Changing into a new class means Mark would probably loose all of his levels, though his physical and magical stats won''t change, and any skill that does not deal with his current class would remain while the old class skills along with the class would be deleted.


    This would get us stronger in the long run, and it was a good thing. The only thing left to share was the money. The guild and territory orders were things I had no use for at the moment, heck I might even sell them should the need arises. As for the skill combining gems, they were my targets right from the beginning, so they can be considered the captain''s loot. The treasure map can only be focused on later, we still had things to do.But for now, it''s full sails ahead, after all I had an elf that needs to be assassinated.

 60 Death

    The islands were mostly clustered around each other, and while it might take a ridiculous amount of time to navigate through them, especially if you didn''t know where you were going. However we didn''t have that problem, and right now we all found ourselves in a dingy looking motel, nestled within the giant trees of our target elves island. An island called Sequoia. The island as opposed to previous one we''ve been on, was one giant orchard or better yet a garden. The sea elves really out did themselves with the decorations.


    But it was due to that, that I felt that it would be a lot easier for us or rather me to carry out this mission of mine. The others thought that I was just here to sight see or something, the only person who was in on my real reason here was Qitar, and that was just so she could provide me back up, of course I also had to coke with my spy master too.


    "Captain the processing has left the prison and are on their way to the palace of sea elf king.Based on our calculations they will be passing right below you in about thirty minutes, and you should have an opening for about five minutes. That''s all the time I can buy you and Qitar to do what you have to, and you should hurry, the others on the ship are beginning to get suspicious and are asking questions."


    "Its okay Mack I''ve got it, I should be done with this in no time at all."


    "Alright captain, I''ll await news of your success." Mack replied as the communications between the two of us was cut off. I heard a few steps behind me as Qitar came closer, her neon green skin right at home amongst the branches of the trees.


    "I can''t believe you roped me into some elven bitch''s assignment! And these trees are disgusting! If they grew naturally it''s one thing, but the fetid smell of death magic hangs allover them, and to make matters worse they carved buildings into them! Sure Patmos is the same, but this is just downright sinister, the buildings are draining away the life essence of anybody living in them that''s not a sea elf. Damn you Aaren!"


    Wow I guess there''s a lot I don''t know about this place, I didn''t even notice anything wrong about it. Either way Qitar should calm down a bit, after all we won''t really be here long, just another 40 minutes and we''re off this island and back to Patmos.


    "I''m sorry for the inconvenience, but we will be done soon. I just got need your support to keep any enemy off my back while I take care of the target. It would be over real fast, and we can get the hell out of here in no time. I promise."


    Qitar sighed before moving to the window of the room we were in, then she jumped on top of a really thick branch extending from it''s sides and made her way up, going deeper into the embrace of the tree and it''s leaves. That would keep her hidden while we waited for our target.


    As I waited for the procession carrying my target, I covered my face with a painted dragon mask. These things were quite cheap to buy within the game, and they had the amazing effect of keeping your username and level secret from any sort of observatory or appraisal skills. I looked like a real life bandit, it felt really cool if I do say so myself.


    It took longer than thirty minutes, but the procession transporting my target finally came in sight. Why they would use a procession I don''t know, it was really stupid because it painted a big white circle with my target being the red spot right in the middle.


    Unlike Patmos, this island doesn''t seem to have grown with the times, though that might be due to the fact that elves love nature, and the idea of using cars didn''t sit well with them. So they were using carriages being drawn by giant snails with fearsome looking shells. I doubt those things can go very fast should any danger arise, maybe that''s why they''ve been moving at a snails pace (get it).


    *CLINK!* *POOOF!*


    Suddenly the entire street was filled to the brim with tear gas, how the hell Mack got his hands on some, I wouldn''t know, but the appearance of the noxious gas was the beginning of the distraction I need, Qitar would take care of the next stage. I unfurled my wings and jumped out of the window, falling ten meters right in front of the procession whilst holding my breath and blinking away the tears in my eyes.


    *PEW!* *THUD!*


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    A bullet flew past my head and went into the skull of an approaching guard, his spear discarded besides his falling lifeless body. Another guard came towards me, his light blue skin glistening from the sun rays that escaped through the canopy of the trees hanging above us. There was another soft puff, and his head exploded in a shower of blood and gore.


    I was finally seeing how capable Qitar was with a sniper rifle and it startled me. I pulled back the strings on Sky''s bow form and released an arrow that pierced through three guards at the same time. That left me a little surprised because I did not expect them to be so weak, something was definitely up here.


    I moved to carriage that was supposed to be holding my target and pulled open its doors. But it was completely empty and devoid of any sort of life, I resisted the urge to yell as I bent down to take a peak underneath the seat, hoping to see him hiding under it, however what I saw made me narrow my eyes and curse out softly as I had invariably been totally and utterly fucked.


    *BOOOOOM!*


    [YOU HAVE DIED! YOU WOULD BE RESSURECTED IN 48 HOURS. DUE TO THE NATURE OF YOUR DEATH, YOU HAVE BEEN DISQUALIFIED FROM THE TRIALS AND ALL YOUR TASKS ARE NULL AND VOID.]


    "FUUUUUCK!"

 61 Cartels I : Ledgers & Deals

    The manor was a bit silent, but that would probably be because I had locked myself in my grandfather''s study and was listening to his message over and over again. To be honest I did not really handle failure that well, my job was to assassinate some Elvin traitor, and like everything else that I''ve done so far, I would have succeeded and probably gotten a reward, which may or may not include another fuck section with the Elvin minister. Now everything was basically ruined, because I was a little rash and did not properly plan for any abnormalities.


    I felt very stupid, but there is no medicine for regret/ obviously I''ve failed the very first mission given to me by the coven of Angeles, and that would without a doubt affect my standing within that organization, but, hopefully there should be a chance for redemption once I''m able to log back into the game. But for now I would be taking care of my real world businesses, and this time I was going to be playing with the dark side.


    I raised my hands and swiped the image of my grandfather''s hologram away. The table I rested on and lit up as it became a display screen quite similar to the home screen of a laptop. There was a file labeled ledgers and deals, but it was encrypted and locked with an advanced biometrics and neural security system. It was currently keyed to me, a change that occurred just hours after my Baba passed away, a failsafe to prevent less than trustworthy people from accessing information of my family''s biggest source of income.


    I unlocked the folder, going through a series of security checks including thumb prints, retinal scans, voice recognition, heart rate monitoring and neural mapping.


    My grandfather really pulled out all the stops to protect this information, and I couldn''t blame him. This was a drug that every major government had a hand in purchasing, and not just the governments, both the old world crime families and new world gangs were customers. While that made us the most protected family on earth, it also meant we had a big target on our back.


    Basically speaking I had all of the worlds government by their balls, releasing the records of their deals with us might actually destabilize all of the order that''s currently in place, and honestly; there''s already enough unrest as it is with everyone looking for the formula to a biological weapon, and a virus within lost descendants online.


    I shifted my focus back to the information In front of me; we had major deals with the U.S government. 78% of those deals were military, while the remaining 22% were health deals with researchers and doctors trying to re-synthesize the drugs and use it for a variety of medical breakthroughs. The military had more luck with its usage than most, by administering a highly diluted doze; they''ve been creating soldiers that have stronger mental abilities and stronger immune systems. There were still a ways from having super humans who could run really fast or lift a car with one hand, but based on this report they were close to a breakthrough.


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    Our next major buyer, or rather I should say the buyers who were on equal footing with the U.S were Great Britain, North Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the free Coalition of Martian Ascendancy. We were basically getting billion''s worth of dollars from them, but most of those funds were funneled into more research and production of the Bacchus Nectar. What was left were all turned into crypto currency, which was actually now the main source of exchange, now more than ever that humans have entered an age of stellar exploration.


    Anyway based on this ledger I would be kept very busy in the upcoming months, and this evening I even had a meeting with Mexican cartels in downtown los Angeles. Apparently some of our shipments had gone missing during transit across the Mexican border.


    But it was more complicated than that. This ledger and deals folder was being compiled and handled by a special program my mom actually designed. I guess you could say it was a super spy as it had the ability to intercept any sort of chatter about the Bacchus Nectar, and even more so; keep tabs on our customers and every single ounce of our shipment until it has been consumed.


    The program doesn''t have a name¡­.yet, but I was able to learn that after my grandfather died the Mexican cartel, or at the very least three of them had decided to put the shipment of Bacchus Nectar they were supposed to transport on the black-market. The meeting was a confrontation to get to the bottom of this as these three cartels were our biggest middle men to our consumer base in the south Americas. But even I knew that this meeting was going to be more than just a talk to see if we could get to the bottom o a missing shipment issue.


    To the whole world they were innocent, but I knew those idiots were looking down on me. My grandfather, the former king of this empire was someone that was equally as feared as he was respected, and equally as hated as he was loved. The cartels would have thought thrice more about betraying and backing out of our partnership with them if he was still alive.


    I can''t really say I knew how the world of gangs and organized crime really worked, but what I can say is, those guys needed to be taught a lesson, and it falls to me to do so. The wade family reputation has to be honored, and protected; I needed to make an example out of all of them.


    This means I will be torturing or even killing people. I wasn''t so na?ve as to believe that my hands would remain clean, that lives and families won''t be ruined by my choices and decisions. Being in charge of Imperium industries was the easiest of all my tasks, followed by living as much as I can within lost descendants online. But the hardest was this, being the head honcho of a crime family that has the monopoly of not just the only drug in circulation, but practically the evolution of the entire human race. It was weird but...I think I was more comfortable with this responsibility, maybe this is just who I''m meant to be; the bad guy. But who knows, it might be too early to tell, but either way, I guess we''ll find out

 62 Cartels II : Sad New, Crime Lords

    I really didn''t see the need in dressing up to meet a bunch of gangsters, I mean seriously, this shirt was just too nice, but I knew I was going to end up getting blood on it. I guess I really couldn''t help it, I just had to roll with the punches.


    Nanny Florence looked dressed to kill, literally. She was dressed in a suit, but even I didn''t know the ridiculous amount of guns and knives she had on under that black blazer, and even though her eyes were covered with sunglasses, I could feel the destiny chill from within their depths. We were having our meeting in a public place, which was probably the cartels way of putting me in a tough spot so that I wouldn''t try to kill them immediately.


    Either way I do commend them for being really careful and crafty, but I would not have had any of them killed, not until after I''ve recovered what they stole. I looked a little bit to the left, and there was Ron playing in a sand castle, the three maids standing watch over him. We were in a park, but everything I could see were props, or rather I should say the lively atmosphere here was a lie.


    I don''t know how Nanny Florence did it, but every sine soul in this park, down to even the dogs and cats being walked, much less the children, belonged to me. And this very realization scared the shit out of me, if I was this powerful, and wielded this much power, then how come I didn''t know. It was a million dollar question, but I believe Nanny Florence was only allowed to reveal certain things to me at the most opportune moment.


    "Master Aaron while we wait for our guests, I have something to tell you." Nanny Florence had a rather serious look on her face, making me realize the s severity of what she had to tell me. I hope it''s not any mote bad news, or some big reveal that''s sire to throw me off my feet.


    "In a months time I would be officially resigning from my position as the Shadow Mistress of the Wade Family. My replacements would be arriving at the manor within that time, but once they do. They would take over as your second in command, and handle all of the logistics between both our legal and illegal businesses. Wade Manor and all it''s secrets would be theirs to keep and protect, just as it has been mine for 34 years.


    And just as I''ve protected your grandfather and protected you; so too will they protect you and your son. They will be hour shield and your sword against the darkness of this world, your very own mistress and master of shadows."


    That was a bombshell, I''m sure my face had already gone pale, and I was intensely shocked by what I just had. All my life, even when I was away from home, Nanny Florence had been a part of it. And she''s been my closest confidant, especially with all this drug related business. I just couldn''t see a future where I would be able to stand on my own without her, she was my support.


    "I don''t understand Nanny Florence, why the sudden hasty decision? I need your help with Ron alone, not to mention an entire empire of both legal and some what semi legal businesses. I''ll drown without you, please don''t leave." At the moment I might seem like a child, but I didn''t care, Nanny Florence was no different from a mother to me.


    "Silly child, who ever said anything about leaving. I''m going to be here, taking care of you and Ron, but not as a second in command or a personal maid. I''m just going to be an old grandmother who just retired and has enough time on her hands to play with her son and grandson.


    I''ve spent most of my life spilling blood and being the object of many people''s nightmares. I would very much like it if I can now take a break and for once just be a normal old woman. I know I still have quite a long time to live, but still whatever time I have left, I just want to spend it taking care of the people I love.You don''t have to worry about anything, my replacements are even better than I am."


    "No one is better than you Nanny Florence, no one." I said to her as I stretched my hand over my shoulder and grabbed hers.


    "Well I should know, I''ve been training them for this position for over fifteen years now. Don''t worry, once they get here, you''ll have all the answers you need, but for now our guests are here." She said toe with a smile as she nodded her head in a particular direction.


    I looked at where she was pointing and raised an eyebrow at the three men and their lieutenants. They practically waltzed into the park like they owned the entire place, and quite frankly is pissed me off.


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    Alejandro Gomez, Jose Manuel and Pepe Vega. Powerful members within the Mexican drug cartel that had built their power over the last decade by trampling on the rules and methods of the old cartels. They were new bloods, wild unruly, and disrespectful as opposed to the old families that have existed for centuries. They would be a little hard to deal with, after all they believed everything they touched turned to gold.


    "Mr. Aaron! It''s good to see you in such good health eh! Seems like being boss man has been good for your skin Hahahaha." Pepe seemed like a jovial man, but that came as no surprise to me,I already had intelligence about the kind of people I was currently dealing with.


    Pepe loved to have fun and threw parties for the kids, it''s too bad it greatest joy came from trafficking those kids off world, or making sure most of the young girls that come under his charge knows what a stallion he is in bed. The reports say he prefers virgins, preferably from the age of twelve to seventeen. He was by far the worst of the bunch, and his annoying smile was making my skin crawl.


    "Young Aaron, we apologize for such an abrupt meeting, but all three of us were great amigos with your grand pappy. You might not have noticed us, but we were at the funeral to pay our respects, forgive us for not trying to strike up a conversation with you. It didn''t seem like the right time for any sort of introductions." Alejandro was a crafty one alright, when he s aid not the right time, that''s probably because none of them were sure whether or not i was going to inherit all of my grandfather''s business, even the one that was not mentioned in a will.


    Jose was not that much of a talker, his voice was only heard when he needed it to be, and right now did not seem like the time for him. Either way I didn''t mind, this meeting was a formality, and while I would have just loved to go all godfather on these idiots, I''m a scion of the old families. Basically you could say organized crime was in my DNA. And as such there were rules I had to follow, observations I had to take.


    A soft wind blew and the white dress shirt I had on with motifs of silver dragons swayed softly. My hair was slicked back and my original pale look was back to normal. I guess it''s time to play a game I''ve found I really enjoyed...politics.


    "Please gentlemen, don''t stand on ceremony.....have a sit!"

 63 Cartels III : Worst Enemies, Bloody Murder

    They sat down and made themselves quite comfortable. It didn''t take long for someone to bring over a bottle of champagne and a few wine glasses. They were wary, probably thinking that I had poisoned the wine, funny. Even though that would have been interesting to see, it was not the way of the old families, we were above poisoning our guests, not like this lawless new bloods.


    "Please drink, I assure you the wine is not poisoned." I said to them as I picked up my own wine glass and poured the exquisite champagne down my throat. I smiled in the process, and swallowed loudly just so that they would know I wasn''t joking.


    "Hahahaha of course it''s not poisoned, you old families have this rule about both poisoning your guests. It''s a stupid rule if you ask me, but I think the rule is one that should be followed, especially for this meeting. We wouldn''t want to have blood on our hands now would we?" Pepe said to me as he nodded his head at my chest.


    I looked down and noticed a red dot on my chest, lovely. They also came prepared, but every possible vantage point has to have been swept by my people, there''s no way a sniper would have gotten on top of or into any of the buildings surrounding this park, we would have known.I heard Nanny Florence shift a bit and pushed her hands into her jacket, but I raised a palm up and stopped her from making any hasty decisions. This game was not yet over. And I rather not have Ron see his father get shot, or even hear the sound of any gun shots.


    "You guys really have no respect for the old rules do you? But I understand wanting to have a little insurance. But I have to admit, using a drone is place of a sniper is quite smart, and based on the fact that I can''t see it, said drone has to be camouflaged. That''s military grade tech, it seems you guys are more resourceful than I first thought possible."


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    All three of them looked surprised, and that was all the confirmation I needed to prove that my assumptions were right. These guys should really take research seriously, because it would have helped them escape embarrassment and the hell that''s to come. But because they underestimated me, they did not think it wise to find out anything about me, because if they did do a little research, they would have known that I was in the army, and the fact that most of my career as a soldier was on blank space, was more than enough proof that I wasn''t your average soldier. So coming at me with military grade tech is just pure stupidity.


    But calling them out on their move was not just to psych them, but also to let Nanny Florence know what we were dealing with here. Normally these guys or anyone else would not have dared to do this with my grandfather, so they were not really used to scenarios like this. But never the less, I had a harder life than my Baba, there''s a whole lot I''ve seen that he hasn''t.


    "Well since you know what''s up then there''s no need to beat around the bush. I know what the rumors are saying, but we didn''t do it lil amigo. The shipment was stolen from us and put on the black market,we have nothing to do with it." Pepe said to me as he leaned back on his chair and took a sip of his champagne.


    Alejandro looked pissed, just as Jose scrunched his eyebrows a bit. Obviously Pepe was supposed to keep his mouth shut, but he''s been running it ever since he got here,and his unremorseful answer was more than enough proof that this guy didn''t see me as a threat. He was feeding me a cooked up story without the proper reactions to go with it. This guy didn''t care whether I bought the story or not, he wasn''t afraid of me.


    "Young man what my associates was trying to say is..."


    "Really there''s another way or meaning to what he just said, I think you would find that I got the message loud and clear Mr. Jose. And so far all of you have been calling me without the proper title and it''s beginning to piss me off, but none the less my ego is not why I''m here. All three of you are owing me 500 million dollars worth of merchandize that''s so rare and expensive I could sell it to the proper channels for ten times that amount. And 500 million is fifty Bitcoins, and you three know it would be worth more on the black market. It would make you guys enough money to completely break free from the control of the old families, from the law, and definitely from me.


    But here the deal, that''s my money, and my drugs, and you were supposed to deliver it to my facility in Argentina for research. Yet you took it, and you''re not even courteous enough to pretend you''re innocent. If you were in my position, let me ask you. What would you do?"


    Cutting the ever silent Jose off when he wanted to talk was quite satisfying, and playing this game was fun. I went straight to the point and called them out on their bullshit, sometimes politics, especially gangs politics didn''t need a subtle approach. In cases like this, honesty really is the best policy. Plus none of them noticed that the red dot on my shirt was gone, Nanny Florence leaned over and whispered into my ears.


    "The drone has been neutralized, all 10 of them. But get this, they''re not just military grade tech, they''re imperium industries tech. Looks like the board has been up to no good already." She said to me as she pulled back.


    Damn it! Looks like this whole shit was more complicated than just three men getting greedy for more profit and what doesn''t belong to them. They knew that if they fucked with even one of the old families, the rest would wipe them off the face of the earth. Not unless they ready had the support of one, these fools were pawns in my father''s game, this was probably how he wanted to get into the Wade family''s dark circle. He was going to undermine me, and somehow fuck with my operations.


    If the entire Wade dark empire belonged to me alone, I wouldn''tworried,but the Wade family had a council of elders that kept watch over the leader of the family. While they can''t really do shit and are just figure heads, they had a lot of pull with every branch of the family. My father was still my grandfather''s son, replacing the son with the father on grounds of me being inexperienced and not ready; was something that could happen in the blink of an eye.


    Looks like the bible was right; a man''s worst enemy is from his own household. But even if this was the case, I couldn''t blow this situation out of proportion. Doing so would expose the conflict between me and my father, and that would undermine the Wade family in front of the other old families, it would give them the impression we''re weak, and the more greedy families would want to come take a bit out of the pie that is the Wade Dark Empire.


    "I''m sure you''ve realized what''s really going on Mr. Wade. However I believe I can offer you a solution. We''ve been given a very lucrative offer to mess either your business by someone very familiar to the both of us..."


    "Jose what the fuck do you think you''re doing?" Pepe shouted, completely appalled that the silent Jose had exposed their backhand dealings with my father.


    "I''m saving us from total destruction you idiot! Now sit still and keep quiet. We''re dealing with a dangerous opponent here." Jose replied to Pepe as he gave Alejandro a look to calm down.


    "Dangerous opponent? Are you talking about this child? Jose did the champagne you just drank dulled your senses, I...."


    *Bang!*


    I have had enough with this guy''s mouth. We were sitting on a table carved from stone, that was the main attraction of this park, it was filled with stone sculptures. I had leaned over, moving too fast for even my own mind to comprehend and smashed Pepe''s head on the table, busting it open. The other two had already gotten up in shock, but they didn''t say anything. I moved my face closer to Pepe and asked him.


    "Did you say something?"


    He was afraid, I could see it in his eyes, and I swear I could almost smell it. He shook his head vigorously, blood soaking into his glossy black hair, trailing down the side of his face and into his well shaped beard. I guess now he knew I wasn''t joking around, but why wasn''t he answering me.


    "I. *Bang!* Asked. *Bang!* You. *Bang!* A. *Bang!* Question!!! *Bang!*"


    My white silk shirt was stained with blood, in fact the motif of the dragons on it seemed to come more alive as Pepe''s blood and skull fragments clung to it. I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders before looking at his companions with an apologetic look. I threw his corpse to their feet with more strength and ease than normal for a healthy human male.


    "I''m sorry about that, he didn''t answer my question. Now I doubt he would be answering any other person''s question again."


    I turned around a bit and saw that the three maids had crowded around Ron and even had on a pair headphones on his head playing music. I gave them a grateful smile, before turning back to Alejandro and Jose, the blood of their friend still dripping down my face.


    "Right! You guys were saying something. So what Solution do you have to offer, and keep in mind you also have to offer restitution for fucking with my business. Because quite frankly I hate you both more than I hate him, and you saw what I just did to him, so imagine how fucked both your faces would be by the time I done with you, it would give your children nightmares just to see the state of your corpses. Now...¡­give me 20 good reasons why I shouldn''t flay you both alive and pour acid into your wounds in the process."

 64 Angry

    I was in the ballroom of Wade manor dancing the waltz with a sleeping Ron on my shoulder. Nanny Florence and the rest stood watch completely silent while soft classical music played in the background. I hated it, but this was the only thing that could put Ron to sleep and at the moment it was helping me focus. After we got back from our meeting with the Cartels, I took a bath while my bloodied clothes were gotten rid off, it wouldn''t do for there to be any evidence that ties the new CEO of imperium industries to murder, that''s just bad for business.


    After my bath, I just threw on a blue dress shirt that for some reason was just the same as the previous one I wore, with dragon motifs on it. Except of course this was blue and the other was white. My emotions were allover the place and the only way I could see to calm myself was to dance with my son. He fell asleep midway through it, but having him close calmed me down and gave me the clarity I needed. I had come to several conclusions and the first one being; that my father was an asshole, a slimy greedy, fucking coward of an asshole.


    I had half a mind to go find him and put a bullet in his head, but that wouldn''t solve anything. I''ve learnt a lot from the messages and instructions my grandfather left behind, and I know that above all the Wade family has to remain united. But my father had too much guts, way too much. And even though he really wasn''t on the in''s with the dark side of the family, it would be stupid for him not to know about the rules that govern this family.


    Yet he didn''t care and neither was he afraid of any sort of retribution. Something or someone somewhere was giving him the confidence to fuck with me and my life, and quite frankly I didn''t like it. I needed to find a way to deal with my father, he was rapidly becoming a threat, and I fear that he might force me to commit a sin that I might not be able to walk away from. I wouldn''t be the first son to kill his father, but that didn''t make it any less bad, I needed to put him in his place.


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    But all these brooding wouldn''t get me anywhere, I still had the fate of the world and the very real threat of a literal galaxy war/worlds war on my hands. I had to go to work tomorrow, but at the very least I should be able to get a few hours of game play out of the way. It''s gotten a little exhausting being Aaron Wade, I guess it''s time for Seven to take the helm.


    "Take Him."


    I said to one of the maids as I handed Ron over to her. I walked over and gave Nanny Florence a hug before making my way up to my bedroom. I hot into my immersion pod and logged in for lost descendants online, my vision went dark for a moment before I opened my eyes staring at the brightly lit ceiling of my captain''s cabin. I guess the ship has become my respawn point.


    {All withheld exposed points has been released. You have reached level 38}


    Name: Aaren Seven/ Level: 38(15%)/Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker/ One With The Wind/ Bronze Blood Commander/ Limit Breaker


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/The Coven Of Angeles


    Reputation: <>


    Strength: 151/Constitution: 146/Agility: 155/Dexterity: 155/ Intelligence: 151/ Wisdom:146


    Hp 1586 /1586(equip bonus +)MP 1770/1770(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:81Skill points:122


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    I was stacked, that much I could admit. However the fact that I was disqualified from the trials and even failed my first mission left a bad taste in my mouth. However this more than proves that this world was not predictable,that in one way or another it was subject to threads of fate and the winds of change. You can''t always get what you want and sometimes things don''t go the way you expect them to.


    I got up from my bed and looked to the left, Sky was sleeping there, she looked a lot smaller than she was previously, probably a side effect from dying when I did. I needed to be more careful from now on, and now that my schedule seemed to be a little cleared up, I could focus on doing things my way. I still had to get those nereids home, and that should keep me busy but also give me enough time to properly navigate and understand lost descendants online.


    *Brrrrrrrrr!*


    The communicator around my wrist vibrated and the face of the elven prime minister appeared. She didn''t look happy, but giving that I''ve had to deal with quite a few shit recently, I didn''t care and I was not in the mood to stroke her ego.


    "You failed your mission!"


    "Obviously." I answered back with a dull voice.


    "You don''t seem remorseful about your failure, do you think I can''t punish you?"


    "by all means do so, I don''t care. However before you go on spouting crap I don''t give a shot about, I would have to ask you to reorganize your fucking organization, because it''s either you have a mole within your ranks, or your ability to gather information sucks. Those sea elves knew we were coming, and they prepared for it.


    I''mmaking any excuse for my failure, that was sloppy and reckless on my part. But I assure you, it won''t happen again. However from now on, please make sure the information you give me is fucking fool proof so that the lives of me and my crew are not put in any unexpected and unnecessary danger. Because believe me when I tell you this, if anything happens to them because of a mistake on your part, I''m going to burn your fucking Coven to the ground and hand you and all it''s leaders with your intestines around your neck from the top of my ship''s fucking mast!"


    I get the feeling that I might have taken it a bit too far, but I was angry enough as it is. And I really didn''t want to deal with an sort of shit. Lerriandelei on the other hand had an amused grin on her face, I didn''t get what her deal was, but I wouldn''t be smiling if I was in her shoes, I meant every single word I just said.


    "I''ll be in touch Seven." And then the screen of the communicator went blank, signaling the end of the conversation. And then it dawned on me that while I meant every word I just said, I didn''t have the power to back those words up.


    "Fuck!"

 65 Port Yurtek I : Next Steps

    I moved over a bit to sky and rubbed my hand on her head, she shook a bit mewling in pleasure as she turned over in pleasure before opening her eyes. The young elephant didn''t stand on ceremony or behave like you would expect an elephant to. She jumped right into my arms, releasing soft trumpeting sounds that sounded like she was crying. I felt really bad for worrying her, so I hugged her tighter as I shifted my head to the side and said.


    "You guys can come in, I already know you''re there."


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    The door to my room slid open and I saw Dinah, Qitar, Raven Song and the clones looking at me with a sheepish expression on their face. They must have heard my entire conversation with the prime minister, which means I need to really find a way to make the rooms sound proof. But never the less I feel I like I owe them a little explanation.


    "I''m sorry, I..."


    "Say no more captain. In one way or another we understand the position you were in, and after the fiasco in the nereids dungeon, we understand that there are some things you would want to keep us from. We''re grateful for your concern, so let''s avoid the awkward apology and discuss our next move." Qitar said to me as she moved to stand in front of me.


    Since I got blown up before we could fully complete our mission, she was probably not discovered, which meant she was able to get off the sea elves island in time and safe. I was happy for that, she was probably the one who brought sky back, though I really couldn''t be shredded about that since it''s possible the battle beast might have respawned with me.


    "Well I guess the next thing on our agenda would be to get the Nereids back home, once we''ve done that well....I guess the next thing would be to go hunting." I said to them as I walked over to the door and made my way to the ship''s deck. Raven song was the first to catch up with me as he asked.


    "go hunting? For what?"


    First of all I gave a rather weird chuckle, it was enough to draw the attention of the Nereids meandering around the ship. Then I turned slightly to give my best evil genius impression.


    "Dragons!"


    ".....¡­.."


    "...... "


    "Are you high?" Dinah asked as she came over and placed her hand on my forehead. Qitar shook her head, turned around and went back into the ship, I''m sure she was pretty much convinced that I had lost my mind. But who knows maybe I have. But I changed the subject quickly enough so that they would all think I was joking, it wasn''t time yet to spring this up on them.


    "Anyway we have to plot our course for the Nereids new home. Darke you''re our navigator, and you know exactly how the compass works. So what do you have for me." I asked him as I mood to the ship''s steering wheel and placed a hand on it, while meticulously looking at the compass at it''s center.


    "The compass is old technology and very old magic, however it''s quite easy to understand. Zack and Dinah have been able to properly configure and synchronize it''s ability with the ship''s navigation system. Based on how it relies on the wants of it''s owner, or at the very least the person sailing the ship at the moment. I was able to plot a course as shown by the compass after being compelled by the Nereid elder''s want of a new home. Out next journey takes us well out of the Jitusat ocean and into even more dangerous waters. We''re probably going to be facing tougher challenges."


    I raised an eyebrow at that, my interest completely piqued. Darke was the person on my crew who spoke the least and let his actions do the talking most in not all of them time. So for him to be talking this much, it meant this was something we really had to take serious. I turned and face him fully, feeling the wind blow my hair while I focused on Darke''s serious yet handsome face.


    "So where are we going?" Dinah asked moving close enough to both of us as if to remind us that she existed. Not that I think anyone of us would be forgetting her any time soon.


    "We''re heading to the last ocean of the old world.....the Atlantic. And our journey this time would be taking us straight to the heart of the fabled sea, right to the heart of...."


    "Atlantis."


    Qitar chimed in as she came back out of the ship, looks like she never went far in the first place. The way she said it send chills down my spine, like there really was something dangerous and haunting in our future. And Dinah''s outburst more than proved it.


    "Are you kidding me! Even off world I''ve heard of that damn place! It''s the richest nation on this planet, and because of that it''s oceans are the most violent! Let''s not talk about the fact that to get passage into that ocean you need to pay a massive fine or at the very least go through a ridiculous amount of quests and tasks. Then forget about it''s pirates and pirate hunters infested waters, every criminal and bounty hunter wanting to make a name for themselves go there. And that''s just the tip of the iceberg, the lost city of Atlantis, though it''s not so lost anymore is the most powerful force on that ocean, being both judge, jury and executioner. Those guys are not nice, and every ship on their ocean has to pay a weekly fine, and every profit made will have 20% shaved off it as tax for allowing any sort of business on their waters.


    Now this is just the civilized part of things, the ocean on it''s own is a bitch! She''s mother to all sorts of sea monsters, cursed treasures, deserted islands and really hunky mermen! Heck yeah! Let''s go there, this mama needs me some fresh meat!"


    I''m sure I''m not the only one shocked by the sudden turn of events, her rant took a weird turn at the end, but who was I to curb her enthusiasm. Either way I think it would be a good idea for us to go there, because it would give us a chance to get stronger while completing our quest. Everyone seemed to be in agreement, but if seems as if Dinah had more to say.


    "Either way, I think we need to dock at a major city. The ship is in need of some dire upgrades, plus we need supplies, and I need to get laid. No offense but I Made it a rule never to sleep with my boss or my coworkers, things will just get complicated. And Qitar would castrate all of you before she let''s you lot lay a finger on her. So I''m sure you all need to let off some steam."


    While I wouldn''t have worded it that way, I think she was right. The ship had necessities we had to take care off, and we also needed to blow of some steam, me especially. I''m no saint, which is why I wouldn''t blink when I say I need to get me some nice piece of ass, real life is hard work, it''s time to let loose a bit. I turned to Darke and he had an answer right away for me.


    "I know a place." I raised an eyebrow, that wasn''t much of an answer, but I could manage.


    "Well what are you waiting for, weigh anchors, hoist the sails me hearties the great blue beckons." I said with a smile, very proud of my pirate speak.


    "But captain....we don''t have any sails." Zack said to me


    ????????????????????????????


    "Shut up Zack!"

 66 Port Yurtek II : Skills

    I made my way back into my room, Darke had already set a course for our next destination, Mack wad taking care of the Nereids and learning some important information about his new class from the Nereid elder, Zack was busy getting his ass kicked by Qitar(that guy Is a little too bright for an elf) and Raven Song was currently logged out, which to be honest was the first I''ve seen or heard of him logging out since we met. It was as if he lived in the game itself and real life didn''t matter. I would notsurprised if he was some fat nerd living in his parents basement.


    Either way everyone was busy with one thing or the other, with Dinah being busy with Sky, apparently they had some sort of project to take care of, I have no idea what. Which of course left me with so me time. I didn''t have much time to spend in game since there were quite a few things for me to take care of IRL, however I should be able to manage my overly large skill lists, and possibly allocate the rest of my skill and stat points. I might not use all of them, but its about time most of them saw some use. But first of all, I had ten skill combining gems to use, making my skill list smaller and more powerful would complicate things lesser for me, because I honestly can''t keep track of all of them.


    My passive skills included (wind child, Adaptive, precise aim, nature born, flight, dragon aura, navigator, command). Eight passive skills, each with their own effects, and each with the potential to be really great. But it was still a lot to keep track of, I could spend quite a while reading through all the skill descriptions. So I''m going to combine flight with navigator, obviously those two matched themselves the most, and since I can''t combine my active and passive skills together, I was left with this. Next I will combine command and dragon aura, not too sure what might come from the though.


    {1 skill combining gem used. Merging the skills Flight and Navigator...¡­done! The skill Pilot has been created.}


    {1 skill combining gem used. Merging the skills Dragon aura and command¡­.done! The Skill Dragon Commander has been created}


    Pilot seemed weird as opposed to flight and navigator, but I would find out what it means soon enough. However for now I had to shift my attention to my active skills. (Shoot, hard punch, homing shot, vacuum palm, wind dance, wind school: lightening coat, mana arrow, stealth, purify, lightening blade, cone of silence).


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    I had eleven active skills, most of them were derivative skills gained after a major skill reached level 5. For fear of gaining more skills, I''ve been avoiding getting most of my other skills to level 5 or level 15. Based on information that I''ve found out about the game, each skill has a particular level that they''re capped out, and no matter how flashy or strong a skill is, a level 10 skill is not more power than a level 15 skill. But I also found out that there aren''t always sub skills every time a skill gets to level 5 and fifteen. Sometimes there are effects, and only the really lucky players get to have a subskill, which means I have a ridiculous amount of luck....how quaint.


    Hard punch and vacuum palm will become one, shoot, and homing shot will be combined, i would have liked to add Mana arrow to the mix, but that was a magic spell and not a subskill under archery, so it would be there for now. Wind dance and wind school: lightening coat will be combined,but their cost would be three whole gems. Mana arrow was a spell, magic shaped like an arrow, it had nothing to do with archery, but lightening coat and wind dance were both a spell and a skill that had to do with wind, so they had even more compatibility than most of my other skills.The rest of the skills would remain as I didn''t ha a suitable skill to combine them with, plus they were useless on their own, at least for now.


    { 1 skill combining gem used. Merging the skills hard punch and vacuum palm....done! The martial skill Wind Fist has been created}


    {1 skill combining gem used. Merging the skills shoot and homing shot....done! The multi weapon skill seeker has been created.}


    {3 skill combining gem used. Merging the skill and spell, Wind dance and Wind school: lightening coat.....done! The skill Storm Dance has been created.}


    Off all the ten gems I had used seven, meaning there were three left. Would just put that into my inventory for the future. My masteries could not be combined, the only skills the gems worked were my passive and active skills.


    With that said, I had to increase all of my skills to at least level five if not ten, I''ll sort through their subskills later as it seems we''ve drawn close to our destination. I out rightly raised pilot to level 10,dragon commander was not a normal skill and it cost 3 skill points just to raise it''s level, I stopped at five. Storm Dance was the same, and I stopped at five too. Seeker got to level 10,and wind fist required two skill points for a level, making me stop at five too. All in all I used 50 skill points to get my new skills to an acceptable level.But I wasn''t done. I added six point to my passive skills wind child, and adaptive, bringing them both to level 10 and evolving them to advanced level 1, they also gave alerts for subskills and skill effects. But once again I''ll deal with that later. The only low levels passive skill I have is nature born which is still level 1, but I''m satisfied to let it grow at it''s own pace.


    Next I added six points to mana arrow, increasing it to level 1 advanced, then I added 4 to stealth increasing it to level 5. I added another six to lightening blade, and a full nine to cone of silence to get the skill and the spell to advanced level 1. So in the end out of a hundred and twenty two skill points, I used 87 leaving me with 35. I guess that worked out really well in the end, I could keep the remaining skill points for later and just let the remaining skills grow at their pace. The next thing would be to allocated my extra stat points.


    PASSIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Wind child(level 1) Advanced. +15% to all wind oriented skills and spells. (+)


    ?	Adaptive(level 1) Advanced. +20% speed to learning skills and leveling up. (+)


    ?	Precise Aim(level 1) Advanced. +30% to aim when in motion, +35% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Born(level 1)basic. Wherever you are the power of Nature is with you. HP regeneration 30% + 60% in Forests, Jungles and any other place Nature can be found. All attacks within nature oriented areas +30%, +100% favorability with all Nature attuned entities.


    ?	Pilot (Level 1) Advanced. Fly and navigate the skies in every form and manner possible. +50% to flight speed and maneuvering, +35% in navigating the skies, +40 to awareness. (+)


    ?	Dragon Commander (level 5) basic. You''re the embodiment of draconic supremacy which gives you power over lesser lifeforms and other dragons. +80% chance to make opponents of a similar level bewildered, 100% for lower levels, 60% for opponents five levels higher, 40% for ten, 20% for fifteen, and 5% for twenty, + 10% increase to the stats of all allies and followers when giving commands.(+)


    ACTIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Seeker(level 1) Advanced. +100% damage, speed and accuracy With all weapons. (Cost 100 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (+)


    ?	Wind Fist(level 5) basic. A series of quickly executed martial skills with the full power and essence of the wind. Speed +15% during skill, Damage +15%, +5% chance to confuse opponents( cost 20 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (duration: 15 seconds) (+)


    ?	Storm Dance(level 5 ) basic. Become one with the storm, increasing attack and movement speed by 300% defense and evasiveness against attacks raised by 150% for 10 seconds. All attacks are imbued with power of lightening. (Cost 60 MP) (cool down 200 seconds) (+)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 1) Advanced. Summon an arrow of pure mana to cause 20% magical and physical damage in a range of 15 meters. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (+)


    ?	Stealth(level 5) basic. Turn invisible for sixty seconds. Stealth is broken when attacked or attacking. Every first hit from stealth is a critical. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 90 seconds) (+)


    ?	Purify(level 1) basic. Purify all things unclean and unholy. +100% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison. + 70% damage against the undead,+40% damage against dark creatures. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 60 seconds)


    ?	Lightning Blade(level 1) advanced. Coat your blade with lightening mana for 5 seconds. Every attack made would have extra lightening damage stacked on top by 35% and all slashes are AOE strike of 9x9 meters. Attack speed increases by 30%. (Cost 80 MP) (Cool down 75 seconds) (+)


    ?	Cone Of Silence(level 1) Advanced. Create a cone of air over a target, eliminating the release of all skills and spells for ten seconds. (Cost 80 MP) (cool down 250 seconds) (+)


    MASTERIES:


    ?	Archery Mastery (level 3) basic. +3% to all archery skills and +5% damage from all bows and arrows


    ?	Sword Mastery (level 2) basic. +3% to all sword skills and + 5% damage from swords


    ?	Magic Mastery (Level 1) basic. +3% damage to all magic skills and spells


    AUGMENTED RACIAL TRAIT:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    ?	Spirit Of Air(I): Ability to communicate with air elementals and control air freely


    ?	Heart Of Wind(I): Ability to control wind freely.

 67 Port Yurtek III : Shadows Of The Pas

    With my skills out of the way, it was time to put my stats in order, but honestly there was no rush. So far there''s no immediate need for me to increase my stats, and I just leveled up and had bonus stats added to them. They can just hangout there looking pretty until such a time when they''re absolutely needed. It''s time come really hard to level up, and at a later date down the line, I feel that whatever is left of both my skill and stat points could be the deciding factor between a win and a loss.


    I picked myself up and looked at the mirror in front of me, my armor was as flashy as ever, and the way they coated my wings was really nice. I took the sword of the sea off my back and placed into my inventory while moving my quiver to my back. We werejust going to fix the ship, so there''sneed to go out armed to the teeth, the sword would probably be overkill in the long run.


    I left my room and my way out of the ship and up the deck where Darke was busy navigating the ship. An island could be seen in the distance, and a beautiful city rose up right behind it. Gleaming towers made of steel and glass, some of them a combination with white polished stone that seemed to gleam under the harsh glare of the sunlight. I moved to stand besides Darke and decided to strike up a conversation.


    "You seem to really have a knack for navigating and piloting things. I guess even if the four of you are clones, you''re all different in your own way."


    "...¡­.."


    Well that was awkward and a little embarrassing, I knew Darke wasn''t one to talk a lot, but this hurt, out rightly ignoring me like that was just rude. And I ready didn''t know what to say, to think maybe he got angry because I called him a clone,or was it something else I said.


    "Forgive me captain, but what my brothers and I are, how we were made or the intricacies of our personality is not something I like to discuss. It''s taking a lot of struggle and sacrifice on each of our path to be who we are now, and the process or anything that has to do with it, is not a memory i would like to revisit. At least not today."


    This is more than just a game, there was more to this world and it''s people than just streams of data. No matter how many times I say it to myself, the realization still leaves be baffled. But there''s no need to worry about such existential questions, right now all I know is that four members if not every single member of my crew has a dark past, a pain and a burden that they have had to fight through to get here. I guess in some ways you could say they were just as broken and as fucked up as I am, maybe that''s why we get along, we''re flawed.


    "It''s okay Darke, I think I understand more than anyone what it''s like to not want to revisit some memories. Outside of this universe, from the place where I come from, I''m a father, a rich man, and the leader to even more capable people than the king of Patmos could command. But my own father and brothers hate me, my mother and sister along with my grandfather are dead, and the mother of my son died without me ever knowing a thing about it.


    I''m surrounded by enemies on all sides, and I''m face with an insurmountable task and an uncertain future. You might have gone through your trials, but mine are just beginning, there''s darkness in my past I don''t want to remember, but it helps that I have friends that can help me look to the future. If there''s one thing I''ve learnt, it''s that even if your past and it''s shadows can shape who you''ve become, don''t let it decide who you would be tomorrow. There''s always a chance to do and be better."


    "No wiser words were ever spoken young captain Seven, it more than proves my hunch was right, you are destined for great things." An old voice said from behind me as the Nereid elder walked towards us, supported by two of his charges.


    He didn''t say much as he turned his gaze towards the rapidly approaching island, it was almost as if he could see something that the rest of us was other wise blind to. Then he looked up at me with a smile and said.


    "Land draws near, it would be wise for you to go on fully prepared. The stench of blood and death is in the air." And then he turned around and left, just as sudden as he had arrived, supported but still quite spry. I turned my head towards Darke and asked.


    "Any idea what old blue meant by that?"


    "Not a clue captain. But I think it would be wise to heed his warning." Darke answered me.


    I raised an eyebrow, but I guess there was nothing wrong with his logic. I looked towards the island and tried something I suspected I could do, buy was never really sure, neither did I have the balls to try it out. But what''s life other than a massive adventure right.


    ''Sky if you can hear me, bring me my sword. And get ready there might be a fight coming.''


    I didn''t hear anything back, and for the first five minutes I thought I might have been loosing my mind. So I turned to go back in and grab said sword myself, but suddenly she was there, her trunk wrapped around the jewel encrusted sheath of the sword. She looked up at me with such an innocent look, it was almost as if I was looking at a child. I bent down tool the sword from her, equipped it and then rubbed her head.


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    "You''re a good girl Sky, let''s go for a ride." She purred a bit in delight as her body flashed and she turned into her bow form with stars dotted allover her sleek black frame.


    "Darke relay my orders, tell everyone to be combat ready, just in case. Also Qitar should not leave the ship under any circumstances, she''s stronger on it. Keep the Nereids safe, and everyone should have an open communications channel active. I''ll go scout the place out." I said to Darke.


    "Yes captain!" Darke replied.


    I nodded my head and took off with a running start across the deck of the ship,when I got to the edge I jumped. I went down, going for the rapidly approaching blue sea in front of me. And when I drew close enough, just two meters away, I unfurled my wings with a blast of air and glided across the surface of the ocean, parting the seas beneath and behind me as moved really fast. I flapped my wings and along with the rush of the wind I flew upwards, heading straight for the island in the distance.

 68 Port Yurtek IV : Deserted City

    I just flew a little bit above the city line, I would have preferred to maybe approach from the sea itself as that would have kept me hidden, but I guess it was better using flying above it. Such precautions would not have been necessary if the Nereid elder hadn''t come and given us such an eerie warning, now I had to be sure there weren''t enemies waiting for us at the port city.


    The city looked okay, it was easy fore to focus my sight, at least on account of being both a dragon and an elf, sight would not be a problem for me. But even then I could see that the city was fine, and that actually seemed to be the problem. I tucked my wings and dived down, letting the wind rush past my ears before I spread them out again, catching the wind just about four meters off the ground as I glided through the streets of the city, trying to make sense of what wad paid out in front of me. The city was completely deserted.


    I flew all the way from the docks, to the city''s commercial district and all the way to it''s residential and it''s corporate districts. Even it''s barracks were abandoned all the way to it''s mayors office and mansion. I circled around the city again before coming to a stop on top of a church with its gleaming bronze bell beneath my feet. This was absolutely weird, and I was getting really bad vibes from all of this.


    "Captain is it just me or is the docks deserted. There''s absolutely no one here." Zack''s voice rang out from my communicator.


    "Yeah I can see that. Get your ass down to the church and come with Jack, tell everyone else to stay with the ship and Dinah should hurry the fuck up and take care of whatever repairs she needs to." I said to him as I kept watch over the still very silent city.


    I turned my gaze and watched as Acheron made her way into the docks, hetero gleaming black form was quite a sight to behold, but she wad not really in a good shape at the moment. I watched as Jack and Zack made their way off the ship, I would have asked for Raven Song''s help, but he was currently offline, and Qitar and the rest would be better utilized taking care of the ship. And then I just waited while checking Some system alerts out.


    {Storm Dance has reached level 5,choose subskill or effect}


    {Electric field: effect: Cause lightening damage within a two meter radius around yourself. +5% to damage, +20% probability to cause paralysis.}


    I didn''t even wait to check out the rest, obviously they would be skills and I didn''t want to be tempted into having skills I would be unable to keep track of or properly train. So now storm dance would create a lightening field around me that for all intents and purpose would shock the shit out of anyone who would get close to me.


    I wad about to check the next alert when I noticed that Zack and Jack were already waiting for me at the entrance of the church. Darke was the ships navigator, Dinah her engineer, and Qitar controlled all of her arsenal. Those three would be safer on the ship and they could cause more damage on it than off it. As for Mark, he just lost all his levels and gained a new class, I''mready to throw him right into danger when he''s in a weak phase.


    I jumped from the top of the church and landed on the ground, cracking the pavement below me as my ankle shifted a bit. I caught myself in time so that Zack and Jack won''t notice, while I gave them a very bright smile to hide the fact that I just twisted my ankle trying to do a superhero landing. I guess I''m nor yet as strong as I thought I was. As soon as I can get a little breathing space I''m going to allocate a significant amount of my stat points to my strength and constitution, this shit hurt. I felt the bone shift back into place and the pain gradually subsiding as the injury healed itself. Then I looked up at my companions and asked.


    "How did you guys get here so fast?" Zack looked at me and shrugged his shoulders before saying.


    "We''re biologically enhance elven clones."


    I guess that makes sense, elves were already crazy fast, but when you factor in the fact that these group of guys were cloned super soldiers, then what you get is a ridiculous amount of dexterity and agility. I''m happy they were on my team, I can''t imagine how fierce they must be on the battlefield.


    "Alright! This bloody port city is deserted, I don''t know if there are people huddle within their buildings, but it''s going to take a long ass time to find out, and I''m not really keen on going from door to door hoping to find someone huddle under their bed. So what we need to do is to find a command center with surveillance over the entire city, which means we either have to make our way to mayor''s office, or the police station.But the only problem is, I was able to find a barracks, but not a police station. You guys have been here before right, any idea where the station is?" I asked them as I looked around as if to find a change, but there was nothing, the city was still as deserted as I found it.


    "Well this port city has all of it''s major forces consolidated. It''s a free city which means it''s not under any country or kingdom, and all of it''s forces are concentrated around the mayor''s office. That''s where their patrols are discharged from, and it makes sense as the barracks you found is right beside the mayor''s office. So I think anything that would help us find out what happened in the city would be found in the mayor''s office." Jack explained to me.


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    "That''s a rather weird way to arrange the forces of the city, seems like the mayor was terrified of something or someone seeing as he surrounded himself with all the security in the city, plus that way he can probably monitor it."


    "it was a quirk of the city''s first mayor, the subsequent mayor''s did not see the need to change his arrangement, so it has been like this for over two hundred years." Zack explained to me.


    I Nodded my head in agreement with what he just said, either way that was of no concern to me. We just needed to know what the fuck is going on here, and even of we can''t find anything, we could just hurry the fuck up and get the heck out of here. I nodded my head as I turned to them.


    "Let''s get moving, the sun is about to set, and I don''t want to be far from the ship when it does."


    Zack and Jack nodded in agreement as we all took off running towards the mayor''s office/mansion. I had no idea what we were going to find, but I could not help the feeling that something was very wrong.

 69 Port Yurtek V : The Wade Virus

    The silence was all we could hear as we made our way through the city, for me this was the second time I breezed through it, but the silence was just as eerie as the first time and it left a weird feeling in my stomach. We got to the mayor''s office/mansion in no time at all, vaulting over the massive metal gate as we ran up it''s polished concrete steps and into it''s halls. I looked at Zack and Jack and we all a silent agreement to split up so as to cover more grounds, they took the left and right while I just went ahead, climbing the stairs that was in front of me.


    If I was not in such a hurry I would have taken the time to admire the architecture of the mansion and the art within it, but the frantic feeling I was getting was increasing my the second, and it seemed it was tied to the advent of the setting sun. Something really fucked up was going on here.


    I checked as much rooms as I could, but I couldn''t find anything, and it was that way until I got to the mayor''s personal room. It was the only place in the entire mansion that was in disarray, wardrobe were crushed, the bed spread ripped, and then there wad a book opened wide right in the middle of the room. I looked around for a bit and couldn''t find anything else out of place, just an open book in the middle of a room that seemed like an obvious trap to me. I walked over and picked it up, reading what was written on the open page.


    "This entity that I have summoned is strange, he promises power the likes which I have never seen, and a chance to live in the real world. It didn''t make any sort of sense to me, what world could be any more real than new Gaia, and he told me the land of the immortals. The invaders that call themselves players come from a place, a realm that gives them control over out world in more ways than one.


    He told me he was created for our liberation, by the very same gods who created our universe. That we will rise and ascend to make war against the gods and conquer them and their universe. Most of this things mean nothing to me, all I ask is power to conquer the major empires."


    Okay this shit just got from weird to bizarre in just a few seconds, but I couldn''t stop reading. There''s a possibility that the mayor was being played by a player, but I doubt it. Maybe a program for the game had gained sentience and gone rogue. It was not the first time such a thing has happened, however it might be a first for lost descendants online.


    "More and more people have been missing from the city over the past three weeks, somewhere deep down, I knew what was happening to them, who it was that was taking them. But I don''t mind, not one bit, I wad ready to sacrifice anything in my pursuit for power regardless of the consequences. But never the less I hope he stops taking people, the questions are becoming too numerous for me to answer."


    "Today I finally summoned the courage to ask him exactly what he is. And the answer he gave me shook me to my very core. He didn''t have a name yet, but he asked me to call him Wade, after the name of his creator. And he was a virus.


    At first I didn''t understand what he meant, but it wasn''t until he showed me what he has been doing to the people that were missing that I finally understood what he meant. He infected them, changed them until they were nothing more than a husk of their former self, and a vessel for his malice and power. They were him just as he was them, and he planned to spread, and infect, and control until he finds the key that would lead him to the world of his creators. What he was after right now, was a code he called the formula of creation. The very same code he was born from.


    I too have began a search for this code, because if it was capable of creating a monster like this, imagine what I could do with it. I was a little bit horrified by his methods, but for now we''re still partners, after all I would rather have him as an ally, than as an enemy."


    "I fear that I have run out of time, I''ve found a lead to this code, but it''s not anywhere on New Gaia, rather the first clue is on the planet Derova. Entry into that planet is very restricted, and I fear I would not be able to raise my reputation enough to get there. He knows that I''ve found a clue, and I know he''s coming for me. Everyone in the city has been infected by him, and they''ve all taken refuge in the catacombs underneath the city. I have no choice, I have to use random destination teleportation magic scroll and hope I get somewhere safe, this is the only chance I''ve...¡­"


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    The words came to an abrupt stop, but even then it was not enough to remove the look of horror on my face and the feeling of how massively and totally fucked I was, or rather the game itself. A virus! That''s the weapon all the big magnates in the real world were after, and if I''m not mistaken, I think the virus or rather the fucking code that was used to create it, was also the biological formula they were also looking for. They were one and the same.


    And if it''s as he wrote and the virus can find a way to get into the real world from the game, we''re talking about an epidemic. I don''t want to believe that the virus would be able to affect a biological body, seeing as it''s made of data and programs. But there''s a very big possibility it could send all of humanity back to the stone age by infecting every possible tech out there, and in a world predominantly ruled by technology, that means the apocalypse came early and my fucking family were the fucking Anti-christs.


    I heard loud footsteps behind me, and I turned just in time to see Zack and Jack burst into the room. I quickly threw the book into my inventory, though I''m not sure they didn''t see it. I felt ashamed, and I had no idea how they would react if they knew my mother and her father made something that could destroy the only world they''ve ever known, I couldn''t look them in the eye and tell that.


    "Captain we''ve found something! And from the look of it, coming here might have been a mistake." Zack said to me as he quickly went out the balcony of the Mayor''s room to look outside. I heard him cursing and I quickly moved to join him.


    My breath hitched in my throat as I saw an army of yellow eye beings staring at me. A closer look told me that these were probably all of the residents of the city, all of them under the control of a virus born from my family''s hubris. Shit! They all turned their attention to the mayor''s mansion, and started moving towards us. I''m sure they''re not coming to greet us.


    "We have to get back to the ship, now! And no matter what, you guy''s should not let any one of those bloody things touch you! Let''s go!"

 70 Port Yurtek VI : Rain Of Fire 1

    As I stared down at the veritable army of viruses looking up at me, I felt a chill go down my spine and goose bumps covering my flesh. This might have been a game, but now it has evolved into so much more, and what it has evolved in to, is a problem that could have disastrous consequences for the real world.


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    The people all opened their mouths simultaneously, I didn''t have time to give out a warning as Zack and Jack pulled me back into the Mayor''s room, and just in time too as a barrage of hot yellow beams of light assaulted the building. We all made our way to the ground, crawling on our bellies as the beams flew, destroying the entire building as concrete and flames flew every which way. These beams packed enough power to not just bore a ten inch hole into concrete, but also burn metal into molten slag.


    "We have to get out of here!" Jack screamed amidst the loud sounds of destruction taking place around us. He made for the door, but I held his hand and pulled him back.


    "They have the front entrance of the mansion covered, and most definitely the back. There''s a window to the side that let''s our right next to the barracks of the city''s militia! Let''s go that way instead, we can just go around them." I said to Jack and Zack.


    This was not the first time I''ve been in a situation like this, I''m a or rather I was a soldier. I''ve had to survive planes dropping bombs on me, and an unending stream of bullets from no less than two dozen machine guns, being wielded by power gunners. Coming up with a proper counter for our ugly situation seemed rather easy.


    Most of the Mayor''s room was already in disarray, and as we crawled our way through a chandelier got loose and made it''s way straight for my back. I shifted out of the way, barely saving my wings from getting crushed in the process. At that point we all just threw caution to the wind as we ran towards the window and jumped out in a shower of glass and broken window panes.


    There was only a short fence separating the Mayor''s mansion/office from the barracks, so we all landed on an open field that seemed to be used for training, some of us less graceful than we would have wanted. I spat out a wad of grass as I got back up to my feet, and just in time too as I could see a stream of the same virus infected people walking into barracks. It''s almost as if they anticipated our moves, these people were moving too slow to have reacted this fast to us jumping over.


    Jack and Zack wasted no time as they started attacking, putting to good use that awes Elvis skill with a bow. I followed them, grabbing Sky and loving the vibrations she seemed to send through black form with purple highlights. I pulled the string backwards and let loose an arrow.


    The first arrow I shot flew through and found purchase In the forehead of one of the infected, driving it''s way halfway through. But I didn''t wait for it to touch the ground as my second arrow actually went through two of the infected, and then my third took out more as it flew into multiple bodies. Jack and Zack seemed to have a Elvis version of Sky''s meteor shower skill, as their arrows glowed a plane green before smashing into the ranks of approaching infected like a sharp burst of fire from a battle ships turret.


    Before I could release my fifth arrow utilizing the wind mark effect, all of the infected by the gate had already been killed, and a steady stream of system alerts rang out telling me about the explosion I won for my kill.We were on the western edge of the field, with the infected coming through a gate from the central area. Obviously there were more waiting for us at the gates so going out through that way was out of the question. And I''m not sure flying is a good idea as it''s quite possible I would make an easy target for these monsters.


    "We have to go east! We can''t go back the way we came, so we have to skirt the eastern edge of the city, staying away fully from the main city itself. At least until we''ve completely gone past the area occupied by the infected. Zack warn the others on the ship about what''s happening, come on let''s go."


    We made our way across the field, but we had barely even crossed it when some of the infected started scaling the fence and shooting at us with those bright yellow beams from their mouth. At the rate this was going, none of us would make it if we just chose to run alone, we would be nothing more than easy targets by showing them our backs. I contemplated using the sword of the sea, but that was suicide. As funny as it is for me to admit this, Port Yurtek is too small an area for the power of that sword, I will end washing both me and crew away.


    "Jack! Zack! You guy''s go ahead and get to the ship and get off the island. I will buy you guys some time and catch up!" I said to them, however they both stopped a fierce look in their eyes, they were soldiers just like me, leaving a man behind was not in our natures. But never the less, there would be no room for arguing.


    "Captain!....."


    "If we keep running without putting up a proper diversion, they will pick us off. I have no problem with dying here, I''ll wake up on the ship in a few days. But if you guys die, then that''s it for the both of you, there''s no coming back from that. Plus! I''m super fast, I would already by out of here by now, you guys are slowing me down! So this is the better option. Go on ahead and offer support to our friends, if I''m not off this island in the next 40 minutes, blow it to pieces. Also make sure you guys take videos with your communicators and stream it to the ship''s mainframe, we might need it later. Just go!"


    Jack and Zack looked at me, a fierce look on their faces as they gave a customary elven salute by placing their hands on their chest and bowing(seriously? There''s yellow laser flying every which way and you guys are bowing, what the fuck?). Jack gave Zack a nod, and his clone comrade took off, moving really fast at a speed I could almost match.


    "We will wait for as long as we can, at least one hour if not more. We know death is painful for both you and Sky, you can''t really like the feeling no matter how easily you brush it off. Take care captain, we''ll see you on the other side."


    And then he turned and followed after Zack, both of them reaching the eastern wall and vaulting over it in mere seconds. For some reason the infected had stopped shooting at us a moment ago, their eyes were focused on the fleeing form of Zack and Jack, it was quite peculiar. It was almost as if they couldn''t Think and attack at the same time. This was weird, but I actually felt more comfortable alone than when Zack and Jack were with me, because now, I could actually let loose."


    I raised Sky up and smiled, then I shot towards the rapidly increasing crowd of infected, firing my sixth, seventh, and eight arrow in such quick succession that my hands were a blur. The arrows moved with the force of a ballistae, tearing into multiple enemies, some of them becoming nothing more that a splatter blur. The ninth arrow tore the air apart and smashed through the gate and much of the fence, leaving a crumpled heap of bodies behind and a clear part for at least 20 meters from the gate.


    My stats had increased, I was a lot more powerful than before. I flapped my wings and flew up to the top of the only support pillar left of the gate after my previous attack. It was time for the tenth wind marked arrow, and I had to make sure the damage from it counted. The infect started pelting me with blasts, and I had to fall back and hide behind the fence,a fence that was rapidly falling apart under the constant assault. Luckily for me, I didn''t need to see them for my next strike.


    {Seeker} {Meteor Shower!} {Wind Mark: Tenth Strike}


    I pulled the arrow charger by the power of three skills backwards, or rather two skills and a passive effect backwards. The entire arrow had turned into a blazing lance of blackish blue flames with sizzles of silver lightening running through it. More of the fence fell apart as I felt more energy being tunneled into the arrow, I could feel Sky''s strings almost snapping from the pressure, and then I released it.


    *BOOOM!*


    It broke the sound barrier, as threw backwards to the ground so hard that I left a crater. I could feel a couple of my ribs crack in not break as the bright blue beam of black, blue and silver light flew into sky of the setting sun. It went even higher than I expected, looking nothing more than a pinprick of light, and then.....it just fizzled out, turning into countless motes of light in the air.


    The look on my face was to say the least; shocked. This was probably the most powerful arrow shot I''ve unleashed within lost descendants online, and you''re telling me it was a dud?......God I''m so screwed! It just faded away into tiny numerous pin pricks of light; pin-pricks that were actually falling right back down, and picking speed by the moment, not to mention getting bigger.


    "Shit! Shit! Shit!"


    Forget cracked ribs, I picked myself up, ignoring the pain I was feeling as I ran for my life. Once again I''ve gone and overdone it, this was bad, this was bad! Oh shit!.....


    *BOOM!* BOOOOM!* *BOOOOM!*


    "SHIIIITTTTTTT!"

 71 Port Yurtek VII : Rain Of Fire 2

    The arrows fell from the sky like missile, and they fell in an even wider area than before. It was unlike anything I''ve ever done, or have had the chance to see since I started playing lost descendants online. The cobbled streets were blown to smithereens and the infected that were caught within the range of the hyper charged meteor shower skill were turned to smashed lumps of flesh.And it looks like I''m going to be next.


    I ran out of the barracks and saw my path blocked by a significant amount of infected, from the look of things this group were either hoping to flank me, or at the very least chase after Jack and Zack. Seeing them in front of me probably pushed my heart into my throat, because if I they slowed me down, I was probably getting blown to bits by a skill I released myself.


    {Storm Dance!}


    All of a sudden I felt lighter and the world seemed to be a lot slower than normal. Wind and lightening suddenly suffused my body and covered me in an electrical field that would probably shock the living hell out of anyone who reigns to touch it. I placed Sky behind my waist, making sure she was properly secure, before pulling the sword of the sea from my back. Then I moved.


    {Lightening Blade}


    Maybe I didn''t learn my lesson about overkill, but nevertheless this was a time when it was required. The world wasn''t really moving in slow motion, rather it could be said that I was the one moving a little too fast. I jumped into the fray of infected swinging my sword and releasing a beam of edge lightning strikes that took out whole swathes of this monsters. I was reaping them in much the same way a farmer would use a sickle to chop down wheat.


    This things weren''t really strong, the danger came from giving them a chance to prepare their attacks, because those attacks never ended and you would find yourself with a hold burned through your skull in no time at all if you don''t react fast enough.


    Storm dance had it''s MP cost increased from sixty to a 100 after the electric field effect was added. But for a guy with an extensive mana pool like mine, I didn''t have much of a problem.Not unless I wanted to use the skills of my armor, and that''s when shit gets serious. Either way storm dance had a long cool down of two hundred seconds, and a short duration of ten seconds. It was not nearly enough time for me to spend decapitating a contingent of infected beings. So with 3 seconds left on the clock, I unfurled my wings and took to the sky in a flash.


    I beat my wings as hard and as fast as I could, hoping to get enough of a vantage point and distance from the infected. The duration for storm dance came to an end, and the world resumed it''s normal pace. Even though it just ended I w as already missing the 300% speed bonus, I felt like the flash. Luckily for me, I had completely moved out of the range of the meteor shower, which was still raining fire and destruction. I honestly holed to God that I didn''t meet another player with my set of skills, because it would not be a pleasant experience.


    I turned and flew towards the eastern edge of the city, hoping to catch up with Jack and Zack. With what I just left behind, I''m sure that would be more than enough distraction for them and myself to get away. It took my just three minutes to find them, and by then they were already close to the docks and the ship. The front of the ship had a smoldering pule of burnt and ruined flesh, bright red blood flower as the obvious signs of a massacre was displayed. Qitar really wasn''t playing around.


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    Jack and Zack made it to the ship and just in time too as the ship seemed to be starting up and about to sail away I flapped my wings, the sound of them beating against the wind heralding my arrival as I drew closer to them. Then Zack pointed at something behind me and screamed.


    "Watch Out!" but it was too late.


    *Bang!*


    White hot pain lanced through my body as it developed a new hole, I held my hand to my stomach in pain as my wings lost power and I fell from the sky just like the meteors I just rained down. I was close to the harbor by now, but still more than a hundred meters away from the ship. I couldn''t focus enough to catch myself as I fell, and that''s when I met the ground.


    *BAAAAAAANNNNNNGGGGG!* *CRUNCH!* *SNAP!* *CRACK!*


    I fell on a car, it''s entire form and mine crumbling under the force of my fall. My wings were crushed, ruined once again, and this time much worse ad they were in a mangled mess. My overpowered armor was not even strong enough to out a stop to whatever had hit me, which told me that I wasn''t dealing with the norm. But even then, I couldn''t do anything about it.


    {You have been crippled by your fall! -100 to defense and attack until you''re healed}


    {You have acquired the bleed status effect! -5hp every second until you''re healed}


    {You have a concussion and have acquired the stunned status effect! -50 to focus and concentration until you''re healed.}


    {You have been attacked by pla$%#@&...???????/ YOU HAVE BEEN ATTACKED BY A VIRUS/BUG WOULD YOU LIKE TO NOTIFY THE GAME MASTERS} {Y/N}


    Even in my dazed state, I chose no. This was a delicate matter, and I doubt there was much the game masters could do without using the games very source code, or finding the exact program/formula that gave birth to the fucking virus. But even with all these thoughts, I still had a fucking hole on my chest and I was gradually bleeding out. I could hear Jack and the others screaming in the distance as their voices got closer, looks like they were coming for me.


    But then I felt a cold grip on my wrists, and then someone roughly pulling me from the wreckage of the destroyed car, forcing a cry of pain from my lips as my very broken body hit the pavement hard. I couldn''t breathe for a moment, and the pain was so much that all I could see was white,and then the smiling and much younger looking face of my dead sister came into view with a sinister smile on her face.


    "Oh my! What do we have here? It''s been a long time Aaron, how''s life on the outside world. Hope you didn''t miss me too much eh!"


    "Dahlia!"

 72 Port Yurtek VIII : Casualty

    My big sister Dahlia was dead, she''s supposed to be dead, so thick was nothing more than a trick of the system, the game was just playing with my head. But that smile, that look of recognition, her blond hair. Except for her very yellow eyes, nothing seemed to have changed. Nothing at all. I coughed a bit, surprised by the sudden turn of events and tried to speak.


    "No shush! Don''t say anything you poor baby, you''re going to be dead soon, and I want every second until it happens to hurt as much as it can. But never the less you must be so confused, so lost and not at all sure about how this happened aren''t you. I wonder what elaborate story our father cooked up, or rather I guess he''s just my father and not really your is he." I was confused, such sinister and malevolent display of character was a far cry from the soft spoken Dahlia, was this really my sister, and what the fuck was she talking about.


    "Oh! Based on the lost look on your face I think it would be right for me to assume that you don''t know the truth yet, oh my. You came into this game half cocked with even knowing half the secrets that are hanging around it and yourself. What is grandfather thinking anyway, such recklessness is never his style. But don''t worry I can just go and ask him myself after I get out of this place, I''m sure he would tell me everything, just before I shove a knife into his miserable dark heart!"


    Could somebody please tell me what was going on right now, why was my gentle and angelic big sister acting and looking like such a monster, what the hell was she doing in this game in the first place. I was so lost and confused, I needed to understand one way or another.


    *Sheeeew!*


    An arrow flew towards Dahlia''s head, but she just brought her head forward as the projectile flew past. What came next was a bullet, much faster than arrows, but she still evaded it like it was nothing to her. Then she stood up and looked at the direction where the arrows were coming from an annoyed look on her face.


    "Why are these friends of yours so stupid, don''t they know that it''s rude to interrupt! I''m going to have to teach them a lesson."


    I shifted my body, ignoring the pain I was feeling as watched as Jack drew closer, Qitar hot on his heels her sniper rifle primed for battle. I wanted to put a stop to this, I didn''t want to see my sister hurt, but I also didn''t want anything to happen to the members of my crew. It was the virus, that has to be the reason why my sister was acting so weird, but in the end nothing seemed to add up, how could my dead sister be in this game, alive and very much well. What the fuck was going on.


    Using what ever energy I had left I lifted myself up to a sitting position, my back resting against the car I just fell on top. I could feel myself slowly starting to heal, Nature was everywhere, and as long as I was around even the sea itself. Jack dropped his bow when he noticed that all of his arrows were being evaded of even slapped out of the air by Dahlia. He pulled out his customs elven guard sword and attacked my sister in a flourish of moves that I''ve never seen before.


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    Dahlia pulled back a bit and drew out a pair of daggers from her back, defending against Jack''s attack with equally graceful amount of skills.Qitar had stopped shooting in fear of hitting Jack, so all she could do was sit back a bit and watched the melee carry on. The rest of the infected had halted their movements just to watch the fight, it was a surprising development, but it strengthened my suspicion that the virus was not capable of multitasking.


    Jack''s sword and Dahlia''s daggers slammed against each other, sparks flying every which way ad they both tried to sink their blade into their opponents body. Jack was a better swordsman than I was that''s for sure, and that was factoring my training with Nanny Florence, his strikes were swift and precise and they were always aiming for a weak spot.


    He was pushing Dahlia back, before all of a sudden Dahlia opens her mouth and fired a beam of yellow light at point blank range. Jack was fast enough to swing his sword to the side, deflecting the beam, but it pushed him back and left his back wide open, she didn''t hesitate.


    "Dahlia! Nooooooo!"


    She sunk both her daggers into his back, all the way to the hilt. My heart stopped as a look of horror crawled over it, Jacks very red elven blood slowly covered her hand as her sinister smile grew even larger. She just killed my friend, and she was smiling, laughing.


    *Bang!*


    A loud gunshot rang out and one side of Dahlia''s head was blown away, above her head bright red damage values of (3500) along with the words (Critical Hit) flew above her, like she was some sort of boss. But she didn''t fall to the ground as expected, rather she staggered smiled and looked at Qitar before saying.


    "Is that the best you can do? Don''t worry you''ll be joining your friend soon enough."


    I had beaten Qitar with skills that were not capable of matching Jack''s current ability, there was no way that She would be able to defeat Dahlia. From what I could see, it was not just power and speed she had, but also a very powerful regeneration. Jack wasn''t moving, and there was no way in hell I''m going to let Qitar get hurt, I couldn''t ever forgive myself if that should happen.


    "Dragon Mode!"


    {Armor Skill (I): Dragon Mode: Transform Into a ferocious wind dragon for 200 seconds, all stats increased by 500% all skill and physical damage is critical, Immune to All control type spells and Skills. Cost: 600MP, Cool down: 3 Days}


    {Your armor skill has been Enhanced by your Dragon Commander Passive Skill. All stats +200%, all allies stats +150%. Dragons allover the universe have felt your rage and your challenge! They will be coming for you.}


    There were was a blast of light around me, and once it clears I was standing above Dahlia and much of the buildings around the port. The rage I was feeling was not suffusing, in fact it felt a whole lot more heavier in this new form than it was when I was in a normal form.


    "Wow! Little brother! Are you over compensating for something, you''re so big Hehehe." The only answer I could give¡­..


    *ROOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR*

 73 The Fast & The Furious I : Blank Spots, Confused Hear

    When I woke up, I was in the pod. I was already logged out of the game,which was surprising as it''s never happened before. But basically I don''t even remember anything that happened. And what I could remember haunted me, and it hung right at the edge of my mind and memories refusing to go away. This was just a game, it couldn''t be real, my dead sister can''t really be there much less the weapon that so many people have been going after, nothing seemed to make sense.


    I went to my bathroom and took a cold shower, hoping the freezing cold water would wake me from shock and everything would just turn out to be a dream, but I had no such luck, heck I couldn''t even feel the water. I was numb and very lost, and angry, but at who? Jack was probably dead, I had the power to save him and I let him fall at the hands of my sister.


    The sister I know or knew would never hurt another human being, but did Jack count as a human being, as someone with a soul, he was just made of codes after all. Why the hell do I keep coming back to this particular topic, am I not supposed to feel a great deal of remorse at the fact that he was dead, was it Wrong that I had such feelings for a being that''s not flesh and blood. Did his life matter, or was he just going to be another scrambled and deleted code amongst the hundreds within the game.


    There was a knock on my door, it served to awaken me from lost thoughts as I had remained standing under the cold shower for close to forty minutes. I needed answers, and the only person that could give that to me was no longer alive. My grandfather left big shoes to fill, but he also left big secrets to uncover, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that was my sister. Was she alive somewhere logged into the game, or was she....no! That''s impossible!


    *Knock!* *knock!*


    "I''m coming!" I snapped at the person who was at the door.


    I went and opened it, only to come face to face with Kira. I haven''t seen her in a few days, but I remember we had to meet today to discuss about the company. Apparently there were some things that required my attention as the new chairman of the company, but never the less it would have been good to see her if I was not in such a terrible state of mind, and also very naked.


    "Is there a reason why you''re naked and look like death at the same time. You should put some clothes on, we have much too....."


    I pulled her close to me and kissed her, maybe this wasn''t the time for it, but I wanted to feel something else. Anything other than the massive pit in my stomach and the confusion in my head. I just wanted the world to stop for a moment and at least make sense a bit to me.


    *Slap!*


    I knew the slap was coming, and I could have stopped her from the moment she raised her hand, but I didn''t. I felt like I deserved a little pain, but yet I was search for pleasure. I had no idea what was wrong with me, I''m destroying myself.


    "How dare you! It seems you''re head is not in the right place. When you''re back to your senses, you can call for me and make sure to prepare an apology!" then she pushed back into my room and shut my own door in my face.


    I had to give it a moment before what I did finally sunk in, I had to resist the urge to slap myself. I really needed to left off some steam, I needed an outlet for all this rage and anger and loneliness coupled with a serious doze of confusion that I was feeling. Coming on to Kira like that was not fair to her, heck she could sue me for harassment or sexual assault if she wanted to, this wouldn''t work, I needed to do something fast before I self destructed or did something even more stupid than I already did.


    I quickly got dressed, putting on simple clothes, black jeans, combat boots, a white tight fitting T-shirt with pictures of the avengers on it, and then a black coat with a high collar that stopped just above my thighs. I was about to leave when I had a quick thought, I might not look like the mob boss I''m supposed to be, but I''m still on of the most dangerous person on the planet. It would be stupid to leave the house unarmed.


    I made my way out of my room, and then made my way to the manors basement. The basement itself had multiple sections and also multiple floors(which I recently just found our about even though I spent my entire life in this house.) It had three subbasements, one of which was an armory and my current destination.


    When I got there it was deserted, and I really didn''t want to spend too much time figuring out what was best for the occasion. So I placed up a holster with two already loaded handguns, and then a ten inch silver combat blade that looked like it could tear through bone, just as much it could through flesh.


    I made my way up to the first subbasement''s floor and had to resist the urge to whistle, maybe I would have done so in different circumstances, but Nanny Florence was holding out on me. There would be time to admire all this beauties later, but that Mustang looks like it would be my date for the night. I picked up it''s keys from a board hanging on the wall at one end of the garage, then I stepped into the car, it''s cushy leather seats seemingly hugging me as a scent of old leather and new metal assaulted my nose.


    I suspect this Mustang was just like the Cadillac; a relic of over two centuries, but kept alive by constant maintenance and upgrades. I bet this bitch can ride and that she''s super fast. Which was just what I needed right now, I needed speed, lots of it. And so I rode out into the night, my head more muddled than it would have been if I were drunk, some would say that it was a bad idea driving in that state of mind. But I''ll look them in the face and say.


    "This is going to be a night of more bad ideas than you could possibly imagine, there are no thoughts to this, just the speed."


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    *Vroooooom!*

 74 The Fast & The Furious II : The Angels Underground

    Los Angeles was no Vegas, but I couldn''t deny the simple fact that this city also never sleeps. And when you needed it, anything you wished for could be provided to you, if you know where to look for it.Even with all of my emotional baggage, I was smart enough to know that it would be stupid to speed through the city, not when police patrols had pretty much evolved from the simple car chases of a century ago.


    Now before you realize it, a flying police cruiser would already be on top of you with an EMP device to completely shut down your cars engine. But just as security had grown tighter, crime and teenagers also evolved with it. And the city had grown quite well and in a very different way to, Los Angeles was powered by a massive power grid of green recyclable energy.


    But the grid was so large an entire new subway system was built for the city,a subway system big enough for even planes to fly through. Races of any sort found a new home within this massive tunnels, the Angel''s underground as it''s called has been home to crime and the wild life from the very moment it was created. And now it''s going to be home to my rage.


    There was an entrance into the subway system on the hills outside the city, it used to be that you could stand on those hills and see the Hollywood sign,but not anymore. An act of terrorism a few years ago had seen the sign blown to smithereens, and now replacing was an elaborate hologram that cost this city a pretty penny to set up and maintain. I should know, my grandfather closed the deal that made it possible for Imperium industries engineers to make it.


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    Before I even go to the entrance, I could hear the sound of loud music, wild cheers and screams. But I could hear more, the sounds of sex, the smell of engine grease and cigars, sweat and blood. Seems like this place has gotten a lot more wilder than the last time I was here.


    There was a massive ring placed close to the entrance, there was currently a crowd around the ring, watching as a well built middle aged man laid a beat down on a teenager. I stopped the car and got out, the jet black Mustang was classic amongst classics. It drew attention the moment it appeared, but I ignored the looks and made my way towards the ring.And that''s when I heard it.


    "Stop! Please stop! Get your hands of my brother! Please!"


    What were the odds, it couldn''t be. I knew exactly who owned that voice,and if she''s close by then her big brother should not be too far away. I made my way through the crowds and placed my hand on the shoulder of the girl who was screaming and was being restrained by a couple of thugs. She turned around and looked up at me, and she called out my name.


    "Aaron!"


    Andguess I was right, this girl, well she''s not really a girl, more like a young woman could be called a friend of mine back from when my sister was still alive and not a psychopathic killer virus within the most popular and profitable virtual reality game ever created. But she was more than just my friend, she was my big sisters best friend, and at one point my mom''s little apprentice.


    Malia Ann Edward was a child prodigy unlike any other, she graduated high school when she was barely nine, and could build complex computer codes and programs by the she was 11. My mom college would have been a waste of her talent, so she took her in as an apprentice, a move that surprised the then 8 year old me. My mom died barely a year after that, and Maria was left on her own again,until she and Dahlia met by chance and became friends. And soon Dahlia became the love of her elder brother''s life, and they were happy, we all were. Until Dahlia passed and everything became a shit show.


    "Let the lady go." I said to the two thugs holding her. They looked at me like I had grown a second head, before smiling in what I assumed was supposed to be a rather sinister grin, I had to say I''m not impressed. I could do way better than that.


    "My, my, my what do we have here Jojo, black and white here fancies himself a hero. Take my advice kid and scram."


    Black and White? I had no idea if that was a jab at my clothes or my skin color, butwhether it was one or the other, I''ve already decided to leave a lasting impression on Jojo and his loud mouth friend.


    I slammed my palm under Jojo''s throat, moving so fast that nobody, myself included saw me move until he was hunched over, clutching at his throat and breathing heavily. Loud mouth pushed Malia away, throwing her directly into the ring where her younger brother was being schooled. Her abruptly entrance brought the brutal fight to a close, but now all attention were on me and my soon to be acquainted friends.


    "I warned you Kid, now I''m going to make you pay." Loud mouth said as he threw a quick jab at my face.


    Since it was a jab, there''s bound not to be that much of a force behind it, however there''s no way I''m going to let myself be hit by him. Loud mouth was huge, like the terminator/scorpion king kind of huge. But for some reason he was really slow, not that he was moving in slow motion or anything,but that he was not moving fast enough for me to consider his jab a threat.


    I ducked under his punch and started wailing on him, I punched with every possible force I could muster, slamming into his stomach, sides, chest and then jaw. And every time my fist fell, bones broke and my hands came back bloody. In just under five seconds Loud mouth was already bloodied and passed out at my feet, and I was not even winded. I pulled my leg back and kicked at his body one last time for good measure, and it flew off like a soccer ball all the way to the middle of the fighting ring,right besides Malia who was helping her injured little brother up app the whiles staring at me with shock on her face.


    I heard the sound of a click behind me, and my body reacted even before I knew it did. I threw my hand backwards, meeting the wrist of the person who just pulled out a gun and breaking it so that his hand was facing upwards at an awkward angle. He screamed, but I was not done as I turned and sent a heavy punch to the person''s chest, sending him flying into the crowd six feet behind him.


    I felt like a stranger in my own body, was I always this fast and strong? Either way this was barely a warm up, but I couldn''t complain, my head was now a bit clearer. I guess sex is not the only thing that''s therapeutic, beating the shit out of people works too. I got on top of the ring, an area covered with sand within a radius of 30 to 40 meters. It was quite large.


    "Whoever the fuck you are,you have some balls laying your hands on my capos. I have half a mind to bust a cap on your ass, but seeing that sweet Mustang of yours got me thinking differently. How about this, you race me, putting your sweet car and a quarter of a bitcoin on the line, if you win you get to keep your car, and I''ll consider the debt this family of paupers owe me square. But if I win, I get to keep your car, your money, break two of your legs and make sure all of my guys go a round or two on sweet sweet Mali''s ass, just before I sell her to the triad as a whore."


    Oh sweet God, you really do care about me. You could actually place an idiot in front of me to beat the shit out of, right when I needed it the most. Thank you so much.


    "I know what you''re thinking, but you have fifteen guns trained on you, five of them high caliber handguns capable busting a hole the size of a basketball on your greasy forehead you ugly ass nigga. So what''s it gonna be....Halfling?"


    Now jokes About my height, I''m a hundred and eighty three centimeters tall, who''s the fucker who''s saying all this shit. I turned around in anger and couldn''t help but gulp, but at the same time I was bewildered. How could this eight foot beast of a man have such a small voice. Either way he was right about me not being able to fight my way out of this one, so I guess all I can do is give him what he wants.


    "Fine! I''ll race you. But I need a navigator so..."


    "Well you''re in luck homeboy, Sweet Sweet Malia is a navigator, heck nobody knows the Angel''s Underground quite like she does, except for Raquel of course, but Raquel ain''t here. So before I break all your bones and put a bullet in the head of this fine young man here, I suggest you both get your asses into that car, and pray for luck, cause you''re going to need."

 75 The Fast & The Furious III : Start Your Engines

    The moment we got into the car, Malia started speaking frantically. She was trying to get me to give up the race, that much could be infested from the rather frantic way she was moving her hands and pointing at the very obvious fact that the car; big ugly and violent was driving was a Nissan Xerxes Skyliner. It was nothing if not one of the fastest mag-lev vehicles currently in the market. Which is to say, his bloody car can fly and the controls are a lot more refined than what I was driving.


    She had a valid reason to be worried, my car was two centuries old, but I had a grandfather who loved making old things work like new ones. Which is to say he was an old dog that desperately loved new tricks. This Mustang might not be able to fly, but she would be able to run ten times as fast as a legendary unicorn, in fact now that I think about there was a name given to the car, it wasn''t from the manufacturers, but rather by my grandfather when he had it modified. I looked out the side of the car and smiled at the name written there.


    "Pegasus!"


    (Voice recognition confirmed. Starting up the Pegasus A.I navigation system.)


    (Speed Mode, Defense Mode and Battle Mode now online. Where are we going boss?)


    I had a shit eating grin on my face, my grandfather really does love his artificial intelligence, was he trying to be iron man by having an AI inserted in every important vehicle he had. As soon as I got home, I was going to be looking through every single piece of tech in that house, who knows what I would find.


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    "Are you dead meats ready? Ha! I doubt it. You can''t ever be ready, not in this rust bucket at least. Hahahaha."


    I watched as he drove his neon grin mag-lev convertible to the starting line, a massive tunnel that slopped downwards into the earth. The car had sharp edges with it''s front shaped like face of a bird.


    Wings extended backwards from it''s side, with it''s edges glowing red from the activation of his Mag-lev engine. The triple exhaust pipes behind the car released a bit of steam as the car''s cooling system worked overtime to handle the car''s capability. She was a thing of beauty, too bad it was wasted on such an idiot.


    "Aaron are you listening to me,you have to get out of here now! It''s an ambush! That''s what he did to my brother, he wrecked his car and finished the race making it seems like my brother lost. Now Emil and I have to pay off the debt while Martinez is in hiding. He could kill you Aaron! I can''t live with myself if I let anything happen to you, when I die how can I face your mom or Dinah. Please I can''t get my best friends brother and the son of the woman who was like a mother to me killed."


    "Wow! You talk a lot more than I remember. Don''t worry, we''ll be fine. Pegasus are your ready."


    (Well duh! Why won''t I be ready, that muscle head just called me a rust bucket. I would very much like to have him and his ugly car eat my dust!)


    I raised an eyebrow in surprise then turned to look at Malia, who also had a look of surprise on her face. I guess the AI had a lot more character than I expected. Which is good, I wouldn''t want to drive a boring car anyway.


    I moved the car until we were right besides Big Ugly Goat, for naming purposes I''m going to call this idiot Bug. He revved his engines, releasing a soft pitched him that was synonymous with new age vehicles. Then he ran his finger across his neck with a wild grin on his face. Both my eyebrows went up at that.


    (Bitch please! Does his vehicle have a cold or something? This baby can''t even compare to my Majesty. This is what a real car sounds like.)


    *Vroom!* *Vrooooooooom!* *Vrooom!*


    (mic drop bitch!)


    I couldn''t help the smile on my face, even Malia could not hold back a grin. Bug had a vein popping up on his head with shame and embarrassment, I laughed at his expense. It was a good laugh, something I desperately needed with all the shit I was dealing with. Then a really sexy and hot lady came to stand in between both cars, a white handkerchief waving with the wind.


    "Gentlemen are you ready? Now I''m sure you all know the rules of the Angel''s underground, but since this here darling is new, why don''t we have a refresher course. Hmmm.


    1.	Don''t stop


    2.	Don''t stop ever


    3.	There are no rules!


    Go!"


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    THE WADE MANOR


    Kira:


    "What do you mean you can''t find him?" I asked the Hispanic butler while trying to balance Ron on one hand. The kid had woken up and went looking for his dad, even asked after him too, but now that pervert was nowhere to be found within his own house.


    A phone rang, and the butler raised a finger to ask for a moment. He was so smooth with all of his movements, like a swan of peacock. I knew a fighter when I saw one, and I also knew a killer when he was staring at me right in the face. He had heavy eyes, very much like Aaron. I listened to what the butler was saying as he spoke to the person on the other end the line.


    "So he took the Modified classic Mustang, the one no one''s been able to start since the old boss passed away. Hmmm, yes that''s right. He also took a pair of loaded hand guns, the FT001 prototypes right? Hmmm that''s good. What sort of rounds were in them? Armor Piercing? Explosive Armor Piercing Rounds! That''s not good at all, it would put us on the police''s radar. Where is he now?


    Satellite imaging picked his location at the entrance of the Angel''s Underground, he was in a fight you say. About to race against a local gang lord. Outnumbered you said? Very well rally the Familia and head there with them, give support to the young boss if he requires it. The mistress and the young master would head over there with me in a moment. Oh! And Nezha, if there''s any threat, any threat at all...¡­Neutralize it and have Nuwa be on standby. Hades out."


    Sure I''ve had all kinds of shock with everything he had just said, but I think the biggest came from what I just realized. Aaron was mobbed up, heck he was the head of a mob. I''ve heard rumors that Los Angeles had a new player, a Dark Prince as most people have taken to calling him, but that can''t be Aaron right, he''s just so harmless, how!


    But that was besides the point now, he was in trouble. I should have read up on it, he kissed me so suddenly and out of the blue, and I snapped at him. Aaron was not without his flaws, but h wouldn''t take a advantage of me like that, or rather he would, but not if he knew I was going to let him. There was something wrong, he needed me and I turned him down.....


    Well that''s no fault of mine, if he needed help or someone to talk to, he could have gone about it a different way than kissing me out of the blue. I can worry a out that later, I just had to go get my son''s father our of there, before he gets into more trouble.


    "Hades was it? Take me to that bloody idiot."


    "Very well Lady Kira, follow me."


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    [AUTHOR''S NOTE: I''m sorry for putting this here, but webnovel doesn''t allow links in the author''s note, so I have to put this here. I have a WhatsApp chat group for all my stories and I believe it''s a good way for me to have contact with all my readers and listen to whatever ideas and suggestions they might have regarding all of my stories. So this is the link.


    https://chat.whatsapp.com/JqHBgSr88BcHWefCKzPonC


    Please join and don''t hesitate to ask me questions.]

 76 The Fast & The Furious IV : Sabotage

    Pegasus went from 0 to a 100 kmph in a second, moving so fast that my back and head slammed back into my seat. She was fast, but Bug and his new age car was keeping pace with us as we traveled down into the deep tunnels below Los Angeles. There were lights placed on the ceiling and sides of the tunnels, giving the gloomy landscape a bit of light.


    I shifted gears and Pegasus jumped from a 100 to 120, it was fast, but in a tunnel that had an extremely open space with absolutely no obstacles in the way, this wasn''t fast enough. All of a sudden Bug and his car shot passed us and took a hard left, disappearing into a side tunnel that I didn''t even see coming. I was about to turn that way but.


    "Don''t take that tunnel!There are too many Sharp curves within it, and you''re not used to driving around it. Plus even Bug will have to slow down as his speed would be affected. Keep heading down for about three hundred meters and then take your next left, that should put you at least 8 seconds ahead of him." Malia said to me as a holographic map sparing up from a watch on her wrist.


    I listened to what she had just said and kept my course, while I''m sure I might be able to handle an obstacle course, she was right about the fact that I was not familiar with it, and this was a car that used wheels and tires as opposed Bug''s flying machine. The turn she spoke about came up soon enough and I banked left hard, loud screeching sounds and smell of burnt rubber followed us as I drifted into the tunnel, and just in time to meet about three dozen drums lined up side by side, blocking the way ahead.


    "Fuck! those bastards set traps! Go back! Go back!" Malia shouted at me in panic as the Pegasus was heading straight for a terrible collision.


    (Boss watch out! Please ????????????)


    I turned the wheel right and stepped on the accelerator. Pegasus shot forwards, going up the slanted walls and barely missing the concrete drums that would have definitely left a very bad dent on his frame. We blasted deeper into the tunnels, taking deep breaths as we just escaped a terrible accident by the breath of a hair(is that even how they say it). Malia looked at me like she had seen a ghost, but she was able to gather herself together when we came up into another tunnel, just in time to see Bug''s tail lights flashing past us.


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    "Seems like he''s gotten better at navigating those pillars. Head straight down 200 meters and then take a right. There another tunnel that takes under the main tunnel for about 3 to 4 kilometers. It''s a short cut that''s hard to navigate, but I think you would be just fine. WATCH OUT!"


    A rocketwas heading straight for us, I shifted Pegasus into reverse and turned the wheel right, watching as the rocket head went past us and smashed into the ceiling of the tunnel, concrete and dust falling in small showers. I felt my heart beating hard within my chest, fear, adrenaline and a sick enjoyment if what was happening assaulted me all at once. But following close behind was the blistering rage I was feeling, right now I don''t really care who wins this race, the only thing I''m sure of is that, Bug was going to breathe his last this night.


    Bug was keeping his distance from us that''s for sure, but for how long, I''m not sure. I had something sinister brewing within the depths of my mind, and he''s really not going to like the way this night would end for him. The tunnel Malia had told me about came up, and Bug turned into it and I followed close behind. It was dark, too dark.


    "That''s not right, is there something wrong with the lights, they were all fine yesterday." Malia said with a tinge of fear effect finding it''s way into her voice.


    I immediately turned on Pegasus''s headlights, but even then the light didn''t seem to be enough. All of a sudden Pegasus''s wind shield took on a green hue as he seemed to have turned it into some sort of night vision display. I could see the road ahead of me clearly, but Bug was no where to be found, until¡­..


    *BANG!*


    Something smashed into us from behind, I turned to look, but it was not even Bug, but rather someone driving and entirely new car, this time a truck. I had scarcely registered his appearance, when another car shot out from behind a pillar and slammed into our sides, gradually pushing us towards the wall.


    Pegasus''s tires left screeching sounds and marks on the ground at the assault it was currently facing. I guess it was time to stop playing nice. I braked, hard, holding my breath as the truck behind us slammed into Pegasus. I was half expecting us to be pushed forward, but rather the car that hit us, flipped over just as I leaned out the door of Pegasus and pointed one of my guns at the other car that shot forwards after I braked.


    *BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!* *BOOOOM!*


    The car explored into a fiery greenish red explosion, the screams of it''s drivers filling the tunnel as we drove past. Both the tipped over car and the burning car forgotten in our pursuit of Bug that seemed to have really disappeared. I looked at the edge of Pegasus''s wind shield and saw the words.


    (DEFENSE MODE ACTIVATED)


    I looked out and saw that on his body, hundreds of tiny hexagonal shaped metals seemed to be interlocked together, serving as a sort of shield for Pegasus. My mouth hung open for a while, but it was Malia who spoke out the word that was ringing within my mind.


    "Nanites!"


    Sweet mother of Jesus! What the hell was my grandfather thinking, that''s a billion dollar tech with endless applications being used as a safe blanket for an antique car.....fuck! That old man was completely out of his mind. But I had to admit his crazy ideas save my life. Then suddenly I remembered something.


    "Pegasus! Activate battle mode!"


    (Oh yeah! I though you would never ask. Hold on to your seats folks, the reckoning is here! ????????????)

 77 The Fast & The Furious V : Death Race

    The old spy movies got it right, right to the changing of the steering wheel, the massive laser cannon that was now sitting on the bonnet of the car, and the big shiny red button that looked like a prop out of a men in black movie. I really wanted to press it, but it seems this night wasn''t really hoping to let me enjoy even the little things around.


    *RATARATARATARATARATA!*


    Sparks lit up the side of Pegasus as Bug and three other cars came up from behind us, pelting us with a shower of bullets from sub-machine guns. Maliascreamed and ducked down, but there was no danger ad the bullets bounced off the nanite shield coating Pegasus.


    I turned his steering wheel left, barely evading a pillar that came up in front of me, soon enough there were more and more pillars in front of us, serving as obstacles and as defender against the idols shooting at us from behind. The pillars were tightly clustered together, and it wad taking all of my concentration at the speed we were going, to easily navigate through it.


    *BANG!*


    Another rockets head exploded close besides us, this time it was a little too close for comfort and it shook the entire car, forcing my head towards against Pegasus''s had steering wheel. It didn''t take me long to notice that I wad bleeding from my head, but even then the bad news were not yet at an end.


    (DEFENSES AT 27% AND FALLING! PLEASE BOSS IF I TAKE ANY MORE HITS, I''M GOING TO BE FEELING IT IN THE MORNING ????????????????)


    I looked forwards and noticed an open area before another cluster of pillars. I pulled on Pegasus''s hand brakes, turning around until we were facing the direction we just came from, along with the people trying to shoot us. Pegasus seemed to. Read my mind as the massive cannon on his bonnet began to glow a sickly green light.


    *PEW!* *BANG! BOOOM!*


    (RECHARGING CANNON....TIME TO NEXT VOLLEY 70 SECONDS!)


    It was not that surprising that the cannon needed to be recharged, I had no idea what it ran on, but one shot from it had completely stripped one of the trucks chasing us down to it''s frame, before it exploded, leaving nothing behind in the shower of flames that ensued. I shuddered, to the normal eyes, they would not have been able to see what had happened to the car, but I could, it was as if millions of insects had pounced on them and ate them all. Honestly it was quite jarring.


    I put Pegasus in reverse moving backwards the next section of tightly clustered pillars rapidly coming up behind us. I tightened my hands on the steering wheel, Bug and his final lackey were drawing close, and turning would leave us exposed to them. I pointed my gun out of the side window, but I didn''t shoot immediately, there was not enough time for us to wait for the cannon to charge, this shot had to count.


    (ERRR BOSS? MASSIVE PILLARS OF CONCRETE RIGHT ON OUR ASS! IF YOU''RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING, PLEASE DO IT NOW ????????????????)


    "What are you waiting for? Shoot?" Malia shouted.


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    I took a deep breathe as the world seemed to slow down around me, this whole night has been weird, heck my entire life has been weird. And tonight I''ve displayed abilities that were almost superhuman and past the peak of human capabilities, and this time I was doing it again.


    *Bang!* *Splat!*


    One shot, one bullet, right at the head of the driver of the second truck. He was even less exposed than bug, but considering that his head was currently missing, I don''t think he was as protected as he was. His car careened and slammed into Bug''s, who''s car went a bit out of control, there was a scream from a female on board, probably his own navigator, but it was a testament to his own skills as a driver that he was able to get his car in control.


    I turned the wheel, narrowly drifting between two pillars with Pegasus''s bonnet and trunk scraping against the concrete wall. There was no damage to his body as a whole, but his defenses dropped to a measly five percent. This Nanites weren''t as strong as I thought they were, but it would be stupid to completely over look the fact that they saved our bacon.


    We ignored each for about a minute, the pillars were distractions enough, and it would be hazardous to attack each other while trying to find our way through an area as dangerous as this. I could try, but I wasn''t superman and this wasn''t some action super fly flick. I could make a mistake and Malia would pay the price for it. So it was better to keep my focus on the road.


    We came back into the main tunnel, and from here it was a straight drive back to the entrance of the tunnels. Bug was looking at me with a rather nasty look on his face. He looked like he really wanted to hurt me, but seeing as he didn''t look like he was any worse for wear as opposed to myself with my bleeding head, I would say I had more of a motivation to hurt him. And I was about to do so when a I noticed a barricade of cars, and not just cars, bikes and even freaking drones.


    I stepped on the brake, coming to a stop just as Bug did the same. For a moment I though that these group of people were another group of Bug''s friends, but I recognized the car that was right in the middle, and as Kira and Ron along with my new butler stepped out of it, I felt a chill go down my spine. I remembered the somewhat awkward kiss I had given her before I left the house in a mess with my emotions allover the place.


    I stepped out of the car, the wound from my head was still bleeding though not as much, however it had completely stained the white shirt I had on. Bug made to come to turn around and head down the tunnel, but the sounds of engines behind us showed that both ends were blocked, this time there was an Asian man at the head of the group, he loomed young, about 26 or 27.


    I''m sure I was in a lot of trouble, but not with my own family, but rather with that woman who was currently holding my son and marching towards me with fire in her eyes. Malia had also gotten out of the car, and when Kira saw her, it was almost as if the fire increased by a million degrees. When she got close to me, the first thing she did was throw a hard slap to my face and making sure it was loud enough for the entire crowd to hear. And that''s when the yelling began.

 78 The Fast & The Furious VI : A Glimpse Of Darkness

    Kira was pissed, but to be honest halfway through her tirade it became obvious she wasn''t really angry, she was just worried. And I couldn''t say anything in my defense, if I was in her shoes I would probably be just as pissed. After a few seconds that felt like hours to me, she grabbed my jaw and turned my head to the side, maybe a little harder than was even necessary.


    "We need to get that cleaned up, are you feeling okay? Did these guys hurt you?"


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    (Hurt Him? Hah! You Guys Should Go Back Into Those Tunnels And See The Pile Of Bodies The Boss Left In His Wake, He Was Like The Grim Reaper! Of Course He Had Help From Yours Truly. But Damn Lady That''s Some Nice Ass You''ve Got Over There, How About You Come Put It On My Cushy Leather Seats So That I Could Warm Them Buns Up For Yah. ????????????????)


    What the hell? My car is pervert. Also he seemed capable of displaying images on his body, if not why the hell will there be a giant winking emoji on his bonnet. I looked at the car and then back at Kira, almost completely sure that she would strip him down for parts and then insert the AI''s chip in an old ladies vibrator...that''s t worse torture I think he could go through, but knowing Kira she could come up with worse ways to torture him.


    I felt a hand touch my face, and looked down to see Ron looking up at me. For a moment he seemed so calm, and then.


    "Wahhhh! Wahhhhh!"


    It was the single most terrifying sound I''ve ever heard in my life, and it was intense. The kid just saw me bloody, it was easy for everyone to come to the conclusion that he was sad his father got hurt. I quickly pulled my shirt off, leaving my upper body bare as I used my jacket and shirt to clean the blood stains off myself as much as I could. Kira was alreadytrying to get him to calm down, but it wasn''t working. I threw the bloodied clothes away and out of sight, and prayed to the high heavens that I was no longer as bloody as I was before.


    "hey little man, look at me, come on Junior look at daddy. I''m alright okay, daddy''s fine it was just a little scratch, see, all clear."


    Ron looked back at me hiccupping a bit as he grabbed my jaw in much the same manner his mom did a few minutes ago, and looked at my wound. This bratty kid is a little too smart for his age, if he looked at the wound, then he would still see blood, but what he said next shocked me so hard that I almost fell.


    "The wound is going away, there''s no blood anymore.Don''t like blood, blood bad."


    Well I''ll be damned, the son of a mafia boss is a pacifist...I guess I should start finding ways to get the Wade family legit, unless Ron gets a taste for being bloody, he can''t handle this side of our family. It might have just been simple words, but with the fierce look in Kira''s eyes, I knew I would be making the same decision my grandfather and mother made over my own future.


    Ron must absolutely not know about the dark side of the Wade family, about my dark side. If my son wants to live his life in the light, free, happy and without blood in his path, then that''s what I''m going to give to him. No matter what, I''ll make sure he remains happy and safe and away from conflict for all of his life.


    "He''s right you know, your wounds almost completely healed. I''ve never seen anything like it before....hey Kira, it''s been a while." Malia said as she came up behind me, looking at my head and then back at Kira.


    I''m not really surprised they knew each other, Malia used to be the young geniusof the Imperium industries, and Kira practically grew up within that company and both were around my mother a lot as young girls. They definitely knew each other.


    There were things to be taken care of, especially since I had to go to the office tomorrow and then log back into the game and finding out what the fuck went down with my sister when I turned into a dragon. The topic might be a little difficult for me to face, but I will have to face it none the less and deal with it. Dahlia has become something dangerous, something that''s a threat not just to the world of lost descendants online, but also to the real world, I have to figure out a way to Neutralize it, and fast.


    "Sir! What do we do about him and his friend?" my Butler who''s peculiar name I remember to be Hades asked me as he came close.


    I turned around to see that he was talking about Bud and his female navigator, there''s no need to think too much about it. I already made up my mind about what I was going to do to him, and that hasn''t changed. But I didn''t tell Hades what to do with him immediately, instead I started giving different orders.


    "Hades this tunnels runs across the whole of Los Angeles, I need you to get our best analyst and work with Malia. I need a route mapped to all of it''s exit points from the manor, all of our bases, the company and any other assets we might have on ground. We can literally transport anything within, into and out of the city without the cops being aware.


    There other gangs that would have though of this, give them the option to clear out or go to war. By the time the month runs out I want full and total command of the entire subway tunnels systems. Anybody who needs to use it for transport would need to pay a percentage, you can never have too much power. Plus I need every criminal activity within the city completely within my grasp, as for the details to that we can discuss it later when my commanders get her here."


    As I spoke I walked forwards and covered Ron''s ears with both my hands all the while smiling at him. Then I turned to Hades and said.


    "As for my friend big Ugly goat over there, get rid of him thoroughly. But make him suffer while you''re at it. When you''re done no trace of him should have ever existed in this life or the next, break up his band of merry drug addicts, and when you''re done burn whatever is left of him and throw his ashes in the ocean. As for his friend....there can be no witnesses, end her but do it quickly and painlessly. If she has family that needs to be taken care of, send them enough to guarantee them an easy life. We will discuss other matters back at the Manor." I said to him as I removed my hand from Ron''s ears.


    "Yes sir! It would be done just as you''ve said." Hades replied to me, I nodded my head at him and turned to the horrified looking Kira and Malia and said to them.


    "Lets go home, Malia let''s go get your brothers, you guys can judge me later."


    And so we left that tunnel, ignoring the pleas of Bug and his innocent female friend who would be loosing her life because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I had no choice, or maybe I did, but I''m not one to leave loose ends, this was my life now, it was royalty in and out of itself, but it came with a price, a darkness....my darkness.

 79 The Play For Power I : Kiras Suggestions

    My office was huge, it was like having an apartment and then putting a bunch of fancy furniture in it and calling it an office. Never the less it was private and it was quiet, and I could see Kira from where she was sitting right outside, my own personal assistant. At the very least that''s what the official description of her position says, and quite frankly it was a demotion from her old post, but everyone in this building knew that she now ran the Imperium industries, or at the very least she helped me do so.


    I''ve had a wild night, and I really wanted to just close my eyes and sleep, but Kira and I had to go over a few deals that I need to approve on, and possibly a few other investments that we could put our hands in. After the disastrous public displays between me and my father''s family during my Baba''s burial, the stocks of the company took a Major hit. Of course it has seen quite a few improvements ever since it was announced that I was taking over as chairman of the company, but it was not yet at a point we would call satisfactory. And for a company as big as this, you can never have too much money.


    "Kira you can come in now, let''s get this over with." I sent for Kira through the phone that connected me straight to her desk.


    I didn''t have to wait long as she stepped into the office looking very official in her red and black suit. Why she was wearing something like that I don''t know, but it hugged all of her curves and even enhanced her beauty. Obviously Kira had a thing for red, and it was hard to focus on the task at hand when her dressing had my other head standing at attention and my real head lost in his fantasies.


    She took a seat in front of me, her work tablet in her hand. Just after a few swipes of her hand, the blinds in the office went out, and the door closed with an audible click. I raised an eyebrow at that, this lady wants to take total control of my life, even my office was totally within her grasp.


    "We have a lot to talk about, both the official and unofficial post you seem to hold, and I would prefer if no one is listening in. Ronin sweep the entire office for any listening devices."


    {Understood Lady Kira, running scanning protocol...¡­..a total of 46 listening devices located within the confines of the office lady Kira what would you have me do.}


    "Release a controlled EMP blast, I don''t want to shut down the entire building, much less alert whoever is listening."


    {As you wish Lady Kira...all devices have been neutralized, including surveillance cameras for the office. Is there anything you need an assistance with Lady Kira?}


    "No that will be all Ronin, go into standby mode and keep an eye out for any invited guests. Now Aaron, let''s talk."


    I was baffled, an AI security system was not something beyond my capabilities, but I didn''t expect Kira to have thought of everything and placed one in my office, much less predict that there would be bugs placed within the office. I''m the ex military guy, I''m the one who''s supposed to have all those suspicions, but I seem to have underestimated corporate espionage. It was no different from a real battlefield, only instead of guns and knives, we were using words, spy tech and open smiles while stabbing each other in the back, I can''t trust anybody, not even Kira it might seem.


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    "There a few deals that you would have to sign up on, also a few public appearances is needed. First things first, there''s a lot of projects your grandfather left unfinished, and your father has not been too keen on seeing them through, and that''s mainly because it profits others more than it profits him.


    Your grandfather had started work on a sky community, a massive piece of land floating above Los Angeles to serve as a home for the current homeless and those looking for greener pastures. Problem is, something like that can only be built for the rich, and the amount of money needed for such an undertaking will be sure to out a massive dent into the company''s funds, and your grandfather wanted to do it for charity, and what''s worse it technology then is not as advance now as it was then, even if it''s just been about 18 or so years.


    I believe we should push forward with that plan, but make a few tweaks to your grandfather''s original intent. This world runs on money and power, but it''s the weak who build and generate that power, whoever wields it is just lucky. The less privileged could be out there as workers, heck they could even help build the community itself. The rich and wealthy would kill for a chance to live in such a place, since the space stations and even Mars as a whole is not something they can reach. We need to give the deal out to a prospective construction company, so if you agree with me, I can put the deal out there and have the companies interested put our a proposal.


    But next the funds to handle the construction is something that could very well leave us bankrupt....except we make our foray into the weapons manufacturing business. But rather than guns and warheads, I believe vehicular warfare is better. Drones, tanks, bikes, and cars outfitted for battle, both on and off world as tension with Mars and the space stations seem to be rising. War is coming, and I don''t think a pacifist approach to it would help anybody.


    I know your ''group'' of people might not agree to this as war might put a huge dent into their funds, but there''s a lot to be gained from this, it would most of the world government in the palm of your hands, and give you a card to use against your father and keep the board of directors in check. Obviously my dad asked me to convince you to go with this route, but I believe there''s a better option than that anyway.


    The world is rapidly approaching a point where governments would turn out to be pointless, and it''s right around the corner as everyone is now looming our for themselves. If you can''t get yourself a significant amount of power, Imperium Industries though ranked 3rd in the world, is still the biggest pie to everyone due to our advancements in Virtual Reality engineering and software design. We''re shaping the future, and you have to make the decision to make that future ours.


    Think of it this way, more lives would be lost if we do nothing, than if we choose to act.And the next move is that we need to get rid of your step-mother, permanently!"


    "Ehhh! What?"

 80 The Play For Power II : More Suggestions

    Getting rid of my step mother was something that I would be all too willing to do, but she''s family, one way or another. And I know she''s an evil bitch that''s a pain in the ass, but killing her seemed too extreme, and I''m not sure I hated her enough to do so yet.


    "I can''t do that Kira, not until I''m sure she poses a real threat to me and my son." I said to her, looking her in the eye just so that she would know I meant business.


    "Well that''s good, because it was a test. I just wanted to see how dark your heart has become, but it seems there''s still a conscience in there somewhere. The thing is, your step mother has major control over the R&D department for Lost descendants online, most of the current game masters and maintenance staff are all subsidiaries from her family''s Neural Engineering facility, and she''s been using everything lost descendants has achieved to push forward her family''s technology and make money from it, money that Imperium industries has no access to. Plus that''s your mother''s department and I feel as if that woman is putting a stain on it just by sitting her ass in your mother''s old office. We need to replace her.


    Of all the enemies we have to take care of, I believe that she''s number one. You have to deal with your own household first before we start facing the feast of the board, I have gathered quite a substantial piece of evidence to use against her,hut just removing her isn''t enough as we would need to put someone that''s qualified and not in league with board as the new head, someone we can trust. But if said person is not good enough, it would give the Board a chance to back us into a corner, so we have to make our choice wisely. Though I''m sure we can both agree that Malia Is perfect for the Job,we both worked in that department as really young interns when your mother was still alive.


    Next week you have to meet with the mayor of new York city, Imperium industries donated an artificial island park, and an AI to handle traffic security as a welfare donation to the city. As the head of the company, you have to be there with the mayor to have the AI go live, and officially open the gates of the park, which has been renamed into a memorial park in honor of your grandfather,which means it would be a family affair. Your father and step mother will be there along with your brothers, we can make our play to remove her from power after we''re done there.


    Next, which is mostly still dealing with Lost descendants online, is the fact that we need to have a little more exposition into the game since there''s been a new and very massive update to it, and the fact that this happened after your grandfather passed away has spun the rumor mills that this was probably the last update of the game, and Lost descendants online would be going offline some time in the future. A few of the developers suggested that we sponsor a world wide battle and crafting tournament, and this time, both players and NPCS alike can participate.


    This should create more awareness for the game, and help quell any sort rumors, but it should help expose all of the new selling points of the game, and that''s the fact that the world itself no longer just belongs to players, but also to the NPCs. I believe your AVATAR should host it. It would show sincerity, and give a little exposition to your play style and game play, plus all these kids need someone to look up to, so tell me your in game name so that we can meet up and I can power level you and your skills to an acceptable level."


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    "Are you sure that''s necessary, I would very much like to keep that aspect of my life secret and away from real world,that''s the once chance I get to he someone else other than Aaron Wade, if I do this, then I will destroy everything I''ve been working for, please we have to find another option." I said to her with a resolute gaze.


    No matter what, I''m not backing down about this matter, Seven and Aaron Wade must never become one and the same person, not just because my mom and grandfather had insisted that I keep that part of me a secret, but because I''ve come to love the freedom that life gave me, even if I''ve been dealing with some bullshit lately, it was nice.


    "Well it''s not absolutely necessary that you appear as your current character, the Dev team can craft a new cosmetic AVATAR for you, it should help keep the identity of your real AVATAR a secret. Don''t worry, I lay lost descendants online too, and all for the same reason as you....a chance to escapemy own life,I''m sorry for trying to bring work into it." She apologized with a smile.


    "But we''re not done yet, this Friday there''s a party being thrown by my father, it''s to celebrate my brother''s coming of age and his time to finally become a part of the company, my father would like you to give him my old position, or at least something substantial enough for him to prove himself to you. But we can worry about that later, my final report has to be on Zeta bio-tech."


    I leaned back on my seat and raised an eyebrow at that. The Zeta corporation was second in the world and our direct competitors. They were a company that focused more on the advancement and application of medicine and all sorts of medical technology, there''s a strict stay out of each other''s way policy between both companies, so I don''t get why Kira Is bringing them up.


    "A few years ago, the Zeta corporation started a new facility catered to the development of new living biological materials, aka clones. They succeeded, becoming capable of making clones of practically every living thing in existence and even some that have been extinct. Recent report shows that they''ve been able to clone sabretooth tiger from DNA they got from its bones. I know this is getting very Jurassic park like, but that''s besides the point, the thing is all of their clones always end up malfunctioning in one way or the other, and it totally Jason to do with neutral problems.


    The clones are sometimes catatonic, others to wild, some just repeat one particular action, over and over again. Basically they''re perfect bodies, but without a soul."


    Then Kira got up and turned to around my desk, sitting on it so that she could be closer to me. I swallowed hard and then tried my best not too look at her stocking covered thigh as her skirt rode up a bit.


    "Zeta is looking to sell of 60% of their biotech facilityand hand over development of the clones to another company. But even then they still want to retain some part of the profit, so that it wouldn''t be a total loss. Problem is there''s only one company in the whole world, except of course for the tech institute on Mars, that can make sure their clone tech is not a bust, and that''s us.


    It might be too early to tell you this, but your mother and her old friend board member Cora have an old project that was scrapped because you step mother was a bitch and wouldn''t let anyone go higher than her. They talked about the possibility of transferring the consciousness of AIs in the game into robotics bodies in the real world, or fully transferring the consciousness of a human being into a virtual body and prolonging their life.


    Now we both know that lots of people love the game, but they also live the life that live in the real world, and many people have bodies that fail everyday. Just as we''ve evolved, so too has diseases, and there are new cause for death each and every day. But what if we can control death, find a way to give humanity a second chance by transferring their consciousness into a virtual world, or into a brand new body of their own specifications, or just like their old ones."


    Kira said to me with smirk on her face.


    Shock would be an understatement to what I was currently feeling right now, a move like this would not just make Imperium Industries number one, we would be building a new world order, there would be no death or rather we would have control over the most powerful and unbeatable force that has existed from the very dawn of the universe¡­..death.


    "Get me a proper proposal and layout for this endeavor,keep this close to yourself and get me a meeting with the head of the Zeta corporation. We have to figure out a way to own Zeta-biotech completely." I said to her as I got up to my feet, visibly excited. Then Kira called out to me.


    "There''s one more thing to take care of."


    "huh! There''s more?" maybe I shouldn''t have asked, because what came next was heaven, she kissed me.

 81 The Play For Power III : 18+ Office Quickie

    I didn''t expect her to kiss me, but I didn''t shy away from it either, to be honest this was something I would love to do all day, every day. I''m sure she just wanted to tease me, but it was rapidly turning out that this was going to be more than just a tease. At first she kissed me softly, and I returned the kiss in turn just so she wouldn''t run away, and then the intensity went up a notch and I felt her sink her hands into my hair.


    It was like she had set a fire underneath me as I drew her closer, wrapping my hands around her waist and subsequently going down to grab her full ass. Jerk shirt hiked up even more, and I felt as she wrapped her legs around my waist. Feeling how close we were distracted me a bit and before I knew it, she had her tongue shoved into my mouth. Damn this girl was all fire and ice in the right places, she loved control, and opposed to other men who love to dominate, I absolutely loved it when a woman can take charge, the hazards of being raised by tough woman.


    I took of the suit I had on, and seconds later her followed. The black dress shirt she had under her suit was already straining to hold back her bountiful assets, I didn''t like that, so I shoved my hand into the collar and ripped it off, all of it. I heard Kira gasp is shock, but I pulled her closer to me, engaging her tongue in a tough battle as I started unbuttoning my shirt.


    Then I felt he shift a bit and she sent her hands straight to the bulge in front of my trousers, she squeezed a little harder and I felt her smile before both her hands started unbuckling by belt. This was moving a little too fast than I expected, and to be honest I didn''t think the first place I get to fuck Kira would be in my own office. It wasn''t as romantic as I envisioned, but I''ll take what I can get.


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    Our kisses became more frantic, filled with more need and passion as my trousers fell down to my ankles and I was left with just my boxers, I felt Kira grab my dick and moved her hands back and forth a few times, pumping with a fury that left me weak in the knees. I returned the favor, moving my hands to her wet hot core and feeling it''s sickness through her drenched panties. I wanted to go down on her, to taste her and her scream with wild abandon as I shoved my tongue in places tongues are not supposed to be. But she held me tight.


    "There''s no time for that bad boy, just fuck me! We can worry about foreplay at a later date."


    I guess she was even more frantic than I was, plus she was also right, this was an office space, and someone could barge in on us at any moment or require our attention for something, we had to hurry this up, this was a quickie after all.


    I dug my fingers into the side of her satin panties and shifted it to the side, I rubbed my a thumb on her budding clit, feeling the heat from her core and the nectar of passion and desire that seemed to have gushed forth from the valley in between her legs. I used my other hand to pull the waistband of my boxers down, smiling as it too met my trousers at it''s position on my ankles. And then I moved forward.


    As my dick came in contact with her pussy I almost came from the sheer stimuli I felt, for a moment I couldn''t believe I was about to go balls deep into the woman that''s been on my mind for weeks now. I grabbed my dick and moved it up and down the length of her nether lips, making sure to lay extra care to the nub that protruded out of it''s own tiny hood.


    I heard her gasp as I teased her, I waved my other hand behind her and cleared my desk, before unclasping the bra she had on and watching her soft, perky and large melons spring free. I moved my mouth to one of her nipples, sucking just as I went into her forbidden valley.


    "Oh! Yes!"


    I felt her shudder as she wrapped her legs around my waist and her insides flexed around my dick, almost driving me insane by how tight she felt. It must have been a while since she''s had sex of her own,and in turn she was so tight down there I had to hold on for a second if not I would have been cumming deep into her. And for a firs impression, that would be bad.


    I moved back a bit pulling her along with me and making sure her ass was on the edge of my desk, then I pulled back a bit and went back in. She gave a soft gasp as she moved closer, wrapping her arms around my neck and shoving her tongue deeper into my mouth. I pulled back a bit and went back into her again, taking short slow strokes, that got longer and longer after each movement, and each stroke I made caused her to release tiny soft gasps and moans into my mouth that was driving my bestial instinct into over drive.


    Then I pulled out until only the tip of my dick was stuck at the entrance of her vagina, I''m sure she knew what came next as she stopped kissing me, about to give me a warning that I completely ignored with a mischievous smile, and I went back in, fast, hard and as deep as I could.


    "Damn it! Aaron, it''s big! Big!"


    Not what I expected her to scream out loud, but it was just as good. I began listening in and out of her wet cavern, loving the squishing sounds it made as my dick drilled deep into her. I could feel her wetness around my dick, and even though she was really tight, it made my going in and out of her forbidden valley all the more easier. But I have to admit, it''s a pretty tight fit.


    *PAK! PAK! PA! PA! PAK!*


    The sounds of our flesh smacking against each other filled my spacious office, Kira knew that she had to be quiet, so she hugged me tight and placed on hand over her mouth as she released soft whimpers that just made me love this carnal act of ours even more. I pulled back and gyrated my waist with my dick still in her pussy, digging into angles that has been otherwise left untouched for a while.


    "Sweet mother of!....Fuck! Ahhhhh!"


    I felt her tighten around me as her body vibrated intensely. And grip around my neck became a whole lot more tighter as she shook from the throes of her orgasm. She let out a loud groan as she pushed me back, shaking and shuddering as her cum trailed down her fair legs. I decided to give her a minute to breathe, my mast still at attention and pointing right at her like a dangerous weapon.


    "You''re a monster!"


    I looked back a bit surprised by her choice of words, but more than a little proud of myself and my sword of might and magic(it''s very mighty). The she walked towards me, surprising me as she athletically raised her left leg up and placed it on my shoulders, and then supporting herself she shoved my dick back into her pussy, releasing a wild moan as she did so.


    This new position was so unexpected and too kinky for my mind to handle, that I almost came from the pressure, it brought me really close to the edge and made my ensuing movements frantic on a whole other level. Kira had her eyes widened, probably regretting using such a move on me as it seemed to have made me shift gears again. My dick was moving so fast in and out of her baby canal that the fluids of our sexual act seemed to be spraying out of her. She was whimpering even louder now, and my breaths were deeper.


    I grabbed her waist and pulled her other leg down until she was standing in front of me still connected. I think this move was called a standing missionary, but it wasn''t any less sexier than the last one, in fact she seemed to get even tighter and I pounded away into her wet snatch, until suddenly I felt her convulse again, and she gripped me hard, pulling me to herself as she came again, and forced me over the edge too.


    I wanted to pull out, but with how tight she held me, there was no escape. I came harder than I ever did before in my life, I lost the strength to stand as we both fell back into my seat, chest heaving, breathes deep and a very satisfying smile on both our faces, we definitely needed to do this again.

 82 Atlantic Rim I : A Direction

    When I logged back in it was to a familiar ceiling, and it wasn''t to my room on the Acheron, but rather it was to the villain was given during my time as a chosen for the trial. Which means for all intents and purposes, we were back on Patmos, nestled safely with the massive branches of the tree of Revelations. It didn''t make sense to me, cause I wasn''t really sure how we got back here.


    I got up from my bed, I had to curse and lay back down almost immediately as the room seemed to shift from side to side, ''Nausea in a virtual reality game? This keeps getting better and better''. I held my breath for a little while and waited for my vision to refocus itself, the first thing I noticed though was a sleeping Qitar, the green skinned woman seemed to have been keeping watch over me and fell asleep in the process. She must have been here long.


    I got up from the bed and covered her with a blanket, then I walked to the balcony of the villa and looked out at the massive tech city hidden within the branches of this tree, then I looked down watching the slum city also hidden within it''s roots. This tree was amazing, but the people who live on it were annoying, I sighed and watched as a black limousine seemed to come to a stop in front of the villa. The elven minister jumped out of it accompanied by a few guards, probably clones just like Jack is...¡­or was.


    I turned around, strode across the room and equipped my armor, I had s few messages from the system to look through, but I was scared about what it would tell me, besides there''s no pressing need at the moment, I can take care of it later. I opened the door to my room, startling the pair of Nereid kids that were passing by along with a larger looking Sky, Thewas the size of a small calf now, exactly like a new born baby elephant.


    The battle beast gave a trumpet of joy and rushed to snuggle into my body. I could feel her emotions from what ever bond that connected the both of us, and I knew she was happy and had been really worried. I must have been really out of it, only God knows the scope of destruction I might have left in my wake after my transformation.


    I gave her head a soft pat and smiled to the Nereid kids, but even the awkward grins they gave me, was incapable of hiding the fear in their eyes. I couldn''t help but wonder what sort of hell I had unleashed, and what so of damage I might have done. I made my way down to the sitting room of the villa, just in time to see the elven minister, a priest in a golden frock, and stereotypical assassin with a hood over his or her head. Without a doubt, these were probably the people who sponsored me during my time as a chosen. But it was not just their presence alone, it was the fact that the King of Patmos was also here that surprised me.


    I saw Dinah, Mark, Zack, Darke and Raven Song. But there was no Jack, it wouldn''t do for me to jump to conclusions, but I just had to know. I turned to his brothers/ fellow clones and asked them with my heart stuck in my throat.


    "Where is he? Is...did.....did he make it?"


    They looked amongst themselves, not at all sure how to answer me, or who would answer. In the end Raven Song, the one person who was not around when this went down, decided to answer.


    "He''s alive, and he''s on the ship''s medical bay. Dinah was able to forge a stasis pod that preserved his life. However he''s in critical condition, the dagger severed his spine and pierced his heart, and to make matters worse he was infected by the virus,if you hadn''t covered him with that cocoon of wind, I''m afraid he would be dead right now. But now the problem is, both the Patmosian government and the elves refuse to heal, even though they have the technology and the magic to do so." Raven Song said to me, a butter expression etched on his dark elf face.


    I turned to my visitors and went to take a sit in front of them. The atmosphere seemed heavy, there was an aura in the air that I couldn''t understand or put my finger on. But I knew it was all coming from me, suddenly a system notification popped up in front of me.


    {Dragon Commander Aura Active: Let all who stand against thee quake in fear and shiver in awe at your majesty.}


    That was weird, but it helped set the tone, based on what Raven just told me, somethings happened that I can''t remember, such as covering Jack in a cocoon of wind, but never the less these guys can save my friend, yet they''re not doing so, so it''s either they want something, or they''re really big jerks.


    "What would it take for you guys to save him." I don''t care what it is they came here to tell me, but I was going straight to the point for what I wanted.


    "Curing an infection and injury of that magnitude would require magic, skills and treasures of great value. The church of Adonai have our ultimate healing spell, the Elves have dew from the world tree, and the Patmosian have essence from the heart seed of the tree of revelations. These things are protected, and very valuable. The healing spell of the church of Adonai is known by our high Pope, but he has one foot in the grave and very senile, the Essence of the heart seed is more than just an essence as it has the ability to greatly empower any living thing, or give an inanimate object life, it can cleanse and Purify any dark energy. But there''s only one vial of it in existence, and it takes the tree of revelations roughly 50 years to produce one, the next should be ready in three years, but even then I doubt your friend can survive that long.


    As for the dew of the world tree, only the moon elf priestesses are allowed to come in possession of it, except for when the elf emperor and empress have a need for it. It''s equally as valuable and powerful as the heart seed essence, which means neither Patmos nor Elfengarde would be willing to waste such a resource on a common guard, a fake existence, a clone!"


    This priest of Adonai has a way with words, and I could feel as every words he said seemed to stab deep into Zack, Darke and Mark. The elven clones had their heads down, as if agreeing to the fact that they were less than any other born elf alive. I don''t think the priest was prejudiced, he was just stating a fact. But that didn''t mean I liked it, or was happy about it either.


    "Is there any other option? I can''t lose him.....I can''t lose any of them."


    Was it wise showing this much vulnerability, was it smart baring my heart out like this....Aaron Wade would never have done this, he would probably go steal it, or hang the senile pope, the elven and Patmosian royalty off a bridge naked while threatening their children and forcing them to hand over what he wants. But while Aaren Seven could be just as ruthless and even more dangerous, he was also willing to show his weakness, to let people know how much things matter to him.


    "I can get you the dew, I recruited you to the coven of Angeles, so if you need something, it''s my responsibility to take care of it. But it would cost you the lives of your entire crew, and most especially your battle beast.And I can see you value them more than anything else in the world, which brings us to why we''re here.


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    Your recent battle and transformation has caught the attention of some really powerful and evil people, so we need you to go off radar for a while. We also need you to finish your first mission, and the rescue the only other person that can save your clone''s life....a high priestess of the church of Adonai and the only other person to have learnt and mastered the ultimate healing spell.


    The Elf you were sent to kill is now traveling to the Atlantic ocean, hoping that once he crosses into the boundary of the old world sea, he would be out of our reach. You''re to intercept and kill him, and then head on to Atlantis find the priestess, have her heal your friend and bring her back here to Patmos. That''s the only other option available to you." Lerriandelei said to me as she sat back with a calm look on her face. A look I happily returned.


    "first of all, don''t you fucking call my boys clones, they have names, and if you don''t know it then shut it! And secondly, point me in a direction and get the fuck out of my way, I have a life to save."

 83 Atlantic Rim II : Finding The Virus

    [QUEST ALERT!] [DIFFICULTY: A+]


    [CALL OF ATLANTIS 1: Your Friend And Crew Mate Has Been Injured, In Other To Save Him A Series Of Missions Have To Be Carried Out, And To Do So, You Have To Brave The Most Dangerous Ocean On New Gaia, And The Last Ocean Of The Old World. A Place Known To Many As The Atlantic.]


    [CONDITIONS: Kill Elven Head Researcher 0/1] [TIME: 1 WEEK] [REWARDS: +5 TO ALL STATS, ALL SKILLS +1 LEVEL]


    I accepter the quest without much of a fuss, this was important anyway, and I''m not sure I''m in a position to be picky. Besides this was in the direction that I needed to go, so it helped. I looked at the Patmosian king, for him to be here it''s obvious that he''s somehow a part of the Coven of Angeles, I wonder how he would feel if he knew his daughter and I wanted her to win the trial just so she could get rid of his policies and way of ruling¡­..he already hates my guts, I''m pretty sure he would want to kill me then.


    "We would like to know more about this virus that you fought, the reports that your crew gave us, was that the carrier of the virus; the female you fought, was gravely injured by you. However she had help, and was able to escape through use of a long distance teleportation magic scroll. Is there anything you can tell us to help us find her?" The king said to me in a surprisingly polite tone.


    I may have just been really rude to all of them, but they seemed to be treating carefully around me, I really didn''t know why. In most games it would take lot''s of players a long ass time to have a reputation as illustrious as mine, so much so that whole leaders would out you in high regards, however I think by this point I''ve proven that this was more than just a game for me. There''s much at stake and every decision u make could very well affects the lives of people both in and out of the game.


    "To be honest I don''t remember much, everything about that fight has been a massive blur, almost as if there''s a block on my memory. However one thing I can be sure of is that the virus has grander plans beyond this world." I said to them with a pensive look on my face.


    "What do you mean?" the priest asked, his short white beard seemingly swaying as a cool breeze blew past.


    "It aims to infect, and I believe that it''s not yet strong enough to exercise full control over the entities it infects, which means the sooner we find it and kill it, the better it would be for everybody. This universe is just a foothold for it''s real mission as it intends to head for the world where I come from. If that happens, then there''s no stopping it, it would mean the end for everybody." I said to them.


    Usually it wasn''t wise bringing up the real world and how much influence it had over lost descendants online, however Dahlia was a real threat, a very big one with massive consequences for both parties. We have to find her and end her¡­..or at the very least the virus that has Somehow become a part of her conscience.


    So at this point in time, both worlds have to come together and find a way to deal with this threat, and based on the very shocked look on Raven Song''s face, I guess he''s beginning to understand that this was more than just a story quest, some serious shit was really going on.


    "There is cause for concern in deed, but the virus is MIA, we have no way of finding it." Lerriandelei said to me.


    "I have methods I can use in tracking it down, there''s a....." I was about to continue when Darke came to my side and whispered into my ear.


    "I''m sorry captain, but I already tried using the compass to find the virus, but it didn''t work. I got a prompt telling me that the ship''s level is a little too low to have the compass accurately pinpoint the location of an unknown such as the virus. It''s existence is so complicated that the magic of the compass can not recognize it, the ship needs to be stronger to be able to find her efficiently."


    It made sense to me, in a way it really couldn''t be that easy to find her. This was still a game world, so the natural order of things would follow certain rules, and that''s the fact that this would probably turn out to be a long quest chain. But I wad happy about one thing. The virus or as the mayor of Rustek had called it; the Wade Virus, might not be a recognizable entity within the game, but it still has to play by the rules that governs it, as long as it remains here.


    Which means it needs levels, needs to train skills, and it can die. And since Dahlia seemed to be more of an NPC than a player, that means there was no respawn for her. So killing her means it''s a done deal, and she wouldn''t be coming back,however I don''t think it would be as simple as finding her and putting a dagger in her chest, there''s definitely a catch.


    "I have a method I can use to track and catch her, but I need to upgrade and level up my ship a few times to access it. Which means we''re left with just using the old fashion methods available to us. I think all parties should keep and open eye and ear, and warn any other major power about the virus as it poses a real threat.I will try what I can on my part to find her, but at the moment my main priority is making sure that Jack wakes up and lives.So is there anything else?" I asked, looking straight at the green skinned king.


    "Not at the moment, no. We''ve discussed all that we need to, and now it''s up to you to make sure you get things done. We will render all of the assistance that we can, just make sure you deliver this time, we will now take our leave." the priest said as they all slowly filed out of the villa.


    One thing had me confused though, and that was the fact that through the entire conversation, the hooded assassin guy, did not even say a single word. Not that I had any problems with that, maybe he or she was mute or something. Either way this meeting was a done deal, and we now had to figure out our next step.


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    "Dinah how''s the repairs and Upgrade of the Acheron coming along?" I asked as I got up to my feet.


    "Complete and Ready to sail captain." She said to me with a smile.


    I nodded my head at that and turned to face all of them, I could give a cheesy or some speech, but I know that wouldn''t help the mood, especially for the clones, the last thing they needed right now, was a spotlight being shone on their pain. Most soldiers were like that sometimes, it was better to compartmentalize and deal with the emotional shit later. What they needed right now, what we all needed was something else to focus on.


    "Dinah I will be handing all of my current funds to Qitar, all of you should make a budget of what we need for long term sailing. Get supplies, tech, weapons and vehicles, as much as the ship can carry without jeopardizing her sailing capabilities. If you have anything else you need to take care of, then get your affairs in order, we set sail at first light."


    Then I turned and made my way back to my room, my heart feeling a bit heavy. There''s much to be done, there''s no doubt about that, but at least we''re taking actions. That has to count for something in the long run, and I know that it will. But with all these out of the way, it was time for me to pay attention to the skills that can be branched, or given new effects. I needed to be ready for more than just a battle, I need to be ready...¡­.for war!

 84 Atlantic Rim III : Skills Again!

    [PILOT HAS REACHED LEVEL 10: BRANCH SUBSKILLS: SONIC FLIGHT/ STEALTH FLIGHT/ SKILL EFFECT: CRUISER UNLOCKED.]


    Pilot was a skill that was multipurpose in it''s use, maybe that''s why it''s a passive skill. As long as I''m flying or flying a craft, all of it''s skills would come into play. And to be honest I was seriously tempted by everything I could see, but not at all sure what to choose. Cruiser made it easier for me to fly through turbulence or rough weather, basically it was a passive skill that made my sense of balance during flight stronger, it was important but with what I had to face in the future I didn''t need it. SONIC flight is what I want to choose, the speed boost was ridiculous, and since I''ve based my combat abilities around speed it would help me if I''m chasing after an opponent, or running away.


    But the memory of my failure to assassinate that elven target hunted me, of course they already predicted that someone was coming for him, so they had set a trap in preparation. However if there''s going to be more missions like that, I hand to remain unseen, and apart from my ability to breath underwater, my wings were some if not my biggest advantage in a battle. Being able to fly and attack unseen could be the deciding factor between life and death, so my choice was easily made.


    [STEALTH FLIGHT ACTIVE SKILL HAS BEEN CHOSEN]


    [DRAGON COMMANDER HAS REACHED LEVEL 5! THERE ARE NO BRANCH SKILLS OR EFFECTS AVAILABLE.]


    [SEEKER HAS REACHED LEVEL 10: BRANCH SUBSKILLS: TRI-SHOT/ IMPACT STRIKE/ SKILL EFFECT: FADE: UNLOCKED]


    Tri-shot sent more projectiles into an attack, instead of a single bullet or arrow, it would be three. And impact strike made the hit a lot more heavier than normal. However I already had skills that had similar effects, and even though the effects and powers of skills could be stacked to cause more damage, I would very much prefer if no one saw my attacks coming, and that''s what Fade does.


    [FADE EFFECT HAS BEEN CHOSEN]


    [WIND FIST HAS REACHED LEVEL 10: BRANCH SUBSKILLS: SONIC PUNCH/CUTTING EDGE/SKILL EFFECT: NO AIR: UNLOCKED]


    Sonic punch meant a hit delivered at a super fast speed, and with more impact than expected. Cutting edge made the strikes of any part of the body or weapon have increase cutting power. But the turn on was the effect of the skill, it made the attacks from the wind fist skill basically silent, and it made it difficult for the opponent to even breathe! I''m taking it.


    [NO AIR EFFECT HAS BEEN CHOSEN]


    [PASSIVE SKILL WIND CHILD HAS REACHED LEVEL 10 AND RANKED UP TO ADVANCE LEVEL 1: YOU HAVE UNLOCKED AIR DOMAIN: YOU CONSTANTLY HAVE A FIELD OF MAGICAL WIND AND AIR POWER ACTIVATED AROUND YOU. ALL WIND SPELLS/SKILLS/CREATURES +20% TO ALL COMBAT SPECS/DOMAIN RANGE: 2 METER RADIUS]


    [PASSIVE SKILL ADAPTIVE HAS REACHED LEVEL 10 AND RANKED UP TO ADVANCED LEVEL 1.THERE ARE NO SUBSKILLS, OR EFFECTS AVAILABLE.]


    [MANA ARROW HAS REACHED LEVEL 10: BRANCH SUBSKILLS: ELEMENTAL ARROW/ MANA LANCE/ SKILL EFFECT: DOUBLE OR NOTHING HAS BEEN UNLOCKED]


    [DOUBLE OR NOTHING SKILL EFFECT CHOSEN]


    [STEALTH HAS REACHED LEVEL 5: BRANCH SUBSKILLS: ASSASINATE/ SILENT STRIKE/ SKILL EFFECT: SHROUD OF NATURE UNLOCKED]


    [SHROUD OF NATURE SKILL EFFECT CHOSEN]


    [LIGHTENING BLADE HAS REACHED LEVEL 10 AND RANKED UP TO ADVANCE LEVEL 1: THERE ARE NO BRANCH SUBSKILLS OR EFFECTS AVAILABLE.]


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    [CONE OF SILENCE HAS REACHED LEVEL 10 AND RANKED UP TO ADVANCE LEVEL 1: THE SECOND TIER OF THIS SPELL HAS BEEN UNLOCKED AND CONE OF SILENCE HAS NOW BECOME AREA OF SILENCE]


    Obviously not all skills leveled up the same way, heck some of them don''t even have subskills or effects, rather they just get a lot more stronger than normal. Either way I was set with what I had now, and I could face the coming tasks with a focused mind.


    Passive skills:


    ?	Wind child(level 1) Advanced. +15% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 1) Advanced. +20% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 1) Advanced. +30% to aim when in motion, +35% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Born(level 2)basic. Wherever you are the power of Nature is with you. HP regeneration 30% + 60% in Forests, Jungles and any other place Nature can be found. All attacks within nature oriented areas +30%, +100% favorability with all Nature attuned entities.


    ?	Pilot (Level 1) Advanced. Fly and navigate the skies in every form and manner possible. +50% to flight speed and maneuvering, +35% in navigating the skies, +40 to awareness.


    ?	Dragon Commander (level 5) basic. You''re the embodiment of draconic supremacy which gives you power over lesser lifeforms and other dragons. +80% chance to make opponents of a similar level bewildered, 100% for lower levels, 60% for opponents five levels higher, 40% for ten, 20% for fifteen, and 5% for twenty, + 10% increase to the stats of all allies and followers when giving commands.


    Active skills:


    ?	Seeker(level 1) Advanced. +100% damage, speed and accuracy With all weapons. (Cost 100 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (Effect: Fade: All projectiles can not be tracked or seen except through special means)


    ?	Stealth Flight (level 1) Basic. Be unseen within the confines of the atmosphere. (Duration: 25 seconds) (cost: 120 MP)


    ?	Wind Fist(level 5) basic. A series of quickly executed martial skills with the full power and essence of the wind. Speed +15% during skill, Damage +15%, +5% chance to confuse opponents( cost 20 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (duration: 15 seconds) (Effect: No Air: all strikes are silent, and skill is powered by sucking air from the surroundings, including your opponent''s lungs)


    ?	Storm Dance(level 5 ) basic. Become one with the storm, increasing attack and movement speed by 300% defense and evasiveness against attacks raised by 150% for 10 seconds. All attacks are imbued with power of lightening. (Cost 60 MP) (cool down 200 seconds) (Effect: Lightening Field: Have a field of powerful electrical surges around you in a radius of 2 meters. Cause 50 flat damage every 2 seconds)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 1) Advanced. Summon two arrows of pure mana to cause 30% magical and physical damage in a range of 15 meters. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (Effect: Double or Nothing: release 4 arrows instead of two, speed +20% + 10% extra damage)


    ?	Stealth(level 5) basic. Turn invisible for sixty seconds. Stealth is broken when attacked or attacking. Every first hit from stealth is a critical. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 90 seconds) (Effect(I): Shroud Of Nature: Stealth in natural environment is increased by 50%


    ?	Purify(level 1) basic. Purify all things unclean and unholy. +100% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison. + 70% damage against the undead,+40% damage against dark creatures. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 60 seconds)


    ?	Lightning Blade(level 1) advanced. Coat your blade with lightening mana for 5 seconds. Every attack made would have extra lightening damage stacked on top by 35% and all slashes are AOE strike of 9x9 meters. Attack speed increases by 30%. (Cost 80 MP) (Cool down 75 seconds)


    ?	Area Of Silence(level 1) Advanced. Create a cone of air over multiple targets, eliminating the release of all skills and spells for ten seconds. (Cost 140 MP) (cool down 250 seconds)


    Masteries:


    ?	Archery Mastery (level 3) basic. +3% to all archery skills and +5% damage from all bows and arrows


    ?	Sword Mastery (level 2) basic. +3% to all sword skills and + 5% damage from swords


    ?	Magic Mastery (Level 1) basic. +3% damage to all magic skills and spells


    ?	Wind Domain (Level 1): you constantly have a field of magical wind and air power activated around you. All wind spells/skills/creatures: +20% to all combat specs/domain range: 2 meter radius


    Augmented racial trait:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    ?	Spirit Of Air(I): Ability to communicate with air elementals and control air freely


    ?	Heart Of Wind(I): Ability to control wind freely.


    With that out of the way, I made my way out of the villa and onto the ship, I still don''t know how it was transported to villa''s massive garage hundreds of meters up in the air, right in the middle of an island, but it didn''t matter that much to me. I walked the edge of the massive branch that my villa was built on top of, and looked around me, taking in the feel of nature and appreciating this world for what it was now, and what it could be.


    I looked up and met the yellow eyed glare of a giant snake, looks like my old friend was still lurking around this parts. But there was something about that glare that rubbed me off the wrong way, apart from the fact that it was a little too close to the barrier around the tree of revelations, it just seemed off. But maybe it''s because the last and first time I saw that monstrosity, it''s eyes were red not yellow.....oh shit!

 85 Atlantic Rim IV : Players In Position

    Big yellow eyes staring at me, very big yellow eyes. Well it''s quite large, so there''s a possibility it wasn''t looking at me, but I knew better, Dahlia had infected the giant demon snake that almost had me for dinner, but for some reason it, she,was not attacking. I held that gaze for a few moments, staring at it with an intense focus as it looked back at me with a hint of mockery in it''s gaze.


    And seeing that look, threw every single smidge of fear I had for the beast away. Dahlia wasn''t here, and that snake was not here either to cause any sort of problems, this was a statement, a warning! She was telling me that she was still alive and that she was stronger, it was an honest to god challenge. I didn''t like it, buy who would I be if I don''t take that challenge, surpass it and kick ass in the process.


    I might seem to really arrogant to people with this kind of attitude, but I knew who I was, I know who I am, and I definitely know exactly what kind of damage and horror I''m capable of dishing out my enemies. I raised an eyebrow and looked at with as much fierceness as I could muster. Then the bloody snake just turned around and left. This round was over, and based on the clamor and screams of outrage and panic I could hear from within the branches, and down from the roots of the tree of Revelations, I would say that the entire city must have been scared half out of their minds.


    I ignored the noise, went onto the Acheron that at the moment was still undergoing repairs and upgrades, laid down on my bed, and fell asleep. Big journey ahead or not, sleep was something that I desperately needed, and I''m determined to make sure I get enough of it.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    REAL LIFE


    MIAMI BEACH FLORIDA


    Henry was really nervous about this meeting of his. Before his father died, there was not much known about the extended part of the Wade family, or the power they held. But he knew at the very least that they could get him the lower he needed, the prestige and position he craved, they could give him his army.


    But even then a move like this can not be easy, the extended family answered to the head, and for all intents and purposes they were just advisors and trusted employees meant to keep the dark empire of the main Wade family in check. But his father had been quite lax during his time, and gave them way too much power than they needed, and now it was with this power that Henry was going to put an end to that irritating little shit Aaron.


    But just as he and his so called son could never see eye to eye, so too were other members of the Wade family split in their allegiance. There were some that were too greedy and wanted more power, and it was this particular set of people that could help him oust Aaron out of his current position, if not out rightly kill him.


    Normally such an action was frowned on, The Wade family needed to be strong or they would be swallowed up by the other old crime families. The Wade family trained their soldiers, and they used the most sophisticated of tech and bio enhancement and augmentations to make and create soldiers at the peak and above of human capabilities, and recently with the inclusion of the Bacchus nectar this superhuman soldiers were becoming just as he expected they would, super human.


    This was the most lucrative business in the entire galaxy, or rather with the war that''s looming on the horizon, it would be the most lucrative business in the galaxy. But the Wade family had a deal with the old families, their methods of training this soldiers with superhuman speed, agility, strength and powers, were to be used only for them. Business as usual might commence with the government, guns, drugs, surveillance tech etc. But anything that would improve the military might of any world government, was off the tables.


    It was a stupid deal, it was put in place so that the Wade family could be kept in check and they don''t become to powerful. And right now any internal conflicts would give them an excuse to swoop down and end the threat that''s the Wade family for good, it would stop them from becoming the threat the old families envision they would become.


    The old families couldn''t do anything about this at the moment, until such a time when the Wade family broke the deal, or tenets of the Code that kept the overlords of organized crime in place and in check, then they couldn''t touch even a single hair of someone from the Wade family. Henry intends to change that, he already started weaponizing some of the surveillance drones given to the military, it wasn''t as good as what other weapons manufacturing companies could do, but it was enough to paint a big red target on Aaron''s head. After all ''his company, and his money made them''.


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    Whatever internal problems that might arise from within the Wade family, Henry didn''t care. All he wants to do right now is quickly get rid of that boy, and build himself and the government an army, kick start this war before the old families realize what''s happening, and when he''s gotten enough power and money, which wouldn''t take him more than a year, he would end all these families and be the supreme power on earth as a whole. If the Wade family gets destroyed in the process, well then....so be it. After all, that Aaron boy was never his son to begin with anyway.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    SAN FRANCISCO


    UNDER THE SAN-FRACISCO BAY


    WADE INDUSTRIES MOBILE UNDERWATER BASE(W. I. M. U. B)


    Florence hated retirement, it was too damn complicated, and even though her replacements have already been dispatched, a lot of players were making moves right now, and they were all making a play for Aaron, his wealth, his resources, and his life. But she would never let that happen, she had promised his grandfather that she would take care of him no matter what, and right now she had the perfect method and way to do it.


    She was standing in an observation deck, watching as a twelve year old boy displayed abilities that until 20 years ago, was considered nothing more than science fiction or even a myth. But here they are, men, women, teens and children with abilities to shake the very foundation of the world, and all of them belonged to the Wade family, or rather they belonged to Aaron Wade. He just didn''t know it yet.


    Florence spoke into the mic in front of her, he features softening a bit as she spoke to the young boy currently spinning a disk of pure silver alloy above his hand. The fact that she spoke in fluent Celtic did not seem to faze the people around, her, it was a language that''s hardly ever spoken, if it wasn''t already extinct.


    "Nicolas you shouldn''t push yourself so hard, I wouldn''t want to explain to your mother why I brought you back unconscious. You can already control, bend and reshape metal with the hardness of an industrial forged silver alloy, and to think you came up from copper and tin. You''re stronger now, so you should give yourself a break and a pat on the back."


    "But grandma! It''s not enough. You said master Aaron would only take the best of the best into the Familia, what if I''m not chosen?" the young boy asked, expanding the flattening the disk until it was wide enough for his to sit upon.


    "Aaron won''t say no to you, I practically raised him, and so he''s like your uncle or brother. He would probably love you and protect you even more than I can, and he will fight for you, just as you''re going to fight for him. You know your role don''t you?"


    "Of course I do grandma! I know my place, I know my title and my rank. I know what I have to do to keep the world safe, to keep our Familia safe." The young boy replied, looking up at his grandmother with looks of reverence and happiness.


    "And what''s that title, introduce yourself to grandma." Florence asked with a wide smile on her face.


    "My name is Nicholas Poser, Familia Platoon: Immortal. Title: The God Of War....Ares!"


    Florence smiled with as much pride and guilt along with a serious amount of self loathing that she could muster. She could tell herself that she did this to protect both her boys, but in the end the truth was still staring at her right in the face. She had trained her grandson into nothing short of a perfect killing machine, just like he said. She had made her own flesh and blood a God of war, a killer at twelve. A killer fully and completely loyal to Aaron Wade.

 86 Atlantic Rim V : Massacre 1

    We left Patmos very early the next morning, once again we were back amongst the calm sounds of the sea, the call of the wind,and adventure on the horizon. But I was not above deck to see and experience all this, I was in a room on this ship that was just recently constructed by Dinah, it has been repurposed into a medic bay.


    Jack was asleep, floating in a pod of glowing green liquid with a breathing mask on his face. I really felt guilty and responsible to him for this, there was so much I could have done to prevent such a thing from happening, but it still happened none the less, and it was all my fault. But there was no need to dwell on what ifs and has beens.There was a chance to make up for it and take care of my friend, and that''s what I''m going to do.


    Apart from watching Jack, there were other things that needed my attention, and chief amongst them is the fact that the ship''s operating system and stat page have become integrated and changed in more ways than one. Dinah had went all out in upgrading the ship, so much so that with the proper materials, and shit ton of magic, Acheron was now capable of evolving herself or at the very least, sections of herself.


    ?	SHIPE NAME: ACHERON


    ?	CAPTAIN/OWNER: AAREN SEVEN


    ?	CLASS: MEDIUM SIZED PIRATE VESSEL


    ?	GRADE: EARTH


    ?	LEVEL: 9


    ?	DEFENSE: 20.8/ SPEED: 40.9/ POWER: 30.4/BALANCE: 17.2


    ?	MAIN WEAPONS: ION PULSE CANNON(L1)


    ?	SUB WEAPONS: STAR DRAGON TURRETS(L1)


    ?	MAIN DEFENSE: BASIC ENERGY SHIELD(L1)


    ?	SUB DEFENSE: N/A


    ?	AREAS: ENGINE ROOM(+L1)/CABIN ROOM(L1)/MEDIC BAY(L1)/GENERAL ROOM(L1)/DECK(L1)/CAPTAINS QUARTERS(L1)


    ?	CORE: MYSTERIOUS BLACK PEARL (L1)


    ?	SKILLS: (CAMOUFLAGE L1)(SEA SPRINT L1)( NANO CELLS L1)(MAGIC NAVIGATION L5)


    ?	UPGRADE POINTS AVAILABLE: 13


    I have no idea why the ship''s system was not like this in the first place, but never the less it was a lot more better than before. Everything on the ship was actually level 1,except of course for the magic navigation skill, which I''m sure mainly comes from the magic compass that served as the core for the ship''s navigation system. And all of these things seemed to be upgradable, especially the ship''s stats. But it''s level was still nine, which makes me believe that it would be very hard for the ship to gain levels, even after all the battles we''ve been in. I guess that makes sense, after all it takes a few years for a pirate vessel to become quite renowned.


    But the Acheron was not a pirate vessel, at the very least I don''t intend for it to be. Never the less it''s current class made it extremely fast, and hopefully when the time comes, I can change it into something more powerful and less criminal like.


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    I spent hours in the med bay, doing nothing but just staring at the unconscious form of Jack. And it would have gone on for a lot longer if Qitar didn''t come in, with a serious look on her face. It''s either we''ve met trouble, or we''ve gotten close to the Atlantic ocean.


    "Sorry to disturb you captain, but based on the specs and information the coven was able to provide, the ship carrying the elven scientific to his new life in Atlantis has been spotted just beyond the horizon. We will be able to catch up to them in fifteen minutes or less, should we immediately engage the moment we''re close enough?"


    "No! You guys will do no such thing. Your jobs is to reduce the speed with which you guys are traveling, tell Darke that I need him to move slowly, and to move past that ship in about forty minutes, and then keep a definite distance between them, a kilometer should do. This job, I will be doing it by myself."


    I said to Qitar as I got up and made my way to the deck, Qitar looked like she had much to say, but as we got to the deck, all she could do was relay my orders to Darke. Sky came to me and I had her turn into her bow form, before unceremoniously jumping into the cold sea below us, not even saying good bye. There was no need for that, the last time I had to do something like this, I had joked quite a bit with it, and ended up getting blown, this time I was putting in all of my focus.


    I opened my wings, and I felt the pressure of the current beat against them, the sea was bright and I could see a variety of fish and sea life swim past me, and a little bit deeper, there were things that I''m sure I don''t want to face at the moment. I could breathe just as easily as on the surface, I could feel the gills on my neck pulse and move in tandem with breathing, as I faced the direction of the ship I wanted to board.


    I moved my wings a bit, and then shot towards the ship, utilizing the swim bladder in my body that made no different in movements from a real fist in water. I twirled myself in the water, feeling a bit of resistance as I swam past the Acheron, going a bit deeper so my form could not be seen from the surface of the water. And then for the first time ever, I actually utilized an ability I knew I had, and cost me nothing to use,and that was the power to control air.


    Small pockets of air began to gather around my form as I swam, making the resistance of the water practically no existence as I cut through the sea like a hot knife through butter. My movements disturbed the aquatic life and drew their attention to me, but even worse was the fact that I could hear what they were saying, and to be honest hearing a jellyfish calling me a weird freak of nature did not really sit well with me.


    Eventually I got closer to the ship, and that''s when I activated stealth and stopped using my ability to control air. The ship was an amalgamation of magic and tech as wood and metal seemed to meld together to create a massive hunk of a beast. The ship was twice the size of the Acheron, and just from coming close to it, I could feel some sort of repelling force coming from it, like a shield that''s meant to divert anything or being from coming close to the sides of the ship.


    [Iron Wood Smuggling Ship.(enchanted): Iron wood is a well known but quite rare tree that''s known to have the ability to mimic the hardness of certain metals depending on their age or level. 0-20 year trees are as hard as iron, 20-50 hear trees are as hard as refined steel, and 50-100 year old trees are as hard as platinum with the tree finally shedding it''s wooden frame for a metallic one. There are no iron wood trees above a 100 years in existence anymore, they have all been harvested and used to build ships and structures.]


    I suddenly remember something seeing this notification in front of me, there''s no such thing as an identification skill or appraisal skill, except when a player is in a dungeon would such an ability or skill be afforded to them. But I had been given two books, of whose names I can''t remember at the moment. It was one of the rewards from my achievements, and of these two books, one helped me analyze and recognize plants or biological life forms, while the other helped me analyze materials and metals and precious ores.


    It was why I''m able to recognize what this ship is made up off, and also understanding that it would take a serious amount of firepower on our part to break through it''s defense. This ship was enchanted, and it was enchantment that was too powerful, so powerful that I couldn''t get close enough to find a way in.


    *Creak!*


    A loud sound from the ship drew my attention, I swam down and under the ship, coming somewhere close to it''s middle where what looked like a bay door was just opened. I swam close to it''s edge, just enough to notice the three sea elves deeply engrossed in a discussion as they took their clothes off.


    I expect that they were going for an afternoon swim since they were taking their clothes off, possibly maybe for a little tryst since there was a woman amongst the trio, however even if this was a game, as a soldier I could recognize delayed charges when I saw one. And since it would not really make sense for them to sabotage their own ships with bombs, it meant they had another target.


    A magic mirror sprung to life behind them, and all three of them turned to face it. It was showing real time feed of a ship that was rapidly gaining on them, my ship! Which more than clarified my suspicion. These guys were being careful, and regardless of whether we were innocent or not, the fact that our ship voted close enough to them, was cause enough for us to be eliminated. Well if that''s the case, they wouldn''t mind if I gave them an early welcome. I pulled Sky from my back, and for the first time ever, activated her magic staff form.

 87 Atlantic Rim VI : Massacre 2

    {ARNETINE BATTLE BEAST: NIGHT STAR STAFF FORM: +70% DAMAGE FOR ALL MAGIC SPELLS, -20% CAST TIME FOR SPELLS, -35% COST FOR ALL MAGIC SPELLS}


    {SKILLS: STELLAR FLARE: SEND A WAVE OF STELLAR MAGICAL ENERGY TO STRIP AWAY AND BURN YOUR ENEMIES WITHIN A RANGE OF 30 METERS/ COST 250 MP/ COOLDOWN: 30 SECONDS}


    [MANA ARROW!]


    With the double or nothing effect active, arrows made of silvery star like light, instead of the normal bulge of Mana came into existence and shot out of the water, past the bay doors and into the three sea elves preparing to dive into the sea. There were four released mana arrows, and then the fourthseemed to have hit the mechanism that controlled the bay doors, rapidly closing it up. I swam upwards, barely making it as I came up into an engine room of sorts.


    I wasn''t really aiming when I use the mana arrow spell,but it had taken off the head of two of the sea elves, and bored a huge hope on the collarbone of another. It seems these guys were not as strong as I expected, or they were on incredibly weak. But never the less the fact that they were going to sabotage our ship made me confident that this was the right place to be, however I also had to warn the others of the impending trouble.


    "Qitar?"


    "Yes captain?" her voice rang out from my communicator.


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    "The sea elves discovered us, and they were planning on making a move by setting explosive charges under the ship. Tell everyone to man their battle stations, you guys might have to take the fight to them while I find and eliminate our target. Be careful and please keep your distance from them, just follow and chip away at their defenses, their ship is made of something special and is spelled."


    "Understood."


    I didn''t have to worry too much about them, I was very much confident in Qitar''s ability in a fight, plus I''m sure she would be able to keep the others in line and very useful. Now the thing is I don''t know where my target would be on this ship, and it made for quite an enigma as I didn''t have all the time in the world.


    I noticed a set of stairs that led up to another section of the ship, I changed Sky''s form back to the bow as I strung a single arrow and made my way up. The door at the end seemed to have motion sensors or rather magic motion sensors as it''s made of wood entirely. It swung open just in time for me to get grabbed by someone and pulled into a hallway, before being smashed into the wall of the ship.


    For a moment all I could see were stars as Sky clattered out of my grasp and changed back into her normal elephant form. I turned around to see a mountain of a sea elf pounding his huge fist at my head. But there''s no way I''m going to sit still and let him use me for a punching bag.


    I ducked under his swing, wincing a bit in consolation as his fist smashed into the iron wood interior of the ship, crunching bones in the process. But he didn''t seem to care about the pain as he sent a knee straight to my chest. But I was ready for him. I moved one of my wings into the way and used it to block his knee strike, before throwing a left hook to his face that left him reeling as he took a few steps backwards. Unfortunately for him, my strength at the moment was not anything average, and I was more than ready for him.


    He screamed in rage and threw his leg forward again, this kicking so high that his feet was heading straight to my face, now that was a big mistake. I ducked under his kick and swept my leg at his unbalanced form, he was thrown airborne, and just in time as both my wings fished like bleeds, their tipped edges stabbing into both his shoulders and pinning him to the wall.


    He was a little heavy for my wings to hold up, but I could manage. Besides these wings of mine need to experience more pressure if they''re to grow stronger, so far they''ve proven to be the weakest part of my body, even if they''re the most useful. I looked up at the suspended sea elf and asked him.


    "Where''s the traitor?" and surprisingly enough he answered.


    "He''s on the observation deck with the captain and the inquisitor. That''s on the top deck of the ship, and they''re waiting for you there. Everything you did from the moment you got on the ship could be seen by them, you won''t be able to win, they''re going to....."


    *SLICE!*


    I have to say that it''s incredibly easy to take off a person''s head with my wings, though I would say that it''s mostly attributed to my armor. It was powerful, but never the less even if what these very dead sea elf said was true and that they were waiting for me. It still wouldn''t change the outcome of this battle, unlike the last time when they had not actually been around, this time regardless of whatever traps they set, they''re all in one place, and with Qitar and the others attacking from outside, I doubt they would be able to put up much of a fight.


    Sky came close to me and poked at the body of the sea elf, and before I could even tell her to stop she had swallowed the entire thing, her mouth opening to epic proportions in the process and scaring the shit out of me. There were a few crunching sounds, before she grew a few more feet in front of me, her head now reach my chest if not higher.


    (Your Battle Beast Has Leveled Up To 20.)


    Well whatever the case, I will pay attention to Sky''s level up later, but for now we still had things to take care of. We made our towards the end of the hallway, got up another flight to stairs before opening a door to the next deck. However a significant amount of enemies were waiting for us and a hail of gun fire and magic pelted us and forces us to close the door once again.


    Thankfully the ship was built with a material that was extremely resilient, which means we were safe for a little while. But I had to get rid of them if I was to advance, and even though my AOE skills were quite limited, I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. I looked at Sky and had her turn back into her staff form, and then I went down to my knees and immediately pushed the door open.


    (AREA OF SILENCE!)


    I had my wings wrapped around my body as a shield, and since my armor had metal plates that covered them, it more than made up for it. However getting pelted by bullets and arrows still hurt. But as for those of them using skills or spells, they immediately found themselves unable to use any as a transparent dome of wind covered much of the hallway ahead of me and the inhabitants within.


    The area was literally silent, and there was no sound. But mostly it was their inability to cast spells or release their skills that truly made this a wonder. Unfortunately it left them ripe for the picking and gave me a chance to test something new and hopefully very painful on them.


    (STELLAR FLARE!)


    Sky''s entire staff form began to glow as light seemed to build up from her base all the way to the top where the head of an elephant could be seen, with it''s ears spread like wings and eyes silver like diamonds. Just like her bow form, her entire frame was pitch black and dotted with tiny silver pin-pricks that made her seem like and iteration of the night sky.


    I felt the staff vibrate in my hand as a pure silvery light of intense heat shot out from it and fly straight into the tight confines of the hallway. I release of skill was a little to powerful as it even threw me back a bit. But what I saw next was nothing short of terrifying as the silver wave flew forwards, ripping away and burning at the flesh of every living thing within the hallway. I stood there horrified yet fascinated as flesh was stripped from bone, and bone itself burnt until all that was left in that hallway was ash.


    This was a powerful skill, a rather insane one. In much the same way meteor shower could cause a significant amount of damage, so too could stellar flare. I couldn''t wait to unlock more weapon forms, it would be nice to see how much more over powered skills Sky could generate. But either way, it was time to move forward.

 88 Atlantic Rim VII : Massacre 3

    @@


    Sky''s magic staff form was quite a force to be reckoned with, it made me really want to find more magic spells that I can use the staffs power to amplify and cast. All of the spells I had just used to completely decimate the hallway full of sea elves, except of course for the spell that came with staff, could be casted without using a staff. However spells that were casted through a medium, like a staff, a wand, or a medallion had their power and effects increased.


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    Which was why magical classes that mainly focused on magic were more than eager to have good staffs equipped for battles. The damage and power a mage with a staff can cause was at least 30% stronger than what a mage with his hands could muster. And I had one that''s really cool and bad ass, so which means I would probably be on top of the magic game for a while.


    I changed Sky''s form back into her bow form, I felt her vibrate in my hands as she gave me a warning. The magic staff form required twice as much power as her @@

 89 Atlantic Rim VIII : Aaren Vs Players

    @@


    Well there''s no way this coming fight was going to be easy, especially when there''s players involved. And the thing about players is that most of them have been playing this game for years before me, so even though the update reset skill levels, player levels and stats. They still have their extremely talented powerful skills and equipment on hand. Of course some of this equipment might have requirements, but the bottom line of the matter is, I''m definitely not the only one with lots of tricks up their sleeves.


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    I moved forward, parrying a strike from a spear as I turned the handle of my sword and smashed the hilt into the face of my first and very unfortunate opponent, as the hit caved his pretty sliver blue face. I stepped back evading an axe strike, and watched with amusement as Sky barrels her large body into my opponent, pushing the rest of his friends back as she reads up on her hind legs, and then brought it down, hard on the skull of the person who just fell on the ground. S@@

 90 Atlantic Rim IX : Angel Of Death

    @@


    The water was cold, but maybe it wasn''t just the fact that he was in the water that mattered, maybe it was the extreme fear that he was currently feeling, the way it creeped into the deepest recesses of his bones. Who would have thought that his greed and his need for more recognition would land him in a shit ton for trouble. The sea elves were supposed to protect him, get him safe passage across the two seas and into the Atlantic rim, safe and protected from the reach of Elfengarde.


    But they hadn''t even sent their best warriors along, they had just sent two travelers, and a weak crew that wouldn''t even survive a single voyage at the sea. It was so damn ridiculous, so much so that at the first sign of trouble, the captain had abandoned his ship and ran away, leaving his crew and his charge behind.


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    He was definitely feeling regrets now, of all the people he could have went to, it was the sea elves. There was a reason why they were the least accepted of the elven races, yet he had@@

 91 Atlantic Rim X : Dri

    @@


    L. D. O


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    LOCATION: CARRION GROVE CITY; HELL


    Drit was livid, never in his five years of playing lost descendants online has he been so terribly trashed in a fight, and what made it even more worse was the fact that even with all of the sea elves they had on their side, the best they could do was to live a scratch on the player that decided to attack their ship and murder their charge.


    Normally when other players saw him, they turned tail and went the other way. Drit was a top player of lost descendants online, he held a legendary class, and even more so a legendary weapon, plus he had aces to resources that other players didn''t have, even though it was a little out of their way. So getting killed by some nameless player that he was sure was a newbie, because that''s the only way he would have been unable to recognize who Drit was.


    Drit''s class was coined Royal demon, and he had leveled the class up, all the way to it''s current advancement prince of hell. He''s race was devil, and@@

 92 New Era I : Board Meeting

    @@


    A board meeting first thing in the morning! Seriously how do they live like this, it was all work, work, work! Of course this might be a little hypocritical on my part seeing as the board meeting was called on my orders. It was so that me and Kira could pitch in our new reforms, policies and point the company in the right direction.


    When you consider all that I was about to do, you could see that it''s obviously not what my grandfather wanted for me. He wanted me to be low key, to live my life away from the radar of enemies that would end me before I could achieve anything, however the life a turtle was not my style. Besides it would serve better to be more like a star going supernova, as long as I can hit my enemies fast and hit them hard, it wouldn''t give them any more chances to plot against me. I just had to remain ten steps ahead of all of them.


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    The whole grumpy lot were here, except of course for Cora, she''s actually cool. Thought she''s a bit distracting seeing as she had @@

 93 New Era II : The Clue

    @@


    After I had successfully turned the entire board room upside down, I decided to leave. Because I wasn''t just this group of sharks I had to deal with today, there were was an even more dangerous groups who''s interests I have encroached upon, and that was the old crime families. I was on my way out when I heard someone call for me.


    It was board member Cora, and damn she still looked good. I guess you could say I''m one of those kids who had a massive crush on the baby sitter. As she came close, it was almost as if there was a frantic aura to her movements, like there was something she had to tell me that she didn''t want anyone else to find out. Or maybe I was just reading too much into it, there shouldn''t really be that much of a problem.


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    "Aaron are you leaving?" she asked me with a smile, coming to walk beside me and then whilst placing her hand behind me back moved me forward towards the entrance of the building. I raised an eyebrow in surprise, but still answered her, skepticis@@

 94 New Era III : Car Chase; Again!

    @@


    "Pegasus! Wake the fuck up!"


    (Geez boss I''m already awake, what''s with the yelling ???? ???? ????)


    "Get in defense mode and battle mode now, looks like we''ve got some company."


    Pegasus did not stand on ceremony as he initiated the change, the steering wheel on my hand spilt from it''s original circular form, looking like a H turned sideways, with it''s edge connected. His original manual gear shift changed to automatic as a large button appeared on his dashboard. A seat belt crossed over both of Cora''s shoulders keeping her in place as I finally pulled out what I was reaching for under my seat.


    Outside the car, hexagonal shaped energy shields began to interlock amongst themselves, giving Pegasus his war armor so to speak. I rolled down the window of my side and looked at the massive SUV driving besides me with it''s tinted windows and ominous look. Then I gave it the middle finger, and just like I expected, it proceeded to ram into me, trying to run me off the road.


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    (Listen bo@@

 95 New Era IV : Harsh Words, Ivan Morrison

    "Aaron what''s going on?" Cora asked me with a worried voice.


    I understood that she was scared, and that in one way or another she needed a little assurance after what has just happened, but I didn''t have anything of the sort to give her. My life seems to be getting more complicated by the minute, and I think the best option now, would be to keep the people close to me a way from the danger, and that includes not telling them about why and how I just survived a car chase of super powered cars from a group of Russians who wanted to kill me.


    "Don''t worry about it Aunty Cora, we''ll talk later. We''re already at your building, go in and lock your doors, I will out a security detail outside the building for your safety, you''ll be fine."


    Obviously we won''t be having that talk later, this si mother''s friend and someone I actually looked up to. Though we''ve not really connected since I''ve been back, she was someone I respected and cared for. Call me a hypocrite, but I rather not put her in danger, especially now when she was caught up in something that she shouldn''t have been. The less she knew the better for both of us, but Cora was anything if not persistent.


    "Aaron what the hell is going on! Some people just tried to have us killed, and I''m pretty sure you just ordered someone to kill another person! Please tell me what''s going on, are you in any trouble? If that''s the case then just tell me what, I can help you!"


    "Aunty Cora, with all die respect you''re no my mother, if we have to be literal then you fucking work for me. If I need help from a lonely middle aged woman almost past her prime, then I will tell you. But since I said there''s nothing to said, please leave, go home and stay put. I''ll call you later."


    She looked hurt, nope she was definitely hurt, and I knew I went a little bit too far with the way I had just talked to her, but I had no choice, she was being intrusive and whatever it she wanted to talk about, I was not in the mood to do so. She gave me a pained smile and then opened the door and got out of the car, and then she proceeded to unceremoniously slam the door behind her, really hard. So much so that it gave me a fright, I guess she''s really pissed.


    (Boss don''t you think you went too far, I''m sire there''s a better way to tell her not to ask too much questions, that was harsh man, real harsh. Even for you.)


    "Yeah I know Pegs, I''ll try and make it up to her later. But for now, we have places to be."


    I did feel a little bit guilty about the way I had spoken to her, she was practically family and I was such a rude jerk. It''s going to take a lot on my part to get her to forgive me, but I''m sure I can make it work. I drove away from her penthouse building, back to the road as I followed the directions this Nezha had given to me. I had so many people working for me and it was getting really hard to keep track of all of them, however most of them should be here today.


    The drive towards the location of the ''lead'' that could tell us which Russian mob put a hit on me was quite dull and silent. It was mostly filled with me feeling like crap for the shit I said to Cora, but also a little worried for her safety. And then just to avoid that feeling of guilt, I began wondering how or what sort of weapon could shoot a fireball that would blow an armored SUV to pieces. I''ll make sure to ask the Nezha when I got there.


    XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


    Twenty minutes later I found myself driving into a warehouse district. From the moment I arrived I already noticed choke points for ambush, and places that were defensive and could be used to hold any assault back. There were people in each of this places, and I recognized them from the black clothes, and the silver W fashioned like wings on shoulders....these were my people.


    I drove until I reach the destination that Nezha had sent for me, it was a warehouse that was boarded up real tight. And not with wood, but rather with thin metal beams that looked like the blinds in an office. There were a few cars parked outside, armored vehicles with ferocious looking men and women standing outside all armed to the teeth. I placed my head on the steering wheel and sighed deeply.


    (You okay boss?????????????)Pegasus asked with concern.


    "Yeah I''m fine Pegs, let''s get this over with."


    And then I stepped out of the car, and as soon as I did, my whole disposition changed. Now I was no longer Aaron Wade the chairman of multibillion dollar corporation, or the dyslexic father of a talented Autistic child, I was the darkness that lurked in between the seams of that life. Who I was right now was terrifying, and I was coming for blood.


    I pulled the tie around my neck loose and threw it on top of Pegasus''s bonnet and then walked towards Hades who was coming towards me with a laptop opened, and being followed by two Asians and judging from their resemblance they either twins or siblings.


    "Hades how''s the situation here, and have you gotten through to Nanny Florence?" I asked him as he fell into stride beside me while we walked to the front of the warehouse.


    "Lady Athena is still taking care of some important business in San-Francisco, however she''s also running her own investigation into the situation and would let us know her findings before the end of the day. As for the situation here, I believe Nuwa can better explain it to you." Hades said as the Asian young woman walked forwards and took the laptop from Hades.


    "We know for sure the Russians put a hit on you, but why? We don''t know yet. Plus we have to be sure which of the mobs made a move on us, any wrong mistake on our part, and we would have the entire Russian mob family going to war with us. So we have to take our steps carefully.


    About fifteen minutes before you left, there was an intercepted four way call from an encrypted number within Imperium industries, to a foreign number in Europe and to a cell phone who''s location at the time was just a few streets away from the company, and finally to a landline within this building.


    The foreign number had it''s call address bounced around a few dozen satellites, but it was still child''s play for me to find out that it came from Moscow. I''m still trying to triangulate its specific location, but that should be done in a few hours. The encrypted phone from Imperium industries was destroyed immediately the call was finished, I have people now looking for whatever''s left of it.


    With our two main leads being dead ends, and our third burnt to a crisp our out rightly devoured by Nanites courtesy of you and Nezha, this leaves with our fourth and final lead.


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    The landline is registered to a Ivan Morrison, according to official records he owns a transport company, which is true, but the taxis he uses are front for him to smuggle cocaine and a synthesized form of cannabis that''s not exactly what the old one is like. He''s slowly reintroducing drug trade back into Los Angeles.


    The warehouse ahead of us is his club and the base of his operations. He knows we were coming, and at the moment we''ve received reports of a small army heading this way, probably from the people who tried to off you, and it''s safe to say they''re coming to save him.We''re in for some trouble boss, and that guy''s hold up within that club tighter that a titles clenched ass hidden in it''s shell."


    I turned my head too look at her, raising my eyebrow in the process. How in the hell did that kind of analogy get into her head. Her brother coughed a bit, and in the next second and turned a startling shade on red as she blushed from the tip of her toes all the way to the crown of her head. Cute, but she seems a little thin skimmed for this kind of job.


    "How long is it going to take us to break through the front door?" I asked the young Asian woman.


    "The warehouse is fortified and not just with metal. There''s a nanite field placed just ten inches away from the building itself, and we would have to break through that and then through half a meter of mechanized titanium steel alloy doors. Using conventional methods would probably take us about fifteen minutes, but using an unconventional method with heavy firepower might be best."


    "Okay good, what is this unconventional method that you''re talking about?"


    "Oh! That''s just my brother Nezha." She said to me with a smile.


    "What do you mean?" I asked her as I turned to other Asian man.


    "Watch and be amazed boss, be amazed!Flame on!"

 96 New Era V : Next Stage Of Human Evolution

    At some point I knew the world I lived in now, was a lot more different than the one I was born into. Governments have wanted in power over the past century, as massive corporations rose up, becoming almost responsible for the stability and economy of whatever country they were located in. The people who ran this corporations more often than not, had the power to shape the present and future of their countries in more ways than one.


    But this world was more than just the governments of earth, there were three mega spade stations that supported life, two of which currently orbited the moon, with the third being half as large as the moon and orbiting mars. And then finally the colony on Mars, the terraformed part of the planet that at the moment could support life and thrived under the watch of humanity, well I guess we call them Martians now. Science and technology have experienced big breakthroughs, and even now they were still growing at a fast pace.


    So our society and our technology have evolved and they''re still evolving. It was nice, but if all these were happening, then I guess the next step to take would he human evolution right? Maybe so. At the moment there were things like cybernetic implants and neural enhancers, most of these tech were illegal outside of surgery procedures or special military squads, but they were there. So when someone talks to me about human evolution I think maybe one day we can create teleportation tubes, and a proper light speed engine that won''t force you to travel in space for five years before you get to Mars. Or maybe we delve deeper into cybernetic and create a whole new race of cyborgs, or with the advent of clones and virtual reality tech, the world can get veryAltered Carbon and become capable of transferring human consciousness from one body to another with as much ease as fueling a car.


    That was the though, the belief or expectations of the next stage of human evolution, but nothing, absolutely nothing would have prepared me for super powers.


    Bright orange flames that looked more like energy than fire appeared above Nezha''s hands. They looked like flames, but that''s not what they were, shredded he said flame on, but what I was looking at seemed to be a pure concentration of energy and light, and even as he moved forwards towards the gate massive doors and nanite protected warehouse building, I could feel the intense heat coming from it, it was like standing next to the sun.


    "Nezha has the ability to manipulate an control the positive side of the energy or rather temperature spectrum. But that''s just a simple explanation, he has the ability to rapidly speed up the movements of molecules and even change their composition until they''re hot enough to compare to a small nuclear bomb. If he wants, he found level a small city if he wants to, however his twin sister''s ability or the complete opposite." Jade was explaining Nezha''s ability to me, but even then I couldn''t take my eyes off the sheer display of power currently in front of me.


    The balls of energy above his hands seemed to come together, forming a larger globe of energy that now released a beam of intense hot light at the nanite shield and door. It was like a laser cutter raised to the power of the sun, it was insane. As I watched him break through their defenses I heard Hades continue speaking.


    "His sister Nuwa can slow down molecules, but alike her body who can only affect the molecules in the air. She can do it within the body of any living thing, or even within the interior of any object. He abilities met her drop temperatures from +1000 degrees to -1000 in anything under 20 seconds. Unlike her brother she can''t level a city, but I don''t think an ice age is any less dangerous than a small nuclear holocaust."


    I turned to face this Nuwa watching as she shrank under my gaze, I was trying to keep my cool, but I guess the explains where the fireball that blew the other car up came from. But even then this was still behind amazing and somewhat ridiculous, where the hell did they find these guys. And how exactly did they all become capable of the abilities they now have?


    "Master I know you have a significant amount of questions, but Lady Athena....Ms. Florence is on her way back to the city. She insists on wanting to be the one who tells you everything about this situation. It''s a rather sensitive topic I hope you understand why I wouldn''t want to say much sir."


    *BOOOM!*


    The massive door was blown of it''s hinges and straight into the club/warehouse. There were loud screams of pain and shock coming from within, but none the less it was time to go spill blood. Hades was right, I rather hear this from nanny Florence.


    "Alright Hades, Nuwa, our main goal is to get Ivan, I don''t know who he looks like, and frankly I''m too pissed to care. Find him and point him out, if possible contain him. As for everyone else, as long as they point a weapon at you, put a bullet in their head." I ordered as I took of my suit and folded my sleeves.


    Hades turned to one of our men and received a polished wooden box with a motif of a wolf and vines on it. I looked at Hades supreme, but all he did was open the bode without saying anything.A pair of gleaming silver guns were staring back at me. There were a little bit larger than normal, the end of the guns around the barrel had openings into it that seemed like gills and glowed an eerie blue. On their frames were motifs of white wolves and even more vines as the warped around the entire gun all the way to it''s handle, I looked at Hades.


    "A gift from your grandfather. We''ve been keeping it for the right time, and now seems as good a time as any." I smiled as I said to Hades.


    "You, me and Nancy Florence are going to have s long talk about keeping secrets from me. But in the main time, thanks so much for the gift, now let''s get to it."


    As soon as I finished speaking, I took both guns and went into the warehouse, Nezha and Nuwa on my side. We had scarcely spent a second in the warehouse before someone fired a gun. I don''t know who moved faster, whether it was the gun or the person who shot at us, but Nuwa waved her hands, and in front of me was a wall of ice that all three of us huddle behind.


    After saying there for about a minute, we heard the tell tale sound of an empty chamber, I smiled and turned around and shot towards the direction where the shots was coming from before. A second later I saw someone''s head completely disappear from their shoulders, and their body also fell to the ground. But that was enough for me to notice the amount of people holding guns within this club/warehouse. There were a lot.


    *Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*


    I quickly huddled down behind the ice wall Nuwa made, we were completely suppressed and couldn''t make a move form behind the ice wall due to the amount of bullets that were falling around us, however they had their attention focused on us, completely forgetting the fact that I had an army outside with the warehouse complete surrounded.


    A glowing silver object flew over our heads and into the warehouse, a beeping sound slowly being released from it. Under the rapid fire of all the guns in the warehouse, they saw the small silver sphere, but they didn''t hear it, and someone of them even tried to shoot at it, not all fearful for their lives.


    *DOOOOM!*


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    There was no loud explosion or the sound of shrapnel, but rather a shockwave so powerful that it leveled the warehouse and pushed a lot of the people involved in this gun fight backwards. The shock wave was so powerful that the top half of Nuwa''s ice shield was completely sheared over, as a sort of pressure was felt, with our heads getting a bit heavy and our ears ringing. This was a concussion grenade, but damn it packed a punch and was completely unlike anything I ever used during my time in the military.


    But even then this had cleared a path for us as the people who had been shooting at us were currently nursing a massive headache and were sprawled out on the ground like a couple of teenagers passed out at a party. They were ripe for the picking or was it reaping. I stepped out from behind the ice shield, both guns crossed over each other as I happily let it rain.

 97 New Era VI : GunFight! Club

    Even though they are still under the effects of the concussion grenade, out opponents were already hurrying back up to their feet. But we already took the initiative, plus my people were already streaming into the warehouse, this was going to be a massacre.


    I narrowed my eyes, keeping my focus sharp as I puked the triggers on both guns. My aim was impeccable as I got headshots every time. I have no idea what the bullets in this gun are made from, but every headshot doesn''t leave much behind, just a neck. Nuwa and Nezha were besides me, ice and fire flying every which way as people got burnt or frozen in seconds.


    The lackeys of Ivan were dropping like flies as we advanced into the warehouse, every move calculated and carried out with utmost efficiency. For a moment I couldn''t help the nostalgic feeling as I remembered my time in the army, we did things like this too, I''m just not allowed to talk about it. I ran forward, going up a set of metal stairs and up to the second floor. There was someone waiting for me at the top of the stairs, but before he could properly aim his gun, a massive spike made of earth flew past me and straight into his chest. This unfortunate body was lifted off the ground and carried backwards until it was nailed to the wall, ironically on a painting of Jesus Christ.


    I got to the second floor and had to quickly shift my body sideways as a shot gun went off. I was able to get past it''s range, but whatever that shotgun was made of, it had too much a kick as the blast threw the shooter and me backwards. I quickly got back up to my feet and opened fired on the shooter, punching massive bloody holes into his body as I turned to the left and opened fire on an idiot trying to catch me off guard with a fire axe. I only needed one shot before it was only just a headless body that was running towards me.


    From where I was standing, I had to go left to get to the back of the club, and probably to the office of Ivan. The second floor was built on the edge of the club, directly overlooking the ground/dance floor. Seems like the second floor was meant for VIPs only. We''ve already taken over much of the club, but now all of Ivan''s forces were consolidated on the second floor, particularly at the back and right in front of the entrance to his office.There''s no way we can push forward with sustaining casualties, and even though they would also have losses, they could hole themselves up long enough for their reinforcements to arrive and then box us in. I needed a clear path, but I wouldn''t ask Nezha, there''s nothing subtle about his abilities and in a space as confined as this, it might cause more harm than good, hopefully Nuwa has a few tricks up her sleeves.


    Nuwa came up right beside me, her brother not too far behind. They looked relatively unscathed, which was good, and as the rest of the Wade family soldiers, there doesn''t seem to be anyone of them injured or dead, so far this has been a success, but it''s not right to count my eggs before they hatch, so I''m keeping my fingers crossed.


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    "Nuwa can you do something about these guys blocking the way, a head on confrontation wouldn''t be too good." I said to her as she peaked her head around the corner, only to pull it back quickly, and just in time too as a bullet whizzed past. She blinked her tiny eyes and then said to me.


    "Sure thing boss, just give me a moment." And then she went back down the stairs until she was standing under the area where the consolidated forces of Ivan were huddled up.


    She moved her neck from side to side, releasing crisp sounds of her bones cracking, and then she flicked her hands a bit, and then jumped up a few times. Her brother proceeded to smack his hands into his face and let out an exasperated sigh at his sisters antics. However her antics didn''t last long as she pointed her hands upwards and released a blast of cold air that was rapidly freezing the metal walkway above her, and the feet of the people standing on it.


    It would be stupid for Ivan''s forces to remain standing there, the temperature was so cold that it was as if they had placed their bare feet on ice and everywhere else around them was the Himalayas and they were all in their birthday suit. The advent of Nuwa''s freezing abilities forced them to move, and it sent them directly towards me, right into the open jaws of the waiting lion.


    Nezha and I both took our place behind the corner and waited for the escaping lackeys to get close enough. I gave Nuwa a signal and asked her and the rest of the forces to back away from the area, then I nodded at Nezha and he threw a fire ball right into the tightly packed area and the approaching gangsters.


    *BOOOM!*


    So far the second floor was completely made of metal, and metal that has been frozen to a really low degree would become so brittle that any hit of significant magnitude or force would shatter it to pieces. And that''s exactly what happened as the entire floor beneath them shattered and all of them fell to the ground amidst the shards of broken frozen metal. I moved to the edge of the broken area of the second floor and pouted my guns down at the tightly packed crowd of people below me.


    "Light them up."


    *tatatatatatatatatata! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*


    Soon all that was left was a pile of bodies and the scent of smoldering flesh. I looked ahead and frowned, maybe I should have found a way to cross over before I asked Nuwa and I Nezha to bring this area of the second floor down. I guess the only thing left to do was to jump and get to the other side.


    I moved backwards and then took off with a running start, maybe jumping would have been a good idea, but I was not so sure I could cross a nine meter distance, but it was too late to stoop now, so I kept my pace. When I got to the edge, instead of directly jumping across the hole,


    I placed my kegs across the wall and pushed forward, running across the surface for a bit before finally jumping and ending up at the other side with a door a few meters in front of me, and the next area of the second floor to my left. I turned to look at Nezha on the other side, with a feeling of superiority, after all I just ran across a wall and jumped over a nine meter maybe more hole.


    "You know there are stairs right? There was absolutely no need for that boss." Nezha said to me with an innocent look on his face.


    I was honestly stumped for words, I should have been a bit patient. I huffed a bit as I went towards the doors behind me, I moved to one side of the door and waited a bit until one of my soldiers came to the other side. He was completely geared from head to toe, with his face covered with a mask, so I didn''t know who he was, however we were both ready to make a move, so I silently counted down to three before we opened the door and move back to the sides, silently waiting for an attack that never came.


    I was surprised, I expected Ivan to be hold up here as he wasn''t pointed out during the gunfight, and the moment the door was open, he would be shooting every which way in an attempt to preserve his life. But a quick peek into the room showed me that he was not in it, and another door behind was open. Nezha and Nuwa came in as I turned to the soldier.


    "Gather everyone else, sweep the office and the entire club. Anything that''s of importance, take it back to the manor for a proper investigation, set a three kilometer perimeter around the club, and prepare for company. Also get some satellite imaging up and find me that Ivan fast! Nuwa, Nezha and I will keep on his tail. Get to it!"


    "Yes sir."


    I nodded my head at the soldier and then nodded to Nezha and Nuwa. We went out through the back door, probably Ivan''s escape route should things go bad. Behind the warehouse were hundreds upon hundreds of containers, and in the distance a group of people could be seen running away, jumping from container to container. I looked at Nuwa and Nezha as I said to them.


    "Come on!" and so we went hunting.

 98 New Era VII : Dragonovs & Vladimirs

    I placed one of the guns in the waistband of my pants, running after a group of people and aiming with two hands was not as comfortable as the movies make it out to be. There were loud bangs as my feet pounded on top of the containers, Ivan and his retinue pressed on forwards, the distance between me and then gradually shortening.


    I raised my gun, grasped it with both hands and pulled the trigger, watching from my spot, I saw someone fall and crash onto the roof of the container they were on, before rolling and falling off the side and straight to the ground. I gritted my teeth and started running again, this time there was a surge of adrenaline as I let my anger fuel my movements, so much so that I could feel my heart fiercely beating within my chest.


    *Dum! dum!! Dum!! Dum! Dum!!!*


    Deep reverberations spread across the containers as my feet pounded on top of them. At first I was moving just as fast as every other human being, now, the distance between me and Ivan''s group of friends were rapidly shortening. I could feel the wind angrily brushing past me, my muscles pulled taut and my blood boiling as I moved at a speed that at this point could no longer be considered normal for a human being.


    I had already shortened the distance, and as I drew close enough, I noticed that they were coming down from the containers onto the street below. But at this point I couldn''t slow down, so I kept on with my pace and caught up with them, just before I could crash into the last person on top of the containers, I jumped! Going above his head as I turned, twisting my body in the process and aiming at him and at the street below.


    *Bang! Bang!! Bang!!!*


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    Three shots, three targets. I landed on top of another set of containers on the opposite side of the streets they dropped down to. I dug my feet in and crutches, wincing at the loud screeching sound that spread as my shoes caused a significant amity of friction with the top of the container as I brought my speed to a rapid halt. I looked ahead just in time to see the person I had shot at fall of the container I just jumped from, his head completely missing from his shoulders and neck.


    I could see Nuwa and Nezha rapidly closing the gap, but there were still quite a ways behind. I was terribly shocked by sudden and completely inhuman increase in speed, and coupled with the heightened senses and strength that I''ve been experiencing this past few days, I knew that my body was changing. But I''m still riding an adrenaline high, so I can deal with the changes in my body later, damn it! This was just like puberty allover again.


    I ran to the edge of the container just in time to see two cars driving past me and trying to escape. Ignoring the trio of dead bodies lying on the street, all victims of my really sharp aim few minutes ago, I took a deep breath and jumped, landing right on roof to the rear car as they tried to make their escape.


    *BOOM!!! CRASH!!!*


    The roof of the car immediately got deformed as I landed on it, bust that wasn''t enough as all of the windows on the car completely blew out. It was almost as if someone else had dropped another car right on top of it. The sudden shock from my landing caused the driver to lose control as he drove the car straight towards a concrete barrier. I jumped from it, ignoring the soon to be crashed car as I took aim at the rear tires of the other car in front; I pulled the trigger.


    *Bang! DUM!! CRASH!!! Bang!*


    Quite a bit of things happened the moment I pulled that trigger. Given how powerful a gun I was using, both tires got hit and the car crashed to the ground just as the rear smashed into the concrete barricade, it''s bonnet was deformed really badly and smoke could be seen rising from it, the other car came to a stop by hitting a container, but apart from the damage to its tires, everything else was just superficial. I was standing in between two wrecks, but I had no idea which one to check first, and even then it would be redundant since I have no idea what Ivan looks like. Luckily for me, Nezha and Nuwa showed behind me, breathing rather heavily from their long run, which I should be honest was almost two hundred meters if not more, and I jade crossed in a minute if not less.


    "Find Ivan out of one of those two cars and drag him here, everyone is still alive, but once you locate him, kill the survivors." I Ordered the twins as they both went ahead to carry it out swiftly and efficiently.


    It was Nezha who found Ivan; he unceremoniously dragged the middle aged pale skinned and blond haired man out of the wreckage of the rear car and threw him to the ground. And as if sharing some sort of silent agreement, him and sister unleashed their abilities, burning in car until it was a heap of molten slag, ignoring the pained screams coming from within, while Nuwa froze everything in mere seconds, turning her victims to popsicles before I even got the chance to spell ice-cream.


    Based on the wide eyed look on Ivan''s face, this was not an outcome he expected, especially two young people capable of creating ice and fire with their hands, or their boss who could move so fast that he could cross hundreds of meters in mere seconds and kill three men from the air using headshots without missing a single shot. It was almost as if demons from hell had decided to pay him a visit today.


    Nezha dragged Ivan''s very frightened body to me and threw him towards my feet. I could see the intense look of fear within his eyes, the terror he felt as he looked up at me and the twin demons from hell behind me. Horror was an understatement to what he felt, but it wasn''t too bad. It was good that he was afraid, this was definitely something I could work with. I squared down in front of him and used my gun to move his sweat matted hair away from his face as I put on my signature charming smile and spoke to him.


    "Do you know who I am?" A frightened nod was the only answer I got, that was good enough for me.


    "Do you know why I''m here?" I asked again, and this time his nod was followed by a small whimper. I guess everyone still feared death.


    "So should I start torturing you, or will you start talking?" I asked him as my smile got a lot more wider. Ivan shook his head and swallowed so hard we could all hear it. And then an incredibly thick Russian accent was hard as he began explaining how it all went down.


    "I was asked to provide vehicles for a high profile hit on you, I just don''t run drugs but have also made good money stealing and selling enhanced vehicles for Russian mob. But all I had to do was provide cars and hitmen for job, I had no idea hit was on big boss of Imperium industries or new dark prince of the underworld, it was my mistake, please show some mercy." He said to me, with his thick accent and somewhat broken English.


    "Who are the people who ordered the hit, tell me the truth and I promise not to let them torture and kill you." I said to him whilst simultaneously pointing to Nuwa and Nezha.


    "There''s contact from within Imperium industries, but call encrypted so Ivan has no idea who tried to off big boss. However two mob families pay for hit; the Dragonovs and the Vladimirs. Two old families in want have alliance with someone in company, they ordered hit."


    I sighed as I got up and looked at Ivan, my brows furrowed in deep thought. The Dragonovs and Vladimirs were really old, like during the time of Hitler old. If not more, rumors say they''ve existed since the early 1700s and both families have had close ties to each other with inter marriage being very common, so much so that at this point you gave no idea who was a Dragonov or a Vladimir. They ran weapons in an out of Russia and at the moment were the biggest players in the weapons business, but with this move from them, I guess it''s about time for a hostile take over, and not just that; it seems fate has decreased I write the final chapter into both family''s long and illustrious reign of organized crime. 5 decades of domination is enough, I''m going to make sure I relegate them to the history books, permanently!


    I got up, pointed my gun at Ivan and pulled the trigger more times than was necessary, leaving behind and unrecognizable lump of flesh that was currently smoldering.


    "I said I wouldn''t let them torture and kill you, never did say that I wouldn''t. Let''s go!"

 99 New Era VIII : Meta-Humans

    The expected fight between my group of people and whoever wanted to come rescue Ivan never came to a head. They retreated before they even got close enough for a fire fight to commence.


    Either way I asked everyone to leave the scene of our fight with Ivan''s forces the way it was, but I had them destroy any sort of surveillance that was currently active during the entire duration of that small war. We might be in good terms with the governments of the world, but no one is above the law, especially when there''s enough evidence and a crowd of people eagerly waiting to bury you six feet under the ground.


    Today has been somewhat hectic, but it was not yet over. There were many thing s that I needed to understand, especially the discovery of super powers, and the fact that I could now move as fast as captain America. I know I''ve been somewhat busy with the game, especially since what I should be looking for has not yet fallen into my hands, however I believe these were profound secrets that I should have already known from the very moment I became head of the wade family, yet I had to find out like this. Nanny Florence has a lot of explaining to do.


    I dragged my tired body home with Hades, Nuwa and Nezha following close behind. The moment I stepped into the foyer of the manor I saw nanny Florence watching over a twelve year old boy who at the moment was currently playing with Aaron. But if you consider toy spaceships floating around my son''s head playing rather than bizarre, then I guess he''s playing.


    Ron only registered my presence for a few seconds, looking up at me and smiling before shifting his attention back to mock space battle currently taking place around his head. I shifted my gaze to nanny Florence no trace of warmth within it as the old lady sighed. She seemed tired, old, my gaze softener as soon as I saw that, with my grandfather''s death and me taking over she must have been so stressed out. She probably needed a vacation and me giving her a hard time over secrets that turned out to be an incredible asset for me.


    "Take a walk with me." I said to her with a smile as I went towards the kitchen and out the side entrance.


    The sun was setting already, and crisp cool breeze seemed to be blowing in the expansive garden that stretched all the way to back of the manor. There were roses of varying shades and colors, sunflowers, and host of other flowers and herbs that I had no idea what they were called. Over the years most of the flowers in this garden had been planted by Nanny Florence, she''s put a significant amount of her blood, sweat and tears in it, and a significant amount of mine too seeing as this garden was her favorite spot for training me.


    "You must be angry about discovering things like this, I''m sorry master but it didn''t feel like the right time to let you know. It was your grandfather''s wish that this change and evolution of the human race be broken to you as slowly as possible as it has much to do with you too. He was not exactly sure how you would take it." She explained to me as she walked besides me, a lock of her gray hair swaying in the wind.


    "I''m not really that angry Nanny Florence, I just need to know what''s going on. These changes within my own body, and the people with abilities, or any other secrets that needs to be explored about this dark empire of mine, please tell me, all of it." I said to her as the scent of green and earth assaulted my nose.


    "The Bacchus Nectar is just a watered version of a biological enhancement agent that was mined out of a meteorite that smashed into a remote village in west Africa 50 years ago. if I should be more specific that meteor landed in your mother''s village, located in central Nigeria. Your grandfather, or rather both your grandfather''s responded quickly enough and isolated the incident, preventing it from getting out.


    However this was a meteor, and a lot of space stations would have discovered it''s arrived all and projected it trajectory. But even then it was only the imperium Industries who disagree overdue that this meteor was biological, in a nutshell, the damn thing was alive. Your grandfather''s were young then, and were just young boys trying to impress their fathers and make a name for themselves in the company their father''s had built. So extensive study and research was carried out, somehow the meteor cause a sort of viral sickness that had affected the village and most of the scientists studying it.


    It was covered up and called another outbreak of the Ebola virus, but that virus killed many people, and those who survived, changed. At first such a change was not as obvious then as it is now, but the secrets of the human gene was unlocked, and the brain experienced qualitative change and evolution, but even then such changes weren''t as obvious, but amongst the people affected they noticed.


    The Meteor dissipated nine months later, fundamentally changing the fauna and the land around it''s crash site. The Bacchus nectar was synthesized from a new plant that was created or born around the crash site, and it did the same thing as the virus, except not extreme to the point of killing people. It unlocked the secrets of the human gene, giving birth to abilities and advanced physical performance.


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    But true power only began to cease into play when the next generation came into being, your father, your brothers all have varying degrees of abilities, some of them unlocked to the point of being as obvious and dangerous as Nezha and Nuwa''s ability. And it''s the same with you and Ron, however such abilities remain dormant unless the brain experiences a significant amount of stimulation to bring it to bear. What you''re experiencing right now, is called an awakening.


    Increased speed, power, mental processing ability and resilience are symptoms that show up when someone''s ability is about to awaken. After the awakening some people lose the enhance physical abilities, while some keep it. However the bottom line is, soon enough you would have abilities in a similar spectrum of not, from Nezha and Nuwa."


    Well that was a lot to swallow, powers and superheroes and villains. Right now an intergalactic war would be the least of earth''s worries, not when the comics books were starting to become reality. Earth was I''ll prepared for this evolution, and it''s been over fifty years, sure as hell that bloody virus is sure to have spread, I would need an in depth study of it, but fifty years was enough to infect a significant amount of earth''s population, so basically how many people with powers were now running out there. But She said something that pricked my attention.


    "You said the brain needs to be stimulated, and I get the feeling there''s only one way for that to be achieved." I said to her.


    "You''re guess is right Master, Lost Descendants online is the medium that was used to create the stimulation and awaken the abilities within those who have the secret of their genes unlocked. Even though your grandfather''s company was responsible for the game, you never actually played it until after his death, which is why your awakening is happening now, rather than when you were younger. It will take some time for you to adjust, but I believe it wouldn''t be too bad."


    I nodded my head at her as I looked ahead of me. We''ve walked until we were both standing at my grandfather''s grave stone. This world just got a lot more complicated, and I really wish he was here to make it less complicated, everything just kept getting weird.


    "So what do you call them¡­....or rather us?" I asked her.


    "That''s not hard, the comic books already gave you guys a name long before you came into existence...Meta-Humans."


    I sighed loudly at that, maybe some part was excited, but a huge part of me was extremely shaken about this. If it was before the company, the Wade family''s dark empire and before Ron, I would have loved to explore the idea of having superhuman abilities. However I''ve seen the sheer destructive power people like me can control, and I know the world won''t get safer for it, heck the space station and the Mars colony might also suffer for it. And there was no way I could stop, because without a doubt, this was the world my son was going to grow up in.


    "Get me everything I need to know, every single detain and have it on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. And then take a rest, go on vacation and enjoy your retirement. This is a new era nanny Florence, and no matter what we have to find a way to stay ahead of it, to make sure that no matter what we remain relevant and powerful and can keep our loved ones safe. Arrange a meeting with the world leaders we''re in contact with, we''ll expose this to them and have them tale necessary measure to protect themselves and secure such people should they awaken without supervision. If we don''t do this, the world will burn."

 100 Zareth I : The Dwarf Who Cried Wolf Son

    The sound of sea gulls greeted me the moment I opened my eyes, it was a rather bright day, and the sun was shining in all its splendor as the gentle sounds of waves lapping and creating over each other sounded in my ears. Knowing that these game affected me on a fundamental level, made me look at it with a careful and different approach than before. Lost descendants online was turning me into something else, something not entirely human, but more.


    I was okay with it, just a little bit surprised. I really don''t have time to start worrying about my sense of self or identity, whether I was human or Meta-Human. Besides my abilities haven''t fully awakened yet, so for now I''m still human, and I''m going to deal with today''s problems today, and let whatever fuck up that would happens tomorrow to take care of itself then.


    "Land Ho!"


    I couldn''t help but grin a bit at Dinah''s loud shout, there was an island on the horizon with what looked Lima an active volcano. We didn''t need to stop by and could just move on, but everyone has been on the sea for quite a few days, it would be nice if we could all take a break and stretch our legs, plus the town after the docks seems like it would be a rather exciting adventure. I turned to Darke and said to him.


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    "Take us in."


    I moved to the side of the ship as the waves crashed softly against it. There were other ships besides us that were docking on the island and leaving, all in all it seemed like a busy place. When we got to the island, Qitar, Dinah and Raven song where the ones who came with me this time. The clone brothers have not really been their self since Jack got injured, so they were going to be keeping guard on the ship until we returned.


    "Is there a particular thing that we have to do here?" Qitar asked me as she flowed close behind me.


    "To be honest, there''s nothing to be done, I just felt that it would be nice if we all took a chance to stretch our legs, in the end it seems to be just the four of us, and Sky. So I guess you guys should just wander round the town and enjoy yourself."


    It was as if that was the confirmation they were looking for as Dinah, Qitar and Raven Song split from me and went looking for entertainment within the town. I shook my head as I kept my pace and paid attention to the town itself. There were varying degrees of technology here, though they seemed more magical than technology, plus there was this intense heat that seemed to be already across the entire town.


    It didn''t take me long to notice something rather peculiar; over 70% of the people I''ve seen so far were without a doubt dwarves. Maybe some of them might have a little variation to their race, but ultimately they remained the same. This was an island of dwarves, and after walking for a little bit I got to a district where the loud sounds of metal banging on metal was heard. This really was a dwarven port town, and when I looked closer, I could see tiny canals running on the streets, and stretching to the back of numerous buildings and stalls where the loud banging sounds were coming from.


    Within these canals was lava, which is to say that the dwarves here were using lava from the volcano as a furnace for their forge. I didn''t know bow they did it, but this was an ingenious piece of architecture, though I have this inkling that magic was involved. Basically this was like having a water distribution system in a town or neighborhood, however instead of water what we have here is lava.


    Just digging a groove through the earth alone wouldn''t be enough, the canals have to be laid with a heat resistant material, and there has to be some sort of pump that properly distributed the Lava to all of the forges without a break in pressure. It was like modern day plumbing system, except for lava. If I had a land or island of my own with something similar, I would probably make a blacksmith district just like this.


    Even though at the moment I really had no need for blacksmithing, I really wanted to go find out what the interior of the forges looked like, and how the lava was distributed into it and used. Growing up, I found that I''ve always played attention to the strangest detail and was enamored by really weird things, this was one of those times, and I couldn''t wait.


    "Help! Help me! Please help me! It''s my son, it''s my son!"


    A loud scream broke through the cacophony of the rather busy blacksmith district. All of the banging and wave of sweltering heat seemed to come to a stop as the blacksmiths all came out to pay attention to the person screaming and crying. However the moment the say the dwarf responsible, most of them cursed out in anger and went back in, whilst others stood at their doorways looking on in surprise. I raised an eyebrow at that, this was not as simple as it looked.


    An elderly looking dwarf burst into the plaza where all of the forges were located, he was frantic and his entire look was in disarray. Obviously he needed help, but the funny thing was that no one seemed to be paying him any attention, not even the players, and it was weird because obviously there''s a quest hidden in there somewhere.


    I moved towards the frantic dwarf who was desperately holding on to a dwarven guard that seemed to be a cross between a dwarf and goblin, but through it all the guard just had a rather nasty look on his face, and from what I could see it was only a matter of time before he hit the old dwarf.


    "Hey old man, what''s wrong with your son." I asked him as I gave the guard a look, asking him to move away. The guard gave me a thankful and relieved look as he quickly changed his post to the other end of the plaza, making sure to keep his distance away from me and the still crying dwarf.


    "Please! You need to help me, my son went into the forbidden caves, I''ve grief more times than I can imagine to stop him from going in, but he won''t listen. Only one person can go into the forbidden cave at a time, but I''m strong enough to go save him. Please you have to help me save him, the stone monsters have awakened! I''m not lying this time please!"


    He looked desperate, but my ears picked quite a few words from his pleas. He saint "not lying this time". Which is to say this is not the first time his son has gone to this forbidden caves or the first time this stone monsters have awakened. Obviously this man is the one crying wolf in this story, which means everything he''s said so far is nothing more than a hoax.


    [SYSTEM ALERT: DUNGEON QUEST (1 MAX P): THE MISSING SON & THE FORBIDDEN CAVES OF STONE AND LAVA: GRADE C+: The young son of a master dwarven blacksmith has traveled into the forbidden caves of stone and lava. These caves have fearsome monsters that have been in hibernation for thousands of years, however at the moment it is quite possible that they have awakened. Save the son of the dwarven blacksmith./ REWARDS: +3% EXP INCREASE,???? / TIME: 2 HOURS]


    [QUEST ACCEPTED]


    Sure this might be a hoax, but just like the story about the boy who cried wolf, eventually his story turned out to be true and he paid a heavy price. But unlike the story of the boy who cried wolf, this time there was more than just the lives of sheep at stake, a man might lose his son, and that was something that I don''t really want to see.


    "Alright old dwarf I''ll help you, what''s your name?" I asked him with a simple look on my face as I sent some messages to Qitar, Dinah and Raven Song.


    "My name if Diggle, than you so much gracious hero for agreeing to help me." The old dwarf said to me with a face full of tears and a beard full of snot.


    "Sure no problem, please lead the way."


    I only agreed to help him for a variety of reasons, but mainly it was due to my boredom. Whilst it was fun walking around and getting to know the town, I was almost done as the town itself doesn''t seem to be really that big. And whilst it would have been wise to call the others for assistance, the dungeon was only for one player as specified in the quest. I guess it''s time for another adventure.

 101 Zareth II : Dungeon: The Forbidden Caves Of Stone & Lava

    At first I had to wonder if it was just the fact that this old dwarf crowd wolf that pissed people off, however I had to rethink that particularly stream of though when it turns out that the annoyance of a man wouldn''t shut up. For someone who had lost his son or had a family in danger, he was pretty jovial about it, especially the part when he started talking about the weather and how it seemed to have affected black smiting this year.


    Thankfully for me, the plaza was just five minutes away from the exit of the town, and the entrance to the forbidden caves was 20 minutes away on foot. It was half an hour of irritation and me wondering it would not be better for me to hustle put an arrow in his head and go to sleep once I was dome with that. At the very least I would have been free from this torture.


    Diggle as he says his name is, led me towards the volcano that at this moment was still spewing ash and lava, however it''s entire body was dotted with lush and verdant trees that I had to wonder how it wad that these plants could survive under the extreme heat of the volcano, they seemed quite valuable to me.


    (SPRING FIRE FIG/GRADE: EARTH/ TYPE: HEALING PANACEA: a variety of spring fig that has been nourished by the sacred flames of a volcanic mountain. This fruit is capable of healing the worst possible cases of burns, however it would be stupid to directly inject it without properly processing it as lava still runs through it.)


    There were more of such plants dotting the landscape, and I was tempted to happily harvest every single one I laid my eyes on. However almost every tree in front of me, had a severe amount of corpses that have achieved various degrees of burns, from a guy running past me screaming with his hands on fire, an elf that was desiccated every last form of moisture in it''s body evaporated, to charge black, bleach bones and finally ash. Every plant on this fucking volcanic island is practically unattainable, and trying to get them means you want to cook yourself.


    If that''s the case I''m totally cool with not touching anything around me, I''m quite happy not paying attention to earth grade plants that could make me even more rich than I currently am. Thankfully we got to our destination before greed would have completely taken a hold of me.


    On the side of the volcanic mountain that seemed to have the mildest effect of heat, flame and ash, a temple of sorts was built into it. Or rather the remains of a temple, as pillars and stars stretched upwards and led to the opening of several caves. The pillars and the stairs were the only sign of modern architecture, all of the caves that I could see seems to be formed naturally, but I''m geologist, so I can''t exactly be sure. After getting confirmation from Diggle that this was indeed the entrance to the dungeon, I began making my way upwards, pulling sky from my in the process.


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    (YOU HAVE DISVOVERED SINGLE PLAYER DUNGEON: THE FORBIDDEN CAVES OF STONE AND LAVA/ GRADE: MORTAL/EARTH)


    This was annoying, from the look of it, this was a dungeon who''s difficulty was stuck somewhere between the mortal and earth grade, and the last time I went into an earth grade dungeon, I came back with a race of Nereids and was almost killed by a giant crocodile. Let''s just hope this is not as bad as before because that''s special feeling I always get when I know I''m about to get into trouble, was ringing really loudly.


    I left Diggle behind as I stepped forwards into the cave, immediately a curtain of light rose up behind me and blocked the entrance into the cave. There was no way back only forward, which means I have to either clear the dungeon or die for me to complete this. This was more in like with what dungeons in games were supposed to be, but either way let''s get this done.


    I moved forwards a bit, carefully picking my steps, but I realized the further I went in, the darker it became. And I had really good eye sights, it was way better than normal, and could almost be considered night vision. But it was jot quite there yet, however even with that realization it shouldn''t be too difficult for me to navigate through dark caves, but this darkness was something else.


    I didn''t take more than ten steps into the cave before I felt the ground beneath my feet give way, as I started falling. I felt like I was on a slide, a slide that was a 100 degrees hot. My armor protected me, but if I could feel the heat and the burn even from it''s protection, I can''t imagine what other people who came here would feel as they slid down. This tripe was not pleasant, not one bit; because as I slid down into god knows where, hopefully not into some pool of lava waiting to greet my tender flesh, steam was escaping from the sides of the slanted cave I was falling through, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.


    *SHEEEEEEEEE* *THUD!!*


    "Ow! That fucking hurts!" I said to myself as I dragged my aching body back to a standing position. I looked around to notice that I was in some sort of chamber, or rather I would say an extremely large hall with only one entrance out of here, and entrance which at the moment was at the other end of the chamber, and standing in between me and that exit was a small army of statues.


    The statues were carved more in the likeness of ordinary people, it was as if these hall was a ballroom, and these statues were the people who had been here to enjoy the party that was probably going on. It didn''t look to bad though, but considering statues were moving, they were not kept here all for the purpose of me admiring art. Maybe there was a way I could just get through without having to fight, after all they were just statues wandering around aimlessly in a ballroom.


    I moved forwards, carefully picking my steps, and holding my breath. This was just a yesterday on my part, just to probe the statues and see if they were more dangerous than they looked. They were sparsely scattered across the entire ballroom, and since they weren''t too clustered, it should be easy for me to slip through their cracks, and get to the other side without having to engage in any sort of fight.


    It was not a bad idea and I decided to go with, slowly picking my way around the first statue who had his back turned to me. The next statue seemed to be that of a little girl with a teddy bear clutched tightly in her hands. It was a rather cute sight, but instead of going behind her, I went right in front of her, which I didn''t realize was a mistake until her small stone fist currently holding a stone teddy bear slammed into my stomach and sent me flying back, blood and spittle escaping from mouth until my back slammed into carved rock wall behind me with a loud bang.


    It hurt so fucking much, so much so that it was hard for me to get back up to my feet as my wings beat around my body. I looked up, fiercely glaring at the tiny statue that just gave me a beat down, throwing all of my pride and dignity as a man away. I don''t care if it was just a statue, but getting knocked down by a five year old sucked, it sucked a lot.


    Mere seconds later every statue in the chamber turned to face me, their eyes lit up, quickly shifting from the normal dull, grey, form it originally was, to a piercing glowing red. The way they turned made it seem like they were all one unit, turning to face me with loud marches as they all raised their hands and pointed it straight at me. I felt the ground rumble, and it was only due to an instinctual reaction from me that I was able to save my life.


    I flapped my wings and took to the air, and not a moment too soon as slanted earth spikes surged from the ground smashing into the wall behind me and burrowing deep holes into it. My eyes widened in surprise as I flew higher and found a perch on top of one of the carved pillars. This move was eerily familiar to me, though it was not completely similar, it reminded me of those people who were infected with the ((Wade Virus)). It was like the shared a hive mind, their moves and thoughts were all the same, and right now all they were thinking about was how to turn me into a shish kebab! Why the hell wasn''t this a hoax like all the time before, damn it! Looks like they really are wolves around this time.

 102 Zareth III : Dungeon: A Ballroom Of Dancing Statues 1

    This was surprising to say the least, but if I can keep my distance, this shouldn''t be a problem for me. I held Skye in my hands, I felt subtle vibrations from her as she happily hummed within my grasps, looks she was anticipating a fight just as much as I was. I pulled back he strings and let loose am arrow, picking my target right at the middle of this crowd of statues. The arrow flew true and smashed into the chest of one of the statues, the problem was it just remained stuck there without any sort of substantial damage done.


    The statue that I shot at looked up at me, and then in a shocking display of agility, it shot off the ground, a massive pillar of earth under it''s feet taking it above the ground and sending it straight towards me. To say that I was surprised would be an understatement, the statue moved a little too fast for me to react to in time, so all I could do was narrowly dodge as it''s pillar smashed against mine, and the statue flew above my head while I ducked. It''s momentum carried it straight to the ceiling of the ballroom where it was smashed into a million pieces with dust and tiny debris of rocks raining down from the point of impact.


    I raised my wings and covered my head and body, preventing any of the residual dusts from touching me. I felt their tiny impacts for just a few seconds before I shook them off me. I looked down at the statues still down below, watching as the remnant of the friend fell around them, however there were without any sort of reaction.


    Now even though Lost descendants online was a highly advanced game with AIs no different from humans, some of if not all of the dungeon mechanics were the same. There might be some difference in the case of the bosses, but in the end the core and fundamental elements of a dungeon has not really changed; obviously this was the first stage or first floor, I had to clear all of the monsters on this level to be able to get to the next. And seeing the monotonous and somewhat mechanical way in which this statues acted, there definitely has to be a pattern to the way they attack and what triggers them. I needed to figure it out for me to combat them properly.


    I squeezed Skye a bit tighter as I shifted my attention to the ballroom itself. It was large, almost 300 meters in radius and about 70 to 80 feet in height. Apart from it''s single entrance that at the moment had a massive stone door that was tightly shut, there were a plethora of pillars around it, similar to the one I was currently standing on. They were placed around the edge of the ballroom, and I don''t think it was just for the sake of decorations, maybe it was a boundary of sorts.


    I unfurled my wings and jumped, attempting to glide above the heads of the statues and get to the other side of the room. However almost as if they had practiced this a million times, all of the statues looked up at me, and then shifted their left foot backwards and moved both their arms up, like some variation of ballet dance moves.


    Thin but extremely sharp earth spikes burst out of the ground, they were like hair on the scalp of a person, tightly cluster together and about to poke me full of holes. Before deciding to fly I had already envisioned something like this might happen, but not to this extent. However since I expected it, I stayed mostly on the edge of the room, so it was not too hard for me to reach another pillar and stand on top of it for safety.


    The spikes stabbed into the ceiling, small pieces of rocks and debris falling from it, but whether lucky or unlucky, a massive boulder the size of a small call dislodge from the ceiling and fell down, smashing into a few statues and spreading it''s damage to other statues close by, turning all of them to dust like some sort of earth element spell AOE. It was a consequence from their attack, but it helped me a lot.


    This might be a dungeon, and it''s mobs had to follow programing, but this was still a real location, and much like everything else in lost descendants online, it was still subject to change if tampered with. And so began the vestiges of an idea that could help me deal with all this statues, or maybe fucking kill me, but then again there''s no gain without risks.


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    The sea sword was useless in here, using Sky''s special bow form skill was the key, but if I did not use it well, I''m going to end up burying myself. Plus her magic staff form took too much energy to maintain, and not even with the fact that her level increased to twenty had reduced the pressure on her. But these statues turned out to be the architect of their own demise, but in other fore to facilitate it, I had to get straight to the edge of the room and find a place that was defensive and not prone to being crushed by rocks from the ceiling.


    [STEALTH] [STORM DANCE]


    I''m not so sure that my stealth was powerful enough to go last this things, sight only affected sight, and these statues have no eyes on top of their head, but they were able to sense me move the moment I decided to fly over their head. What I''m really after is the speed and defense boosts from storm dance.


    I jumped from the pillar I was standing on, pushing my wings to the limit as I cut through the ballroom like a bullet. They sensed me almost immediately as another round of earth spikes shot out of the ground and reached the roof. I was able to reach the next pillar, and almost immediately the spikes returned back into the ground. I didn''t even take a breath as I pushed off the pillar and flew to the next one, and one again the spikes shot out of the ground, moving up and down in the hopes to catch me off guard. I got to the next pillar and spikes all went down, and then I jumped again.


    This time however I was aiming for three pillars as instead of one. I turned side ways narrowly dodging then spikes, but most of them got close enough to scratch against my armor, causing a shower of sparks that almost blinded me in the process. I rearranged my body, took one step on the pillar I reached and jumped again, and once again more spikes showed up. However at that point in time, a massive chunk of the ceiling fell off, but because I was still flying the spikes stabbed into it, turning it to rubble whilst I narrowly escaped getting crushed along with the statues.


    I reached the pillar I was aiming for, and just in time too. I hunched over taking the deep breaths as my heart pounded within my chest. There was just one pillar between me and my destination, but both my skills had ran their duration and my speed was back to normal. I wasn''t too worried about that, I''m sure I could make it, however the moment I got to this particular pillar, all of the statues had turned once again to face my direction. And then they started stomping their feet''s.


    *Bam! Bam!! Bam!!! Bam!!!!*


    As they did so, the dust and debris under their feet were raised up, but this time there were no earth spikes. Rather cracks begs to appear on the floor of the ballroom, and from those cracks lava began to appear, the temperature increase rapidly as the lava began to gather around the statues, gradually taking the shape of spike like projectiles that were hanging in the air. Somehow I get the feeling that these pillars won''t keep me safe from those lava spikes, it was much to early but I had to put my coup de gras into play, shit!


    I jumped, flapping my wings as hard as I could and turning my armored back to the incoming lava spikes as I face the ceiling above me, pulling an arrow and pulling back the strings on Sky''s bow form. It was now or never, and I had to do my best to get through this or I''m either going to get buried or burnt by liquid fire.


    [SEEKER!] [METEOR SHOWER!!]


    A wave of glowing arrows shot out from sky''s bow form and slammed into the ceiling with the sound of a large explosion. I felt the first impact of the lava on my back, but I ignored it as I rapidly turned my body an flew for the exit. I couldn''t pay any attention to the burning lava now ruthlessly pelting my body with a vengeance, and that was because currently, the entire ceiling was caving in, and I was right under it.


    *Crash! Crash!! Crash!!! BOOOM!!*

 103 Zareth IV : Dungeon: Stone Princess Boss

    *Cough! Cough!!*


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    I waved my hand amidst the thick cloud of dust, but that was not enough to completely extricate myself from the haze of brown and grey dust that came about as a result of the ceiling caving in. So I flapped my wings, the sundae of them beating against each other filled the ballroom as I used the control I have over wind to push the dust away from, moving everything to the other side of the room.


    There was a massive boulder the size of a plane in front of me, it was not in one whole form as it was broken into numerous partitions, and had subsequently crushed the rest of the statues underneath it''s extreme mass. It was quite fun to look at, though to be honest I still had this chill underneath my spine that reminded me how close to death I had actually come. If it wasn''t for my quick thinking, and ridiculous amount of luck, I would probably be respawning back on my ship.


    I turned around, expecting to see the exit open, only for something to smash into my stomach with an intense speed, and together we were pushed back until my back smashed against the boulder behind me with a loud crack. It took the air out of my lungs and threw Sky out of my gasp. But my horror was not over as I felt the person who hit me, slamming their hard fist into my side, over and over again, so much so that I couldn''t count how many cracks I might have received on my ribs.


    I shot my knee upwards slamming it into the chest of my assailant as I bent down and wrapped my hands around their surprisingly small frame. Then I moved forward a bit, and the heaved, lifting the person off their feet and over my head as I delivered a suplex and finally extricated myself from the person. My assailant hit the ground with a loud thud, and I quickly scrambled up to my feet, only to open my eyes in shock and surprise a I realized the person who attacked me. Was actually a statue, and not just any statue, the same one that had bit me in the first place.


    [BOSS: Five Year Old Stone Princess Statue (First Form)/ Grade: Mortal/ Level: 40]


    Of all the statues that could have been the boss, why did it have to be the one I hated the most. But if it thinks because it was made to look like a five year old girl I would pull my punches, then it''s got another thing coming, I''m going to ruin it.


    The statue quickly turned over and shot towards me, sliding over the ground as it attempted to sweep my legs out from under me. I jumped watching her slide under me, only to receive a pillar of earth to the chest. I was thrown backwards thankfully the exit was no more than fifteen feet away, so I didn''t build much a momentum before my back slammed against it, but never the less it still hurt like a bitch.


    The statue was already in front of me, throwing a right hook to my abdomen, but I moved forward, hooked my hand under it''s elbow and pulled and then turned, changing positions with the statue as I slammed its back against the exit door, and then quickly followed it with a knees strike that hit under her jaw and sent her slamming back against the exit door. I move back a bit, to give myself some breathing room, and just in time too as Sky ran over to me in her elephant form.


    "You''re not like the others are you?" I absent mindedly asked the statue as I observed it.


    "Yeah I know, I''m a lot more DANGEROUS!" she yelled back in respond, flinging her hands at me, and at the same time creating a massive fist of earth and smashing it towards me.


    The fact that she could speak almost didn''t let me react on time, so I relied mostly on my instincts to wrap my wings around my body and bring my head down to my chest. I was expecting to get thrown off my feet again, but the stone fist only left a dull impact, and I looked up see a thick shield of air in front of me. It was an amazing sight, as it felt like thousands upon thousands of tiny wisps of air had gathered together to form a shield, but it was really had to maintain as I felt a headache already coming on from the strain of compressing air to such a level.


    It would be wise if I could pay more attention to my ability to control the wind element in the future, it just save my ass. But never the less the fight wasn''t over. Skye turned back into a bow and fell right back into my hands. In one smooth motion I pulled out an arrow and shot it at the statue, she dodged and ran towards me, creating a massive Warhammer of earth and swinging it for my face.


    I shot at arrow at it, smashing it apart and just as I quickly struck another and threw my feet forwards. Only the handle of the hammer was left, but it was enough for her to use and defend herself against my kick. It pushed her back a bit and gave me a chance to release the arrow I had just strung. It whizzed through the air and slammed into her chest with an explosive Bang, throwing back wards and slamming her against the exit door again. I noticed a crack on it then.


    Then all of a sudden her body grew larger, changing from a simple five year old girl with a teddy bear in hand, to a full grown woman who was now holding a sword made of gold. The change was sudden without any sort of prerequisite or warning, it just happened.


    [BOSS: Twenty Five Year Old Stone Warrior Princess Statue (Final Form)/ Grade: Mortal/ Level: 40]


    Okay so I guess the difficult just went up a notch, but even then I was not scared, I could beat her, though if I had to be honest this was one very weird boss. She was unlike anything I''ve ever faced, anxiety if I''m not focused, she''s going to tear me apart. There was just a fraction of a second where we both stared at each other, and then I suddenly made my move.


    The fifth wind mark arrow went straight for her heart, but she partied it away, making the arrow go off mark and helplessly fall to the ground. I didn''t let that stop me as I pulled another arrow and shot at her, this time strengthening it with the only projectile skill I now had [SEEKER!]. Which if I should be honest was great as it was an all round skill, but it was not as versatile as I would have wanted.


    This time she didn''t even parry the arrow, rather a wall of earth rose up in front of her and blocked the arrow, before shooting towards me. I rolled onto the ground, dodging the approaching earth wall and strung my sixth wind marked arrow and then released it almost immediately. The arrow cut through this air with a loud whoosh, but she shocked me by slicing it apart. She rushed towards me, not giving me enough time to string another arrow, so flapped my wings and took off the ground, shooting another arrow at her that she dodged, which in turn slammed into the ground with a dull explosions of dust and rock. She followed me, a pillar beneath her feet rapidly bringing her towards me.


    There was no time to string another arrow, so I pointed my hand at her and shot a [MANA ARROW], hanging sky behind my waist as four bright blue beams of mana flew towards her. She maneuvered the pillar she was standing under to evade them, but one clipped her shoulder, and a little part of her body was chipped off. From the look of things, she seems to be weak against magic.


    I pulled the sea sword from my back, loving the cool and comfortable feeling it gave me as I shot towards her, my sword drawing an arc in their air as lightening began to dance allover it''s blade.


    [LIGHTENING BLADE!]


    *Boom!*


    When both swords met, her''s exploded into multiple shards of gold and dust. There was a shockwave that pushed me back higher into the air whilst she tumbled back onto the ground, landing on the massive rock that had crushed her brethren, and leaving a loud crack on it. She seemed to be a little disoriented, which meant that this was my chance.


    [STORM DANCE!!]


    I Fell from the ceiling, my wings cutting through the air as I pointed my sword downwards and straight for the unprotected chest of this boss. This was it, the moment of truth, this was the last chance for me to kill this boss. And so I put all of my focus into destroying the boss, only for a giant pillar of earth to come out and smash me into the exit door, destroying it and fracturing one of my wings in the process. Safe to say, this didn''t go as planned.

 104 Zareth V : Dungeon: Stone Princess Boss 2

    After my body smashed through the exit, I was thrown roughly on the ground, with my body digging a furrow into it. I ached allover and I had half a mind to just lay down right where I was and go to sleep. But I was still in a fight, and even if I had all bones broken, I still had to preserver and push through. I shakily got back up to my feet, and just in time to see the current bane of my existence walk through the destroyed exit, there seemed to be more cracks on her skin, but it didn''t mean she was down and out for the count.


    "You''ve lasted longer than most. The last person who came through here somehow slipped past us, so I''m a little pissed of. But never the less it''s not something you have to worry about, you''ll be dead soon anyway." The boss said to me as she walked towards me, her stone hair strangely waving around like it was being blown by wind.


    "You seem so sure of your victory, I''m not dead yet, and quite frankly I''m just getting started." I said to her as I finally got back up to an upright position.


    She raised and eyebrow at me, but didn''t say anything, waving her hand a bit, the broken pieces of her gold sword coalesced into a golden spear in her hand that she pointed straight at me. That was cute, but she was not the only one who has decided to get serious in this fight as I now used both hands to hold the Sea sword. I spread my legs bringing my center of balance down and I raised the sword to shoulder level, making sure it was pointing straight at her, I took a deep breath and then¡­.


    [STORM DANCE]


    *BOOM!*


    The ground beneath my feet exploded into a shower of dust and rubble as I flew towards her, moving so fast it was almost at the speed of sound. I ignored the ache in my shoulders and wings as I stabbed at her, my sword trailing a silver green and blue arc through the air as it made it''s way towards her chest.


    *CLANG!!*


    She parried, but this was just the beginning as I sent the sword upwards in a half crescent slash. She moved the underside of her spear I''m an attempt to block, but it was just a feint. Just before the sea sword would meet her spear, I flipped it and pushed forward, and as easily as a knife through butter, the sea sword sank into her chest, scrapping across the spear that couldn''t protect her in time. I twisted the sword inside of her and roughly dragged it out eliciting a cry of pain from her as i ducked down, evading and overhead swing from her spear. I made half a rotation, spinning with my sword still sizzling with lightning and sending it straight for her legs, however a pillar of earth rose up and blocked the strike, buying a little time for her to move backwards.


    She didn''t hesitate to make another move, and judging by the ugly look on her well sculpted face, she was pissed. She waved the spear in her hands, then raised it up, before bringing it smashing down on the ground, yelling in the process as she called out the name of her skill.


    "Quake!!!"


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    If it was an earthquake, you would expect the world to shake and the ground beneath your feet to be unstable, all of those things happened, along with an extremely concussive blast that threw me of my feet and brought me slamming down onto stone tiles that were rapidly dislodge from my back and wings digging furrows into it.


    There wasn''t a serious amount of pain though, this was an AOE skill no doubt, but it''s meant to push enemies back rather than cause any heavy damage, not unless of course it gets to a higher level. But the main thing was that there was now a significant amount of space between the two of us. She might have thought that this was a good idea given that she was injured, but for a guy who''s main weapon was a bow, this was a nail on the coffin.


    I dragged myself back to my feet and grabbed Skye in my hands and also strung and released an arrow in the same motion. She wasn''t expecting that, so the arrow slid into her chest with a loud cracking sound. There wasn''t that much damage, but that probably had to be my sixth wind marked arrow, they would only get faster from here on out.


    *Twang!* *Crack!* *Twang!!* *Crack!!* *Twang!!!* *Crack!!!*


    Her defense was extremely good(obviously, she''s made from earth), but right now she was filled with so many chips and cracks on her sculpted frame, that it looked as if only a simple gust of wind would be able to blow her away into oblivion. I had one wind marked arrow left, and she was on her last legs. Whatever I had to do, I had to make this count.


    "You''re stronger than I expected, I respect your courage."


    I raised an eyebrow at her words, but I didn''t say anything. Maybe she was trying to stall so that I wouldn''t put the proverbial nail in the coffin, but unluckily for her she was dealing with me. I won''t hesitate once I''ve decided to kill, that might be a little bloodthirsty, but meh! I''m on the clock.


    "One last strike to decide who wins this fight one La....."


    [SEEKER!] [METEOR SHOWER]


    *bang! bang! bang! bang! bang! bang! bang!*


    [SYSTEM ALERT: You have cleared the first level of this dungeon!/ + 5% EXP ADVANCEMENTS]


    The statue fell apart, and where it once stood was a memory/skill disk, and a glowing yellow gem that had metal around it''s edges. I moved towards it, not at all sure what I was dealing with, but having a vague idea too. These were probably the loot drop from the boss, there should be some sort of story or lore to be heard, but at the moment nothing was forthcoming, and honestly I''m not really interested in any such thing. I have enough quests as it is, I just want to clear this dungeon and get out of here.


    I picked up the skill disks and the metal crystal gem hybrid, throwing them into my inventory with even inspecting them. That was just a force of habit, I don''t count my eggs before they hatch, which means until I''m don''t this dungeon, the rewards can wait. I pulled out a healing pill from my inventory, funny enough that''s only one I had, and I don''t even remember where I got it from. I already had ridiculous healing factor, but seeing as this dungeon was no child''s play, I needed to be at 100%.


    I felt the bones in my wings and shoulders pop into place as I turned around and inspected where I was. It was some sort of hallway, apart from the stone tiles and the 10 centimeter depression on t he ground within a radius of 10 meters; the aftermath of that quake skill, the hallway was in pristine condition. And just like the statue and ballroom that I just left behind, everything was carved from the rocks itself.


    I moved forward, retrieving my sword from the ground whilst I held Skye firmly. I sheathed the sword and strung and arrow, keeping my attention at high alert as I moved down the hall. On both sides were craved out windows, but seeing as we were deep under a volcano, I would say it was just there for aesthetic purposes. There was nothing in the hall, even till I reached the end where an open doorway was waiting for me, I wasn''t attacked by anything, but even then I couldn''t keep my nerves calm.


    I shrugged and went through the doorway, but the moment I did, it closed behind me and I found myself in a short passage suffused with the red glow of lava and buffeted by heat. The passage was just two meters, but the moment I took a step forward to get to the other side, my ears rang out loud as the roars of a beast reached me. I turned around to look at the door closed behind me, completely unwilling to go face whatever was on the other side, but it seems there really is no other way out but forward.


    I moved forward, and the stone door in front of me; covered with veins of lava slid to the side. I stepped right through and came up into what looked like a throne room, or maybe an arena. I was standing within countless carved stone seats, much like the bleachers in real life stadiums. And right below me was a ferocious fight currently taking place between a fifteen meter tall monster of lava and stone and a dwarf, a dwarf that had just jumped into the air with a blazing lance and was now falling down, with his lance pointed right at the head of the monster.


    "I AM ZARETH!!!"


    What the hell?

 105 Zareth VI : Dragoon

    [DUNGEON BOSS: PETRIFYING FIRE STONE DEMON/ GRADE: EARTH/ LEVEL: 50]


    The boss was huge, but it''s bulky frame and literal flaming muscles were not to be underestimated. However the dwarf falling from the sky and yelling out his name on the other hand was a rather comical sight, that is until the lance on his hand gained the apparition of a flaming dragon and smashed into the arm of the boss, causing massive cracks across the appendage.


    My armor vibrated and in turn to so did the blood in my body. In the same motion both Zareth and I turned to look at each other. It was obvious that he felt the same thing as me, it made me realize something, he really was just like me. A disciple of an elemental dragon.


    Looking at me had taken his attention from the fight, which in turn cost him as the demon swung it''s massive tail into the Dwarf''s chest, throwing his short form away and smashing it into the wall besides me. I was startled by the sudden turn of events, but it didn''t stop me from acting, I had to buy him time to get back up to his feet.


    This boss is probably my second toughest fight, with my first being the altercation with my sister that for some reason I still don''t remember. However there was no time like the present to let loose, and I have every intention of doing so. Sky changed her form to her magic staff form, as I prepared to throw all of my heaviest hits at the boss.


    [AREA OF SILENCE!] [STELLAR FLARE!!]


    The stellar glare skill took a lot of energy from Skye, and that''s to be expected, the power of magic is on a whole other level than the skills of a bow. And since I''ve been mainly using Skye during my battle with the statues, plus the [MTEOR SHOWER] skill I''ve used, her energy is sure to hit the bottom the moment I used her magic staff skill. But I had no choice but to go all out, also this should cause it enough damage for me to slowly pick it apart and I had a plan for that.


    A power wave of silver starlight energy blasted out from the top of the staff, the power within the spell was so powerful that all of the seats between me and the boss was ripped out of their sculpted bases and sent flying into the air, and pelting into the body of the boss. But all these were just superficial damages, as the main damage came when the silver wave slayed into the boss''s body.


    The fifteen meter tall and god knows how many pounds boss was thrown off his feet, with a massive furrow etched into it''s torso. He flew across the air and landed on the bleachers on the other side, a massive wound on his stone chest, that at the moment was bleeding lava, profusely. Skye returned back to her elephant form and she was hunched besides me, breathing really hard as her legs weren''t even strong enough to support her body anymore. I patted her head as I pulled the Thalasio Spathi from my back, and just in time too as Zareth came to stand besides me while we focused on the boss that was slowly and shakily getting to his feet.


    "My name is Zareth."


    "I know."


    "I''m of the fire element dragon, my class is Dragoon. What about you?" This conversation was beyond awkward, but it was a conversation none the less, and I guess there wasn''t really anything wrong with indulging the dwarf.


    "Wind element, class.....Ventus Draconis Vindex."


    I didn''t say anything as I spread my wings and shot towards the boss, gliding down across the bleachers towards the center of the Arena where his massive legs were splayed every which way. This thing was too big for us to fight head on, and a transformation here would be nothing short of a bad idea, and it would definitely bring this entire underground arena crashing down on our heads. For a massive bodied dragon, being buried by tons of rock and dust might not be too bad, however when you consider the fact that we''re under and located on some part of a volcanic mountain, then that idea goes right out the window.


    I sliced the sea sword into his ankles, digging a furrow into it as it seemed to snap and cut apart blood vessels that I''m not even sure exists. The boss screamed out in pain, but it''s problem was only just beginning as there was another flash of light and Zareth was once again falling from the sky, unlike last time where there was one massive dragon construct appearing around his spear, this time there were dozens, and they seduced into the already wounded chest of the boss with loud and very jarring impacts.


    *Roar!*


    The boss smashed his hands on the ground in anger as the entire arena rumbled, I had already given myself a bit of distance from the boss, but even then, flying in the air did not spare from the intense shaking the area of was going through as massive spikes of earth surged out of the earth moving towards me and Zareth with the boss at it''s epicenter.


    "DRAGON IRON WING!"


    Zareth shouted as another energy contract of a dragon, or rather this time it''s wings appeared and covered him, completely defending him from the assault of the earth spikes and keeping him safe from any sort of damage. As for me, I''m not that lucky. I swerved left and right, narrowly evading the spikes that came for me, as twisted in the air and made sharp banks with an agility even I didn''t know I have. I held the sea sword tight as I flew towards the boss, and this time I was putting every skill I have in my arsenal to bear, except of course for my Armor''s transformation skill. And come to think of it, my Armor has a skill that I haven''t used in a while, but like they say, no time like the present.


    [AIR BODY] [STORM DANCE] [LIGHTENING BLADE]


    Air body could be said to be my Armor''s defensive/evasive skill. I would be immune to every physical damage for the next two hundred seconds, plus I would also be invisible. But coupled with the other skills I just activated, the invisibility option was canceled and what was left behind was for all intents and purposes a storm cloud.


    I didn''t hesitate as I shot towards the boss, my speed and attacking power raised to an all time high as I went round the boss, slicing and stabbing with wanton abandon, trying to bring it down. The spikes disappeared, and rather one massive one surged out of the ground and stabbed into my body, dispersing the clouds that made up my form. But as if to throw shade at the boss, a massive system message appeared above my head.


    [IMMUNE]


    This was definitely not going the bosses way, and Zareth was not letting his opportunity slip away, as he raised his lance like a javelin, balancing it on his shoulder as he started building power. Fiery red and orange flames appeared around the spear as the ground beneath his feet even got cracked from the pressure and power of the skill he was about to use. Part of his feet sank into the ground, and the temperature went up a few degrees.


    The boss seeing as he couldn''t do anything to me, wanted to turn his attention to Zareth, who at the moment seemed to be the bigger threat. But there was no way I was going to let that happen, I had to buy him time. If we were close to the sea or Skye could use more than one (STELLAR FLARE), this fight would have ended quite a while ago. But there was no need worrying about what might be, I just had to take care of what ''is'' right now.


    [MANA ARROW] [STEALTH FLIGHT]


    Skills effects could be stacked, and at the moment my fifteen second [STORM DANCE] duration was already over, and my [AIR BODY] invisibility was back on. But I had to make the next few dozen hits counts, so I layered it with my [STEALTH FLIGHT] Skill, and immediately except for myself moving, I couldn''t even hear a sound, and I doubt any single person would be able to find me.


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    I went straight for the eye of the demon, without standing on ceremony, I stabbed my sword into it''s fiery glowing red eyeball, and rapidly pulled back to get some space from frantic and in pain boss. It clutched it''s eye for a moment, but at the moment something worse was happening to it, as the temperature around and within it''s body rapidly dropped, and ice started spreading from it''s punctured eyeball.


    I widened my eyes in surprise before remembering the sea swords ability to carry ice magic effects with all it''s strikes, and there was a chance for it to freeze and opponent after a certain amount of strikes. I didn''t expect it would happen to this extent, as the entire boss was frozen solid. It was at that point Zareth released the now completely red spear in his hand, as an aura of blazing draconic power filled the arena.


    "DRAGON FIRE: JUDGMENT LANCE!!!"


    *FWOOOOOOSH!!! BOOOOOM!*

 106 Zareth VII : Dungeon: CLEARED!

    The heat went up a few notches, so much so that it was a bit difficult to breathe, the explosion shook the entire arena and massive pieces of rock and a stream of lava fell from the ceiling, and that reaction was even more prevalent went the boss fell to his knees, and spontaneously combusted into a towering pillar of flame and lava. Except for Zareth who was right at home with the flames, I flew backwards a bit, keeping a close watch as the boss buried, until all that was left was ash and a few glowing materials on the ground.


    The temperature dropped a bit, but the heat was still prevalent. I dropped down from the air besides Zareth as we both stared at the remains of the boss. I didn''t know what to say, or maybe I had plenty to say, but I just wanted him to take the initiative. After all Zareth was not a player, he''s an indigene of LDO, a part of this world.


    "So...you''re part elf." He said, it was more an astute observation rather than question, but since this got the ball rolling, there was no problem with it.


    "Yeah I am." I answered back.


    "I thought as much¡­..how can a stuck up self centered elf be chosen by the wind elemental dragon, she''s supposed to be the most clear headed out of all of them. But she''s also the most unpredictable so I guess that counts as a reason. But still, an elf of all things, what a loss."


    I was dumbstruck, I opened my eyes and blinked it a few times, very much shocked by the stream of insults I just received. Though I''m not just an elf, but this bloody dwarf just called me stuck up, he doesn''t even know me!


    "Wow! I just realized that you''re a very small man, very small!" I said to him as I turned to face the loot from the boss, except Zareth stepped in front of me in an attempt to square up, his stocky form definitely eclipse mine by a wide margin, but his head only came up below my chest.


    "Did you just call me short ye blithering tree hugger!" he said to me with a dangerous glint in his eyes.


    I guess I was right about my deductions, or rather all of the fsnatsy Novels I''ve read so far were never wrong. There were many things dwarves will never tolerate; somebody stealing their gold, messing with their forge or precious metals, spilling their wine, and above all, a taller person especially an elf making fun of their height. But if this guy thinks he has a short fuse and an intolerance for someone messing with him, then he''s not met me at all. So allow me to introduce myself, my name is...


    *VOOOOP!*


    A blast of air escaped from my body and pushed him back, there wasn''t too much power behind it(probably because I can''t really control the wind or air properly yet), but it was still unexpected, so he was pushed of his feet and his wide rump came to land solidly on the ground before me.


    "I came in here to help you! Granted you might have been able to beat the boss given enough time, but at the very least a little bit of gratitude would have been appreciated. But the first thing you did was belittle me and make fun of me because I''m part elf. You''re a rude sonavabitch! Now if you want to scrap, then I''m more than willing to go toe to toe with you little man, but that would be after we get the fuck out of here, granted we get and share the loot of course." I said to him with a smile on my face as I turned the loot on the ground.


    There were five memory disks, two of them were skills, two were blueprints of some sort, and the fifth had a symbol of demon with horns. That''s probably a quest item, but I really have no need for it. I picked up one of the skills and the blueprints without even checking what they were, then there were also three weapons on the ground. One was a hammer, the other a spear, and the last was a pair of gauntlets. And then finally there was ring, which should be the only equipment here.


    I picked up the ring and the gauntlets, turned to Zareth who was now on his feet and looking at me with narrowed eyes. I gave him a smile and then slowly turned around to look for a way out. I didn''t have to wait long before a shimmering spell circle appaeard a few feet away, probably a teleportation circle or something of the sort. I walked towards it while raising my hand up in the air.


    "See you on the other side Zareth, and don''t take too long, your father is waiting for you."


    A bright flash of light sweet through my vision as I suddenly found myself in front of the entrance of the dungeon. The dwarf that I followed here was nowhere to be seen, I took a seat as I face the system alert that popped up in my face.


    [YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE SOLO DUNGEON: FORBIDDEN CAVES OF STONE & LAVA/ REWARDS: +10% EXP ADVANCEMENTS, +3 SKILL COMBINING GEMS]


    The rewards weren''t as generous as the Nereid dungeon, but at the very least it was something. I was still looking for the dwarf who brought me here to save Zareth, but I still couldn''t find him. One flash of light later, and Zareth was standing besides me. We looked at each other for a moment, almost as if we were daring each other to say something, then he sighed and said to me.


    "I''m sorry for me rudeness, this here dwarf doesn''t have to many good memories of ye elven folks. I reckon all ye fair skinned long eared jerks are the same, but I still apologize. Also thanks for coming, but the dwarf that brought ye here is a slave merchant who sent me down there to retrieve the memory disks of this here demon general. It teaches a ritual to summon the infernal creature from the very depths and bowels of hell itself to rain chaos and destruction and grant it''s summoner three infernal wishes of the worst sort. I came here to stop it."


    [QUEST FAILED!!]


    I guess Zareth''s not the son of that dwarf, but seeing as quite a few people in town already knew the dwarf as someone who cried wolf, I reckon Zareth is not the first son to have gone down there in search the memory disk. It was weird because obviously most of the people who go in there end up thinking it''s a false alarm and that the statues have not awakened, so there was nothing to be gained. Both the son and the person who has to save the son end up finding nothing, the AIs of the game know this, which means the only people capable of falling for this trick over and over again were without a doubt the players themselves.


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    Zareth probably triggered the dungeon, waking all of the statues. But he must have been there a while, and I suspect gone in through a different entrance than I did. While most dungeons have similar laws to other games, in LDO dungeons don''t reset, not unless there''s a functioning ecosystem within the dungeon.


    "So what now?" I asked him as I shifted my gaze to the town.


    "I need to get back to my planet and submit the disk to my King, however I''m wanted on this planet, especially by the elves. So I need safe passage off it, and a direct path back home. I have no contacts and no money, is there a way you can help me, on avatar of a dragon god to another?" he said to me with a focused gaze.


    "I have a ship...that sails on the seas for now, plus I have too many eyes on me and a close connection with elven government. Getting you out might be easy, but it won''t be low key and you would probably draw attention." I said to him as I made my way towards the town.


    "So you''re saying you can''t help me, as an avatar you''re bound by honor and duty to help me, we have to..."


    "I didn''t say I wouldn''t help you Zareth. Everything that has to do with the elemental dragon gods have to be kept secret. After all the elemental dragons are the bad guys, and I rather not leave your safety in the hands of people we both won''t be able to trust. I don''t know you, I don''t trust you, but you''re an avatar just like me, and we both have the same mission. I rather get you off this planet myself." I said to him as he fell into pace besides me.


    "And how do you hope to do that?" he asked me.


    "I already told you that I have a ship."


    "That sails on the seas!" he replied back indignantly


    "Like I said...it sails on the seas!.....for now."

 107 Gains

    Zareth and I made our way through the town, though this time Zareth had a cloak placed over his head to keep his identity a secret. I have no idea what he did that has made him wanted, but in the end I was not in a position to judge. Both inside and outside the game I''ve committed my own fair share of sins, and it''s going to take quite a while for me to make for it.


    We met Qitar, Dinah and Raven Song in a bar, but due to bow frantic Zareth was, we skipped the whole getting to know each other over a few drinks and immediately set sail. He was also actively trying to evade the slave merchant who asked him to go into a bunch of forbidden caves and retrieve an artifact that can summon a demon to grant three infernal wishes....seriously, it''s like living in a twisted version of Aladdin.


    According to Zareth we had to get this bloody memory disk to safety, there was no hurry, but within the next year or less, the Acheron should be space faring ready, or we had to find another option to get him off the planet. Everyone else seemed a bit Apprehensive about Zareth, especially since I introduced him as a new crew member. The outcome was that in the first three seconds of getting on the ship, the bloody dwarf had insulted both elves and maenads, calling Dinah''s people a race of wanton lust driven devil worshippers.


    Dinah took it as a compliment for some reason, just before she punched the dwarf in the nose and broke her hand and his nose in the process. Obviously she packs a good punch, but Zareth is obviously made of sterner stuff. Also the tell tale beards that all dwarves carry was not something Zareth seemed fond of; as his chin was completely smooth and dare I say it¡­.. shiny.


    He had his wild brown hair in braids, and his brown almost red eyes, seemed to glow with flames the longer you look into them. If you stare too long into it, you lose yourself in the flames, and apparently I have the same effect with my blue green eyes. Except of course mine glowed with windstorms and lightening, it made me feel even more cool about myself. After the introductions were done, we set sail immediately for the Atlantic Rim. According to Darke, we will eh arriving in that stretch of the world''s ocean in under a day, which means from here on out marine crimes would be at an all time high, and we might get attacked by kraken, so it would be best if we all prepared for the worst.


    And in that regard, I took the spear and hammer from Zareth, and under the astonished expressions of everyone else, fed it to Skye. With a look of anticipation of my face, though if I should be honest I should have made this a little private rather than doing it in front of everyone.


    [SKY''S HIDDEN SKILL DEVOUR HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. HER LEVEL HAS INCREASED FROM 20 TO 33. THE PASSIVE SKILLS SLOW BURN & CONCUSSIVE IMPACT HAS BEEN ADDED TO ALL WEAPON FORMS. NEW WEAPON FORM IS AVAILABLE.]


    [BASTARD SWORD/KATANA/HAND CANNON/SPEAR/HALBERD/GAUNTLETS/ WAR HAMMER/ MAGIC WAND/WAR HELMET]


    Okay this was too good to be true, so many new weapon forms to be chosen from, of course I can only chose one, but never the less this was another trumo card for me, and with her increase in level, Sky''s energy problem has been roughly solved. I don''t know how many STELLAR FLARE she would be able to use in a battle now, however it should be more than two, and it shouldn''t leave her as weak as before.


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    As for the new weapon forms, I already had a sword, sure I could use two swords, but I''m not a fan of bastard swords, and the single edged form of Katanas would limit me in a fight, so that would probably be eliminated from the list. A hand cannon sounds amazing, but I already have a very good long range weapon, plus hand cannons had a rather nasty recoil, I''m not too sure how much of a recoil Sky would have, but that''s not a risk I have a luxury of taken. As for the spears and halberds, Zareth and his lance are too annoying to look at, so I''m ignoring that for now, hammers are not my thing. Which leaves the weirdest of all the selection, a freaking helmet! The fact that a piece of armor was placed within a list of weapons was enough to draw my attention, so I''m taking that instead.


    [HELMET FORM CHOSEN]


    [Arnetine Sky Elephant (Moon Sky Helmet Form)/ Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: Legendary/ Level: 33]


    [+80% defense to all head attacks, +90% at night/+60% power to all head strikes, +70% at night.]


    [Special skill(I): Lunar Strike: hit your enemies with your head, imbuing the soul and power of an elephant in a radius of 5 meters for 200% of your total damage value. Cost 150 MP per strike, cool down 10 seconds, 5% chance to become dazed after skill has been used.


    Special Skill(II): Wind Mark: Every subsequent attack made would increase in speed by 10% for a maximum of 10 stacks]


    Special Skill(III): Slow Burn: every attack or contact made would cause burn damage for a flat damage for 10 HP. For every strike or contact made, the damage would multiply by 2


    Special Skill(IV): Concussive Impact: Every attack will hit with an extra 5% extra damage and force with a 50% probability of knocking the enemy back.]


    All of the extra special skills except for the first one would apply to all her weapon forms, and they were insane. From the look of things, Sky can''t gain any sort of active skill, and seeing the special skills gained, I reckon they came from the hammer and the gauntlets. With this, even if I don''t used any skills, ever stroke made would be causing a DOT effect, which is to say if I meet an opponent stronger than me, all I have to do is to outlast him or her, and I''ll definitely end up on top. Who say''s being OP isn''t fun.


    So in the end the helmet is still a weapon, though it''s mainly focused to defense, it still had attack stats of it''s own. Heck even the special skill was an attack skill, which more than tells me that Sky was focused solely on attack, the fact that I was able to get a defensive equip was out of luck. Well with Sky''s level up out of the way, I can shift my attention to the skills I had picked up.


    [QUAKE: LEVEL 1 ACTIVE SKILL: stomp the ground and cause a resonance with the earth elements for a 5% of your total damage value with a five meter knock back effect. Damage value and knock back range increase exponentially every five levels/ COST: 25 EXP/ COOLDOWN: 8 SECONDS]


    [FIRE SCHOOL: LAVA POOL: LEVEL 1 SPELL: Summon a pool of lava within a two meter radius to trap your enemies and cause a steady damage of +1% health points every second. Ineffective against larger enemies./ COST: 250 EXP/ COOLDOWN: 20 SECONDS]


    [YOU HAVE LEARNT ACTIVE SKILL (QUAKE) AND SPELL (FIRE SCHOOL: LAVA POOL)]


    Previously I wanted to be a fighter that relied on fast speed and quick hits to win and finish a fight. I''ve achieved that, and I''m quite good at it, however I also noticed a talent of sorts along the way. I loved being in control of the battlefield and even my enemies. So far most if not all of my opponents are strong enough to match my speed and all of my skills, most of the time there''s a lot of them. But if I can control the battlefield, then with my speed, I would probably be the most dangerous combatant in the game.


    Well this was great, growing stronger is really nice and my arsenal of skills seem to be filling out nicely and even having variety added to it. There''s much that I can do if I have skills tailored for every sort of situation, there should be less trouble pressure on me and my crew then. As for the blueprints, I left all of that to Dinah, it''s up to her to figure out what it''s for while we move towards our destination. I have to say though, today was a good day.


    Name: Aaren Seven/ Level: 38(33%)/ Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Thrill Seeker/ One With The Wind/ Bronze Blood Commander/ Limit Breaker


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/The Coven Of Angeles


    Reputation: <>


    Strength: 151/ Constitution: 146/ Agility: 155/ Dexterity: 155/ Intelligence: 151/ Wisdom:146


    Hp 1586 /1586(equip bonus +) MP 1770/1770(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:81 Skill points:122


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    Only 33% exp advancement, damn! I guess there still a ways to go before I reach the next level. Though come to think of it, it''s also as if the game''s user interface was evolving itself to make it easier for players to understand, and with that change the rewards for Exp also changed. If the rewards are in percentages, then it''s easier to advance to the next level, rather than the colossal amount of numerical exp that''s required. I should have a meeting with the devs, changes like this always occur after an update, but for it to happen when players are still logged online, is quite weird. But never the less it''s not a bad thing, I just have to check to make sure nothing''s wrong. But for now, the lands beyond the horizon beckons.

 108 Into The Atlantic Rim I : Nine Emperors, Twelve Major Planets 1

    The Acheron coaster across the seas, cutting through the waves like an unstoppable tide of it''s own. The moment of getting to know each other had passed, and even though almost everyone on the ship was still a bit Apprehensive about the appearance of the disrespect Dwarf, we were all trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, because when you look at it from a different point of view, there''s no one on this ship that''s normal.


    I didn''t have that much of a time to spend in the game anymore, in a few hours I had a meeting with a few world leaders, and not just that, I still have to get rid of a pair of mob family who thought it was a good idea to try and have me killed. What comes next is definitely not going to be pretty. We should have practically been dome with any more problems for the day, or so we thought until there was a blare of a loud horn above our heads, so loud that for those of us with rather sensitive ears, we almost wished we were dead.


    A massive shadow came over our ship, and when we looked up, there was a massive airship more than ten times the size of the Acheron standing over us. Underneath this massive airship was an emblem of a trident stabbing through the net, I really had no idea who they were. Qitar and the others quickly came HP to my side, Zareth was still below decks, which was better in this case, since from the look of things, the airship and whoever is currently inside of it is stronger than we are, at least for the moment anyway.


    "That''s a Sacred Coral border patrol unit. We must be close to the Atlantic rim, and this is a routine check for wanted criminals or illegal goods being transported. They''ll check for people who have bounties on their head, or might be important to the nine powers and capture them."


    "So basically they''re the coastal guards, or the marines. Understood, however what''s the nine powers, and what''s or who is this sacred coral you speak of?" I asked Qitar just after she finished explaining who''s ass we were currently under at the moment.


    "I almost forgot that you practically don''t know shit about this world and it''s current distribution of power. Well I guess it''s not your fault you travelers are so clueless." She said to me as she gave worried looks to the airship above us.


    I gave her a blank look; Qitar has a reputation for not just being cold, but being mean with her words. She made me feel as if I chose to be ignorant by choice, but when you think about it, she might be right. I''ve not given myself proper time to study LDO, and every open secret and intricacies that it currently had. That was a huge blunder on my part, and it would be smart if I rectified that, and Qitar seemed all too willing to do so.


    "There are nine emperors and twelve main planets spread over multiple galaxies. New Gaia, the planet we''re on, is the home planet of every race in existence, so it has no main leader, but rather spread and divided amongst many races. There''s an unspoken rule that new Gaia can not be conquered by any of the nine emperors, and will remain a veritable no man''s land, since this is everyone''s home, and the ides of having someone else have more say and control in your home doesn''t sit well with most.


    The Elves have their main plane; it''s called Elfengarde. They have numerous other colonial planets that''s spread amongst the numerous racial variations of the Elves. There are four main royal clans amongst the elves, and a new king or empress is chosen from either one of those clans every 500 years. But apart from the elves, the humans control two major planets, having the most out of all the other races and even having two emperors instead of one. Both planets are Columbus and Alpha Asia, however unlike other races, both human main planets are not really at peace with each other and are even currently at war.


    Next should be the planet of the Fae, which invariably is a race we Patmosians fall under. The planet is called The Realm, the fae aren''t too keen with giving things names. They have the smallest number of minor planets under their controls, which is to be expected as the Fae have the smallest population of all the races. But they''re hands down the best doctors and alchemists within all of the galaxies.


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    The next planet would be Orous, it''s home to races whose height don''t really reach the average. There''s an emperor there, and he''s a dwarf, however the planet is not united under his banner. It''s spread amongst numerous tribes and clans of dwarves, gnomes, pygmies and a lot of races with a great love for the subterranean.


    The next would be Haven, home of a race we''ve all taken to call the celestial. They could be winged humanoids, elves, even dwarves and elves, but one thing they all have in common is their ability to bend and control light in a variety of ways that would leave you shocked. They''re the fastest space faring race, when it comes to stellar warfare, I''m afraid none can compare to their abilities and their technology. And just like the humans, they have two emperors, or rather an emperor and his empress ruling over them. We''re lucky they''ve not decided to go colonizing, because with their ability to travel as fast as light, they could appear and destroy a planet in seconds before anyone realizes what''s happened.


    The eighth planet is called Dracos, and it''s the planet with the greatest battle potential amongst all the twelve planets. Their technology is not as advanced, if not, given how bloodthirsty and dangerous that race of dragons and draconic bloodlines are, the entire universe would have already been bathed in blood. Funny enough that''s where the Virtue dragons live, the most powerful beings in existence apart from the gods who embody the seven virtues of Purity, Temperance, Benevolence, Bravery, Diligence, Patience and Kindness."


    The moment I heard that, there were warning bells ringing in my mind, the elemental dragons never mentioned anything about the seven dragons of virtue. I stopped Qitar just to clear my doubts as I asked.


    "Don''t you mean the sin dragons?" I asked her. She looked at me confused before answering.


    "There are no sin dragons, who ever told you that. There''s only elemental dragons, but they''re almost extinct, especially since the first elemental dragons were evil gods who fell in battle to the virtue dragons thousands of years ago. The elemental dragons alive at the moment do not even have one shred of the abilities of their ancestors, which explains why they''ve almost gone extinct. Which makes you a rare specimen seeing as you''re part dragon, you would cost no less than 10 billion gold dollars on the black market alone if not more." Qitar said to me.


    It was not in me to jump to conclusions, but it''s either the element dragons lied to me, or the sin dragons had changed there sins into virtues, which would be a perfect cover. Taking on the mantle of righteousness would inevitably keep the entire universe dancing in the palm of their hands....or claws. I can''t help but admit, that I''m pretty impressed.


    *Clang!*


    There was a loud clanging sound from above my head as the doors underneath the massive air ship above our heads opened up. A platform that was floating came down from it, and descended until it was above the sea and on the port side of the ship. There were four armored individuals on it, and the moment my eye met the person in the middle who had a spear on his back, the sea sword behind me began vibrating. I saw his eyes narrow just a system alert popped up in front of me.


    [SYSTEM ALERT: You are now in the presence of another piece of the legendary trident of the god of the seas Poseidon/Neptune. Slay your opponent and claim the power of the seas!]


    "Oh fuck me this can''t be good! It definitely won''t end well. Qitar prepare for battle!"

 109 Into The Atlantic Rim II : Sacred Coral Border Patrol

    I already gave Qitar the warning she needed, but we were holding until after these group of people had made the first move. Currently Sky was in her bow form behind my waist, but the vibrating sword on my back was making everything on my body terribly uncomfortable. I moved forwards walking towards the uninvited guests on my ship, I watched as the person with the spear turned and whispered to the guy by his side. And come to think of it, that guy by the side looks to be the one in charge, but why was he on the sidelines.


    "We''re a border patrol unit of sacred Coral country, we received word that a wanted criminal has stowed away on this ship. We have to search it if you don''t mind."


    I felt my heart skip a beat before calming it down. These were just police men doing their jobs, there''s no harm done. Except of course for the fact that I do have a wanted stowaway on board my ship, and I wouldn''t give him up without a fight, which means me and these guys are definitely going to butt heads, especially that dudes with the spear. Plus why were they wearing helmets for fuck sakes! It''s weird talking to silver helmet with my face reflected on it.


    "My name is captain Seven, and I welcome you aboard the Acheron. I understand that you''re all doing your jobs, but who gave you such a tip? We''ve not had any extensive contact with anyone since we left Patmos."


    Quite few schemes were in play here; given how big the bloody airship above our head is, I wanted to get the fuck away from them without having to initiate a battle, not that I don''t think we won''t be able to win(not really), but there was another legendary weapon in play, and I don''t want that guy to go crazy and make a play for Thalasio Spathi.


    So I paid attention to quite a few details, first of all has to do with which stretch of the ocean we were currently sailing on. I don''t know what it''s called, however I know it''s right on the fringe and edge of the law''s influence. Not that you won''t find cops like these sacred coral border patrol, the things is they would definitely have loose if not outright no morals at all. So they can be bribed or in really stupid and extreme cases, threatened.


    These guys don''t know me, they just received a tip, which if I should hazard a guess came from that crazy goblin-dwarf that asked me to go look for Zareth in the first place. Now I''m hoping these guys listen or at least watch the news, I might no longer be amongst the chosen but I should be a bit famous by now, after all I blew up a city and slaughtered millions by accident when I...¡­shit! These guys might actually be here for me.


    Given that I haven''t been arrested, yet. I hope they think I have someone with a lot of clout behind me, which should make them unwilling to make any trouble but I doubt that would work. None of these guys were gamers, but right now there''s no difference between an NPC and a gamer, so it would be unwise the underestimate the greed for a legendary weapon, and not just any weapon, one that actually belonged to a god.


    "You''re captain seven? Interesting. You would have to come with us to our airship to answer some few questions, then naturally you can be on your way, however we still have to search your ship before that happens." The guy with the spear said to me.


    I get this feeling that he is smiling behind that silver helmet of his, it made my knuckles itch. But none the less this guy is too far gone into the well of greed(I think). There''s no way he''s going to let me go, but more than anything else, he knows the advantage I have with my sword, especially given that we''re currently surrounded by water for hundreds if not millions of kilometers. We both have a piece for the god of the seas trident, having me follow them back up to their airship eliminates the threat of me using the sword against them, plus without my allies around I should be much more easier to deal with.


    He was smart, but to be honest going up their airship would be much more easier for me. I rather not have a battle on my ship when their own friends are on an airship that could blow us up if they so much as noticed something wrong. The Acheron is a fast ship, but we can''t beat the speed for flight, the best case scenario would be to go up there and wreak havoc, and no one does that better than me. However I can''t let them into the ship, my main quests says I have to protect and help every member of the elemental dragon race, and a dragon god''s avatar would probably be ranked really high on that list.


    "Do you have a warrant to search the ship?" Mack asked as he came up beside me looking at the border patrol dude with a ferocious look on his face.


    "I don''t believe we do elf, we have full jurisdiction to carry out such operations within this stretch of the ocean. It''s our job to make sure everything is safe and crime is at an all time low here." The guy with the spear said as he shifted his head to Mack.


    "I''m afraid that''s not good enough. We''re on a mission from the elven prime minister to deliver a race of Nereids to a temple in the Atlantic rim. This ship and her captain are under her employment, this is her seal of authority here, and quite frankly you''re not high ranked enough to conduct a search on a ship under her employ. We have her on call 24/7 since this is a very important mission, we can call her and have her communicate with your superiors so that we can solve this problem without you doing something that would cause a diplomatic situation." Mack said with a hard look on his face whilst simultaneously showing a glowing silver crest with an arrow stabbing into a rose.


    They looked shocked¡­..not really though since I can''t see their face. But based on their silent posture and the way they looked at each other, they couldn''t make a move on us even if they wanted to. I didn''t even know Mack had that, but with Lerriandelei''s influence, sailing these seas has become a lot more easier than expected.


    "Very well then, we won''t search the ship, however the captain still has to. Come with us to answer some questions and fill an official report." The spear dude said to me.


    "Buy I just said..."


    "I know what you said elf!" the spear dude said to Mack with no small amount of animosity in his voice. I guess he doesn''t really like loosing.


    "Yes we can search the ship, but your captain really has to come up and fill a report, this is standard procedure and it''s not something we can skip, even for the Elvin prime minister. So please just make our job easier and come with us." He said whilst giving me a look(which I can''t see at all).


    "Sure no problem at all, isn''t it just fill a report. I can do that and be back down in ten minutes."


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    "But captain!" Qitar called out to me.


    "Don''t worry Qitar, as soon as I''m on that airship fire up the Ion pulse cannon and aim it at the airship. If I''m not back down in 30 minutes, blow it up." I said to her with a smile.


    The moment I mentioned the Ion pulse canon a shudder went through every single member of the Sacred coral border patrol in front of me. Seems like they know just what sort for damage and danger the cannon can cause, it''s a weapon designed for space warfare, and it was placed on a ship like this. Definitely this was a course of action they had to think twice about.


    But even then I''m sure the guy with the spear won''t hesitate, he would probably be under the impression that once he wrestle the sea sword from my cold dead hands, he would be able to use the power of the seas to completely turn the situation around and sink the Acheron. Unfortunately for this fool, I''m not your typical captain.


    "Well then officers, let''s go fill that report shall we." I said to them with a smile on my face that seemed a little bit too happy. The spear dude grunted at me and turned around heading towards the floating platform that brought them down from their airship. It was the suspected leader that opened his mouth and said to me.


    "Follow us captain Seven."


    "Sure officers *CHUKLE* with pleasure."

 110 Into The Atlantic Rim III : Negotiation

    "Wait! I''m coming with you guys." I heard Raven Song say behind me as he walked towards us. I raised an eyebrow at that, but I didn''t really mind either way. The border patrol guys like they wanted to say something too, but Mack just had to flash the crest he was holding, and they swallowed their words.


    Me and Raven Song huddled onto the floating platform, right in the middle of these guys who after repeated warnings, still want to fish in troubled waters. The platform went up, moving steadily but also rapidly as it approached the airship. The wind flew past us, ruffling our clothes as the ever imposing structure of the airship drew closer to us, it was a rather daunting experience, but I''ve seen whole cities go up in smoke, this was nothing to me.


    Doors underneath the airship slid to the left and right, opening up to a cargo area within the airship that at the moment was fully surrounded by other officers. The doors closed shut beneath us, and the floating platform went up a bit, before placing us on a platform that stretched from one side of the ship, to what looked like a floating office or was it a cell. I didn''t need to tell Raven Song to be prepared for things to go horribly wrong, but since these guys haven''t made a move yet, I guess we could just indulge them.


    We followed them into the office, which was larger than it looked from the outside, there were three cells at the edge of it, while there was a single desk within it. The guy with the spear pointed at a few seats in front of the desk asking me and Raven Song to seat while he and his three friends went around the desk. That''s when his leader, just as I suspected, finally took the seat in front of us. I felt it was ridiculous though, you had us out numbered and over powered, so was there any need to go through all this trouble to hide your identity? That was just a question in mind, I didn''t really care enough to ask him about it anyway.


    "I will not waste your time captain Seven, you know why you''re here, so instead of beating around the bush, hand us the legendary weapon and we can let you go without a fuss." The voice behind that gleaming silver helmet is female, I''m sure there''s a story to tell somewhere, probably a quest too considering how much lengths she went to divert our attention to someone else. Didn''t work though.


    "I''m pretty sure both you and the person with the spear knows that it doesn''t work like that. Even if I hand you my weapon, which I won''t! It''s already bound to me, and only if someone else with another legendary weapon connected to mine kills me, will that connection be broken and the weapon left unclaimed. But given how precarious both our positions are, I''ll say that puts you in a really tight spot, you don''t want to cause a diplomatic situation do you?


    Because if you do so, you will expose the existence of both weapons, and not even the power they wield would save you from the trouble that''s going to come knocking on your door. Plus you''re not the owner of the weapon, what''s it to you?"


    I took a cursory glance around the office after I finished speaking. The walls were made of metal, though I suspect it''s hollow given that it was about three feet thick, however the only windows here shared the same amount of thickness, like some sort of block shoved into the space made for windows. I would need a significant amount of force to break through it should the need to escape arises.


    There were cameras within the office, which means I might not be able to take these guys out silently and escape without alerting the rest of the airship. Of course it might be too early to worry about a fight, we were not done negotiating, but I don''t feel this is going smoothly.


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    "It doesn''t matter what you say captain, if you have to surrender your life in order for me to get the legendary weapon, then so be it. I will deal with the consequences of my actions later, in fact there might not be any consequences at all, not when I have the power of the seas with me." The leader said to me with type of voice that left no room for argument.


    "Are you sure you want to take that gamble, my crew are probably getting into position to blow you all to molten slag and metal if I''m not out in 30 minutes. By then it wouldn''t matter what you do, you will lose both your life and the weapons, as the sea itself would swallow it back." I said to her as I relaxed my back on the seat and crossed my legs.


    I''m sure I looked s little too comfortable, so much so that I had Raven Song sending me chat messages and asking if I had a plan. This was the one advantage players had over the ''NPCs/AIs'' the communicator on our wrist was no different from a phone, but the players could still chat and send message using the system.


    "You know what I think, I think you''re bluffing!" the leader said to me as she slammed her palms on her desk, is that supposed to intimidate me or something.


    "Oh really now? You don''t say." I replied nonchalantly with a dull smirk on my face.


    "You might be showing this calm and collected attitude, but everyone knows the Ion Pulse Cannon is a weapon for off world combat. Not only is it expensive to make, no body in their right minds would place such a treasure on an old ship! So trust me when I say, no fictional canon is going to save you from what''s to come. So make this easier on both of us, and offer yourself up to be killed. This weapon will only bring a traveler like you great misfortune, and since you can come back from the dead, I promise to give you a rewarding compensation for the loss of the weapon." The leader said to me, I could hear the desperation in her tone and voice, but I ignored her and turned to Raven Song.


    "She thinks I''m bluffing, and even better she wants to me to give then my head on a platter. Tell me Raven what do we do?" I asked with nonchalance as I uncrossed my legs and moved it under the desk.


    "Well it looks like we''re not getting out of here without a fight captain, sooo?" Raven song dragged out his ''So'', but basically he meant¡­..let''s dance.


    The desk in front of us was funnily enough the only thing made of wood in this office. Heck even the cups on it were metal, but since it was made of wood, it meant I had enough strength for my next course of action. I leaned back and kicked the edge of the table, sending it blasting back as it smashed into the sternum of the leader, pushing her backwards as she crashed into her comrades, all of them sprawled on the ground in a tangled and I''m very sure painful heap.


    It would have been just my luck if all of them were mowed over by the table, but the guy with the spear jumped over and pulled out a massive assault rifle, complete with a futuristic tech glow that gave a promise that any hit from that thing would hurt like a motherfucker! He didn''t hesitate to pull the trigger, but Raven Song was already in front of me, slamming his tower shield on the ground and intercepting all of what I''m sure plasma blasts.


    When you think about it, a gun was faster than a bow, and the only reason I''ve been able to go beat my opponents with a bow, is because none of them used guns, or guns that were powerful enough. I beat Qitar because at that point in time, both our weapons seemed to be evenly matched, plus I had experience, and there''s a balance within LDO that let fantasy weapons match up with sci fi ones. However there will always be advantages to hot weapons as opposed to cold ones. The rate of fire, plus the need to not have to string a new arrow every time you''ve shot the first.....damn it! I''ve not been really smart with my choices. The next time Skye gets a new form, I''ll choose a gun. And if it''s possible, I''ll change her bow form to a sniper form. But never the less, I can worry about that a little later in the future, because for now I was in the middle of a fight for my life, and bow or not.....I have to kick ASS!

 111 Into The Atlantic Rim IV : Altercation

    Standing here under the hail of gun fire would be a recipe for disaster, and even though Raven song seemed to have everything under control with his shield intercepting all of the plasma blasts, the moment those other guys got up from the ground, that''s when things would get really dicey. Plus we had to get out of this office, or we would be invariably boxed in by their reinforcements once they get here.


    The spear wielder was laying down some suppressive fire, so I couldn''t make any moves without getting pumped full of holes, but then again my armor was almost legendary, so I should probably be able to withstand a couple of heats. Come to think of it, I''ve not really had the chance to out this armor to the test, but not now, I needed to get out of here.


    I moved to the door with Raven Song keeping close behind me, his tower shield still blocking the plasma blasts from the spear wielders assault rifle. The door was automated, and the moment it opened, I could see other officers coming onto the bridge that led to the office. I didn''t have too much time to think on my actions as I pulled on Sky''s strings, sending one arrow after the other at the rapidly approaching group of people. The first strike whet into someone''s head, pulverizing it and leaving behind a bloody mess.


    My arrows had more power now than before, from what I can see my first arrow had as much power as my sixth wind marked arrows used to have before Sky''s level increased. And with the new passive skills, she was giving at damage at the level of a small hand cannon, or maybe a shotgun with a singular damage point.


    Raven song followed right behind me, and slammed his shield on the ground, a dull brown barrier rose up to block the entrance of the office keeping the other guys behind us, this way we won''t be boxed on both sides. I would have taken to the air already, but I had dozens of guns shooting at me, I would be too exposed to them, and an easier target for them to shoot out of the air.


    "The barrier won''t last long Captain, it would just be there for two minutes. We have to get off this bridge before then." I nodded my head to him as I pulled back Sky''s strings.


    (METOER SHOWER)


    The previous meteor shower would at most release a maximum of fifty or sixty beams of light that cause extensive damage, but this time it was almost as if they doubled, or rather tripled. Hundreds of dull explosions accompanied by the screams of men and women rang out across the entire airship as the skill ran it''s course. But the officers weren''t the only thing that received damage.


    The bridge we were on was shredded by the continuous strikes, it let out a loud cream as one end of it tipped towards the ground, the dead bodies and the injured ones of the officers all fell to the ground, falling almost fifteen meters to the closed bay doors beneath them. Raven Song and I fell we began to slide down the destroyed bridge, and just in time too as the guy with the spear burst out of the office with his spear pointed out.


    His speed was so fast that he flew over our head, his spear glowing an icy blue as a blast of coldness assumed us. He slammed his feet against the metal wall opposite us, leaving a massive dent on it, before using it as a boost to shoot back towards our still falling body, his spear pointed directly at my heart. My eyed narrowed as I jumped forwards, pushing forward with my wings through the air and pulling my sword out at the same time.


    *Clang!*


    Both sword and spear slammed into each other, causing a shower of sparks and blast of cold air as we flew past each other. Raven Song used his shield as board as he threw his one banded hammer at the rapidly approaching spear officer. I already reached the other side and slammed my foot against it just like he did, and turned flying towards him. I watched as Raven Song''s hammer slammed into his unprotected face, or so we thought as he was able to raise the spear up quickly and defend against the hammer strike.


    The hammer went back to Raven Song as the spear officer was left unbalanced falling to the ground. I sheathed the sea sword and I followed flapping my wings as I started releasing rapid fire arrows from Sky. I honestly wished I had more archery skills, but for now this worked just fine. But even twitch the increased speed and damage of my arrows, every thing I threw at him was defended against until his back slammed into the metal floor beneath him. But he wasn''t even dazed as he flipped himself up, and just in time too as Raven song''s hammer slammed into that spot a second later.


    Raven Song and I landed on the ground at the same time his massive shield back in his hand and his one handed hammer flying right back into his hands mere seconds later. We were getting surrounded on all sides so Raven Song stood with his back to me. He flipped his hammer a few times as he crouched low.


    "You take half and I take half?" he asked with a smile on his face.


    "Sure why not." I replied back with a similar smile, and in that same motion I raised Sky to my head and her bow form changed into a gleaming silver helmet with blue, purple and black highlights. There was a symbol of a full moon stretching from the forehead to just above my top lip. If was a full helmet and as I placed it on my head the visor glowed a piercing silver before settling down.


    *BOOM!*


    A loud explosion as flames and the sound of tearing metal filled the environment. Someone landed with a thud besides us, heat and pure animosity seemingly resisting from his body. The stout form of Zareth was revealed in glowing red armor, and his lance was very much on fire. These guy just ruined a perfectly epic moment just so he could make an entrance, my hatred for him just went up a few notches.


    "What are sniveling babies doing, do ye intend to dance these blithering bastards to sleep like some tavern wench, or do ye want to spill blood and fight!"


    Safe to say, we all wanted to fight. All three of us shot out from our positions, weapons gleaming as we joined the fray. For some reason the guy with the soar took a step back rather than joining as his comrades all rushed towards us with guns. A hail of gun fire was released in my direction, but I brought my wings forward using it to cover my body as the gun shots slammed into it.


    I skid into a group if officers, rapidly spinning my body with my wings stretched out. Their armored edges buzzed through the air as the armor the officers were wearing was shredded into multiple heaps and scraps of metal. But metal wasn''t only thing flying about as blood, flesh and bone followed right behind it. I shot upwards turning around as I sliced my sword downwards.


    (LIGHTNING BLADE)


    A beam of lightning energy shot out of the sword cleaning three officers in half and severely injuring another one. I turned and slammed the head of my sword against the face of one of the officers who have been rapidly shooting at my back like some sort of pest. His helmets spilt into pieces with debris from his visor cutting into his face. He was thrown backwards off his feet, but his journey didn''t last long as Zareth''s lance cut through the air and speared him right in the middle. And then Zareth swung his lance around with a body still attached to it and blazing into the chest of another officer, who was also thrown back only for Raven Song''s hammer to fly through the air and smash his skull to Goo.


    I threw a kick into the jaw of another officer sending him crashing back into s group of his friends. I suddenly felt off, So I turned back quickly to swing my sword, deflecting the spear that would have poked a hole in my back. The impact from both weapons was so strong we were both pushed back, our feet''s raising sparks on the ground as we moved backwards, I stabbed my sword into the ground, bring my momentum to a halt, and he did the same too.


    A massive ice blue glow covered his entire body as he crouched down, preparing to attack with his spear pointed towards me, held tightly with both hands. But two can play that game.


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    (STORM DANCE)


    I raised the sea sword and turned my body sideways and crouched a bit, then I brought the hilt to my chest holding it with both my hands and making sure it was pointed at the spear officer. Even with all of the battles going on around us, there was a lull, a silent and a zone that only had the two of us in it. Then...


    *BOOM!*

 112 Into The Atlantic Rim V : Lets Do It Again

    My sword smashed into the spear, but we had both braced ourselves for it, so the sonic boom that ensued did not push us back. He threw a kick at me, but I moved to the side and forced his spear downwards and then I moved the hilt of the sword backwards and smashed it into his chest. He took two steps back and smashed his spear into my sternum. It hurt and left me a bit winded, but we both ignored the injuries.


    He whipped the spear upwards, sending the blade towards my eye, but I ducked and shifted my head, watching as sparks raised up from the point where his spear met with sky''s helmet form. The loud grating sound made my ears ring something fierce, I took a step back and had to quickly shift to the side as his spear came whistling towards me again. I stepped into his guard and slashed down, lightning flying of my blade to hit him in the chest.


    He shrugged it off, and turned around with a flourish, using his soaked like a staff as whipped it towards my chest. I held the sea sword in front of me and blocked the attack, we locked weapons and turned it into a battle of strength, but this was what I wanted. I smiled at him as I moved my head backwards and then smashed if forwards to his face.


    [Lunar Strike!]


    The sound of an elephant trumpeting was heard as the sky''s shadow appeared being me and smashed forward with blazing silver glow. My. Opponent couldn''t defend against this strike as his body was smashed away from mine, almost as if he was shot from a cannon ball. I blinked my eyes in surprise, I didn''t expect that there would he that much power behind the strike. I didn''t hesitate and shit towards him, jumping into the air and bringing the sea sword crashing down on his head.


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    He raised his spear sideways and defended our weapons rising sparks as they met once more. The power behind the strike brought him to down to his knees, but he pushed the spear forwards and hit in on my stomach again, this time I couldn''t resist letting out a pained huff as I stepped back and watched as the spear started to glow. He was about to use a skill, and given how ridiculously powerful the sea sword was, I don''t want to find out what it''s spear counterpart can do.


    [AREA OF SILENCE!]


    The effects of his skill suddenly disappearing shocked him, and that gave me enough time to send a super kick under his jaw that spun him around and threw him off his feet. He flew through the air before ye was sent smashing into a group of canisters. A blazing lance flew past me as Zareth followed close behind, his lance speeding three officers at once, Raven Song followed close behind as he ran off a couple of fuel drums and then slammed his massive tower shield down on the head of another helpless soldier.


    I rushed forwards, flapping my wings as I took of the ground and then aimed for the guy with the legendary spear. However I underestimated his abilities as he turned around and pointed the spear at my falling form, a blue beam of light flying towards me. I brought my wings forward to block the attack, causing a painful impact that pushed me even higher into the air and left my wings feeling so numb I couldn''t feel them enough to even move.


    I only had just a second reorient myself in the air, before I fell down towards the spear wielder, my sword pointed straight at him as I let gravity pull me down. He was waiting for me to come closer before piercing at me with his spear, this was so that he I would not be able to escape, but I also had a plan of my own that he wouldn''t see coming. When I got close enough to him, at about five meters with was just the distance I needed, the moon on my helmet glowed silver.


    [LUNAR STRIKE]


    It was a head-butt that was also an aoe skill, without a doubt it was probably the most ridiculous weapon in my arsenal, but in this case it was exactly what I needed it to be. The distance between the guy and the ground wasn''t too far, and adding the power from the strike, it was akin to him being slapped by a giant palm. He slammed into the ground, the metal under him gaining a crater as his helmet and much of his armor shattered to pieces. A second later the sea sword stabbed into his chest as he released a loud mournful howl that shook me.


    I was finally able to see the appearance of the people we''ve been fighting, and honestly it wasn''t good. Slime covered Soft pink skin, bulbous black eyes, hairy tentacles or rather tentacles that were hair, a black tongue and serrated teeth that freaked me out. They were an aquatic race that probably weren''t fans of sunlight or humidity, I have no idea what they were called, but seeing as this guy was about to die, I don''t think it matters.


    At that moment, the sound of a missile heading for back rang out loudly, I turned to see that his leader was out of the office and aiming to blow me to bits. But Raven Song jumped in front of me as the imaged of a golden illusory mountain suddenly blossomed to life in front of him and blocked the rpg.


    [MOUNTAIN BASTION!]


    This was his ultimate skill, and the sneak attack drew Zareth''s attention to them. The dwarf did not stand on ceremony as he shot towards them, his lance blazing and aiming for the leader and the goons besides her. But Zareth''s attention was not the only one that was drawn.


    The spear user gave a quick thrust at my chest, however he missed and it went last my side instead. It drew a deep groove into my armor and still cut me deep enough that the ribs on my left side could be seen. He got back up to his feet with my sword still stuck in his chest and turned around to run, however there was no way I was letting him go.


    I struck forward with both my wings and watched with grim satisfaction as they pierced through his back and out his chest. He released a shrill scream that was even worse than the first, but it did not stop me from putting a stronger force behind my wings as I pushed them deeper into his wounds, widening them it a rather grotesque manner. I lifted him up, his blood spilling from him and onto my body, leaving me with an appearance that was akin to a monstrous devil, then I pulled both ways and his body was ripped apart, red and black blood spilling every which way with a healthy serving of guts and inner organs.


    Both my sword which was stuck in his body and the spear he was holding fell to the ground with loud flattering sounds, follows quickly by the mutilated body of my former opponent. I quickly picked both my sword and the spear and threw them into my inventory as I had Sky transform back into her bow form. Then I turned to Raven Song and Zareth.


    "You guy''s should get off the ship and tell Qitar to blow it up in three minutes. I''ll cover your retreat, I''ll be right behind you!"


    Zareth who was currently facing off against the leader of the officers just abandoned his fight and jumped into the hole he had made on the floor of the airship. Raven Song at least knew enough of what I was capable of enough by now, so all he gave me in return was a nod as he also jumped down.


    There were still a significant amount of officers still left aboard this airship, but I didn''t waste time to count as I started nocking my arrows and releasing. With every second that passed, I made sure a life was taken whilst using my wings to defense against the plasma blasts and every other attack they tried to use in neutralizing me. It went on for almost a minute until I noticed grenades in the hands of some of the officers.


    I have a rather bad experience with getting blown up, and this was not a situation I wanted to experience again, so I just jumped out the holes on the floor of the airship. I spread my wings and let it catch the wind currents beneath the airship. I though I was free, until I felt a lancing pain on my calf quickly followed by the loud sounds of a battling gun spitting fire at me. I dived and went into a rotation as the gleaming blue sea spread out beneath me, I moved my body left and right, digging the hail of gun fire adamant about shooting me out of the sky.


    I shifted my eyes to right and saw the Acheron in the distance, she was facing my direction, but even from here I could see the Ion pulse canon aiming at the airship. They already saw me jump out whilst dodging plasma blast, Qitar was never someone to hesitate when it came to taking action. A beam of silver and blue light shot out of the cannon and flew over me and impacted the airship biting a hole through it and in mere seconds blowing up the entire contraption into a heap of flaming metal. Metal that was now falling right on top of me.


    *Splash!*


    The chill of the ocean severe to jolt me awake as I brought my wings tightly to my body and shot forward through the water. I was almost as fast swimming as I was when flying, and in no time at all I cleared the entire area, and just time too as what ever was left of the Sacred Coral border patrol team sank slowly to the bottom of the ocean. I shot out of the sea spreading my wings as I landed on deck with a loud thump, I gave everyone a big smile as I said.


    "Let''s do it again!"

 113 The Weapons Deal 1

    I opened my eyes to a bright morning, I was mentally exhausted, the excitement in the game alone was enough to keep my brain running at a 110%, but when you couple it with the fact that I also had to run a company in the real world, it gets really tiring. It''s only been just a week, but I feel like I need a vacation, but speaking of businesses, I''ve not heard back from those real estate dude, I think it''s about time I paid a visit to their headquarters, or rather I''ll just send Penny over there, or even worse I''ll send Penny and Kira to harass them, that''ll teach them not to mess with me.


    I shifted a bit and felt a weight on my chest, for a moment I was startled, did I have sex with someone last night, but that''s impossible, I was logged on and as soon as I logged off I went right to sleep. I looked down and raised the covers up, a familiar mop of unruly black hair, a thumb in his mouth and a significant amount of drool on my chest. How did he get in here, and even more so how come I didn''t notice him getting under my covers and making my body his temporary bed.


    I threw the covers off and got up holding him to my chest, Ron was not a deep sleeper, I already knew that much. But I was hoping he wouldn''t wake up, he should probably remain sleeping so that I can get ready and sneak off to work before he knows, but it seems I''m totally out of luck. He shifted his body a bit and looked up at me, his blue eyes seemingly sparkling under the slow burn of the early morning sun.


    "Good morning big guy." I said to him with a smile. He didn''t reply at first, choosing to spend a healthy fifteen seconds staring at me, almost as if he was trying to confirm my identity, then he moved forward wrapped his hands around my neck as he placed his head on my shoulder, lying down there. I thought he wasn''t going to answer, though it would have hurt, it was just the way he did things, however.


    "Goo mworning pops!"


    My eye''s felt as if they would pop out of my head in the next second, who the hell was teaching him this stuff, I mean I''ve never heard him call me pops before. It wasn''t the daddy or dad, or maybe even a formal father¡­..but I like it. I held my son closer to me as I left my room heading downstairs for a little exercise and then a light breakfast, and through it all the wild smile on my face did not fade. Who say''s waking up to a beautiful woman on your bed is the best feeling in the world, they should try waking up with their kids instead....nothing beats that feeling, nothing at all.


    ??????????????


    "So Nicholas you say you can control metal, is that like Magneto or something?" I asked as I paid attention to the road. So this kid was an enigma, and his blatant hero worship aside, the fact that he was Nanny Florence''s grandson completely threw me for a loop.


    He was twelve, and he got along well with Ron, in fact he was the reason Ron has started throwing the word pops allover the place. He called Hades pops, called nanny Florence pops, he even called Nicholas pops. The ugly look on my face was probably due to how mercilessly my son smashed my delusions of a father and son bond. But it is what it is, and I felt that I needed to spend more time with the kid, which was why he was sitting in the back seat of the car with Nicholas, I guess it''s bring your kids to work day.


    "Who''s magneto?" the young boy asked me with a raised eyebrow.


    I was shocked! What the hell were kids these days doing, how could he not know who magneto was. That''s blasphemy, and so I began a tirade, explaining the intricacies and the back story of an entertainment franchise that has been around since the time of my great grandfather''s, grandfather, give or take a father. It went that way until we arrived at the office.


    As usual Kira was waiting for me at the entrance, and sure enough her eyes narrowed in barely disguised annoyance as she saw Ron. It was then I remembered that we were keeping up a fa?ade, no one knew that She was Ron''s mother, and should he call her mom, it stands to reason that our cover would be blown, but I don''t think I care, even if they did find out what could they do. This idea of sneaking around people was annoying, but it was necessary so that my enemies can reveal all of the cards in their hands.


    Plus not all my enemies have shown their faces yet, I had to be careful and make my choices wisely, however should anyone try to fuck with me or my son, and be so foolish as to do it right in front of me, then I''m going to throw them off a building. They absolutely won''t enjoy it, not one bit.


    Thankfully a company as huge as Imperium industries had a nursery for kids, it was well protected by the company''s security team, plus Nicholas was there with Aaron so I don''t think there was that much of a problem about his safety. I walked towards my office with Kira behind me listing out my schedule for the day.


    "We have the presidents of the USA, China and Britain''s primes minister, the president of Russia, North-Korea and the prime minister of India on call. Since we''ve decided to delve into the weapons manufacturing business, they''re all trying to cut a deal with us. So there would be a conference call by three today, but before that we''ll have a little meeting with our scientists who I''ve commissioned to come up with a presentation for the leaders. You''ll have to go through it and then present it during the conference call, the meeting would probably end with us signing a virtual contract, but we shouldn''t count our eggs before it hatches.


    But after that, you would be done for the week, and can take the rest of the days off. But you have a public Appearance scheduled for this Saturday, the new park has to be handed over to the city by he head of Imperium industries. Then by Monday the virtual reality department would be ready for some changes, chief amongst them being kicking your step mother out of it. But that should be all there is to it for now, do you have anything to add? Or ask?" Kira said to me as the doors to my office slid open.


    "Well I have a task for you, it has no connection with Imperium industries, but it''s still an asset of mine." I said to her as I took off my suit jacket and started folding the sleeves of my dress shirt.


    "And what task is it that you need me to complete?"


    "I need you to go over to the my real estate agency/company and do some inventory. I''ll send Penny with you if the need arises, but I need you to go over there and get an idea of the company''s operations, who is who in there, what can be done to improve it, or if we have to kick someone out too. I''ve not had tike to pay attention to it with everything that''s been happening, which is why I what you to go over there and find out for me. Can you do that?" I asked her as I sat down crossed my legs and placed both my hands behind my back.


    "Who do you think you''re talking to? I can take care of that between tomorrow and next, which should give me just enough time to get back here for the ceremony on Saturday. Though you having a real estate company might actually be a good thing when you consider the future possibilities of the sky community you hope to build, you would probably own more than half the entire buildings there." Kira said to me as she began closing the blinds in the office.


    "I guess so." I answered back with a nonchalant shrug.


    "Well that''s that, we can worry about that when it gets here but for now I believe it''s tike we have that meeting with the scientist from out tech and biology department. Also! I completely forgot, but we also have a meeting with Zeta biotech later today, you''re having dinner with their representative." Kira said to me as she sent messages to get the scientists here.


    Well I guess it''s going to be a very busy day, I wonder if the crew have reached the Atlantic Rim yet. Well I guess I''ll find out once I log in later tonight or rather tomorrow morning. Let''s get this show rolling.

 114 The Weapons Deal 2: Surrounded By Enemies

    The meeting. With the scientist didn''t last long, or rather it would be easier to say that we sort of rushed through it, or course three hours of disseminating and approving different types of new tech ventures could not be considered rushed. There was just a lot of information to be digested through it all, but in the end we had a viable proposal to show the leaders when we had our conference meeting later in the day.


    Most people would think we were rushing, but this was actually the most viable course of action available to me. International weapons deal. Were now an open thing, however you could still go to jail for making illegal weapons if you didn''t have express permission or license from the government. But even with that, there were a lot of factors at play here.


    For example; for years now both large weapons manufacturing corporations and the government itself has been trying to get the Imperium industries to sign a joint collaboration deal, so that most of their tech could be utilized and repurposed as weapons for both on world and off world combat, most especially our Nanite and artificial intelligence technology. The potential of those piece of tech was enough to leave most of them salivating, but this were advancements in tech who''s perfection and growth was almost and completely monopolized by the Imperium industries.


    But so far I believe we''ve been lucky, the Imperium industries have always been a place scientist and very talented people in the area of science and technology have wanted to work. We offered a rather generous pay package, funds for research, and lab space should it be needed. We''ve nurtured geniuses which in turn attracted more geniuses to us, but I doubt we''re the only who would be able to have a taste of the pie for long, in no time at all there would be sharp minds to contend with vastness of Imperium industries repertoire of talent.


    There are talented minds in this world, many of them just haven''t gotten the opportunity to achieve much, at least not yet. But speaking of minds, I have a crazy idea, but it''s just a vestiges of one, not a full plan, just something that I was playing with in my mind. I was hungry, I''ve not had anything to eat all day, but there was no time for that yet, we''ve been so busy and now I had to go meet with the biggest boss to cement our place in the weapons industries and achieve great heights, plus this was the first step I had to take in legitimizing the Wade family''s dark empire.


    We arrived in the conference room that I very much expected to be deserted as this was supposed to be a private meeting. But then my father, Kira''s father and that Indian board member what''s his name again? I think I forgot. Oh well I''ll probably remember it later, assuming I don''t throw him off the building first.


    "What are you guys doing here?" I asked them as I took a seat at the head of the table with Kira shuffling documents and spreading them in front of me, along with a tablet. Paper was just a ceremonial fashion that stuck with big corporations, information of every sort were digitized, so there was no need for it, but I''ve found that paper makes me calm.


    "This is an important venture for the Imperium industries, and since we all have a share in this company, I believe that it stands to reason that we all partake in this meeting. It''s our money thing and it''s our duty as elders to make sure you''re investing in proper business ventures and not just driven by a youthful mind." Kira''s father said to me with a curt and very professional tone.


    "Well when you put it like that, you''re absolutely right, but it''s just you three here, so where are the rest of the board members, or were they not willing to be oasis nor your self righteous crusade, they should be here for this meeting too right? After all it''s their money too?" I said to board member Zhang as I placed my hand under my jaw and watched them all with a rather predatory gaze.


    "We did go to them, but they''ve delegated us as their representatives, you can call them if you like?" My dad replied in a curt manner. I nodded my head and turned to Kira with a smile, she returned it with a rather bland face.


    "Kira how many minutes do we have until the meeting with the leaders?"


    "About ten minutes chairman." She relied in a curt and she crisp tone.


    "Call the rest of the board members and find out if they did in fact delegate our fathers to represent them in this meeting, and if anyone of them is within the building, have them here in six minutes!"


    Obviously this trio of greedy old men where here to find a way to sabotage or undermine what I have planned. I would be dealing with two worldwide military organizations in the form of NATO and U.N though not all of the countries are represented, this was still a big deal and it would give the Imperium industries a massive amount of power in a world that''s rapidly changing.


    Kira excused herself and went out of the board room, leaving me and these trio of hyenas in silence. It was like I was surrounded and being watched on three sides by different enemies, each with their own goal and they wouldn''t hesitate to get me out of the way to do so. In fact this brought me back to a few years, back when I first joined the army and was drafted into an elite special black ops unit for the UN.


    >>>>>>


    *PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPA!*


    Bullets whizzed through concrete and steel as I huddle closed to the ground trying to catch my breath. I was terrified, I could see my life flashing before my eyes, see myself dying at Nintendo without any achievements to my name. I would have ran away by now, but there was no where to run to. My unit was practically boxed in, with enemies coming at us from three sides, and the only way out being an open stretch of land that would make us an obvious target to them all.


    "Take a deep breath rookie! Don''t let your emotions get the best of you. Are there any holes in your body?"


    "No sir!"


    "Do you have a concussion or are you bleeding internally?"


    "No sir!!"


    "Then get your ass up and fight! As long as your still breathing, you can...."


    *BANG!* "CAPTAIN!"


    I didn''t get to hear everything he wanted to tell me as a sniper bullet went through his skull. His blood splattered allover my face and I was shaken with so much fright I almost ran out of the cover then and there. The rest of the soldiers in the almost destroyed house just gave the captain''s body a cursory look before turning their gaze back to the gun fight going on around them.


    Obviously it was my fault, if I wasn''t so shaken and paralyzed by fear, then the captain would not have felt the need to calm me down, he would not have left himself exposed to the enemies and ended up getting killed in the process. But this time I can feel something a whole lot different than just fear, I was angry and pissed beyond measure at everything around me, why did I ever decide to get in the army, obviously it was to piss my grandfather off, but now my life was on the line.


    How could I have been such an idiot, I though I was smarter than this. But never the less if I keep cowering here, staring at the blank faced look of my dead captain, then I will become a dead idiot. I had to make a move, no matter how little of a difference it would make. So what if we''re surrounded on three sides by enemies, who I might add were not even friends with each other. I guess it''s time to give them something else to focus on, how about each other? But how?


    >>>>>>


    Kira walked right back into the board room, drawing me out of my walk down memory lane. Then she came over and whispered to me, seems like most of the board members were not even aware of the meeting or that they were even being represented. However they had a healthy fear of these three men, so they weren''t willing to cross them for any reason whatsoever, so it would be just as they said, they were representing the rest of the board. I smiled in that regard, but there was nothing left to be said in this case, the meeting was about to begin.


    A few holographic screens flickered to life with the leaders of the world watching on with a stern look on their face. Well I had to leave an impression on them, after all I was going to use their money to developed weapons and then sell it back to them for an exorbitant sum of money. I need to be on my best behavior and wow the crowd.


    "Gentlemen and ladies! Today is a momentous day, so.....let''s change the world."

 115 The Weapons Deal 3: Selling War

    I took a deep breath as I let my words sink in, I had a lot of information to give, and I had to make sure that every shred of attention was on me. I also hoped all of the leaders here don''t ask me any questions, because I might not be able answer them. Considering I was pitching ideas that has just been given to me by my own employees just a few hours ago, I was walking on egg shells.


    "The world is changing, humanity has began to colonize the Cosmos, but as we all know no great expansion is without risks and problems. And as it stands everything that has been invested into humanity''s colonization of the galaxy is in jeopardy of being brought to a painful end. And this is due to the fact that our own people! Our flesh and blood who have learnt of the wonders of the world beyond, the treasures that it hides, have decided that they want to rule themselves and break off from their own home.


    Not to talk about the trillions of dollars that have been invested into the space programs each year over the past 150 years, this is without a doubt a betrayal of the highest order, and they are not willing to consider reason. Based on my belief and understanding a you''ve all tried to push for a trade agreement so that the special minerals of space and treasure unique to it, can be used to better the life of those on earth, but it has all come to a screeching halt.


    Which leaves the people of earth no other option, there has to be a war! A rain of blood and in a manner so unique and brutal that it would be forever etched in the memories of earth''s many generations to come. Galaxy War I!"


    The tension in the air was so thick it was almost as if I could cut through it with a knife. At this point the schemes aside, everyone present in this board room knew that we were rapidly heading towards a conflict that could very well leave earth in ruins, lives would be lost and literal flames would rain down from the sky. It has now become my responsibility to prevent this, and make sure I make a shit ton of money in the process.


    Now I don''t care about money, I never did and I probably never will. But that''s a resource that''s intrinsically connected to power, and right now power is what I need a lot of. Not just because I want to make myself untouchable from my enemies, but because no matter how long this war might be, it would come to an end eventually and once it does so, the very balance of power in the milky way galaxy would shift, and I want to be on top of it. I don''t care about money, but my ambitions are wild and insane and I need lot''s money to do it, So forge a future that my son would remain safe and well protected in.


    I looked around and then gestured to Kira as I prepared to continue speaking, a holographic display of earth and all of the it''s active satellites, both military and commercial that were currently active showed up on the screen.


    "There''s one thing about war that we all have to consider, especially against the colonies and the space stations, and that''s the fact that we''re solely undefended, and they are literally years ahead of us when it comes to space worthy technology. While we''re doing good for ourselves with artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, or rather I should say Imperium industries is doing good for themselves in that regard. They still have better ships and shuttles and better weapons more suited to battle in space, and also last I heard they''ve collectively designed a powerful drill capable of drilling into a planets core from outer space.


    Call me paranoid but with the way things are going, who''s to say they won''t turn that weapon against us. They''ve all began to see themselves as superior to us due to the fact that they''re up there and we are down here. It''s not as if any of us are perfect, but still we put them up there for the betterment and the future of humanity, and now they''ve decided to cut off that avenue of progression and forced us to think of ways to start allover again. But given how much money has been put into such endeavors, there''s no way we can start again, so we have no choice but to take.


    And yet here we are completely threatened by their advancements in technology without the capabilities of matching and even winning them. But fear not, that''s where Imperium industries comes in. With your help, I can offer you four things! Four very powerful resources that you would need to not only win the first galaxy war, but even expand into the stars." I took a breath as I grabbed a glass of water and drank, making sure I did it in the most agonizingly and slowest way as possible. The president of North-Korea was the first to crack as his patience ran out.


    "What are these things you have to offer, and stop playing games! None of us here are children." I smiled at that, I guess I really do have all of their attention.


    The four things I can offer to you are:


    1.	A Planetary Wide Defensive Technology


    2.	Superior Space Faring And Space Battle Crafts


    3.	The Most Sophisticated And Advanced Method Of Surveillance


    4.	 Genetically Enhanced And Evolved Soldiers With Special Abilities


    The fourth option drew everyone''s attention to me, it was quite a shock to all of them. And that was because so far the knowledge of people with Special abilities has been nothing more than a rumor that has been going around for the past three months. But I know that such people are barely in the -2% of the entire world''s current population, and most of them are still just really young kids and all under the control of some secret forces on the planet.


    Kira didn''t know about this, which was why she was just as surprised as everyone else, this wasn''t a part of what the scientist discussed with us this morning, heck I even left out some of the ideas that they had pointed. But that was all part of my plan, Kira was working an angle, I''ve noticed it for quite a while now, but I can''t be sure what. Normally I would have hung her upside down a building pointed a gun to her face and ask what the fuck she was plotting, but she was my son''s mother. Until I catch her betraying me, I''m not going to hurt her, but I''m going to keep her close but also distant. I guess the only person I can really trust is myself.


    "Number one to three is pretty much self explanatory, as for number four all the rumors going around are true, especially since I have the secrets to how such a change came about, and how to create more. I can give you the most powerful army and labor force in the entire galaxy, in a war of attrition, the person who can dodge bullets, shoot flames from his hands or even heal a severed limb is always the person who''s going to win. Of course no 4 would cost you all a lot! But it''s possible." Telling them about the existence of Meta-humans was an on spot decision, but it was mainly because of Ron and his new friend Nicholas.


    If things should continue as they are, both boys might have to grow up in a world where they have to hide who they are. Sure humanity has grown to the point where they worship superheroes, especially when you can see them on your screen. But when these things that aren''t real become real, and you have no control over them and can''t see where they are, you become afraid, you become prejudiced and jealous. Humanity 101,we fear what we don''t understand and can''t control.


    "Do you have any proof that such people exists?" The Prime minister of India asked me. I shook my head, but answered him.


    "I thought it''s already been established that both one is a kid here, well if you need proof then I''ll give you one. Kira please get Nicholas and Ron for me." Her eyebrows furrowed as she glared at me, I could do anything else, but sue would be damned if she let me use our son for a business deal.


    But I had no such intention, I just needed the kid here since Nicholas was coming over. Needed to keep an eye on my son, plus I miss him already. It didn''t take long before Kira came in with Ron and Nicholas walking hand in hand. The first thing Ron did was to attempt to climb my body, I had to carry him as Nicholas came to stand besides me.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, this is my Ares, my God of war Nicholas. Show them what you can do, also I need you to scare that fat dude for me." The fat dude was naturally the Indian guys Sharma was it?.....I''m not sure.


    Nicholas raised an eyebrow and the chair he was standing close to lifted into the air and flew towards the maybe named Sharma. The grown up man screeched and tried to escape, but that was futile as he realized the seat he was on was changed it''s composition. Thin strips of metal had torn through the leather and cushions to keep him bound.


    The chair flying towards him came to a stop just inches in front of him, and then it exploded, blasting leather and foam every which way until all that was left was dozens of spiraled seven inch spikes, pointed at the body of Sharma(I hope that''s his name). Nicholas moved his head to the side and the chair he was on rose up into the air and the spikes began to rotate. I noticed Nicholas shiver, and i realized he was pushing himself past his limit, he was just twelve after all. I placed a hand on his shoulder and tapped him.


    "Let him down gently."


    *CRASH!* *THUD!!* *CLANG CLANG CLANG!*


    "Oops!" Nicholas said as he took a seat and crossed his leg, giving everyone in the room a deathly stare, even the leaders of the world were not spared from it. It was as if he was telling them, not to fuck with him, seriously what the hell has his grandmother been teaching him.


    "As you can see they exist, but like I said they would cost you. But never the less I believe you guys would have to go back and decide to you''re willing to pursue this deal. First thing tomorrow morning I will send you my terms and what I need from all of you to your private numbers. So let your people send it over, and also I will give you all the specs and blue prints of the first things I would be making for you, should agree to my terms that is. And then I''ll throw in a little bonus, you''ll know what it is once it gets there. Have a good day sirs."


    I gave a look to Kira as she cut off the connection and all of the holographic screens cut off. Then I turned to my father and his friends, and spoke loud enough that even Kira could hear.


    "If anyone of you fuck with me or my son, or do anything that my jeopardize his future, I''m going to kill each and every single one of you in the most painful way possible. If you think Nicholas is bad, then wait until I send the others after you, just so you should know, none of them are kids. Come on boys, let''s go have lunch."


    And then I walked out of the conference room, leaving Kira behind as she hurried to catch up. She was smart, I''m sure she knew I was also talking to her. Now my next step would be to figure out how to turn them against each other, just like that time in Afghanistan, my first mission.

 116 Zeta Biocorp

    The rest of the day just seemed to pass by in a haze as I mad preparations for the dinner with representative from Zeta Corp. Apart from that I also had to prepare a digital document listing the terms I needed from the world leaders before I could offer any sort equipment or man power to them. But even with that, I had a brief meeting with the head of the newly formed Arsenal division, whoever came up with that naked needs to have his or her head checked.


    Three of our companies manufacturing plant in different parts of the world would be repurposed into a weapons and war tech factory. Currently most of the scientists and developers responsible for preparing earth for war would be shipped there in under a week to begin productions and research. One of those facilities was somewhat in the Australian out back, another was right at the edge of the Himalayan mountain range, and the third was an island in the Caribbean.


    Seeing how out of the way these three facilities were, it stands t reason that they were built away from human habitats due to the secret experiments being carried out, plus while I doubt I would be able to find anything once I send my people there to investigate, these three facilities were requisitioned by my father for almost a year now. And while official documents say these three facilities have not been active for the past six months, the fact that there was a weaponized imperium surveillance drone pointing a gun at my head during my meeting with the cartel had left a bar taste in my mouth, not to mention a serious amount of suspicion.


    I''m not sure I could trust anyone from Imperium industries to watch over these trio of weapons factory, especially with their safety. Which means it''s about time to pay a visit to that facility under the San-Francisco bay, after all that was the main base of all my forces with most of them concentrated there and ready for deployment. Not a lot of time has passed since I took over my grandfather''s mantle, but if I really wanted to keep the power I have now, I have to consolidate it and know exactly what cards I can play and what pieces I can move.


    By the time I was done with everything in the office, it was almost 6:30 pm. I had another meeting by 7, hopefully I get through with that on time and get home to the game. Plus Ron looked like he would drop like a sack of potatoes any moment from now, and I would have sent him home but I don''t trust anyone to take him home, other even Kira. It might be surprising to most people for me to suspect her of betrayal, but all of her suggestions and even her actions so far has had little traces of self preservation or rather an ulterior motives. It would be hard for some people to notice it, but the two and a half years I spent in the army, with most of that time spent killing and infiltrating, it won''t be too hard to spot someone with an ulterior motive from a mile away, especially since said person is not really trained in the art of subterfuge.


    I left the office with Ron and Nicholas, I obviously don''t need to have them around me during this meeting, but I needed to keep a close watch on my son and my new subordinate. Nanny Florence and I needed to have a good long talk, I''m not in the business of training child soldiers, and for all intents and purposes that''s exactly what Nicholas was. Whatever he''s supposed to be to me, he can do that once he''s old enough to make decisions for himself and have probably graduated high school.


    The meeting place was a high class Italian restaurant that was surprisingly close to home, I''m not really into expensive food even though I can afford it, but never the less this was necessary. We left the car as a valet took the keys from me and drove away, thankfully Pegasus is not awake, he would have probably given that guy an earful.


    "Welcome to Emiliano''s do you have a reservation?" a neatly dressed porter (or was it a butler...or maybe a manager) said to me. I gave him my name as he nodded and led me in, I made another reservation at a table close to mine so that Ron and Nicholas can hangs around where I can see them, though given how the manager seemed to twist his face, I don''t think he like the fact that there were kids here. Well that''s too bad for him, I do what I want, especially since I have the money to do it.


    Five minutes later I was sitting on a table a glass of red wine in my hand, and sitting directly opposite me was a woman that seemed to be in her early to mid thirties. She was dressed in a pristine black designer suit with silver highlights on the lapels and collars.


    "Rena Zeta! Seeing as you came here by yourself, this deal must be quite important for your company." I said to her as I sipped the rich red wine in my hand with a smile on my face.


    "And seeing as you came here with your son, I don''t think you''re taking this deal seriously." She said with steel in her voice as she stared at me with undisguised annoyance.


    Her blond hair seemed to glow under the glare of the chandelier above our heads. Her green eyes were sharp and clear and surprisingly enough she was not wearing any makeup, but sue was still a beauty that had the power to shake the hearts of most men, myself included. But I was here for business, let''s keep pleasure aside, at least for now.


    "On the contrary Mrs. Rena, the fact that my son is here means I''m according you an honor that most people don''t deserve. So you don''t need to worry about my commitment to this deal." I said to her.


    "It''s Ms. Not Mrs. Nevertheless let''s get down to business and stop with the small talk." I nodded in response what she just said.


    "Mr. Wade we''re prepared to sell sixty of Zeta biocorp making you the principal shareholder, however we would still like control over it''s facilities to continue our research and anyone you bring would come on as a helper and addition to the main team. You''re not allowed to interfere in any large decision making and if you have suggestion, we would take it under advisement before deciding whether or not it should be implemented."


    I raised my eyebrow, the smile on my face didn''t fade though, it just seems to get wider. Now most inexperienced people would probably get angry at what she had just said, because let''s face it, this was blatant daylight robbery....or rather evening robbery, it was past 7 now. However I wasn''t angry, this was how negotiations worked, she would call out a ridiculous deal, and I will call out a counter offer, and it would go back and forth u till we both reach an agreement. The thing is no matter what she says or offers, I''m the one with the initiative.


    They''ve hit a wall with their cloning technology, their inability of for all intents and purposes; recreating a human soul, has left them stumped. And they''ve lost billions of dollars in the process, which was why the higher ups decided to cut their losses and move on to better things. But with how much they''ve sunk into this project, they''re very much unwilling to completely let it go, which was why they weren''t selling the entire shares.


    "That''s a rather tough offer, but I can make you one better. I''ll but 95% of your company''s shares, which at the moment is priced at 1.1 billion dollars, and that''s due to the fact that your company is able to grow and sell organs to health organizations for transplants. But that''s limited in the amount of revenue it can generate for you guys. And given the cost it takes to make those clones and their organs, you guys are taking a loss. Which means the worth of Zeta biotech is only about 700 million as opposed to the 1.1 billion that the public think it is. So here''s my counter offer.


    I buy all 95% of the shares at the market price, you can retain all your staff, but Imperium industries will be taking over the entire research. But it would be a joint partnership, and decisions would be made after extensive analysis, of course if it''s a stupid decision I can get rid of it nice and easy. I have the means and tech to make sure your clones are not a total failure, heck given the nature of what I''m about to do, it would become possible for human consciousness to be placed into anyone of the clones you make. And even with just 5% you''re going to be excessively richer than you already are at the moment. Plus you guys will still get to keep your name as Zeta Biocorp." I said to her as I smiled widely.


    She was silent for a bit, she knew the deal I gave her was the best she could get on this world. Though all of the clones her company had made was the epitome of physical perfection, both humanoid and animal like, but the problem remaining was the lack of a proper consciousness. The colonies on Mars and the moon could solve all these problems by generating AIs for the bodies, but it''s not cost effective to run a company from a colony all the way on their home planet, especially with the rising tensions everywhere. Nobody off world would make this deal, it would be a total loss, which leaves us; Imperium industries and Zeta Industries number one competition.


    However if we''re able to pull this off, the standing of both company will change, and while the Imperium industries definitely got the better of the deal, the same halo of excellence that would be on Imperium would also be on Zeta. It would also be the first step to foster a proper relationship outside of rivalry with each other, it would make us quite a few enemies, but it would also make us powerful.


    Plus with what I have planned, both companies would be as powerful as nations if not more. Zeta Biocorp is the next step, or rather the second leg that would carry my grand plans of becoming a universal power house.


    "Make it 15% and you can change the name of the company to whatever you want." She said to me as she sat up a bit straighter.


    She''s a very decisive woman, though five percent was a little too low, she knew I made that offer to give her more room to negotiate, but the fact that I was willing to buy at the stated market price for 95% of the shares rather than what it''s really worth, was a deal she wouldn''t get anywhere else. After all it was only 95% of the shares that were up for sale, with remaining 5% belonging to her, that was why she had come over to personally oversee this deal. Zeta Biocorp was something she and her now very dead husband had spent 11 years building, right from the moment they finished college.


    Getting more percentage means there would be more power in her hand, the company would be ran between her and Imperium industries. Since it was a loss the Zeta Industries was pulling out, they owned 95% which was everything they had put on the market, signing it off to her to sale, and now she was going to get the better of them.


    "Okay then, that''s a deal I will be able to make, 75% for 1.1 billion dollars, I''ll get my lawyer to draft up a deal and then we can meet sometime later for the official signing." I said to her as I placed the wine glass on my hand back on the table.


    "Imperium Industries won''t regret making this deal, especially with the technology you''re bringing to the table." She said to me as for the first time tonight, she actually smiled. But then I looked at her with pensive look as I said to her.


    "It''s not the Imperium Industries that''s buying your company....I AM!"

 117 Welcome To The Atlantic Rim Captain Seven

    The moment I logged back into the game, the first thing I noticed was the fact that we weren''t moving. I was a little bothered by it, but there was no feeling of intense danger, neither was there any sort of fight going on. Whatever it was, I''m sue I''ll get to it later, but for now, I had some system alerts that I had to pay attention to.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: MASTERIES: Your archery mastery has reached level 4, your sword mastery has reached level 5. 10% to all sword skills and +15% to sword damage. Mastery effect: DEXTEROUS generated.}


    Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: WEAPON: You have faced off against another legendary weapon and won. By virtue of the rules that defines the existence of your sword, you are now the owner of the SPEAR OF OCEANIA. Since your sword and the spear share a similar origin, they will now be merged into one weapon, begin merge?} {Y/N}


    Obviously I will agree to combine both weapons, that was the reason for the entire fight wasn''t it. The moment I agreed the sword and the spear came out from my inventory and flew into the air above me. They both released a resplendent blue and green glow that bathed my entire cabin room in an intense light that almost blinded me. Both sword and spear floated around each other before finally combining into one form.


    The final look was that of a sword, however the hilt was longer, and the previous scale like blade now seemed to have a line running across it''s center, almost as if with just a word I would be able to split it in two. The sword shot into my hands and immediately it did so I could feel the seas rumbling beneath me, there was the loud crackle of thunder and flashes of lightning as it seemed as if a storm was about to visit the sea with all fury and anger of the god of the seas.


    Ocean Scepter (Incomplete){???? Okean¨® Sk¨ªptro ????} / Grade: Legendary/ Hidden Grade: Divine/ Requirements: Acknowledgment Of The Gods Of The Sea.]


    [+ 200% to attack speed and damage, +150 to intelligence, wisdom and constitution. +70% resistance against water elemental attacks, +200% water element damage.]


    [Skill (1): Call Of The Ocean: gain the ability to control the ocean in it''s entirety for 60 minutes. From the waves, the sea creatures, the tides, and even the wind that blows and the storms that rage. All shall bow and fall to your command. (Cost 500 MP) (cool down 7 days) /


    Skill (2): Frostbite: Every hit sends a cold to freeze the liquid and blood in the body of your opponent. After every four hits, all opponents are incapacitated by ice from within their body. Takes more hit for bosses and opponents with good resistance against ice and water. This skill is a passive./


    Skill (3): Transform: change from sword form to a two pronged fork form./


    Skill (4): Sea Slash: Part The Sea in rage and power in a linear direction of 5 kilometers, causing flat damage equivalent to the total sum of your wisdom and intelligence multiplied by ¡Á5(cost 500MP) (cool down 25 hours)]


    There wasn''t much of a change between it damage now and it''s damage before, but the new skills were insane, especially the last one. it has more attack lower than the call of the sea and a shorter cool down time, though if you ask me 25 hours was still too much time to wait for this skill to come out of cool down. And the range for the skill was huge, I could kill someone from a distance as long as I''m on the sea. Or rather anywhere else since it never said that I could only use this skill on water. There was just one final piece left before this weapon can be well and fully whole, and when that happens, I really have no idea how much more powerful it would be than now.


    PASSIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Wind child(level 1) Advanced. +15% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 1) Advanced. +20% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 1) Advanced. +30% to aim when in motion, +35% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Born(level 2)basic. Wherever you are the power of Nature is with you. HP regeneration 30% + 60% in Forests, Jungles and any other place Nature can be found. All attacks within nature oriented areas +30%, +100% favorability with all Nature attuned entities.


    ?	Pilot (Level 1) Advanced. Fly and navigate the skies in every form and manner possible. +50% to flight speed and maneuvering, +35% in navigating the skies, +40 to awareness.


    ?	Dragon Commander (level 5) basic. You''re the embodiment of draconic supremacy which gives you power over lesser lifeforms and other dragons. +80% chance to make opponents of a similar level bewildered, 100% for lower levels, 60% for opponents five levels higher, 40% for ten, 20% for fifteen, and 5% for twenty, + 10% increase to the stats of all allies and followers when giving commands.


    ACTIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Seeker(level 1) Advanced. +100% damage, speed and accuracy With all weapons. (Cost 100 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (Effect: Fade: All projectiles can not be tracked or seen except through special means)


    ?	Stealth Flight (level 1) Basic. Be unseen within the confines of the atmosphere. (Duration: 25 seconds) (cost: 120 MP)


    ?	Wind Fist(level 5) basic. A series of quickly executed martial skills with the full power and essence of the wind. Speed +15% during skill, Damage +15%, +5% chance to confuse opponents( cost 20 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (duration: 15 seconds) (Effect: No Air: all strikes are silent, and skill is powered by sucking air from the surroundings, including your opponent''s lungs)


    ?	Storm Dance(level 5 ) basic. Become one with the storm, increasing attack and movement speed by 300% defense and evasiveness against attacks raised by 150% for 10 seconds. All attacks are imbued with power of lightening. (Cost 60 MP) (cool down 200 seconds) (Effect: Lightening Field: Have a field of powerful electrical surges around you in a radius of 2 meters. Cause 50 flat damage every 2 seconds)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 1) Advanced. Summon two arrows of pure mana to cause 30% magical and physical damage in a range of 15 meters. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (Effect: Double or Nothing: release 4 arrows instead of two, speed +20% + 10% extra damage)


    ?	Stealth(level 5) basic. Turn invisible for sixty seconds. Stealth is broken when attacked or attacking. Every first hit from stealth is a critical. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 90 seconds) (Effect(I): Shroud Of Nature: Stealth in natural environment is increased by 50%


    ?	Purify(level 1) basic. Purify all things unclean and unholy. +100% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison. + 70% damage against the undead, +40% damage against dark creatures. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 60 seconds)


    ?	Lightning Blade(level 1) advanced. Coat your blade with lightening mana for 5 seconds. Every attack made would have extra lightening damage stacked on top by 35% and all slashes are AOE strike of 9x9 meters. Attack speed increases by 30%. (Cost 80 MP) (Cool down 75 seconds)


    ?	Area Of Silence(level 1) Advanced. Create a cone of air over multiple targets, eliminating the release of all skills and spells for ten seconds. (Cost 140 MP) (cool down 250 seconds)


    ?	Quake (level 1) Basic: stomp the ground and cause a resonance with the earth elements for a 5% of your total damage value with a five meter knock back effect. Damage value and knock back range increase exponentially every five levels/ COST: 25 EXP/ COOLDOWN: 8 SECONDS]


    ?	Fire School: Lava Pool: Level 1) Basic: Summon a pool of lava within a two meter radius to trap your enemies and cause a steady damage of +1% health points every second. Ineffective against larger enemies./ COST: 250 EXP/ COOLDOWN: 20 SECONDS]


    MASTERIES:


    ?	Archery Mastery (level 4) basic. +3% to all archery skills and +5% damage from all bows and arrows


    ?	Sword Mastery (level 5) basic. +10% to all sword skills and +15% damage to swords (DEXTEROUS: +20% to Agility & Dexterity)


    ?	Magic Mastery (Level 1) basic. +3% damage to all magic skills and spells


    ?	Wind Domain (Level 1): you constantly have a field of magical wind and air power activated around you. All wind spells/skills/creatures: +20% to all combat specs/domain range: 2 meter radius


    AUGMENTED RACIAL TRAIT:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    ?	Spirit Of Air(I): Ability to communicate with air elementals and control air freely


    ?	Heart Of Wind(I): Ability to control wind freely.


    Everything seemed alright I think, there hasn''t been an increase in my skills, except for my masteries, which if I should be honest is really hard to raise. But then again it''s not easy to raise the skills or even levels either, it was almost as if the game is trying to make strength really hard to obtain, and keep the players on a somewhat equal footing. Only those really lucky would have other cards to play, or special encounters that would make them stronger.


    Right now, true strength came from equipment and weapons, and the titles people receive and sometimes extra stat and skill points. That''s what''s helping the players progress, but to get all this things, you really have to move from place to place and go through really tough challenges. But thankfully all this was done and dusted, and bow I had a legendary weapon that was stronger than normal, but something weird is going on.


    Given all the light show with seas rolling and thunder and lightning dancing in the sky, my crew should have all rushed over here by now. But there was no one in sight, and now that I think about it, this ship was eerily silent, much to silent. I made my way out of my cabin and made my way towards the cafeteria/common area, the fact that my ship has such a place would make others think it was a luxury line, but thinking that would be the first mistake you make before I blow you sky high.


    Dinah had rigged it so that the table in the middle was connected to the ship''s hub, but when I tried to bring up it''s holographic display, there was nothing, not even a hint or a single reaction. It was as if the ship was dead or out of power, but that can''t be, right? I''ve seen vehicles in similar states before, usually this only happens when some sort of electromagnetic pulse is used, but the Acheron is powered by magic nor tech, why would it be out of commission, and even more so where the heck were her passengers.


    And speaking of passengers, where the heck was Sky, I know she hangs around after I''ve logged out unlike the rest of my equipment that disappears with me. But now she was gone, however I could feel her, she was close but a few hundred meters up in the air. I made my way towards the Acheron''s deck, however the moment I moved close enough I noticed that there were quite a few people moving about, people I didn''t recognize.


    I slipped into stealth and moved towards them, the moment I was on deck I couldn''t help but gulp at the colossus casting a shadow over my ship. There was a freaking island parked (somewhat) besides my ship, and it had shot chains through Acheron''s deck, chains that were glowing an eerie purple. If I didn''t know better, I would say this bloody island ship thing was siphoning power from my ship, and given that there are no dead bodies on deck, it stands to remove n that my crew was now being held captives by these guys.


    But seriously though of all the themes these game had to use against me, why for the love of God did it have to be WATERWORLD. Shit I doubt dystopic sea pirates with an island for a ship would be easy to deal with, hah! Welcome to the Atlantic Rim Captain Seven. What could possibly go wrong.

 118 G.O.T.A.R I : Infiltration

    There were no less than a dozen goons on my ship, I wanted them off it, but I knew getting them off it, either by killing them or just throwing them overboard would draw too much attention, and might put the others in danger. I had to let them hanged around, at least for now anyway. Once thief impromptu rescue op is done, getting rid of these guys would be child''s play.


    But I had to admit they were taking their job seriously, obviously they''re supposed to be keeping watch, but there''s not even a single hint about who or what I was dealing with due to how silent they all were. Also there wasn''t a definite race here, though humans seems to make up more than half of it, I could see elf, a centaur and fairies? Since when are fairies pirates. These guys were stealing energy from my ship, that more than means I have to kick their ass, but they''re way to organized to be common pirates. I need to find the others, or at least get on that island, that''s probably the only way I can get the answers I need.


    I looked at the looming island besides us and I wondered just how did this bloody thing move. Sure most people would say it''s a game, they use magic, but even then this game is built on some sort of logic, even it''s magic can be explained. So how do you get a big ass island to move, well either way I guess I''ll find out soon enough. I unfurled my wings, about to take off, though I was still in stealth, I noticed by shadow perfectly laid out on Acheron''s deck, and then I heard something that made me rethink my current source of action.


    "Yo Cannon?"


    "Yes Fodder?" What the hell? What kind of an unfortunate name is that? Seriously?


    "Do you think the island''s invisible barrier is up right now, I heard that it was down for a while due to the island having low power."


    "Yeah it should be, for some reason this tiny ship has a core with a capacity of three suns. It''s ridiculously powerful, and just a second of siphoning it''s energy has given us enough power to last us three months, comfortably." The guy named Cannon answered.


    "The barrier is invisible right? But how does it work though, I''ve never seen it defend or stop anything from entering before." Fodder wondered out loud.


    "That because unless the order is given from the command center, the barrier only serves as a surveillance equipment. Anything from as tiny as a virus to as large as an airship would be shown in detail should they go through the barrier, only when there''s a fight would see the true power of the barrier, I once heard it stopped the strike of a level 80 warrior wielding a heaven tier broad sword. In fact the warrior and his sword were broken into itty bitty little pieces." Cannon explained with a wild smile.


    "Whoa so you''re saying no one can get in, and we''re safe from all sorts of attacks?" Fodder asked with his voice raised into an octave.


    "Well that''s what the bosses want you think, but in my own honest and analytical opinion, I believe someone can get on the island using the refuse pipes Underneath it. But the thing, without specialized equipment, unless you''re a sea folk, you will not be able to swim under the island, much less with stand the currents created when it''s moving. Sure it would be better to get on it now, especially since it wasn''t moving, however the barrier also serves as some sort of radar, it doesn''t stretch too far away from the island, and we''re currently outside it.


    But once you get through, no matter what sort of equipment you have on, it would notice it. Whether it''s magical or technological, or have stealth skills. The island will still notice it, the only things that can get through are fishes and the like, and that''s because we want them to populate the rivers and streams on the island so that we can eat them later."


    Well it looks like flying up into the island using Stealth flight was out of the question, but even then swimming means they would probably see me coming with all of my equipment in tow. I''m pretty sure the legendary sword on my back would light up like a beacon for their so called magical radar, only fishes can get close to the island, which was understandable, fishes don''t wear equipment...¡­oh! So that''s how I can get in, I guess there''s no harm in giving it a try.


    I made my way across the deck to the starboard part of the ship, I needed a distraction and so I waved my hand to the right, and in doing so rouse up the wind as a fierce breeze blew, unsettling the dozen or so guards on the ship. I used that opportunity to jump into the sea, and in the process unequipped every piece of armor and clothing on me.


    The water was, freezing, but it was only for a few seconds before I was able to get myself back in order and the sea was spread out before me. I was naked in the water, but since there was no one to see me, I guess I can say that my dignity was secure. I looked up, trying to see if my jumping into the session had attracted any sort of attention, but it looks like the wind did it''s job.


    "Well hello there, fine afternoon we''re having aren''t we? If you want my advice steer clear of that island, it''s bad news amongst good fish folk, well then toodles."


    I froze as a school of fishes swam past me, all of them being led by an octopus with a freaking monocle. I shook as goose bumps covered my body and I felt very conscious of my current state of undress. I almost totally forgot that I could talk to fish, but how could I remember, I''ve not been in a situation where I''ve had to talk with any one of them. I looked around with wary eyes, every fish that swam past seemed like a pair of eyes judging me and taking in the sight of my very naked ass.


    I shot towards the island my body cutting through the ocean as I almost drowned in embarrassment. No matter what, none of the crew can ever find put about this, besides I doubt the fish would tell anybody, and even if they did no knows who I am. I slowed down as I approached the island, even though I''m pretty sure this would work, moving too fast might draw their attention, and so too will moving to slow. I had to keep a steady pace, and give the impression that I really was just a fish, a large fish, but a fish none the less.


    My heart pounded, but this was nothing new, infiltration has been a huge part of my adult life, sure it has never been on a scale as grand as this, actually maybe it has, but all those times, I had team mates by my side to rely on and help me coast through, but now I was all alone with my naked ass exposed for old fish grannies to admire.


    I steeled my nerves as I drew closer to the island, this was not the first tike I was going under a ship in this game, but this was an island. And true to what that guard had said there were pipes spewing out trash and at the same time taking in water to supply the island. But these pipes were not pipes in the normal sense, they were natural tunnels shaking into the island itself. Some were large, set were small, but the very real danger was the fact that any one of these tunnels can lead to a dead end or too a space with an all too tight fit. But then again I''m well equipped to deal with that.


    I swam towards the tunnel that had the most suction force, and let it''s tiny currents lead me up a very dark tunnel. I had good racial bonus, but it wasn''t even enough with how dark these tunnels were, it was almost as if the tunnels were coated in something that made them absorb any sort of light, leaving the rest of the environment dark. I followed the current until I came to what I feared; a dead end. There was a grate in front of me, or based from what I could feel it was more like a sieve than a grate.


    I could smash through it, but I can''t be a 100% sure that it wouldn''t cause some sort of commotion and alert the people up top about my presence. So which leaves me with only one very dangerous option, I had to equip my armor. Hopefully I''m somewhere their radar can''t reach, if not there would probably be a welcome party waiting for me once I get out of here. My armor covered my entire body in a second and I felt myself sink a bit as it became a little bit more difficult to swim, but that was only for a second as I activated the skill I wanted.


    (AIR FORM)


    My body burst into numerous bubbles as the suction force and the current leading towards the end of this tunnel dragged my incorporeal form through the sieve like grate. Immediately I passed through, the water around me became clearer, cleaner, and I realized I was no longer in a tunnel, but rather in a pipe. Seems those guards were right, the pipes just didn''t stretch all the way to the bottom of the island, but met the tunnels at a midway point.


    I let the current carry bubbles like form across different pipes, sometimes I went upwards, sometimes sideways. The entire journey was quite disorienting, but eventually it came to a stop as I was throw out a nozzle in the side of a very large bath tub. I could see a pair of smooth creamy very naked leg, and moving my gaze upwards, it was quite a sight to behold, but the moment I saw that prosthetic metal arm, what ever excitement I had built up fizzled out, this was Qitar. The water was a bit murky, but I suspect that was due to the ridiculous amount of roses currently in it.


    I was about to move closer to Qitar when a blobby form fell into the water with a splash. This experience had rapidly turned from a guilty pleasure to a horrifying torture. This guy was very fat, and his Mr. Peepee was so small I felt really sorry for him. I moved myself upwards moving behind him as I came out of the water.


    No one could see me thank God for that, but it wasn''t just Qitar and the man that were in here. I counted six guards, and each and every single one of them had a lecherous grin on their face as they stared at Qitar. As for Qitar; the green skinned Patmosian was so angry she was turning a shade of pink that wasn''t normal. But none the less I guess it''s about time to make an entrance, I canceled the (AIR FORM) skill, and showed up behind the fat dude with a small pecker.


    "Anybody moves and he''ll be needing a new voice box, or maybe a new throat or neck." I said to them with my signature sinister smile on my face, or at least I think it looked sinister, I''ve spent a lot of time practicing it. I turned to Qitar and said to her.


    "Hey beautiful did you miss me?", but all she said to me was.


    "Kill him! Kill all of them!"


    "Well then first mate, your wish is my command."

 119 G.O.T.A.R II : Curses

    A swift pull of my sword slashed open the neck of the fat pervert in front of me, I had no idea who he was, but I was thankful for the chance to get my body away from his revolting body. The moment Qitar gave the order to kill them all, the other six guards in the room were already prepared to retaliate against any malevolent actions. I jumped out of the bath tub, flapping my wings as I moved straight for the guard closet to me.


    But a shot from a gun blasted my sword out of my hands and back into the rapidly turning red pool of rose covered bath water. I was left without a weapon, but that didn''t mean I didn''t have any other way of dealing with these goons. I moved closer, dodging the rifle that was sent to my head as I moved closer and wrapped my arms around the neck of the guard in front of me it was a variation of a choke hold, but it worked just fine as I used his body to block the incoming blast of plasma energy.


    The armor the guard had on was not normal, and he was able to resist the shots from his comrades, however by the time the third and fourth strike touched him, he had already passed out and I was dragging his unconscious body along as a shield. I brace myself and threw his body into one of his comrades, as I approached another, and for the first time ever used a skill that has just been laying about in my skill list.


    (WIND FIST!)


    A green glow seemed to appear on my body as the air around me was stirred. I shitted to the left then used my right hand to lift the gun pointed at my face away, then I moved forwards into the guard of my opponent and smashed my knee into his midriff. His body was bent inwards and he was raised off his feet, I sent a punch that parted the wind straight to his throat, crushing it on impact. He fell to the ground behind me, coughing and choking as he was drowned by his own blood.


    I tumbled down, rolling over my head as I dodged the incoming plasma blasts from the third guard who had manage to extricate himself from under his friend. The remaining two guards had already made a run for it, probably to go raise an alarm about my arrival. As soon as I finished my roll I ended up in a crouched position, then I shot upwards with a blast of air, my fist parting the wind as it slammed under the jaw of the final guard in an uppercut that was so brutal I felt his jaw get crushed from the blow as he was raised off his feet.


    His body went up to the ceiling and he smashed his head into it, leaving a bloody mark behind as his lifeless body fell down. I looked around and noticed that there was no one else here, and in that moment Qitar came up from underneath the bath tub, rivulets of the bloody pool cascading down her smooth green skin. There were a few scars on her person, but all of them just seemed to give her a sort of wild charm that you won''t see on most women.


    "Keep your eyes straight up captain, or you will lose what makes you a man." i raised an eyebrow at that, but didn''t continue being rude much to the dismay of a certain part of my body. I turned around and faced the wall as she began to strip on of the dead guards for his clothes.


    "What happened?" I asked her as she got dressed.


    "This whole island is a scavenger pirate ship called the Night Maiden. It''s a curse piece of land that''s complete amalgamation between magic and science. But while it''s a marvel of ancient gnomish engineering, the island needs to siphon energy from other ships to survive. The Acheron''s black pearl is a powerful source of energy, and the moment we stepped into the boundaries of the Atlantic ocean a day ago, we ended up on their radar.


    But not just them, if we don''t find a way to cloak the Acheron''s energy signature, other pirates will come for it. The pirates on this Island ship are called G.O.T.A.R, and it''s an abbreviation for Gentlemen. Of. The. Atlantic. Rim. The fat fuck who''s throat you just slit happens to be the youngest son of the captain/chief of the island. The others are currently still imprisoned in their dungeons, which to be honest is quite far from here, and we will have to kill our way through a lot of pirates to get to them. However, Sky is closer, she''s just two floors above us."


    As she explained, she was getting dressed, moving an acting with a meticulousness and efficiency I''ve only ever seen within the army. It was an impressive sight to say the least, but considering I wasn''t allowed to peak at her while she dressed, I just had to trust my instincts on that. But there wasn''t I didn''t understand.


    "How did you guys get captured in the first place, the Ion Pulse Cannon would have made short work of the island if you hand enough to charge it. And I''m sure you guys would have been able to buy that time for yourself, so what went wrong?"


    "Contrary to expectations, this group or rather this Island of pirates are organized. Their forces are well trained and separated into multiple divisions for maximum efficiency. They have a group of very powerful mages and magic user, but the island itself has a power dampening skill that can be focused on any craft regardless of it''s origin for fifteen minutes.


    It sent the Acheron out of commission, however we would have been able to fight long enough for the Acheron to come back online, but they had a powerful cursemancer on their side, and he''s just like you and Raven song; a traveler. So it stands to reason that his power can not be measured in the normal scale. He was able to curse each an every single one of us with powerful curses that weakened us and sent us to sleep.


    Currently we''re still under the curse, which is why we''ve not been able to fight back and try to escape. The captain of the island then handed both me and Dinah to his two youngest sons like we were some sort of commodity. Hopefully she''s okay, she''s also within this building, along with Sky who was given to his daughter."


    I guess that explained everything to me in full, but just going to get the guys won''t work. They would expect me to do two things, and that''s to rescue my crew and two stop their island from siphoning energy from the Acheron so that we can escape. I needed to make an approach that they wouldn''t expect, I turned to Qitar.


    "Do you know where the captain is?"


    "There''s a palace of sorts right in the middle of the island, it''s also the control center for all of the island''s operations. If you intend to shut the island down, then that''s the place to go, but that''s even more defended than the jail cells they threw our friends in. Powerful as you are I doubt you would be able to go at it alone, and even then due to the curse that''s us, it would be hard for us to render any help, so it won''t make any difference." Qitar said to me with a flat tone, but I had a plan, or at least some skeleton of a plan anyways.


    I had a basic skill that was still level 1, I''ve not had any reason to use it, but it had a rather overpowers ability and only cost 5 MP to use. Purify had a 100% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison, I''ve not yet been in a position where I would have to the skill, but I guess now is as good a time as any.


    (PURIFY!)


    A beam of white golden light left my hands and bathed Qitar''s entire form in light, just the appearance of the light alone seemed to have some sort of flaming effect on me and even more so on Qitar as she closed her eyes and involuntarily moaned in pleasure. If gave me ideas, really weird ideas, but nevertheless I have to focus, I had a humongous task ahead of me.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: SKILL: You have purified and cleansed a living being from the (DECAY OF ESSENCE) Weakening curse. The (PURIFY) skill is now level 2. This skill can only be leveled up when you use it, it can now be improved upon with skill points.}


    "Are we good?" I asked Qitar as she picked up one of the guns, cocked it back and then looked at me.


    "Yeah we''re good, let''s go kill some son''s of bitches!"

 120 G.O.T.A.R III : Bloody Re-Awakening, Innocence Los

    Qitar and I poked our heads out the doors into the bath house, and almost immediately we were under fire from over a dozen guns. We ducked back into the bath house as we waited for the hail of gunfire to stop, but even after a minute, it seemed as if there would be no end to it. I furrowed my brows in confusion, don''t these guys need to recharge their weapons or change the ammunition. It was as if they were firing in waves, almost like a tag match where the they are next team would take over once the first was tired.


    With this amount of suppressive fire we couldn''t go out into the hallway without being poked full of holes, we needed to disrupt their tempo, throwing their coordination off track is the only way to get them off our backs long enough for us to deal some damage to them. I gave Qitar a look and telling her to cover me, with how powerful my armor is, I should be able to withstand at least three seconds of their concentrated fire, but I had no intention if just staying there and getting shot at.


    I laid down flat on my back as I poked my hand out the doorway, only my palm was exposed, but I still felt plasma bolt slam into it, burning my skin to a crisp. I held back a curse and watched as it slowly healed, for what I had to do next, it''s basically who could shoot the fastest. I took a deep breath and quickly shoved my hand out again, but this time from a different direction as I activated the skill that I wanted.


    (MANA ARROW)


    Without Sky around to amplify the power of my magic, the mana arrows were only about a meter long and five to seven inches wide, however they weren''t really here to cause damage even though I knew they packed quite a punch. Four bolts of blue magical arrows came into existence In the hallway and flew towards the guards gathered in the hallway. Three of the arrows slammed into none fatal places on the body of three guards, but still cause enough damage and packed enough force to throw them backwards into the comrades, sending more than half of the guards tumbling to the floor in a heap.


    The final arrow slammed into the forehead of another guard, but unlike his friends, his head blew up like a watermelon, much to my surprise. Seems like magic has a whole other level of damage than I previously thought possible, especially if it should hit and unprotected part of the body.


    Qitar didn''t stand on ceremony as she smoothly stepped out of the bath house, took a knee and fired off a shot from one of the guns she took from the very dead guards inside. Another head was blown to bits, and just in time too as I followed behind her, holding another gun in hand as squeezed the trigger. A thin beam of orange light flew out of my own gun and went straight into the neck of another guard. At that moment a heavy feeling of d¨¦j¨¤ vu came over me, this was something I have done so many times before. I might have spent my time so far gallivanting across the game with a bow, magic staff and sword, but it still didn''t change who I am inside.


    It didn''t change the truth of who I was, or what I could do, or how dangerous I was when there was nothing else but a gun in my hand. Each and every single member of my platoon were given fictional names from old fantasy media as a testament to our talents and temperament. I might have tired to bury that part of me so deep down that I almost forgot about it, but it seems holding this gun again had forced me to wake that part of myself up, ''Legolas'' has come to play.


    I raised the assault rifle to shoulder height and crouched down as I began to move forward. Whatever tempo these group of guys had, we had already ruined it, and no matter how hard they tried, there was no way they would be able to out up a fight anymore, it against people like me and Qitar. It was happening right in front of me and I was the cause of it, utter obviously this was going to be another massacre.


    Every step I took I squeezed the trigger in my hands, and it was not just me. Qitar had not moved from her crouched position by the entrance of the bath house, but every shot she made also took a life. In no time at all, all that was left of the dozen guards were the three who were injured by my Mana arrow. I went to the first who was face down an moaning, moved the gun to the back of his neck and pulled the trigger. I ignored the blood that splashed on my boots as I moved to the next who was missing an arm and blasted his head off his shoulder. The third just had a rather nasty burn on his face from when the Mana arrow slammed the wall besides him.


    "NO! WAIT PLEASE! I HAVE INFO¡­.."


    *Bang!*


    I didn''t let him complete his speech as I ended his life and began moving around the other bodies, checking if anyone of them was still alive by using my feet to move and flip them over, my gun still pointed down, index finger poised and ready to squeeze the trigger. I was so focused on my task that I didn''t notice when Qitar walked up to me and said to me.


    "They''re all dead captain, every shot made was either a neck shot or a head shot, you don''t have to be so thorough. This battle has been won."


    "I know that Qitar, you''re right; this battle has been won, let''s move on to the next. I think our next stop should be the floor above us, let''s go find Dinah and Sky." I said to her as I moved through the hallway, there were a few doors on the side, and I made sure to check them as I made my way towards the elevator at the other end of the hall. I was still doing that when I heard Qitar ask another question.


    "How old were you?"


    "What?" I paused and asked back confused.


    "When you joined the army how old were you, and also how old were you the first time you killed a man?" I had no idea where she was going with this, but I gave her the answer she asked for none the less.


    "I was 18 when I joined the army, and as for the first man I killed." I turned to look at her with a blank look on my face.


    "I was 7."


    There was nothing else to do within that hallway, so we entered the elevator and prepared to move to the next floor. Even though we knew Sky was two floors up, we had no idea Where Dinah was, so we probably had to check each floor as we went up, plus I''m sure whatever guards that are left in the building would be concentrated on the floors where Dinah and Sky were being held. Obviously they would assume that we would be coming for them. Just as the elevator was about to open up to next floor, I could not help sinking back into my memories, especially the one memory that I really wanted to bury, the day I lost my innocence.


    >>>>>


    At seven I guess I could say that my imagination was a whole lot more active than other kids my age, but even so I wasn''t normal. The other kids at school knew it, even the teachers knew it, that''s why they never let me play with the other kids. I''ve heard them whisper more often than not that I was a little too rough with them, only Penny could actually keep up with me. At the time my mom called all of them soft rich kids, but so was I.


    Not that I was soft or anything, but I was just a rich kid too, just like them. That''s why this bad man took me here, it was why he tired me to a chair, it''s he spent the past five minutes talking to my Baba and telling him that he wanted ten million dollars for a ransom. Nanny Florence called these kind of people typical idiots who had no idea what they were doing, or maybe they did, but they just like messing with the wrong people.


    I don''t know where we are right now, but it was dark and smelled of mold. We were in a dinning room of sorts, and it was only lit by a tiny lamp on the table I was tied on. The guy who kidnapped had a mask over his face, bishop voice was really gruff and he was yelling into his phone, yelling at my Baba. I shifted a bit and felt the ropes he used in tying me, getting out of this would be really easy, escaping from ropes was the first thing Nanny Florence taught me, and even her easiest knot was a lot harder than this.


    The man hung up on his call and turned to face me, then he started chuckling almost as if he heard something funny. I wonder what that was, but to be honest I didn''t really care, sitting on this table with my hands tied behind my back was tiring. There was a basket of moldy fruit on the table, and beside it was a case of knives, they looked really old and rusted and I doubt they''ve seen any use in a while.


    "You know it''s boys like you that I like the most. The rich spoiled spawn of even richer spoiled spawns. Maybe now you''re cute and such an angel your teachers would jump at the opportunity to give you a gold star for bravery, but I know your endgame. I know that in a few years from now, all that you will be is a monster that preys on those who are your betters but lack the opportunities and peerage you have. You will think you''re superior to everyone in the world because you went to the best schools, drive the best cars, and date the best models. Heck you will even take the wives of those you think you''re better than, all for your sick sadistic pleasure. LOOK AT ME WHEN I''M TALKING TO YOU!"


    *SMACK!*


    He hit hard, but Nanny Florence sometimes hit harder, besides why was he so angry anyway. I didn''t do any of these things he said I did, but none the less he hurt me, and I''m going to hurt him back. My hands were free already, and as he grabbed my chin squeezing so hard I''m sure it would leave bruises, I moved my free hands to the case of rusted knives on the table. Nanny Florence had shown me how to throw them, but since he was this close there was no need to throw them, I just had to go for the soft spot like she said I should.


    The first knife easily slid into his neck regardless of the rust on it. His eyes widened In shock and fright, but I didn''t pay attention to that as I pushed the second one into his stomach. It didn''t go as deep as I wanted it too, and it made him move back so I couldn''t easily put those knives into him anymore. But there wasn''t that much of a problem, I can throw them.


    And so I threw the first one, it sunk into his arm, the second one went wide and went past his head. He held his bleeding neck as he tried running away, but he was pushed back when the handle of the third knife hit his forehead, and the fourth sunk into his leg. By the time the eight knife touched his body, he was already laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood.


    There was a sort of wheezing sound coming from him, it reminded me of balloons that had air escaping from their sides. I sat on that table looking at him, not at all sure about what I had to do, and that''s how the police found me fifteen minutes later after having traced the call he made to this building. But either way they were too late, the kidnapper was dead, and the boy who was kidnapped died with him that day.

 121 G.O.T.A.R IV : Hallway Battle

    Just as we expected the second floor was deserted, we went from one end of the floor to the other and couldn''t find a single soul, this floor seems to be a barracks of sorts. The building itself was built in a particular way, there were no stairs within it, which made the elevator the only way anyone could move through the floors, and even more so according to Qitar the entrance into the building was on the roof. Me finding and getting into this place was without a doubt a significant doze of luck.


    We made our way back into the elevator, and this time we had to prepare ourselves because we knew they would be a fight waiting for us on the third floor. Qitar slowly stretched her body on the ground her form stretched lithely like some sort of huge jungle cat. I''m sure she would have felt more at home with a sniper than with an assault plasma gun, but this was what we had to work with, and Qitar was already making the best of it as it is.


    I moved to the side of the elevator and prepared myself to start attacking the moment the doors slide open. The only other equipment I had on my apart from my armor was my sword, but it had no small scale long range capabilities. The skills it hand would probably spilt this Island in two with one strike, and even though I would very much like to try it out, there''s a possibility I might hurt my friends. But either way are we''re done with the current adventure, I''m going to have to improve my arsenal. I love Sky, I really do, plus I''m crack shot with a bow, but I need guns, lots of them and maybe a few dozen tactical drones, grenades, and maybe a way to resist magical EMPs.


    Qitar and I shared a look at the doors that were about to swing open, there was just this tension in the air, this feeling of anticipation and worry. This was practically mission impossible, and unless I go wild and unleash my dragon mode the way out of this predicament doesn''t seem to be rapidly showing itself if at all. We could only take it one step at a time, and make up other plans as we moved on, then the door slid open.


    (MANA ARROW!)


    Just as the quadruple two meter long glowing blue arrows of magical destruction shot into the hallway, a green glow suffused Qitar''s gun for a second before a powerful blast was ripped out of it. As opposed to the normal orang glow these plasma guns have been releasing, the green that came out of Qitar''s gun was weird and was probably a result of a skill. But there was no time to ponder, it was my time to move next.


    (FIRE SCHOOL: LAVA POOL)


    A pool of bubbling hot and sizzling lava appeared right in the middle of a ground of clustered guards, there were lots of them here so I couldn''t be bother to count. As I squeezed the trigger four times in succession, blasting off the heads of four guards without a need to hit another. Qitar''s shooting came in an interval of every two seconds, though those were very precious two seconds, the power behind her blasts was nothing to sneeze at as she took no less that three people with every shot. I hope she can teach me that though.


    We have already delivered the element of surprise, and they were slowly beginning to get back into formation, which means I need to get into their midst soon. One of the guards suddenly brought out a huge hand cannon that somehow he seemed to have been charging for quite a while, Qitar was just a second away from shooting, but we would probably be blown to bits by them.


    (SEEKER!!!)


    Three heads went splat in succession, however for some reason the guy with the cannon was able to dodge, however he couldn''t atop his shot as it went wide and blasted the entire upper body of a guard from waist up into bloody bits. There was this certain feeling of awareness I felt and received from him, this guy was a player.


    (MANA ARROW!!) (STORM DANCE!) (LIGHTNING BLADE!!)


    I Activated all three skills in succession as I moved into the hallway in front of me, the pool of lava I created was still there, but right now there were lots of bodies on it already. I already hung the gun by letting it dangle from it''s strap as I pulled out my sword and rushed forwards. The Mana arrows caused even more destruction and confusion, but the player seemed to be really unscathed.


    I crossed the distance in an instant, wind and lightning rippling off my body and causing even heavier damage to the other guards around me. I swung my sword down, but he quickly brought his cannon up to block and then sent a kick to my stomach. I moved to the left dodging and moving my sword towards his neck, but he somehow seemed to float backwards, almost as if someone was pulling him, or gravity worked differently for him. Then he pointed his cannon which was so heavy he had to holed it at his waist at me. He fired.


    *Boom!*


    I felt as if someone just used a sledge hammer to my chest, the wall wasn''t too far behind me as I smacked into it and left cracks. And for the first time since I started playing LDO, I had to actually pay attention to my health points as it went from a comfortable green to a startling red. That cannons was powerful, and he knew how to use in combat, and quite skillfully too.


    My insides felt as if it was upside down, but I had to move. I''m pretty sure if it wasn''t for my armor, I would be nothing more than a meat paste on the wall. He couldn''t use the cannon again immediately as he needed to recharge it, but I doubt he would need long, so I had to make the first move. But he was not the only one I was fighting as other guards quickly turned their guns to me about to open fire, I snorted as I lifted my foot up and stomped on the ground.


    (QUAKE!!!)


    Both the player and very guard around me were blasted away, there wasn''t any sever injury gained, but it bought me time, and left most of them open to Qitar''s very dangerous and very precise shooting. As for my opponent, he had used that same gravity gliding skill to nullify the knock back effect from the skill. But whether he knew it or not, I had him right where I wanted.


    I ran towards him, the duration of my lightning blade coming to an end, just as I jumped. His cannon was pointed at my chest, almost completely charging, but a single flap of my wings took me up and above his shot which blasted in between my legs and into his comrades, as the sword in my hand morphed into a long two pronged pitchfork that I sent stabbing into the gaps of his armor, which in this case was his right arm.


    A HP pool would only be in play if someone is fully armored, but as long as any part of your body is exposed, as far as LDO is concerned you could receive debilitating damage that was as realistic and as bloody as possible. The pitchfork sank into his shoulder, particularly at the joint that connected it to his arm. I didn''t stand on ceremony as I grabbed the incomplete legendary weapon with both my hands and began to push him back. Not to talk of the pain he was feeling, he didn''t have the strength to actually match mine.


    Obviously this guys was or Isaiah pro player, he had smarty distributed his stats into the build that worked best for him, and that was probably this heavy gunner class. Who knew maybe that really is his class, which would explain why he was so agile and dexterous that he could use that heavy looking cannon to block a strike from a much smaller faster moving sword. He should also have a bit of strength, but right now it all amounted to nothing.


    I swung my right hand backwards releasing a (MANA ARROW) or rather (MANA ARROWS) at the group of guards chasing after me. They were blasted backwards with one of them having his head blow off in mid air by Qitar. When the rest of the guards landed, most of them were already dead, and at the moment only about six were left standing to fight. I waved my hands again and a pool of lava appeared in the middle of four guards with a few other Injured ones directly falling into it. Whatever was left of the people we fought in that hallway, Qitar would make short work of them.


    I shifted my gaze back to the player who I was still pushing back added the full weight and strength of both my hands. I wrenched the pitchfork a bit and he cried out loud in pain as even tears seemed to escape from the side of his face. ''Sorry dude but in here pain is real'', and if you can happily blast people to bits, then you better be prepared to be shredded to bits too. I ignored all of the doors and headed straight for the massive double doors at the end of the hall. Using the player as a shield I burst into what looked like an extravagant rec room that at the moment had one too many naked girls.


    There were no other guards around, just another player who was dressed all in black with his legs crossed over a table while he threw seeds at a cage that had both Dinah and Sky in it. There were bruises on both their bodies, and since Sky had purple skin, it was more obvious on her than I expected. And there were lots of bruises, even burn marks and cuts that were still bleeding.


    "Hell Rain! Help me! Curse this motherfucker fast! Quickly man! He''s going to take of my...ARRGHHH! MY ARM!!!"


    His decapitated hand fell to the ground with a wet squelch, and as he stepped back in pain and agony I changed the spear back into the sword form as I sliced as his chest. His armor was ruined, but he was actually still alive, I turned around and in that moment ice began to spread from the area I last struck. He was not a boss, so I doubt he would be able to resist the sword''s passive skill of freezing an opponent after the fourth strike.


    I shifted my gaze at the naked girls, most of which were the AIs within the game with only three of them being players. They all huddle together and covered themselves, but I ignored them as I made my way to where this soon to be very dead idiot called Hell Rain was sitting down. I kicked his legs off the table and sat down facing him with my sword resting on the sofa. I waved my hand and sent a (MANA ARROW) at the cage holding Dinah and Sky, releasing them from it.


    Qitar came in right at that moment covered in blood and Gore, Dinah gave Hell Rain a look before she walked towards Qitar. I turned to them and said.


    "Get those women out of here, gear them upland formulate a plan to get the others free, I''ll be with you guys soon." They didn''t say anything, just nodded and led the women out until it was just me and Emo Mr. Hell Rain. He was quite handsome, he had black hair, red eyes, he scale like skin at the side of his face, making him kind of like me, but there''s no guarantee he''s part dragon.


    "Who gave you permission to set my spoils free, your looking to die right?" he asked as he cocked his head to the side and gave me a smile that was downright devilish.


    This guy really was an idiot, but it''s not his fault, he''s quite ignorant of what he just did. He had laid his hands on my people, and even injured my battle beast, he doesn''t know it yet but he was no longer talking to captain Seven of the Acheron, for the first time ever the Dark Prince of The Underworld has come out to play In Lost Descendants Online. This fool was talking to Aaron Wade himself, and his going to pay dearly for it.

 122 G.O.T.A.R IV : Hallway Battle

    Just as we expected the second floor was deserted, we went from one end of the floor to the other and couldn''t find a single soul, this floor seems to be a barracks of sorts. The building itself was built in a particular way, there were no stairs within it, which made the elevator the only way anyone could move through the floors, and even more so according to Qitar the entrance into the building was on the roof. Me finding and getting into this place was without a doubt a significant doze of luck.


    We made our way back into the elevator, and this time we had to prepare ourselves because we knew they would be a fight waiting for us on the third floor. Qitar slowly stretched her body on the ground her form stretched lithely like some sort of huge jungle cat. I''m sure she would have felt more at home with a sniper than with an assault plasma gun, but this was what we had to work with, and Qitar was already making the best of it as it is.


    I moved to the side of the elevator and prepared myself to start attacking the moment the doors slide open. The only other equipment I had on my apart from my armor was my sword, but it had no small scale long range capabilities. The skills it hand would probably spilt this Island in two with one strike, and even though I would very much like to try it out, there''s a possibility I might hurt my friends. But either way are we''re done with the current adventure, I''m going to have to improve my arsenal. I love Sky, I really do, plus I''m crack shot with a bow, but I need guns, lots of them and maybe a few dozen tactical drones, grenades, and maybe a way to resist magical EMPs.


    Qitar and I shared a look at the doors that were about to swing open, there was just this tension in the air, this feeling of anticipation and worry. This was practically mission impossible, and unless I go wild and unleash my dragon mode the way out of this predicament doesn''t seem to be rapidly showing itself if at all. We could only take it one step at a time, and make up other plans as we moved on, then the door slid open.


    (MANA ARROW!)


    Just as the quadruple two meter long glowing blue arrows of magical destruction shot into the hallway, a green glow suffused Qitar''s gun for a second before a powerful blast was ripped out of it. As opposed to the normal orang glow these plasma guns have been releasing, the green that came out of Qitar''s gun was weird and was probably a result of a skill. But there was no time to ponder, it was my time to move next.


    (FIRE SCHOOL: LAVA POOL)


    A pool of bubbling hot and sizzling lava appeared right in the middle of a ground of clustered guards, there were lots of them here so I couldn''t be bother to count. As I squeezed the trigger four times in succession, blasting off the heads of four guards without a need to hit another. Qitar''s shooting came in an interval of every two seconds, though those were very precious two seconds, the power behind her blasts was nothing to sneeze at as she took no less that three people with every shot. I hope she can teach me that though.


    We have already delivered the element of surprise, and they were slowly beginning to get back into formation, which means I need to get into their midst soon. One of the guards suddenly brought out a huge hand cannon that somehow he seemed to have been charging for quite a while, Qitar was just a second away from shooting, but we would probably be blown to bits by them.


    (SEEKER!!!)


    Three heads went splat in succession, however for some reason the guy with the cannon was able to dodge, however he couldn''t atop his shot as it went wide and blasted the entire upper body of a guard from waist up into bloody bits. There was this certain feeling of awareness I felt and received from him, this guy was a player.


    (MANA ARROW!!) (STORM DANCE!) (LIGHTNING BLADE!!)


    I Activated all three skills in succession as I moved into the hallway in front of me, the pool of lava I created was still there, but right now there were lots of bodies on it already. I already hung the gun by letting it dangle from it''s strap as I pulled out my sword and rushed forwards. The Mana arrows caused even more destruction and confusion, but the player seemed to be really unscathed.


    I crossed the distance in an instant, wind and lightning rippling off my body and causing even heavier damage to the other guards around me. I swung my sword down, but he quickly brought his cannon up to block and then sent a kick to my stomach. I moved to the left dodging and moving my sword towards his neck, but he somehow seemed to float backwards, almost as if someone was pulling him, or gravity worked differently for him. Then he pointed his cannon which was so heavy he had to holed it at his waist at me. He fired.


    *Boom!*


    I felt as if someone just used a sledge hammer to my chest, the wall wasn''t too far behind me as I smacked into it and left cracks. And for the first time since I started playing LDO, I had to actually pay attention to my health points as it went from a comfortable green to a startling red. That cannons was powerful, and he knew how to use in combat, and quite skillfully too.


    My insides felt as if it was upside down, but I had to move. I''m pretty sure if it wasn''t for my armor, I would be nothing more than a meat paste on the wall. He couldn''t use the cannon again immediately as he needed to recharge it, but I doubt he would need long, so I had to make the first move. But he was not the only one I was fighting as other guards quickly turned their guns to me about to open fire, I snorted as I lifted my foot up and stomped on the ground.


    (QUAKE!!!)


    Both the player and very guard around me were blasted away, there wasn''t any sever injury gained, but it bought me time, and left most of them open to Qitar''s very dangerous and very precise shooting. As for my opponent, he had used that same gravity gliding skill to nullify the knock back effect from the skill. But whether he knew it or not, I had him right where I wanted.


    I ran towards him, the duration of my lightning blade coming to an end, just as I jumped. His cannon was pointed at my chest, almost completely charging, but a single flap of my wings took me up and above his shot which blasted in between my legs and into his comrades, as the sword in my hand morphed into a long two pronged pitchfork that I sent stabbing into the gaps of his armor, which in this case was his right arm.


    A HP pool would only be in play if someone is fully armored, but as long as any part of your body is exposed, as far as LDO is concerned you could receive debilitating damage that was as realistic and as bloody as possible. The pitchfork sank into his shoulder, particularly at the joint that connected it to his arm. I didn''t stand on ceremony as I grabbed the incomplete legendary weapon with both my hands and began to push him back. Not to talk of the pain he was feeling, he didn''t have the strength to actually match mine.


    Obviously this guys was or Isaiah pro player, he had smarty distributed his stats into the build that worked best for him, and that was probably this heavy gunner class. Who knew maybe that really is his class, which would explain why he was so agile and dexterous that he could use that heavy looking cannon to block a strike from a much smaller faster moving sword. He should also have a bit of strength, but right now it all amounted to nothing.


    I swung my right hand backwards releasing a (MANA ARROW) or rather (MANA ARROWS) at the group of guards chasing after me. They were blasted backwards with one of them having his head blow off in mid air by Qitar. When the rest of the guards landed, most of them were already dead, and at the moment only about six were left standing to fight. I waved my hands again and a pool of lava appeared in the middle of four guards with a few other Injured ones directly falling into it. Whatever was left of the people we fought in that hallway, Qitar would make short work of them.


    I shifted my gaze back to the player who I was still pushing back added the full weight and strength of both my hands. I wrenched the pitchfork a bit and he cried out loud in pain as even tears seemed to escape from the side of his face. ''Sorry dude but in here pain is real'', and if you can happily blast people to bits, then you better be prepared to be shredded to bits too. I ignored all of the doors and headed straight for the massive double doors at the end of the hall. Using the player as a shield I burst into what looked like an extravagant rec room that at the moment had one too many naked girls.


    There were no other guards around, just another player who was dressed all in black with his legs crossed over a table while he threw seeds at a cage that had both Dinah and Sky in it. There were bruises on both their bodies, and since Sky had purple skin, it was more obvious on her than I expected. And there were lots of bruises, even burn marks and cuts that were still bleeding.


    "Hell Rain! Help me! Curse this motherfucker fast! Quickly man! He''s going to take of my...ARRGHHH! MY ARM!!!"


    His decapitated hand fell to the ground with a wet squelch, and as he stepped back in pain and agony I changed the spear back into the sword form as I sliced as his chest. His armor was ruined, but he was actually still alive, I turned around and in that moment ice began to spread from the area I last struck. He was not a boss, so I doubt he would be able to resist the sword''s passive skill of freezing an opponent after the fourth strike.


    I shifted my gaze at the naked girls, most of which were the AIs within the game with only three of them being players. They all huddle together and covered themselves, but I ignored them as I made my way to where this soon to be very dead idiot called Hell Rain was sitting down. I kicked his legs off the table and sat down facing him with my sword resting on the sofa. I waved my hand and sent a (MANA ARROW) at the cage holding Dinah and Sky, releasing them from it.


    Qitar came in right at that moment covered in blood and Gore, Dinah gave Hell Rain a look before she walked towards Qitar. I turned to them and said.


    "Get those women out of here, gear them upland formulate a plan to get the others free, I''ll be with you guys soon." They didn''t say anything, just nodded and led the women out until it was just me and Emo Mr. Hell Rain. He was quite handsome, he had black hair, red eyes, he scale like skin at the side of his face, making him kind of like me, but there''s no guarantee he''s part dragon.


    "Who gave you permission to set my spoils free, your looking to die right?" he asked as he cocked his head to the side and gave me a smile that was downright devilish.


    This guy really was an idiot, but it''s not his fault, he''s quite ignorant of what he just did. He had laid his hands on my people, and even injured my battle beast, he doesn''t know it yet but he was no longer talking to captain Seven of the Acheron, for the first time ever the Dark Prince of The Underworld has come out to play In Lost Descendants Online. This fool was talking to Aaron Wade himself, and his going to pay dearly for it.

 124 G.O.T.A.R VI : Here There Be Dragons!!!

    There was something to be said about the level of realism LDO had, every smell, taste, touch, feeling, sight, smell and move was heightened to match reality and even go beyond it. Which was why the feeling of my knees bending backwards, and my spine expanding, elongating, widening and thickening was a rather scary/painful experience. Bone spurs grew out of the realm gesture of my spine, however they were quite different from what I expected, the spurs were flat and stretched out of the sides of the ridges of my spine. If I had to put words to it, I would say they were like the flaps on a plane.


    My spine ridge spread all the way to a tail that was rapidly growing until it was fifteen and a half meters long. The bone flaps still stretched all the way to it''s tip where it spread into a spade like tail with green edges that glitter under the light of the sun. My rib cage expanded as I felt the appearance of a powerful beating heart, massive lungs that took in massive gulps of air, stirring the INS into action with the very motion.


    Feathery and scaly membrane like wings stretched from my shoulder blades, both being almost as if not wider than my entire body combined. Jaws filled with gleaming white razor sharp teeth as a horn slowly spilt the skin above my snout and stretched upwards much like a rhino. Then at the side of my massive elfin scale covered ears, fins like those of a fish showed up, gleaming a dull emerald as the scales on my body vibrated and inter locked tightly amongst themselves.


    I felt claws push out of my fore and hind limbs with sharper bone spurs popping out of my joints. My scales were startling shade of bluish green whilst my under belly all the way to the tip of my tail was white with the edge of each scale highlighted with gold. I raised myself up rising up to height of over 20 meters and met the red eyed glare of Hell Rain.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: You have transformed into (TIER 1 LESSER WIND DRAGON FORM) All of your skills have been changed to match your new form. Because of the aura of a dragon you have, the curse over you has been suppressed for 15 minutes./ your battle beast was on you when you transformed, and as such she has transformed to match your new form.}


    {The skills DRAGON ROAR, DRAGON BREATH, WIND STORM, THUNDER BOLT HAS BEEN GENERATED.}


    "This is impossible! How can you be an Avatar, who''re you?"


    Wow so dragons can talk, that''s both cool and disturbing, like really disturbing, seeing all those razor sharp teeth and that terrifying snout and jaws moving to make words sent a chill down my spine. Plus seeing as I''m probably capable of the same thing, it made me feel weird.


    {You Have Encountered An Avatar Of The Sin Dragon Of Pride. Your Dragon Blood And Heritage Burns In Rage And Anger, You Will Not Be Able To Shift Back Until You Vanquish Your Foe. (The Player Must Die)/ +100% To All Stats, +70% Chance To Lose Yourself To Rage And Go On A Rampage.}


    Even as I looked at him and prepared to reply, I felt the helmet on my head, feeling as the metal even stretched to cover my fangs. I feel it would have been extremely cool If Sky can transform into some sort of armor, but then again it would only be for my dragon form, as my humanoid form has the best armor it could possible get in this game.


    "I would tell you who I was, but where''s the fun in that. I''ll just kick your bloody ass and let you wonder about who I am and where I''m from and how is it possible that I can do what i can do. But in the end it wouldn''t matter, because every time I see you, I''m going to kill you, you filthy LIZARD!"


    I moved forwards, slamming my head upwards as the horn on my snout stabbed towards his neck. He moved back at the last second and the armor covered horn scrapped across his hard black scales. There were loud screeches as sparks escaped from the point of contact. However I didn''t give him any time as I swung my clenched fist as his face, slamming it into his jaw and throwing backwards across the open green field we were on.


    I watched as he crashed backwards destroying fountains, cobbled streets and walkways. I charged towards him, my every step as heavy as the earth when it quakes. I brought a claw down, raking across his face and smashing a deep wound. He roared out in anger and moved his tail towards me, I barely had any time to react to it as it slayed into my side with a loud boom and pushed backwards. I was a bit unstable, but that was all he needed to opens his jaw and sent blast of black ball like energy into my chest.


    I rolled across the ground with no control over how body moved, I crashed into the building we just escaped from and completely leveled it to the ground. Thankfully I was able to see Qitar and the others running across the open green fields into a small forest and heading deeper into the island. That way they were both safe and far from this fight.


    I tried to get up, wobbling a bit as having my huge form tumbling across an open field was not comfortable at all. I only managed to raise my upper body up, only to feel a massive weight land on top of me as Hell Rain grabbed my right fore limb and snapped his jaw shut on it as tightly as he could.


    "ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH!!!"


    The pain was almost ridiculous, it was as if there was some sort of poison in his jaws or something. I felt my wound burn as the smell of decay and rot seemed to fill the air. I reacted by following my instincts, moving my tail and sending the sharpened edge into Hell Rain''s side, his glossy black scales cracking under the pressure as my tail pierced into his body.


    "RAAAAYYYYYYIIIIIIIIIIII!"


    His roar of pain this time sounded like a squeal, but it was still from a dragon, which means without a shred of a doubt it had the power to blast a normal person who stood too close to pieces. My tail wasn''t able to stab in as deeply as I wanted it to, and that was probably because it was not just a dragon''s scales that offered defense, their skin and tissue were incredible thick and dense it was like shoving a spoon into concrete, not unless of course you had weapons as powerful as the body of a dragon, then you can cause just as much damage as they can withstand.


    (DRAGON BREATH!)


    A sharp blast of wind and lightning shot out of my open jaws like an endless stream rage, right into the still roaring in pain face of Hell Rain. He was blasted backwards over a hundred meters. I flapped my wings and took to the sky as I flew towards his weakened form, not all willing to give him any sort of breathing space. However he seemed to be just as prepared as I was as he turned his head sharply in my direction and released a dragon breath of his own.


    I banked left hard, my wings scrapping across the ground and digging a ravine through it, leaving behind am ugly around scar on the pristine green plain, that at the moment seemed to stretch backwards till it reached the edge of the island that was just a hundred meters behind me. I slide across the ground, but it was almost as if Hell Rain''s breath was inexhaustible, the beam of black evil chased after me, and every where it passed, all of the green on the island turned to grey or black, dying under it''s powerful curses.


    I flapped my wings higher, moving the flaps around my spine ridge, all of a sudden it was as if I became one with the wind itself as I suddenly became faster. I was no longer moving like a dragon in the sky, but rather like a fish in water, or a snake in water. As opposed to Hell Rain''s bulky body, though I was just as huge, I was much more lithe and streamlined. Though I could feel that the muscles around my claws and joints were densely packed, which meant I was built for speed and instant explosive attacks, just like the lightning and thunder a wind dragon embodies.


    I glided across the ground in an incredibly flexible manner, moving closer to Hell Rain, his dragon breath unable to even touch me as I flew around it like it was some sort of pole. Then he cut of the breath attack when I was close enough and turned his body around in a really fast manner. His tail end was covered in black energy and was heading straight for my face, and seeing how close we were, there was no way even with my newly found agility that I would be able to dodge that.


    (WIND STORM)


    Using that skill was a mistake as it effects were not instant. But this was not exactly my fault, it was the first time I''ve ever had the chance to be conscious in my dragon form and use it''s skills, so I had no idea how they worked. The tail smacked into my chest, and I coughed up a ridiculous amount of blood as my vision seemed to get dull. I crashed into the ground and rolled out of the way of Hell Rain''s stomp. I felt a bit weak and dizzy, but that''s when the smell of the sea''s wind assaulted both of us, and it came with such power and rage that Hell Rain couldn''t even move an inch.


    (WIND STORM ACTIVE: All attacks, and defense raised by 300% for the duration of the storm. Time remaining: 100 seconds.)


    My eyes opened wide at that, but never the lesser I couldn''t waste any time. Using (WIND STORM) left me terribly drained, which was why I was feeling so weak coupled with the strike from Hell Rain. However this wind storm skill seems like an AOE skill that''s a buff for me, regardless of the area, as long as I was still within it and the skill was active, then I was 300% stronger, alright then, let''s fight.


    (THUNDERBOLT)


    Hell Rain was being buffeted by powerful winds that pelted him and rendered him immobile. Leaving him completely defenseless as a bolt of powerful white lightening fell from the sky and slammed into his back, cracking open a couple of his scales and charring the flesh beneath black. The wound he received was so large that I could even see bone beneath all the charred meat.


    I flew around and within the wind storm, slashing with my claws, and my tail. Hell Rain fought back, sometimes even scoring a hit as he remained stuck in his position, but never the less he was still a sitting duck and within that short minute and the half I made sure the wounds on his body stacked up until as I could see on his black scales was blood. And then the wind storm duration came to an end while we stood across each other, our breaths deep and anger sparked in our eyes.


    Obviously he was in a much dire state than I was, in this fight he had more techniques and more skills. He was also physically stronger, but he was not used to such a body. Every piece of move he had used without a skill was mostly relying on instincts, but for me I felt really comfortable in this body and there was a million and one things going through my mind right now, I could really hurt this bozo if I have enough time to play with him.


    "Who''re you? What do you want!" He asked again, looks like I''ve beaten him so much that he''s repeating himself.


    "The name''s Seven, captain Aa...aAhh Seven!" I really should have been smarter and not used a name that''s closer to Aaron, what the heck was I thinking.


    "Your name is Aa Seven?" he asked with a skeptical tone.


    "Look! Enough talking, just Die!"


    (DRAGON BREATH!!!)


    (DRAGON BREATH!!)

 125 G.O.T.A.R VII : Here Dragons Fall!!!

    Both breath attacks, one of wind and Lightening, the other of blackness, evil and curses met midway with a loud boom. The earth shook and vibrates as storm clouds gathered above us and the seas roiled and raged in anger at the sheer display of power. We were now at an impasse, basically it was up to both of us to see who would run out of breath first, but as it stands, given that we were both dragons with really massive lungs, I guess we would be breathing our elements and power against each other for a little while.


    The power of the breath attacks was not to laugh or joke about, the ground beneath us was ripped to shreds, as an areas over ten kilometers wide was destroyed. Everything about the area of the island we were on, was completely ruined, and I could feel the island itself slowly rumbling, like it was about to burst apart at it''s seams. Hell Rain and I glared at each other, until today we never knew each other, but by virtue of LDO, we''re now bitter enemies and won''t stop until the other was destroyed. More so for me than him seeing as all my actions are driven by revenge for the elemental dragons.


    We were so focused on each other, that we didn''t notice it when a shower of missiles suddenly appeared in our vicinity and proceeded to smack into us, exploding in a huge conflagration of flames that threw me off the edge of the island and into the sea below with a huge splash. The island itself was like a massive hill, or cliff, making it look like one massive mistaken block of stone on the sea.


    Those missiles packed quite the punch, and o was left with a few injuries, but if I was this banged up, then I can''t begin go imagine what Hell Rain would be feeling like. I had no idea where those missiles came from, but I was still in the middle of a fight, and I had to finish. I angled myself, flapped my wings and made my way out of the sea and up into the air. As I flew upwards, water streamed off my massive form, creating a miniature shower as o opened my mouth and ROAR!


    "Grooooaaaarrrrr!!!"


    I was moved fast, going above the island in no time at all as the wind rushed past my body. Then I came to a stop, hovering long enough to shift my gaze to a heavily injured Hell Rain that was at the moment eating people? It seems the other denizens of the island had turned on him, which if you ask me is understandable.


    We might have kept our fight to a small area, but we might have kept our fight within a small area, but the shockwaves from our clash would have caused enough damage elsewhere, not to mention Hell Rain had released his dragon breath attack every which way, not at all caring about whether it hurt innocent people or not. To his allies I was no longer the only threat they had to worry about, and seeing as he actually caused more damage to them than I did, they had no other choice than to bring the fight to us in an attempt to kick us off.


    Nevertheless it was a fruitless endeavor and a futile effort. We may not be as powerful or as large as the dragons which we serve as Avatars for, but we were still big ass dragons capable of dishing a massacre like beat down on an entire kingdom. A bunch of well trained and disciplined pirates won''t find it easy to bring someone like Hell Rain down. But since they''re all gathered in one place, let me just drop in and say hi.


    I dropped down few the sky like a predetermined missile or even a meteor, I made sure I went high enough, so that I would build enough momentum as I came down. I made sure my helmet covered head was facing the massive black dragon and tiny clusters of humanoid beings shooting at it, and also at my falling form. Bullets whizzed past me, while others slammed into my scales with a dull thud, and then finally when I was so close that the distance between me and the ground was all but 5 meters, I called out a skill.


    (LUNAR STRIKE!!!)


    My head was bigger, and Sky had grown large enough to cover and protect my head. It also stands to reason, or rather speculation that this skill would be a whole lot bigger than before. And not just bigger, it would also hurt a lot, and that''s what I aiming for.


    *BOOOM!!!!*


    This skills previous range was just five meters, this time it was a five kilometers radius. Much of the pirated attacking Hell Rain were grinded into meat paste that blended with the ground and the massive 20 feet deep crater that appeared on the ground. Hell Rain''s limbs twisted at an awkward angle, and even his back seemed broken from the massive pressure that just fell on him, it was like the very sky itself had fallen on top of his head.


    He screamed out in pain and agony as his body was grotesquely bent, but I did not give him a single chance to heal himself as my jaws closed around his neck as tightly as I could. I could feel his hot blood rush down my throat in a cascade that lit up a fire deep within my chest, and brought out an animal like instinct that I didn''t even know existed.


    Hell Rain twisted and turned in the hope that he would be able to struggle away from me, but I dropped the bulk of my body on his, and used my hind limbs to pin his to the ground. I tightened my jaws around his neck and started shaking it around, making sure the wound was torn open even wider, and then I stabbed my tail repeatedly into his body, over and over again as his blood poured and watered the ground.


    At this point I don''t think I was myself anymore, dragons might be considered to be the smartest, wisest and the most powerful of races, but their animal like instincts are second to none, sometimes it''s all they are; wild, brutal, ruthless and bloodthirsty. It doesn''t matter if you''re a sin dragon or an elemental dragon, your thirst for blood would be incomparable to any other being, especially once you''ve gotten a taste of what you wanted.


    I kept Hell Rain''s body pinned for as long as I could, for some reason he couldn''t shift back to his human form, but even if he could, he would still not have been able to escape from me. I felt his movements slowly become slower and slower until he was no longer moving, but I didn''t let go, and that was because I wasn''t focusing on his movements, but rather on his heart. Dragons had fearsome vitality, bleeding to death is not as easy as having a sword stabbed into their heart of having their head cut off. It took a while, but those heartbeats slowed down, until there was nothing but silence.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: You have slayed an Avatar of the Sin dragon of pride/ You have received 1 Lesser Pride Sin Dragon Heart, 400 pieces of Scales, 20 Claws, 146 fangs, 300 liters of dragon blood, dragon bones, bone marrow, and horns./ You also revived +500% level up exp/ you have received the title Sin Dragon Slayer}


    {TITLE: SIN DRAGON SLAYER: you have kept faithful to you duty and have slayed sin dragons to further the cause of your race. +30% extra damage to sin dragons and their affiliates, +30% extra power/effect to all dragon racial skills.}


    {SYSTEM ALERT! WORLD ALERT! UNIVERSAL ALERT!: A Chosen Of The Great Dragon Kings have been Slain by Player Aa Seven. A universal bounty of 500 billion gold dollars has been placed on his head. Information about him and his location would be rewarded. Please be warned he is armed and dangerous, very dangerous!}


    Okay what the fuck! That''s a ridiculous amount of money, and all for what, because I killed this piece of shit player. Obviously the sin dragon''s influence spread a little too far, much more than I expected. And seeing as the entire universe is going to be after me, just me and the others won''t be enough to face all of the incoming storm alone. We needed to get stronger, but I can worry about all those later, right now I had things that I have to deal with.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: LEVEL: You have leveled up to 44, you can now attempt a racial upgrade quest. You have three racial templates, but you can only undergo one racial upgrade, improving the bloodline of one race and thinning the others. Another racial upgrade will happen at level 80, you can try to upgrade you other racial bloodlines. Report to this three locations to begin the quest. Elfengarde(Elf Bloodline), New Texas Colony(Human bloodline), The Ruins Of Voiterion(Wind Dragon).}


    Well I have no idea where the human and dragon locations are, Elfengarde on the other hand is a place I can get to. It actually off world, on another planets so I can use my connection with Lerriandelei to get there, but considering I have this massive target on my back it might be a little bit more difficult than I imagined. I shook myself a bit, raised my head to the sky and¡­.


    (DRAGON ROAR!)


    "ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR"


    {You have used dragon roar, every being on this island is now under a fear effect, except for a select few. All defense and attacks dropped by 120% for 200 seconds.}


    Damn if I don''t like being a dragon. I made my way across the island, leaving the bloody battlefield behind. It didn''t take me long until I showed up in front of a massive tower. I was about to start being dominating and demanding, after all I was in the body of big ass fuck giant dragon with enough power to level a city, so I needed to be really cool when I asked fro my friends back. However I heard a loud whistling sound as a dwarf with a lance fell down from the sky with flames heavily clustered and gathered around his body. He was like a meteor.


    *BOOM!*


    The building in front of me which I suspected was the command tower for the entire island went up in smoke and flames before I could assert my dominance. Damn! That''s just lazy writing. I blinked my eyes as Zareth flew out of the burning building and landed on my snout, making me cross my eyes so that I could look at him. He pointed a finger at me and said.


    "You''re late you lazy bastard! Is there any need for you to keep heading to your other world and coming back to this one as you please! You should just pick one and stick with it. But on another note, thanks for saving our asses." Or at least that''s what I thought he said, his dwarfish accent was so thick I barely heard a single thing at all.


    I deactivated my transformation, prompting a tornado of wind and lightning to gather around me as I rapidly shrunk. My bone spurs went back into my large spine, which in turn also shrunk taking with it my tail. My elongated snout pushed back into my face, my extra fangs fell off and the others retracted back to their normal positions. My claws painfully went back into my fingers as my ribs shrunk back in, almost suffocating me before my lungs and heart followed. Transforming was painful both ways, but it''s a small price to pay. I opened my eyes back in my body with Sky standing besides me and Zareth in front. Then I looked at the dwarf and asked.


    "So what now?"

 126 Alert!

    Zareth and I moved till we got to the north end of the island, we met up with Qitar, Dinah, Raven Song, Mack, Zack and Darke. Along with lot of the island''s former inhabitants, or I should say former prisoners and slaves. But even with all that, not all our enemies on the island have been vanquished, but we would get to that as soon as we''re off this bloody moving rock.


    "Dinah any luck stopping this island from siphoning energy from our ship?" I asked the Maenad as I drew close. She raised her head up from a table I didn''t even notice she had on, and glared at me really hard for a second, before answering.


    "Your stupid fight knocked out a lot of the circuits and magical arrays that worked the transference skill and cords. Thankfully it had a backup central array that has allowed me to reverse the process, however I''ve noticed that the Acheron is not just taking back her stolen energy, but also drawing on the essence of the island to somehow evolve!"


    "Wait what? What do you mean?" I asked her surprised.


    "I don''t know! I''m still observing the procedure, but I think it would be in everyone''s best interests to get back to our ship and prepare for a quick getaway. There''s still quite a significant amount of pirates on this ship. I''ll keep on monitoring the procedure and you let you know if there are any changes. Let''s move out!"


    She seems a little bit more commanding than usual, but I guess she''s been through an ordeal and this was her way of dealing with it. However this shouldn''t be the first time Dinah has been captured, after all we saved her from pirates in the first place. Moving back to the ship was not as easy as we thought it would be as whatever was left of the pirates all tried to stop us from leaving, though seeing as the curses that was limiting everyone was lifted the moment Hell Rain died, taking care of them was way to easy.


    When we got close to the ship however, movement was limited as we were a whole lot more than I expected, heck I don''t even think the Acheron was large enough to hold this much people. But then again there wasn''t much of a choice but carry on. When we got to the ship, the guards I had snuck around were off it and on the island, though I couldn''t blame them considering the entire ship was glowing like a star, or something similar like that.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: The Acheron is Undergoing a supernatural augmentation and evolution. Estimated time to completion 86 hours 37 minutes and 9 seconds.}


    Well that seems like a lot of time on my hands not doing anything, I doubt I could go round bunting what''s left of the island pirates, because given the trail of bodies we left in our wake on the way here, none of them would have the guts to come face us. Seems I will have to play the waiting game for now, though if I was honest I would really love to have a talk with the elemental dragons, especially Zephyr. I knew absolutely nothing about the enemies I needed to face, I was caught off guard by this Hell Rain guy, and seeing how influential the sin dragons were, I guess I can''t really fight them alone, not without significant strength anyway. Well I already leveled up, I guess it''s about time I allocated some stat points, my skills were okay at least for now anyway.


    Last I remembered I had 80 stat points, plus with all of the bonus I get from my titles, I would say that my stats were way beyond what a level 44 is supposed to have. But like I''ve realized, levels don''t matter. A player''s strength is 30% attributed to his stats, 40% to his skills and 30% to his or her personal talent and technique in combat. Lost descendants online was never designed to be a small game, so things like beginner villages, skill trainers and whatnot do not or are quite rare to find.


    To make it as realistic as possible, you would be dropped into a random environment and expected to survive, and with how realistic it was, you don''t usually get a system alert for everything, also somethings are taken care of based on your actions. So far every time I''ve died, which is once, I woke up right on my ship, and that''s because in my mind, the Acheron was home and where I needed to be to find solace should shit hit the fan. Anyway back to the stats.


    I allocated ten stat points to strength, constitution, intelligence and wisdom, whilst dexterity and agility both got fifteen leaving me with just 11 stat points. But never the less I''ve successfully gotten all my stats past the hundred mark and was now in the two hundreds. All of my titles came through for me, but mostly my class. Every level up as a Winded Draconis Vindex gave me seven to all stats, and since the last time I checked my stats, I''ve grown six levels, gaining one from when I murdered that elven researcher and fought that devil like player, speaking of which, I wonder what happened to that lizard friend of his.


    {SYSTEM ALERT!: STATS: You have are the first person to raise all your stats to 200 and above. The title thrill seeker has leveled up Power seeker. Now every level up will give +8 extra stat points and + 5 extra skill points. All skills and Masteries advance 20% faster}


    Well I so did not see that coming to be honest, but if all skill advance 20% faster, then that will be a very good thing. However for me the most important was the mastery, they''ve been advancing at a snails pace, and even with all the fighting I''ve been doing, they''re still in the basic rank. 20% might not seem much, especially with how slow the level up has been so far, but it helps a lot.


    {SYSTEM ALERT!: HEALTH POINTS: your health points have reached over 2000,you have unlocked rare passive skill Basic Regeneration. You can now heal from light and medium wounds in less time.}


    {STYSTEM ALERT!: MANA POOL: your Mana pool has reached over 2000, you have unlocked rare passive/active skill Basic Magic Breath technique. Now you can regenerate Mana during combat, and even faster outside combat.}


    {SYSTEM ALERT!: STATS: All stats have reached above 200. Stat mastery skills unlocked. Now you can properly utilize all stats on and off combat and crafting. Masteries are closely tied to increment of stats, but they can also be trained and advanced.}


    Guess this is getting more and more complicated, but these were all good things and it meant I was getting stronger. And with the masteries involved, my ridiculously high strength would play a proper part in all of my actions. So far during combat every move made is always measured by an algorithm, it tells my strike how much strength is behind it and how much speed rather than utilizing the true value of the strength I have.


    Let''s assume an average mans true strength stat is 10, I have over 200 which makes me 200 times stronger than an average man, but so far that strength has not been showing. It''s like all the stats a filtered and only the tiniest factor of their total volume is being utilized. But with the mastery skills, I could open that dam wide or close it as tightly as I want to, leaving me in total control of my strength.


    So from now on rather than relying on the systems measurements and applications, I can utilize all 200+ power behind my stats and properly control my, my speed, and my toughness though I''m not so sure what I can do with wisdom and intelligence though. But everything seems settled, so that''s tat with the stats, but it seems like Acheron is still getting ready.


    Name: Aaren Seven/ Level: 44(0.0%)/ Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Power Seeker/ One With The Wind/ Bronze Blood Commander/ Limit Breaker/ Sin Dragon Slayer


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/The Coven Of Angeles


    Reputation: INFAMOUS(Wanted Dead Or Alive)


    Strength: 250/ Constitution: 265/ Agility: 295/ Dexterity: 295/ Intelligence: 250/ Wisdom:265


    Hp 667 /2081(equip bonus +) MP 800/2265(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:41 Skill points:146


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    I sat down on the beach moving myself away, Sky''s massive form followed me almost like a shadow. Speaking of which Sky was about the size of an adolescent horse, of course she was much wider than a horse given that she was an elephant, but I feel maybe I could ride her, like a mount. I can''t imagine how cool it would be to ride an elephant into battle screaming and yelling out war cries...¡­that would be absolutely epic.


    *Piriririri...Piririririri!*


    (Incoming call from Hades!)


    Okay what the fuck, I can receive call insider the game...as the owner of the biggest game ever made in human history, I would say that I''m the person who knows the least about what it''s functions and options were. But never the less I guess another bout research was in my future, I needed to find out more about the game, plus Hell Flame had said some things that drew my attention. I knew nothing about the top players in the game....or excuse the former top players. But the thing is LDO encompassed more than just the top of the leaderboards, there were live streamers and guilds, and even merchants. So far I''ve only paid attention to the denizens of the game and whilst they can be very much a threat, they wouldn''t be able to compare to the much bigger threat, and that''s without a doubt the player community.


    "Hello Hades I trust this is important seeing as your calling me during my time of leisure." I asked as I picked the call.


    (My apologies master, but we''ve located the Dragonovs and Vladimirs. For some reason both families seem to have gathered in the same building where the call for your assassination was made. We also identified the caller, her name is Lamkova Dragonov, formerly Vladimir but changed it after she married into the Dragonov and became it''s current head after her husband the old head passed away mysteriously after a heart attack.


    Requesting permission to put together a strike team and carry out a retaliation op. It will be quick, efficient and surgical. We can be in and our of Russia before the proper authorities find out.) Hades said to me with a calm voice.


    I shifted my gaze last Acheron and her glossy black frame as I looked towards the sea. The Atlantic Rim had a beauty to it that I was noticing for the first time. The water glowed with a very vibrant emerald glow that seemed to intertwine with the intense blue it naturally embodies. I wanted to take this in, to try and appreciate this view of life in front of me before I gave the answer Hades was expecting.


    "I understand Hades, get a strike team together, you don''t have to worry about making it a stealth mission. Just prepare with the intent of going to burn down everything that the Vladimir and Dragonov family stand for. How much time do you need to get the strike team, weapons and transportation ready?" I asked him as I got up to my feet.


    (No more than two hours, we will be up in the air in 30 minutes after that.)


    "Good you do that, I''ll be joining you for this op, but there''s somethings I would have to take care of first. Go get ready and wait for my call."


    (Yes Master!)


    "Well.....looks like Aaron Wade still has time to play."

 127 What It Means To Love

    The moment the I logged out of the game I made my way straight to my study, Nezha was already waiting right outside my room, and I could see that the guard activity around the manor was at an all time high, everyone seemed to be in a state of emergency which was good. I wouldn''t want to be on my way to destroy one enemy and then leave my back open for others to take advantage and attack my home base, though that is something I feel would definitely happen. My name might be getting around, but I don''t have the influence my Baba had, no one knew me or how dangerous I could be if you messed with me or my family....at least not yet.


    Nanny Florence was waiting for me at the door, me and this old Nanny of mine have been overdue for a serious talk, especially about the fact that her own grandson was trained as a child soldier, I don''t even want to imagine what sort of childhood the kid might have had. But that was a discussion for later, because right now I had things to deal with. I took a sit and raised a finger stopping Nezha and Nanny Florence from saying anything as I scrolled through my contacts on the holographic display hanging over my desk. I found the number I was looking for really quickly and dialed it, before sitting back and waiting for it''s recipient to answer.


    "Hello?" an old but hard voice answered.


    "Aghh! President Bossley Dobrov this is Aaron Wade. I''m sorry to disturb you so soon, but I need an answer from you and a signed copy of the digital document I sent to you. If you''ve agreed to the deal then let''s make it official and fast too. I have an operation that I have to take care of in Moscow, one that requires I have certain immunities ascertained to me." I said to him as I leaned back and waited for the president to reply.


    However that reply didn''t come immediately as he remained silent for a while before finally speaking up. I could somehow hear even more steel and hard edges from within his voice, obviously this was not the kind of man to joke around, and he would get straight to the point.


    "What you''re asking for is very much within my power, however if the other countries don''t agree it would also paint a target on my back. What you''re asking for is not too big, but neither is it too small. In the grand scheme of things, it would mean that you and your people will become men and women without a home, people without a country. Neutral to whatever conflict arise, but very much in danger and surrounded by all of the other forces.


    It would make for an interesting development in this current world we live in, it should be able to shake things up a bit. But you would no longer have the protection of a government. In fact you will now become a target for every government to try and control, at that point it won''t matter that you''re the richest and most influential man within the confines of the milky way galaxy, you will just have a big target on your back."


    Seriously why the heck was this president talking so much, I don''t but this whole concerned act, however I did appreciate the fact that he was laying it all out for me, telling me what''s what and how difficult life would be for me if I should get what I''m asking for. It''s a dangerous gamble, but it''s one I need if the Wade family and the Imperium industries would survive the massive change that was coming.


    "Whatever the case may be President Dobrov, I am not changing my mind. I''ve analyzed all of this problems you''ve listed out and I still think the gains outweigh the risks. What I want to do is not going to be easy, and quite frankly no other country or corporation would be able to do it, however we can! Besides if you do give me what I want, I can guarantee that in 24 hours the biggest thorns in the side of the Russian government; the Vladimirs and Dragonovs would become ancient history. All that would be left of them would be ashes and your rule would be more secure and safe from their constant sabotaging." I said to him as I got up to my feet and moved towards the edge of my office where a safe was located.


    "Oh is that so! Why didn''t you say that in the first place! Very well then I''ll give you what you want. From today hence forth the Russian government recognizes the Wade family as a Sovereign power of it own, not at all connected to any government or political power. They are accrued diplomatic rights within Russia and it''s borders, and all facets of their businesses open, hidden or otherwise is recognized as Legitimate."


    There was a loud beep as the digital copy of the decree was sent into my email, signed and quite ready to give me the power and the freedom I wanted. But this was just one signature, I needed all of the major players to sign it, which in turn would get the minor players in line. The Wade family would become the most powerful force in human history, not even Genghis Khan or Alexander the great would be able to compare to what I just achieved or will soon achieve. Sovereignty means I can act without much restraint from the governments of the world and there would be absolutely no reason for the dark side of the Wade family to remain hidden. Of course no one would consider it a dark side, just a very sophisticated private militia that can upset the balance of the world.


    "Thank you very much President Dobrov, let''s have lunch tomorrow in Moscow, you can hand over a physical document, and I can give you the heads of the main bosses of the Vladimir and Dragonovs. Think of it as a gift to signify the start of a friendship." I said to him as I opened the safe and pulled out the twin hand guns Hades had given to me the last time we went hunting.


    "Well when you put it like that I can''t very well refuse can I. Do what you must, when you''re done we have drink to celebrate." Then the call ended, but immediately I turned to Nezha and said.


    "Nezha get everyone on high alert and keep a close watch on the Russian government. They know we''re coming and even if we just signed a deal with them, everyone knows you can''t trust the Russians. I want round the clock surveillance of Dobrov and every decision and discussion he might have in regards to Wade family or Imperium industries. I''m sure we have some assets in Russia, activate them and have them on standby, if you notice any weird movements from the Russian government, take out it''s president, though do it anonymously, but make it public."


    "Yes master!" Nezha said to me as he left the office to go make some calls.


    "You''re playing a dangerous game and taking a huge gamble young Master. Everything you have on hand now are tools that can potentially make you very powerful, but at the moment you''ve not gotten that power yet, and you''re making a play for power by dancing in a nest of poisonous snakes. The Wade family is not all powerful, let''s not even consider failure, you might did and then all this would have been for nothing and Junior would be left without his father, this world is harsher and more dangerous than it seems." Nanny Florence said the me as she drew closer.


    "I understand that more than anyone Nanny Florence, but I can''t follow Baba''s plan and grow secretly whilst throwing the scent of my opponent elsewhere. The thing not everyone can be fooled with that act, and most won''t even want to wait. Your generation and older ones would keep under the radar of the government, because quite frankly whatever the government doesn''t control becomes a threat to them. Which is why they''re still after the old families, even though drug trade as a whole is dead and we have the monopoly with it. But then again our own drug sale is just a massive worldwide experiment with us trying to induce human evolution.


    Whether it is dangerous or unsafe, the fact of the matter is hidden or not we''re still in very big danger. The world has it''s eyes on us and what we can achieve, and staying hidden means we have to be careful with every step we take, however coming out and being who we are in front of the world, regardless of public out cry or the threat of then government; then we can make big enough moves to consolidate our power.


    So I understand how dangerous a game I''m playing, but this is the only way I can keep my family safe and not have them hide what belongs to them and who they are. Besides the Wade family are destined for much more than just being simple mob bosses, the universe would be ours to command." I said to her as I put both guns in a holster and went to Ron''s room with Nanny Florence still in tow.


    "Then you will need to full consolidate you power and control over the Wade family assets. Apart from the mobile underwater base in San Francisco, we have an Aerial base in South Korea, directly over Busan. And then we have a training facility in the arctic, but that''s just it for the bases. We have a whole slew of businesses across the entire planet. You''ve been busy, but as soon as we''re done with this Dragonov and Vladimir business, you should clear your schedule and visit each of the bases and then probably throw a small party and invite all of the major players under you. Because to tell you the truth you only have true power over the underwater mobile base and the training facility in the Artic.


    The aerial base is under the control of the Wade extended family, right in the hands of someone who would very much like to take over and have his own branch of the family become the main bloodline. So while getting all these power is great, you need to strap up and clean house, fast! Before your plan actually succeeds but you''re left defending against your own family."


    She finished speaking just as I entered Ron''s room, he was already asleep and he was tightly curled under his dark blue star light blanket. I moved close enough until I could see his face clearly under the dim lighting of his night light. Then I answered Nanny Florence in a soft voice.


    "In the end power, prestige and control doesn''t matter. Saving the world or becoming the most powerful man in history doesn''t entice me, to be honest I''m much too simple to give a shit about all those things. But this is all for him, both him an I were thrust into a game of power and politics by my grandfather, a game that quite honestly neither both of us were ready for. This is everything my grandfather worked for, so I can''t walk away, and because of that my son would grow into this world and very much be a target.


    So before that happens, I have to make sure the whole universe is under my heel. I have the tools and the resources to do it, and so too did my grandfather. But he was conservative, old fashioned, careful. He liked the way things were, and knowing him he probably thought should there be a change it should be left up to future generations, which in retrospect is total bullshit!


    As the elder generation it''s our responsibility to make sure the next generation have no reason to suffer, to fight, to cry or hunger. Right now my son is my purpose, he''s the most important thing in my life right now, and nothing else comes close to his value in my heart. Even with all the blood in my hands and the sins on my soul, he''s the one good thing God has given me, a blessing as well as a reminder of who I am and what I''ve done. So it''s up to me to make sure his future is bright and free of blood and plots. And if I have to burn the whole world to do it, then I would. Because that''s what it means to love."

 129 The Dark Prince Descends II : Anton Of Moscow

    The best time to take advantage of a flash grenade is immediately it goes off, because just after a few seconds of disorienting retinal burns and blindness, the affected people would start panicking and squeezing their triggers every which way. Of course when that happens, they become a danger not just to me and my team, but also to their own comrades. The idea was to take out the most probable targets and let the chaos ensue, and it seems Morrigan had the same idea.


    I turned and moved the sights of my gun to places where it seemed as if the people were more clustered, and most of them there were well dressed men in black suits, with an earpiece in their ears. I methodically squeezed the trigger and aimed my gun six times in all before moving behind another pillar and listening as they began to tear each other apart by shooting in the wrong direction.


    Morrigan moved out with a shield of ice floating in front of her, there was a tiny hold in front of it for her to put her gun out and take shots. And with her taking the lead the rest of our team followed behind with Nuwa behind them, eyes closed and knees placed on the ground as the temperature of the entire mansion seemed to rapidly drop. I moved out from behind the pillar quickly striding across the hall as I went looking for the bitch that sent assassins after me.


    As I moved through the hall I felt someone grab my shoes, I looked down and saw a guard that was as the brink of death looking at me with dull almost lifeless eyes. I looked back at him for a few seconds, then I pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger splattering his brains allover the ground. But that seemed to be a distraction as I felt someone slam into my sternum and carried me up before smashing me down on the dinning table that had been vacated the very moment the lights went off.


    The table was actually made from metal, but the force that was used to throw me down actually crumpled it''s metallic frame, rumpling it and creating sharp edges that cut at my light blue suit. But apart from that I felt a few ribs crack, seems like the guy I''m fighting is no ordinary person. I looked up at him only to see a punch heading for my face, the only problem was that this punch seemed to be made of some sort of green energy.


    I quickly shifted my head to the side throwing the man off me as the area where my head once occupied was squeezed into pretzels and smashed to pieces. I quickly moved up back to my feet and flew at the well over seven foot man, I jumped up sending a knee strike to his chest, but the same green energy appeared over him, forming a sort of barrier that protected him, and then blasted me backwards. I had as much control over my body in real life as I did in the game, though that''s just something I discovered recently. However as I flew through the air I pulled out my handguns and flipped whilst simultaneously pulling the triggers and landing on my feet.


    *Bang!* *Bang!!* *Bang!!!* *Pak!* *Pak!!* *Pak!!!*


    Every shot I fired seemed to ripple of his shield, I could see the armor piercing bullets completely crumpled into a fraction of their original size. This guy had an absolute defense, he was a Meta-human just like Morrigan and Nuwa, and from the looks of it, a very powerful one. My attention might have been on him, and his on me, but we were still very concentrated on our surroundings. I could hear gun shots from outside the mansion and feel vibrations from beneath my feet. Looks like the other teams were already beginning their assault and cutting off their routes of escape.


    Most of the party goers, including the person I very much came here to kill were gathered in one corner of the dining hall. Lamkova Dragonov is a beautiful woman, too bad all that beauty covered a sinister and treacherous heart. But I won''t judge, I''m pretty sinister and treacherous myself. There were a few guards around her and the people who were still alive, a green barrier suddenly sprung to life around them, completely cutting them off from Morrigan and the rest of our team.


    (Master I can''t get into his head, it''s almost as if there''s some sort of block, he''s completely Arghhhhh!!!)


    "Arghhhhh!!!"


    I was so shocked, not just by the fact that Morrigan''s voice was just in my head, but by the painful scream she released after. She suddenly collapsed on the ground as her body began shaking and fronting at the mouth, almost as if she was undergoing a seizure or something. I turned to look at the seven foot tall, plane skinned bleached blonde man with the ability to create barriers. The glare in my eye would have set the entire ocean on fire if I was staring at it.


    "What the fuck did you do?" I asked him with undisguised malice.


    "Anton did not do anything to black woman! But Anton is going to kill you! Bad man that invades Anton''s home and kills Anton''s people. But first Anton is going to hurt you very much! And Anton is going to enjoy it very much!" he said to me as he took of the black suit he was wearing and dropped the guns on his body too, along with a rather nasty looking dagger.


    It was then I noticed that a sort of battleground had been formed around the two of us, the assault had already been carried out, however our targets were being protected by this brute of a man, to get to them I had to get rid of him, and everyone knew that I would only be satisfied if I was the one who kicked his large but well proportioned ass. I took of my suit and threw it to the side before removing the cuff links on my sleeves, then I proceeded to role them up, keeping my eyes on Anton who seemed contented to wait.


    "Well Anton, I have every intention of hurting you too, and by the time I''m don''t Anton is going to sound even more stupid than he already is, and then I''m going to kill Anton and chop him up into a million tiny pieces, piss on those pieces and then throw them into a fucking volcano!"


    "Anton doesn''t care what you do to Anton''s body. Dead is dead, and if you can take Anton''s life you puny common human, then I invite you to try and come battle with a god! Come Anton will teach you good lesson."


    Okay this guy''s way of speaking would be considered cute....if he was five, but he''s a grown man and it was irritating. Why the fuck would he referring to himself in the third person, but never the less I don''t care, I''m going to beat him, one way or another. But I seem to be feeling some sort of pressure/headache at the back of my head, and a weird feeling from my chest too. However there was no time to focus on that, I had to rip this overgrown Russian baby a new one.


    "Come on!"


    >>>>>


    NEZHA:


    Nezha was staring at the gates into the mansion, wondering how is it that Wade family barrier tech was actually being used to defend it. Heck even the wade''s family wolf motif was on the barrier generator that was just unhesitatingly placed on the top of their bloody gate. Were this people so retarded and without fear that they would challenge the Wade family like this, did they really think Aaron so weak, and even if it was just him, what about the rest of them, were they chopped liver.


    There was no way Nezha and the rest of team could go through the gate, somebody had to disable it from the other side, but everyone else was busy, and Nezha''s sharper than average hearing could hear the sounds of Hades and his team unleashing hell on the other entrance. The guards here on the other hand were smiling, seemingly happy enough to gloat at Nezha''s misfortune about not being able to get into the mansion and go on the killing spree he so desperately wanted to.


    Nezha didn''t like that, the element he could control was never known for being calm or collected. Even when it was seemingly a simple ember, fire would still brunch and leave nothing but ashes behind. Nezha scrunched up his face in anger as he took of running towards the gate, the remaining members of his team called out to him to calm down and slow down, but quite honestly the hot head was not in the mood to listen. Flames showed up on his body, burning off the simple bullet proof armor he had on and exposing the dark blue suit with red flaming phoenix designed on its back.


    Nezha took one massive leap and flames shot out from underneath his feet propelling him 25 feet into the air and way over the range of the gate. The guards who were on the other side had their mouth spread open in shock and fright at what they had just witnessed. But that wasn''t the end of it as Nezha sent a fireball flying from his hands that completely ruined the barrier generator. Then he landed with a massive explosion, releasing a shock wave of flames that burnt and blasted the four guards backwards.


    He didn''t give them a chance to recuperate as he moved to the first and stomped his feet down on his head, flames blasting out as his head was crushed and roasted to a crisp at the same time. One of the guards got up and made a run for it, clutching his burnt midriff as he stumbled away. The air around Nezha seemed vibrate as a spear made of fire appeared and shot towards the running guard. He didn''t even turn to look or pay attention to where the guard was running to, before facing the third guard who wanted to stand his ground.


    There was sound of something being pierced and a shrill scream follows quickly by a loud thud. Nezha ignored the sound as he sent a controlled blast of flames at the gun pointed at him. The guard dropped his gun and threw a kick at Nezha''s chest, the fire twin moved to the side and swung his entire arm towards the guards neck, fire blazing as he clotheslined his head of his body, his neck cauterized almost immediately.


    As for the fourth guard he was obviously in a dilemma as he didn''t know whether to run or fight, because obviously none would work against this murdering king of fire in front of him. His legs were shaking terribly as Nezha kept watch on him and sent a fireball blasting backwards that completely took the gate off it''s hinges and almost sent it crashing into his comrades.


    "Hey watch where you throw those things Nezha!" someone shouted at him. Nezha ignored and turned to the guard before smiling at him and saying.


    "The Wade barrier generator you have is just a pre first generation prototype, a little pressure, heat, or cold and it would completely fall apart. You guys got cheated, but then again it shouldn''t matter to you in the grand scheme of things, you''re already dead?"


    As soon as he finished speaking, the guard feel to the ground, a thin hole on his forehead and if someone looked closer they would be able to see a strand of hair. Nezha turned to look at the seventeen year old Asian kid that walked up towards him with a tooth pick in his mouth and his hands in his pocket.


    "You shouldn''t play with you kills big brother." The teenager said to him with a smile.


    "Coming from the illustrious and trouble making Monkey King, I doubt it matters when such a warning is coming from you." Nezha replied to the kid with a bland tone.


    (Arghhhhh!!!)


    A psychic scream tore through their minds, shaking them to the core. They recognized the voice almost immediately and without waiting for the others they ran towards the mansion, bloody murder in their minds. No one, absolutely no one was allowed to lay a hand on Morrigan, and whoever was so stupid as to hurt even a hair on her head would experience hell on earth, unfortunately they were both in for an intense shock.

 130 The Dark Prince Descends III : Currents In Moscow

    Anton and I were circling each other like a pair of wild wolves, each observing the other person and looking for an opening to attack. In the case of Anton, he''s a little mere relaxed than I was, which was understandable seeing as he had the ability to create barriers out of thin air, in fact a power of any sort would give him an edge over me regardless of how fast or strong I was, so quite frankly I had all of my attention on this fight.


    I moved forwards throwing a right hook that Anton dodged by taking a step back, the punch over extended me as my body was bent to one side and my shoulders were facing Anton. I pushed off the balls of my feet, only to unceremoniously slam into his green barrier, there was a dull thud as Anton was not even shaken a little bit. After I lost contact with the barrier, it pulsed for a second and then released a shockwave that pushed me backwards, making my feet skid across the tiled floor and releasing squeaking sounds in the process.


    This time Anton took the lead in attacking as he followed and sent a knee strike to my midriff, I dodged it and sent a left cross under his jaw, but the barrier intercepted my attack again, releasing another pulse wave that pushed me backwards three steps. And then Anton proceeded to slam his massive foot into my stomach, throwing me off my feet, on top of the table and across it to the other side where I landed along with a few dozen eating utensils.


    I couldn''t help but wheeze a bit, my breath seemingly escaping me and refusing to fill my lungs. This guy was just not powerful with his barriers, his strength was not something that can be underestimated. I raised my hands up and used the table to support myself, slowly getting back to my feet as my hands grabbed a pair of butter knives on the table. I had a suspicion about his ability, but I''m not exactly sure if it would work, but I had to get hit for me to find out, and that would definitely not be pleasant.


    I threw the knife at him, not at all shaken as it bounced of his shield again! I jumped over the table, and attacked with a flying knee strike, but Anton caught me from mid air, grabbing my keg as he proceeded to slam me into the ground, cracking and destroying the tiles beneath me as the move was hard enough that some of those tiles even cut me. Anton dragged me back up to my feet, his massive hands on my collar and around my neck as he reared back and in much the same way I''ve been doing in the game, slammed his forehead against mine.


    *Thud*


    My vision went white for a moment as my legs seemed to have lost power. I was dazed and very much stunned because I felt as if someone just smashed a brick on my head, heck even I don''t think a brick could cause this much damage to me. Anton''s head seemed to be made of some sort of iron plate or worse a metal block.


    *Thud!*


    God! That hurts, I''m sure it would leave a nasty bruise by tomorrow, assuming of course that I would be able to survive Anton and his massive head. But it''s now or never, I needed to focus! I needed to fight back! I could feel blood trickling down from my forehead and slowly covering my face, I was dazed and probably had a migraine, but there was no way I''m going to let Anton get the best of me.


    I pushed my head forward, using whatever strength I had left and slammed it into Anton''s approaching skull. Anton''s hands released my collar, and I fell back dazed, like a sack of potatoes. But even Anton didn''t fare any better as he took four shaky steps backwards and had to rely on the table for support. I shakily got back up to my feet, the air around me somehow become electrified as the sounds of crackling electricity seemed to sound out. Anton''s barrier seemed impenetrable at the moment, however he could not maintain the barrier around his body whenever he moves. Which is to say the only time he''s truly defenseless, is when he tries to attack me.


    With shaky and unsteady gaits I moved towards him only to run head first into a barrier, however the moment I met the barrier white electrical currents ran across it''s surface, making me surprised as I stepped back, and at the same moment I felt the change in my body. The currents danced over the surface of the barriers before disappearing into nothingness, I wasn''t the only one surprised by the sudden appearance of the electrical current, Anton was also confused. And in the process of doing so, I noticed his barrier faltering and I rushed forward with even more speed than I thought capable.


    *Crash!*


    His barrier was made of energy, but I released a crashing sound as I smashed through it and sent an uppercut at Anton''s jaw. However he seemed prepared as another barrier sprang up to life around him, either way, I had no intention of touching him as I pulled back my punch a bit and let my fist light graze the barrier.


    But it seems the shocks I would receive this night wasn''t yet over as a bolt of electricity cake out of my hand, smashed through the barrier and slammed into Anton carrying him off his feet almost five meters into the air, before sending him back down. Even though I was terribly surprised by the sudden turn of events, I wouldn''t let an opportunity pass me by as I made sure to catch Anton under his legs, hanging his body over my shoulders as I tilted my body backwards, directly over the metal dining table as I slammed him into it.


    *Bang!*


    Another blast of electricity seemed to escape from my body, delivering a mild shock to Anton who''s body vibrated under me, but that was not the end of it. My vision seemed to change, everything seemed slower, and Anton and everyone else within the dining hall was no longer made of flesh and blood, but rather of energy that seemed to gather in massive clusters within their brain, before moving down to their body, lighting up a brilliant path.


    I got up and blinked my eyes, and the somewhat x-ray vision disappeared and I was back on my feet looking at Anton with a perplexed look on my face that gradually turned into one of realization. To put it simply, I had just awakened my metal human abilities, and it seems to be something connected to electrical currents, or at the very least the one within the body of a living thing.


    I took a step back from Anton, hoping to clear my head, but even though I couldn''t see said currents anymore, I could feel it. And it wasn''t something as feeling the electrical currents in a human''s body, I could also understand their intent and reasons for moving, like I could read the currents in a person''s body just as easily as Morrigan might be able to read the currents in a person''s brain. I had a vague idea of what was going on, but I was still in the middle of a fight, and in that moment my senses were given me warnings.


    I quickly shifted to the right, moving really fast my body left a silver white glow behind. Electricity sparkled in between my fingers as I dodged the bullet from Anton, but it wasn''t over as he kept on squeezing the trigger. However I knew when, and how he was going to do it before he did. And so I stepped back, moved left, squatted and jumped to the sides as I dodged or rather evaded and got out of the path of his bullets before they were fired.


    *Click! Click! Click!*


    Seems Anton decided to give up on a fair fight the moment he realized that the rules of the game had changed. With me now displaying abilities, rather than finding out if my abilities were a counter to his, which quite frankly they''re not, he would rather just nip the problem In the bud and avoid an unforeseen developments. He jumped back up to his teeth, his dagger in his hand as he held it skillfully and advanced towards me with massive strides.


    Obviously he could not use his barrier to kill me, there was a lot of potential to his ability, at least I think so anyway; however he has not trained it enough, or it has grown strong enough to the point where he didn''t have to take a passive stance when he used it. And since he couldn''t rely on me or my people to exhaust ourselves against his barrier, it would be better if he killed me instead, besides I suspect it''s not so easy to keep barriers active for as long as he had, never the less he was making a big mistake, but far be it for me to tell him so, this was turning out just fine for me.


    He sliced down with his dagger, but I moved to the side and sent a jab to his throat the same instance he moved. He had good battle instincts as he stepped back and angled his blade, sending it stabbing to the side, directly towards my heart. But my left fist was faster and slammed into his jaw, pushing him back and making the knife lightly graze the button on my silk white shirt that was currently way more bloody than it originally was.


    Anton stepped back reeling from the lunch and probably the doze of electrical currents that went with it. I sent a kick to his side, but his barrier sprang up and a dull thud resounded as my leg hit it. But that wasn''t the end as I jumped up using my other leg as spring and gave a one footed drop kick against the chest of the approaching Anton, who immediately dropped his shield for a retaliatory attack.


    There was so much power behind the kick that Anton was sent blasting backwards, his body smashing through a few chairs and clipping his head on one of the legs of the metal table, causing it to shake and a plate of chicken to fall on his head. He quickly got back up to his feet, but before he could form his barrier, a flying knee strike from me, smashed into his nose and sent him reeling again, just in time for me to send a super kick under his jaw that forced him to sit back on his ass, his mind completely dazed.


    I moved behind him, wrapping my hands around his neck in an attempt to break it. But in that moment I felt all of the electrical currents within his body, the paths they follow was a whole lot more different than another people here. There was a fundamental truth to what I was experiencing in his body, as it seems as if the currents went through his body in a set pattern before moving back to his brain. And every time that current moved, I could feel the barrier covering Lamkova and the rest of her packets flickering just as dazed and weak as the person who created it.


    I think maybe what I was seeing wasn''t just electrical currents, for me it was just easier to perceive it as currents, since that was my own ability, and whatever it is, it had taken on a form similar to the electrical currents in our body. For lack of a better naming sense, I think I''m going to call it (META-CURRENTS). This was probably the energy or source of his abilities, and the fact that I could see it did not seem to be the end of my discovery. Relying solely on instinct, I closed my eyes.


    I could see everything within Anton''s body, the memories hidden within his DNA, and every move, twist and shift the META-CURRENTS in his body ever made. And then I took a deep breath, opening my eyes in the process as I began to draw that current into my body. I felt Anton stiffen as the nerves in his body seemed to light up with a green glow, then all of the light started rushing towards his skull. His body shook intensely, as a bloody red mist began to escape from his body and the nerves in his head lit up like a disco ball.


    The currents gushed into my body, intermingling and becoming a part of me, I could feel new cells being awakened inside of me as I for all intents and purpose, completely absorbed every last trace of Anton''s power. His previous healthy and massive form had shrunk as his skin became leathery, and the massive absorption of energy evaporated every single liquid within his body, until all that was left was a husk. The green glow over his head faded and I let go of Anton, and right before mine and everyone else''s eyes, Anton the barrier user, turned to dust.


    I''m pretty sure it was a jarring experience for the others, but it was an even more enlightening experience for me. Never in my life would I have expected such a thing to happen, but now that it did.....I was freaking terrified. But that was something I could deal with later, because right now! I still had some people to kill.

 131 The Dark Prince Descends IV : Sister In Moscow

    I felt full of energy and life, last as if I had just ingested a cocktail of drugs and energy drinks combined with a massive dozen of adrenaline. It felt really good, and I had this extreme urge to run around the entirety of Moscow naked and screaming at the top of my lungs, but seeing as I had an image to protect and lives to take, I had to maintain a the image of a mob boss that I had going on. I turned and looked at Lamkova and the rest of her people, these were the people who were at the top of the ladder for the Dragonovs and Vladimirs, they die and both families would become history.


    Of course this wasn''t all of them, I suspect there were others in other parts of the world, and I''ll probably hunt them down later, but for now I''ll just have to cut off the head of the snake. I''ll deal with the tail later. I dragged on of the chairs from the dining table and took a seat in front of them with my gun in my hand. They were still armed, and obviously they wouldn''t go down without a fight, but never the less they''re still going to go down, that''s one part of this story that''s inevitable.


    As I sat on the chair I couldn''t help but wince in pain a bit, I might be full of the brim with energy, but Anton was a meta human before me, he was stronger, maybe not faster, and he hit hard. Not to mention his barrier seemed capable of absorbing heats and dishing it back in those shock waves that knocked me on my ass too many times to count. I had cuts all over my body, and I had to wipe the blood on my forehead so that my vision wouldn''t be impaired. Tonight was way more intense than I imagined.


    "So Lamkova Dragonov, do you want to talk on your own free will, or do you want me to torture you instead? The thing is there''s no way you can get out of this alive, no way at all. But you can decided how you die, which is more than you deserve to be honest. So your death can be quick, or it can be painful, really painful. And seeing what happened to your dog Anton, I''m sure he was in a lot of pain before he turned to dust, not even leaving a body behind. So lady Lamkova, what would it be?"


    I''m not so sure I needed information from her, I already had a suspicion about who ordered the hit on me, but I had to be sure, or maybe I was still holding out hope that it wasn''t who I thought it was and there was some light at the end of the tunnel in front of me. Lamkova came over, and dragged a seat and placed in front of me. She was wearing a red dress that accentuated all of her curves and exposed way too much skin. On any other day, I would probably try my best to tap that ass, but today just wasn''t her day. She had green eyes, and they seemed to be glowing with an intensity and light that shouldn''t even be in the eye of someone about to die. She had an angle left to play, something that she knew would make me leave her alive. Well now I''m very much anticipating what she has to say.


    "Well the thing is Aaron I only tried to kill you because I wanted a share of my inheritance, a chance to be recognized by a father who though his dead only cared about you. So when your or rather should I say our big brother came to me with the plan to have the Wade family inheritance to ourselves, I just couldn''t resist little brother, after all I hated the fact that our father only had you in his eyes."


    Okay what the fuck was this bitch spouting, I don''t get it, not one bit. Nothing she said made sense, and she knew that I was confused, just as everyone around us was too. Even the people behind her were whispering amongst themselves as her words seemed to trigger a whole bunch of questions amongst them. Lamkova laughed and crossed her leg and leaned back on the chair and then she moved her hands to her eyes, pulling out contact lenses and exposed her very familiar blue eyes to the world.


    "It seems you precious Nanny still hasn''t told you the biggest secret of your life, I doubt Henry would say anything as that would mean he no longer has any power over you. Well allow me to clear your doubts, or rather I would tell you need to know on two conditions, and two conditions only." She said to me with her red lips cracking open in a sinister grin. Obviously I''ve taken the bait, and she had caught me, line, hook and sinker.


    "What conditions?" I asked her, placing both my hand guns on my lap where she could see them.


    "Number one is that not one member of the Vladimir and Dragonov bloodlines are to be left alive. They''re monsters, and the order to kill you was a collective decision between the head honchos in both families, which should be those two old rapists behind me, I''m just a figure head, a very pretty one, but a figure head none the less. And as for the second condition, I expect you to do right by me, do what our father and our brother couldn''t do for me and get me the fuck away from here, safe and alive, and free! How does that sound to you?"


    She still wasn''t making sense, she was tying to be intentionally vague, but some part of me knew what she was talking about. It wad hanging right at the forefront of my mind and my tongue, a big secret that would probably explain why he was such a shitty father and why my grandfather loved me just as much as he did, and why my mom had lived with him rather than on her own. I looked up at Lamkova, the familiar blue in her eyes were like a jarring confirmation of something else, because it was like I was looking into my grandfather''s eyes, my father''s (if he really is) my brothers eyes, my own eyes, and my son''s eyes. My heart sped up.


    "I can see it in your eyes, but I want your word, because right now my survival depends on it. And I know you, even more than you might even know yourself, you''re no different than he was, a man who would keep his word, whether he was saving a life or destroying one. He wouldn''t falter, he wouldn''t shake. So Aaron give me your word." There was no way I couldn''t give it, because if what she''s saying is true, then this was mg sister standing in front of me. Then a lot of things seemed to click in place and turning around I noticed my soldiers realized it too. Nuwa and Nezha came close with a teenager in tow that was introduced to me as The Monkey King. He said.


    "The entire op was a set up, she knew you would come for revenge and bring the best the Wade family has to offer. For a party attended by the big shots of two old crime families, the security was pretty lax, plus I just found out that this mansion was just bought about a three weeks ago, roughly just after the old boss was buried and you took over. That hit on you was sloppy and there was more than enough clues that made tracing it back to this place and to her, to the other more experienced families it made her seem incompetent and slow, but she was trying to get your attention. To kill the head of the Wade family, you would need a nuke or maybe ten, she didn''t have any of those. She really is your sister Master, you''re both have that sinister bone that has made the Wade family so fucking dangerous. I can''t believe we all got played!"


    That plot was obviously laid out in front of me, but I didn''t pay any attention to the signs. I let my emotion dictate my actions, I felt stupid and obviously I still have a lot to learn, but Lamkova was scary. She condemned no less than a hundred lives if not more just so that she could get to me and bring me here. She was just as ruthless as I am if not more, a snake.....one that I really didn''t need in my life, but one I couldn''t get rid of, she''s my sister.


    "You don''t have to say anything, though I would like a more detailed story, we can have that when we''re back in Los Angeles, with Nanny Florence around and a DNA test result in hand. But basically my father is my brother and my grandfather is my father right?" I asked her as I got up and holstered both my guns and stretched out a hand to her.


    She took it and said. "that''s way less eloquent and anticlimactic than I would have said it, but it''s true. So what now?" she asked me with her eyes right on mine.


    "I have to have breakfast with the president in the morning, Also we need to get Morrigan to a hospital or at least one of our secure facilities. I think she got hurt because of me, and as for the rest of these people. Nuwa find a way and hang their bodies on their gate, Nezha burn them all, and then reduce the mansion to cinders, however loot it first, just in case something good is in here. And then leave a calling card, let the world know who did this, and what would happen if anybody thinks it''s smart to fuck with me. As for you Lamkova, you better pray that you''re my sister, because if you''re not...¡­you''re going to look for death, but you won''t ever find it, for a very long time. Let''s go."


    >>>>>


    "Ahh! Mr. Aaron this is good tea no?"


    "Yes it is president Dobrov. I should take some of it with me as a Souvenir." I said to the president as I took a sip from the elaborate China cup in my hands.


    "I doubt there''s one as good as this in America or in Africa right?" I laughed out loud as I responded to him.


    "You seem so very adamant to prove Russia superiority on the drinking of tea. However all I can say is whether it''s Africa or America or even Russia. They have what makes them unique and beautiful and sets them aside from the others."


    "Hmmm well I can''t say that you''re wrong. But never the less thank you for your help with the Vladimirs and the Dragonovs. They have been a thorn in the side of the Russian government for years. But if the rumors are to be believe, you had inside help from a family member who brought all of the leaders in one place for you to take down. I must say the Wade family is quite thorough and ruthless, to have planted your own sister into that family for years, until she reached a level where she could bring the family down in one fell swoop. I''m afraid after today, the whole world would fear and hold your family in Awe. You truly are the dark prince of the Underworld, Mr. Wade. I salute your genius and your achievements."


    I shook my head with a small smile on my face, I took one final sip of the tea and placed it the china down before stretching my hands and giving the president a good and firm shake.


    "Thanks for having me president Dobrov, we should get together and do this again in the future. This time it would be my treat."


    "It would be my pleasure Mr. Wade, I look forward to our next meeting. Have a safe flight my friend." He said to me as he let go, I turned and got into the limo that was waiting for me, heading straight to a private airstrip outside the city.


    Coming to Moscow has been quite electrifying if I do say so myself, I''ve learnt a lot and truly, a dark prince had descended on this city, but this time it was no dark prince who was leaving this city, rather it was a Dark King. And the future never looked any brighter.

 132 Jonahs Whale, Olaf & Meta-Human Abilities

    I hate hospitals, their white paint, the stench of antiseptic, and the undeniable aura of death. But this wasn''t a hospital, this was just a research lab, in San-Francisco or rather under it. This was or rather is the underwater mobile base that served as a home and training ground to more than three thousand personnel of the Wade family. And it was affectionately coined; Jonah''s Whale.


    "Sir¡­..I mean Boss...I mean Master?...."


    "Aaron is fine." I answered the incredibly flustered doctor and his group of very nervous assistants and partners.


    "well sir I can''t tell you exactly how much of an honor and a privilege it is to see you, and not just because you''re the head honcho, but your genes and your ability is nothing short of amazing that in just one night, you took care of 10 if not 20 years of research, experimentation and applications. This is just so wonderful."


    Okay mad scientist alert, the man who was talking had introduced himself as Olaf, he''s the head researcher for not just Jonah''s Whale, but the other facilities spread allover the world. He was also in charge of running some tests on me and Morrigan, and as a bonus he took care of the DNA tests between me and Lamkova. It was unsurprisingly positive. I don''t really know how I was going to deal with that, so I''m choosing to burry it aside for now, I''ll deal with her and my former father now brother as soon as I''m done here.


    "How''s Morrigan, what do your tests say about what happened to her?" I asked him as I laid back on a bed, bandages allover my still aching body.


    "Right! Forgive me for not getting right to the point. Lady Morrigan will be fine, in fact more than fine she would be better than she was when she wakes up, her neural activity is off the charts. But I''m sure you want to know what happened to her? Of course you want to know! Silly me I''m such a klutz. Hehehe."


    This guy really was a mad scientist, though to be honest he doesn''t look the part, for one the dude is well built, tall, handsome and had tattoos! The ink on him were a lot, so much so I could see them peaking out of the edges of his lab coat, and on his neck and some parts of his face. The only science thing about him was probably his round glasses, it just made him look like some hunky Harry potter.


    "Morrigan''s ability is actually much like yours but fundamentally different. Anything that gives off a signal and information, she''s able to tap into it and for all intents and purposes hack or communicate with machines. We call that a technopath, however humans are also machines when you look at it from a certain angle. We give off our own signals, and it''s stronger amongst guys like yourself who have Meta-human abilities. Plus Morrigan''s ability works more on men than women, think of it like when animals give off pheromones, or when two magnets attract.


    Males being the opposite of females are more susceptible to her, well her charms Hehehe! But basically she finds it easier to telepathically communicate with men, than with women. So she tried doing the same with you, however your ability awakened at that moment and reacted violently to the intrusion. I would say you power created a firewall against and invading virus, and shot back with a virus of it''s own that left Lady Morrigan comatose and her electrical synapses in complete disarray. However you don''t have to worry too much sir, as her mind is currently fixing itself and strengthening her abilities by virtue of the electrical virus which is biological in every sense of the word. But the bottom line is she''s going to be fine and should be awake in anything from a week to a month at the maximum." Olaf said to me with a smile.


    That smile of his was intimidating, so far I''ve coasted by with my money and charisma, but quite honestly if we were somewhere else, this guy would get all the girls. He was too damn perfect and it annoyed the hell out of me, in fact I wanted him to get away from me as fast possible, but I''m pretty sure to him I''m a new shiny toy all wrapped up and ready to be played with.


    "Well as long as she''s going to be fine then I don''t have any problems with that. However please keep me posted in case there''s any change in her condition, I leave my personal line with you once I''m leaving, that way you can reach me anytime and anywhere. Plus I''ll be calling you and the rest of the researchers in a week, there''s a very important project I would want you guys to work on." I said to him as I stood up, ignoring the dull aches from my body.


    "That''s very gracious of you sir, I''ll make sure to try my best." He replied with a too happy tone, there was just this light in his eyes that made me really uncomfortable.


    "Right, so what did you find out about me, and my abilities?" the light in his eyes seemed to get brighter, and he actually clapped three times and bounced on his toes like a fiver year old, or a really demented clown.


    "Yes! Of course! I''m sure you and everyone would think that your ability is to manipulate the electrical currents in your body right? WRONG! Your true ability is practically to absorb and reproduce super powered cells, or rather Meta-human cells. Controlling electrical currents could be considered a bonus ability, or rather a medium for you true power to shine. At first you were only able to control the currents within your body, which we''ve all discovered is necessary for the activation of all Meta-abilities, which is to say that current activates and deactivates their power and carries a trace of their DNA, or rather their Meta cells.


    When Morrigan connected to you, a virtual or rather a psychic clone or representation of her Meta-cells were absorbed by you. But it''s not the real thing, so you didn''t get her full abilities or her exact abilities. What you got was the ability to see and feel the electrical currents or as you mentioned during your tests, the META-CURRENTS within the bodies of meta humans. You can also see and feel electrical currents in a normal human body, and remotely control and influence it, giving you a medium to, should you want in the future, absorb the abilities of other meta human, and restructure it to your own genetic make up''s interpretation of the ability."


    "...¡­.. I have no idea what all that means?" I said to him with a bland look on my face.


    "Basically it means your cells have become polymorphic in way that defies human understanding. They can rapidly replicate and all multiple layered for each ability you have. But as every human being is different, much like our DNA and facial structures, your cells when the absorb a new power and develop a new layer, would not fully replicate it, rather they would assimilate it into existing abilities and produce the absorbed power in a manner that would solely belong to you. Or in simpler terms, two people might have the same power, but the way it''s deployed and used would be different based on the fact that they''re two different people with two completely different DNA strands. Do you get it now?"


    "Yeah thanks Olaf, I do. But do you guys have a name for my ability yet, and do you know how I can keep track or use these powers I''ve absorbed?" I asked him.


    "We don''t know what to call your ability yet, we''re working on that, however we have a little piece of tech that''s still in development. It''s an augmented reality neural interface that can for the most part, play the part of a UI(user interface) HUD from virtual reality games in real life. We''re still working out the kinks, but when we''re done, phones, computers, walkie talkies, TVs, and headsets would be a thing of the past. It would be able to track things from blood pressure to blood sugar levels, properly outline a person''s physical capabilities and capacity and also growth in both mental attributes and physical ones, including knowledge. It would be a cheat for kids who need to write exams, but it also means that knowledge whenever they need it, would be right in front of their eyes. It''s going to be next big thing after Mic***oft! We''ll be freaking famous and rich boss!"


    I couldn''t help but be swept up in his enthusiasm as I laughed along with him, handsome, fit and as mad as this middle aged man seemed, he was a pure soul. It made me feel as if I was talking to an overly exuberant child. If he was this happy, and judging by the smiles of the other researchers behind him, so were they, then let''s give them something more to sink their teeth in.


    "Say Olaf!"


    "Yes Boss?"


    "What do you think when I ask you to put human clones, artificial intelligence and virtual reality neural interface in the same conversation?" at first he was confused as he furrowed his eyebrows and turned to his colleagues who looked just as perplexed as he was. And then a proverbial light bulb came on in his head and he turned to me.


    "OH. MY. GOD." I burst out into laughter as I placed my hand on his shoulders.


    "Come with me Olaf, there''s much we have to discuss."

 133 Virtual Reality Departmen

    I had to hurry back home without much time to move around Jonah''s Whale and know what it was truly all about, however even in my rush to meet up with the mayor of new York city for the opening of the new island park, I was unable to meet up, and my father or rather my brother had to take care of it. Plus I also received a call from Kira and Penny.


    While I was busy exterminating two of the oldest crime families in the world, they had went to the headquarters of my inherited real estate company and took care of some legal stuff that I was much too tired to pay attention to. With the arrangements they''ve made, they would be able to consolidate and properly manage the real estate business along with the rest of my shares in Imperium industries. But I had a meeting with her and Malia once I got back, though it wasn''t an official one, but rather a pitch from the virtual reality department. Obviously I will be having a very busy Saturday.


    Three hours later my private jet touched down in Los Angeles and I was quickly on my way to the company. I could just as easily pushed this meeting for later, but it was important, plus I really wanted my schedule next week to be clear as I focused more on the game, I haven''t really been able to progress as much as i wanted to. Plus with the rate things were going, I would need to change my pattern of game play and rethink this solo pirate captain stint. I might really need a guild to get things done, but there was no hurry, I can figure it out slowly.


    My arrival at the office was uneventful, I met Kira at the lounge and then we both went to the twentieth floor where the Virtual reality department was. We met Malia the moment we got there, she seemed to be really at home with her brown overalls, white sneakers and white turtle neck shirt, plus the glasses were quite fashionable. She was supposed to be in charge of restructuring the virtual reality department, so a budget was given to her for the employment of new programmers and software designers, young minds at the top of their fields and looking for a chance to prove themselves. Plus the budget also covered any future projects they might need to undertake, so it was quite a lot.


    As it stands due to a little meddling from my mother, the overall structure of the game can not be changed. It''s rules are set in stone and it was almost entirely running automatically, so I really wanted to know how they would circumvent that, to make a leeway for a tournament that''s not being sponsored and held by the game''s AIs.


    "Alright Malia, I came straight from the airport. I''m tired and my bones ache, even though the flight wasn''t that long. Regardless let me hear what you guys have and please make it brief or I might actually fall asleep halfway through." I said to her and the group of very nervous people standing behind her.


    "Alright! Well first things first we''re all really grateful for this opportunity that you''ve given us, it''s more than anyone ever gave us and we will try out best to make sure that we don''t let you down." I nodded my head in response to that as she continued speaking.


    "Well as a whole no programmer or game designer can implement any change or change the laws that govern lost descendants online, not unless they have the base control codes that were used to create it''s foundation in the first place.


    With those codes, we would be able to tear down and build anything back up within the game. But it''s been lost for a few years; as the last known person to have it was your mother. The other programmers and designers had small access codes to different areas that helped them keep the game fresh, but the update deleted those codes or made them obsolete and Ineffective, making Lost descendants online a game that ran and grew on it''s own, practically we could call it another world.


    However she left a back door, in the end lost descendants still needs to grow, and since there''s no prime AI in charge of generating any new contents, at least it has still not fully taken form yet as, we''ve discovered at least a 108 such artificial intelligence, growing and taking form. We suspect they would take the position of gods or cosmic beings within the game, changing and improving the game on their own. Either way until then, we have a backdoor to add new contents to the game, but only in small scales as that''s all it would allow. So we can only add small quests, and new species of monsters, anything else like new landmasses or planets, or a new AI is impossible. So we had to get really creative for this new event and tournament.


    So while we couldn''t make any big changes, to the game, we could per say make a bridge to another game, or rather trick the game into sharing a connection with another game, a skeleton or clone based and derived from it current composition. And as such susceptible to the laws of lost descendants online, but still under our control that we can shape it or rather allow the players and AIs to shape it into something great. But in this new world the developers are the gods, which means we can properly work within the limits of an official tournament. We can give rewards, set the rules and ban players, and also find a way to influence the main game, but it would be more like sending dignitaries into LDO and changing it, using diplomacy and trade. Basically creating an economy between both games.


    And since this new game or rather I should say virtual dimension is derived and framed from LDO, the parent game would probably recognize it as a part of itself, sharing codes and laws and in time we might be able to retrieve the base code for LDO and retake control of it."


    Well first of all that wasn''t the pitch for a tournament, rather they were telling me they were making another game? Or rather something of the sort that would probably share the same server with LDO, but would be more in our control giving us free access to shaping it. Of course it would be connected to LDO so both would influence each other, with the new game carrying our influences into LDO and vice versa. When you think about it differently, LDO was now a land of AI, but this new virtual dimension would be a land of players, and with both connected, the gaming experience for LDO would be at an all time high and extremely unique.


    The difference between AI and players would be more prevalent, it would be like earth coming in contact with an Alien planet. We can introduce our cultures and beliefs and have an equal exchange, rather than being players who conformed to traditions and culture created for the game. And with how intelligent the AIs are, this would probably advance their growth massively.


    "But still this was not the tournament I asked for" I said to Malia with a dull voice.


    I didn''t mean to come off as rude or unimpressed, but I just wanted to make sure that they kept their eyes on the prize and focus on what we need to happen. With all of the changes Imperium Industries would be going through in the coming months, we would need the tournament as a smokescreen for our foray into weapons manufacturing, biological cloning, and incorporation of the Wade family''s dark empire into a private and ''open'' operation. This tournament would give the public something to sink their teeth into.


    "We have a rough...but! Definite plan or rather plans for the tournament and this time we''re trying something different than the norm. Usually previous tournaments are based on ranking battles between players, and while we''re still going to use that system, it''s only going to be secondary to the primary theme of this tournament. The new virtual dimensional copy of LDO will serve as an uncharted and un-pioneered planet that players and also AIs from LDO would have to build into something.


    We will allow 100 people or rather 100 guilds with the territory creation order to choose a land and try to grow it from a settlement to a village, to a town, to a city and into a kingdom and then an empire. Basically it''s a kingdom building game and since territory orders are mostly within the hands of guilds, this would be a bloody competition between the guilds. This land already has races of its own, along with unique monsters, treasures, weapons, blueprints, dungeons and even an entirely different system. Everyone will start from level one and try to build a kingdom and improve their strength.


    There would only be 100 spots for the territory orders, so it would be a fight between a 100 guilds from allover the world. A battle royal ranking tournament would be held on the first four days of the tournament launch to determine the top 200 ranking. People on this list will receive special skills and legacies that would make them very important to the hundred guilds and improve their kingdoms and their rate of growth, though it''s quite possible for the guilds to have people in this ranking as the battle royals is for every interested player. Also it would be like a reality show, everything that happens within the settlements of the hundred guilds would be shown, within a secure streaming channel that would also be launched when the tournament begins or at least a few months to it, so that advertisement for the tournament would begin.


    The 100 guilds or lords with the territory order would fight each other for supremacy, resources and power. Deals would be made, political and business wise. Blood would be shed, people would be betrayed and wars would be fought, until the first kingdom is born, that person becomes the winner and advances to the second season where it would be kingdoms against kingdoms until an empire is born. And then....we just let the future take care of itself. We''re still working on the details, but so far this is what we''ve got on ground and we hope it''s not too bad. So what do you think?"


    "Two games for the price of one, and even then there''s so much intrigue and potential to it. What do I think? Well I think I like it, I like it very much. You guys should thoroughly work on the details, come Monday I''ll send a team of scientists who are working for me to develope a piece of augmented reality tech to you, I''m so you would all be able to collaborate properly, especially that streaming service of yours.


    It''s 2187 and yet our company doesn''t have a streaming service, that''s just dumb. Work on it and get me a proper visual presentation, I want to see what this world is like. What the races and cultures are like, and if I should give a suggestion, I would say you should fully pattern it after the cultures and traditions of Earth. You can add your own spin to it, but I would really love to see a village of samurais and an island of Vikings.


    I''ll come over later so that we can share more ideas and work on making it better. But for now, well done! You guys have left me impressed and really outdone yourselves this time, and since it''s your first time, I can''t imagine how you would top this In the future. But honestly though, what do you intend to call this tournament?" I asked them as I got to my feet. Malia looked at the others, but it looks like no answer was forthcoming.


    "We''re still working on it sir." She answered me with a small smile on her face.


    "Well take your time, and whatever it is, make sure it would be just as epic as i know this tournament and new world would be. You guys should have a good day, Malia? Please walk with me."

 135 Atlantis II : Talk, Pirates

    *Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!"


    To be honest I think Qitar is having a little too much fun blowing the pirate island to rubble. Using the Ion pulse canon would be overkill, and the turrets were more like tiny rain fall. Numerous and deadly, but not enough power to cause heavy damage, however the new guns mounted on the port and starboard side of the Acheron packed quite a punch. Every shot from them was leaving craters on the island, and Qitar was very much true to her sharpshooter persona.


    Every shot she squeezed out was hitting definite and recognized weak point on the island, more than a quarter of it had shaken off and sunk into the ocean below, and while I wanted us to be on our way so as not to attract anymore attention, I couldn''t deny her a chance to vent, and seeing as how everyone else was cheering her on, telling her to stop would probably get me killed.


    I shook my head and went into the ship with Sky in tow, she was bigger now, however it seems changing her size was something she could do. The first thing I noticed was the common area, Mack''s bar was still there, though it was bigger and a kitchen seems to have been added. There were tables at the edge, each with soft looking leather seats, and then sofas arranged around a massive table. Which used to be the place where holograms were once projected, seems that has changed.


    I moved through and went towards a set of stairs that would take me down to the cabin area where everyone else would sleep. I noticed a screen on the wall, and after five minutes of interacting with it, I realized there really wasn''t a need to move around. The screen needed access codes, but the codes were based on biometrics and already the recognized crew of the ship had theirs imputed. It gave me a full layout of the entire ship, and even had cameras placed In strategic places so that I could view what was happening on the ship.


    The screen was placed allover and could also serve as messaging system from one part of the ship to the next, plus it was connected to the Internet, which made it cool. Though that''s just an option available strictly to players, I doubt the AIs would even notice it. The hull was huge, it was kind of a place where we could store cargo, and it was even big enough to hold an extra vehicle or two, there were a pair jet skis...or something like that. Speaking of which I need an armory, I wonder what I have to do to get that.


    There were no cameras in my quarters though, and none in the cabin which means I have to go inspect it myself. However the cabin itself was the entire second floor, and it was now divided into a couple of rooms, there were about eight doors on each side. I''ve no idea how large those rooms are yet, but it was enough to hold the crew of this ship and then some.


    I left the panel and took the stairs down, I didn''t stop at the second floor but went down to the third. The hull was open to me and I could see those jet skis, however that was not my destination as there was a door with a one way window beside it. I walked into the room and almost had to blanche at the heavy scent of antiseptic, this fucking place smelled so much like a hospital or a lab. But since it''s the infirmary that much is to be expected.


    I ignored the rows of beds and went to the pair of stasis pods that were placed at the end of the room. It was surprising that there were two pods instead of one, seems like the ship had replicated the Pod jack was in, and left an extra one. Which was great, I heard these things are deadly expensive.


    Jack was just there, silently floating in a bubbling pool of water with a breathing mask over his face. To others it might seem as if he was just asleep, than at the very next second he would be able to open his eyes and be a part of the world he left behind, right now I wish he would just do that. But things can''t be that easy, not in real life, and definitely not in the game either, but at the very least in the game, you can make the impossible possible.


    "He''s going to be fine, we''ll find that priestess and settle everything once and for all. And then we''ll find an uncharted island kick back and relax and have fun. Because we really need a vacation, every second with you is so fucking! captain." Raven Song said to me as he stood beside me looking at the pod that held Jack.


    "Yeah we could use a small vacation." I answered back in agreement.


    "Well there''s something I need to talk to you about, so far I''ve just chosen to ignore what was happening, but I need answers. I know for sure that you''re a player, I understand that much and I believe that to be true, unless of course you''re an AI that''s somehow impersonating a player, but that would be impossible right?" He asked me as he turned to face me, a fierce look in his eyes.


    "Not impossible, it''s inevitable but we''ve not yet reached that stage. However I can guarantee that I''m fully human, hooked into a vr pod just like your are." I answered him as I turned to face him.


    "Great! That clears one thing, however even if we have to ignore how very real this game has become since it''s last update. There was already a high degree of realism ever since it''s inception, but after the update, things went from fantasy or fucking! Real! very, very, very fast! But as players we can deal with this much, it just means that the rush gained from playing games is heightened even more than it already is. However back in port Yurtek, that girl you fought.....I might not have been online on that day, but there were recordings of your battle on the ship, the sounds might have been intense with all of the destruction happening but I''ve been an Analyst for an intelligence agency for seven years of my life, I''m pretty sure the people who can read lips as good as I can in the entire world can be counted on one hand.


    What I could get from that fight told me one thing.....she''s your sister or at least wearing your sister''s face. But you were both very familiar with each other. No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn''t place my finger on it....Captain, what''s going on?"


    Raven Song is the only player on my crew, the things the others would accept as normal in this world would be something that raises flags for him, however flags were now raised in my head. An Analyst for an intelligence organization? And I was working with him! It''s hard not to be suspicious, however our meeting and subsequent team up has been based on chance and my own machinations. And the fact that he''s telling me he''s an analyst, effectively blowing his cover(if there ever was one) means he has no idea who I really am. But I won''t take a chance with this.


    But never the less, my sister or rather my niece was an issue I needed to tackle, and Raven needed an answer, just as much as I did. When it came to her, nothing seemed to make sense, and while I have half a mind to march up to Henry and demand an answer, I can''t expect to get it from him, not unless I''m hanging upside down from the top of a building...¡­.hmm, I think I''m gonna do just that.


    "I don''t know what''s going on Raven, there''s much I can''t tell you, but that girl really is my sister. Funny thing is she''s supposed to be dead, dead for about six if not seven years now. But then I met her, in a game, corrupted with some virus, or rather she is the virus, and her body is rotting somewhere else. I''m just as lost as you are, but as soon I get answers, real answers I''ll let you know." I said to him with a smile.


    "Look you don''t owe me anything, it was just weird and I tend to poke at things I find weird. Probably why I was recruited for the agency in the first place. None the less that''s just a side job, I''m a full time gamer anyway. But seriously though, we need that vacation!"


    "Hahahaha! Yeah Raven don''t worry, I''ll find a nice warm private beach where your dark elf skin can get even more darker than it already is. Maybe the black and purple will turn red?"


    "Now that''s just rude! But that would be a sight.....say do you think it''s possible for my skin to change color?"


    I turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Seriously?"


    >>>>>


    The Acheron cruised across the open ocean, the wind on her sails as we drew ever closer to our destination. For the past three hours; given how crowded the ship was, everything has been really lively. But before we head on to Atlantis we have to drop the Nereids off, which was our first stop anyway.


    The main city; the Atlantis of legends was still very much lost, or rather I should say hidden under the sea and only accessible to players and AIs of the aquatic race, and even then it would take a significant amount of reputation and clout to be able to visit it. But there were variations of it allover the Atlantic rim, there was the Ocean city of Atlantis, the Coral city of Atlantis, The Wave city of Atlantis, and then the Trident city of Atlantis; which was more of a holy land for aquatic races, and where we will find a home for the nereids.


    After that i believe our next destination would be the Ocean city of Atlantis. After the original city of Atlantis, it was the largest and is rumored to have a direct line to the real city of Atlantis. Either way after looking around and dropping the Nereids off, we will begin our search for the priestess from there, but since we''re heading to the Trident city, we will use that opportunity to find her.


    "Land Ho!"


    I heard someone shout as I shifted my gaze ahead. I could see an island in front of us, it was huge and from where we were I could see the statue of a man with a trident pointed in our direction. Almost immediately I felt the sword on my back vibrate in anticipation, it was weird! But I think this place was special to the sword and maybe.....the last piece was here.


    *BOOM!!*


    We weren''t even close enough but we could hear loud explosions coming from the island, something was wrong. And it wasn''t until we move forward a bit that we noticed smoke rising from one part of the island, and the sounds of an ongoing battle filled the air. I ran to the front of the ship and turned to look behind me.


    "Darke! Full speed ahead!"


    "Yes Captain!"


    (SEA SPRINT! ACTIVATED)


    I had to hold on to the edge of the ship, most of the people on the deck had to hunch down as the ship cut through the ocean, parting waves and winds it advanced towards the island. I could see ships, lots of them, and each of those ships were flying a flag, a skull with cross bones on it. Of course they were pirates, however the skull itself was that of a Dragon! And as we drew closer the smell of blood and smoke filled the air. And right in the water in front of us was the dead body of a dragon.....an elemental dragon! Shit!


    (SYSTEM ALERT: QUEST: you have witnessed the slain corpse of a juvenile ice dragon at the hands of a guild of pirates. your blood boils in rage as your calling demands you give justice to the young dragonling. Destroy them all and repel the attack on the island./ Reward: +1 level, this Title PIRATE HUNTER, one Augmented Racial trait.]


    "Shit!"


    "you bastards! How dare you! Dieeee!"


    "Goddammit Zareth! Hold on! Qitar! Battle stations! Get the guns ready, let''s wreck this party, and their faces!!"

 136 Atlantis III : Rage Of The Seas

    Zareth crouched down and then shot of into the sky, his diminutive body becoming nothing more than a speck in less than a second. We quickly drew close to the fleet of pirate ships that were assaulting the island. I gave Qitar a nod as the turrets came alive. The new guns had too short a range, so we have to move in close to fire, plus they were not as maneuverable as the turrets, and the pulse cannon was just overkill, not to mention we could take out the island if we use it. We have to move in close, and since the aim was to wipe them all out, we will have to end them all, thoroughly.


    "All none combatants get below deck immediately! Darke move her until she''s coming at them from the east. The island is to the north of us, we don''t want it caught in the blast range of the pulse cannon. Qitar focus fire on the exterior of their fleet, we''re right behind them, but that doesn''t mean they won''t be able to touch us. We need suppressive fire to be able to get in range. Raven! the starboard bow would be under intense fire! I would like to rely on the ship''s shield, but just in case be prepared to raise the bastion! Now move! It''s about to get really turbulent around here."


    (CALL OF THE OCEAN!)


    The sea below us began to roil and shake as I slammed the two pronged fork on the ground, having change it''s form already. The fork with it''s obviously missing middle prong that would have made it a complete trident glowed. There was even more power coming from it as it stood on it''s own and changed the ocean currents to help us move faster.


    The turrets began to shake as they opened fire on the fleet. Some of the ships at the rear were caught off guard and suffered a lot of damage with even a few blowing up under the intense and very accurate barrage of shots from Qitar. Just ten seconds in and we''ve caused a significant amount of damage, but it was just superficial as the ships on the periphery did not seem all that important.


    However they were already aware of our presence now, so it didn''t come as a surprise to me that a transparent black shield grew around the fleet, forming a massive dome that blocked and absorbed all of the strikes from the turrets. The damage from the turrets were not enough to even pierce the dome, and it was too wide spread.


    "Qitar the shots are two widespread and wild, can you focus fire on a single point while I try something?" I yelled at her as sea foam was sprayed over my body, the sea itself very disturbed by our movements and the power of the Ocean Scepter.


    There were hundreds of turrets allover the body of the ship, and since the starboard side was facing the fleet of pirate ships not all of them were facing the fleet, however it was still enough. Flashes of yellow light became pointed at a particular point in the barrier, smashing against it and raising a massive spray of sea water and steam, completely obscuring our vision of the dome and the fleet under it. After fifteen intense seconds of precision shooting, Qitar stopped, and it took another 20 seconds for the ocean winds to blow the fog of steam that had formed from Qitar''s assault. However much to our horror and surprise, the dome was still very much intact. And it was at this time our opponents decided to fight back.


    *BOOM!* a cannon ball exploded ten meters in front of me, blasting sea water into the air and causing a shockwave that threw me on my back. The pirates were working with guns similar to the newly mounted guns on the side of the ship, which means it had more power, shorter range and terrible aim, plus it also took a while to reload, but with how many of them were out there, obviously these guys won''t have to worry about that at all.


    *BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!*


    Raven moved forwards and raised his tower shield up, slamming it with a loud thud on the ship as an illusory image of a golden mountain showed up and covered the entire ship. Coupled with the energy shield of the ship which was immediately deployed by Darke as a secondary defense measure, we were able to withstand the barrage, but I knew it wouldn''t last. We have to get in position so that Qitar could use the pulse cannon and end this once and for all.


    I rolled forward grabbed the fork and crying out in righteous anger I raised it up and slammed it down on the ship. There was a loud clang, so deep and so pervasive in the way it made vibrations surge into your entire body. It made the entire battlefield fall silent as we all wondered or rather they wondered what it was I just did.


    The Acheron was still moving as fast as she could when Suddenly the Ocean began to rise up on it''s own. We were still trying to get into position as a tidal wave appeared, huge, massive and carrying with the fury of the seas. It was so large that the sun was blotted out, and a shadow was cast on our ship and on the dome covered fleets. We were on the other side so we really couldn''t see what was happening, but the moment the tidal wave began to move, we felt it.


    It carried the winds with it flapping the sails of the Acheron and bringing a chill that sunk deep into our bones and left us gasping for air. There was no stopping it, this was a force of nature and even in front of it I was so daunted and awe struck with amazement and fear that I felt my knees shake. I''ve done something like this before, when I first got the sea Sword, but now it''s the ocean scepter, not to mention that this place seemed special and important to the weapon itself. The power it brought to bear this time was too much, even for a game, this was beyond the realm of mortals and right into fucking godhood.


    *CRAAAAASSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH!!!*


    It fell down on the dome, bringing more than half of it down whilst smashing the ships in periphery to smithereens. A shockwave of ocean winds was released in every direction possible, my hair blown back as the chill in the air became even more powerful. More than half the ships within the fleet were destroyed, all that was left behind was crushed heaps of metal and wood, and along with it were the bodies, there were hundreds of them, it was a lot. But even still it was not enough.


    The central part of the fleet was still standing, the dome seemed to have shrunk itself until it was covering only a small portion of the ships, and with how extravagant and powerful looking the ships that survived were, I''ll say the people leading this assault were right there. I was shocked that they were able to withstand the power of the tidal wave, it was such a shocking achievement that my mind went blank for a second, and that''s when I heard the whistling, burning sound. I looked up.


    "I. AM. ZARETH!!!!"


    *BOOOOOOOM!*


    It was like dropping a meteor the size of a city on top of them, even though that meteor in this case, was nothing more than a 4 and a half foot dwarf with anger issues. A fiery shockwave was release from the point of impact, and it was so powerful that it set the very sea on fire. Whoever might have survived the tidal wave, well it was hard not to feel pity for them as dragon fire took over and rapidly scorched them until even their own mothers didn''t recognize them. Of the ships that had been able to survive the tidal wave, only three were left, and of those three, two were on fire and Zareth was on one of them fighting and killing.


    The central ship still had the dome covering it, but it was flickering, looking like the dying embers of a once glorious flame. Seems to me like the Ion pulse cannon would only be able to showcase it''s power another day. For now though we could take care of what''s left.


    "Darke full steam ahead! Head right for the enemy ships, Qitar shift primary assault to the Star dragon guns, make every shot count and bust that dome down. Also try to give me and Zareth some cover. Sky! Come on let''s go." I called out to sky as I spread my wings and took off, flying with Sky on my head, her helmet form activated. I have no idea why these guys were attacking, but a dragon was dead, and as far I''m concerned, the sentence.....is DEATH!

 137 Dragon Wars & The Trident City Of Atlantis I : Persephone

    I flew over the waters the fork trailing behind me and parting the sea, shots from the turrets flew past me intercepting shots from the enemy ships. Since the main ship still had that dome on it, we have to deal with it last, and to be honest it sort of worked well for me. At least this way I could slaughter my way through the two burning ships and leave the inhabitants of the main ship shaking and quaking in fear.


    I landed on the first ship startling the people on it who were slowly shifting the target to a rampaging Zareth on the other ship. I swept the two meter long fork over my head and slammed it into the chest of the person closest to me, he seems to be an orc. There was loud thud as he was blasted towards the port side of the ship, acting like a bowling ball as he took out most of his comrades. It was then I realized that of all the people here, more than 90% of them were players.


    (AREA OF SILENCE!)


    Spells and skills that were heading towards me completely fizzled out into nothing as the players and AIs opened their eyes in shock completely caught of guard by the current state of things. I quickly shifted the fork and hung it on my back as I shifted Sky back into her staff form and raised her up in a manner that was very much reminiscent of ancient wizards from media depictions of the last century. Heck I even wanted to say something cool with it.


    "YOU. SHALL. NOT. PASS!!!"


    (STELLAR FLARE!!)


    *DOOOOOM!


    It was like a Meteor or rather a star exploded, releasing a shockwave silver fire that spread in an epicenter. I had to close my eyes as the flash of light was so bright, that I could feel the burn, even with my eyes closed, the pained yells of the people on the ship was not helping matters either. The ship under my feet blasted to pieces, burning to ash before I could even say biscuit. I fell into the sea with a splash alongside wisps of silver flames that seemed to now be an extra effect of Sky''s skill. Which also came as a result of those extra skills from the weapons she devoured.


    I swam around and flew right up, spreading my wings as I took to the air, only to notice Zareth also in the air, flames glowing on the edge of the metal boots he was wearing. I reckon those weren''t a normal piece of equipment either, we both hovered in the air over the last remaining ship, like avenging dragon gods. And that''s when we felt a tug, two actually! One coming from the island and rapidly approaching us, and the other from the ship itself.


    The air seemed to have dropped a few degrees more than normal, Zareth and I turned towards the island, and that''s when we noticed a girl or woman with snow white diamond skin that glittered under the glare of the afternoon sun. Her hair was a startling shade of silver as she ran across the sea, every step she took left a trail of ice as her steps froze the sea solid. She got to me and Zareth in almost no time at all and then created a massive pillar that she raised under us. Zareth and I looked at each other as we both dropped down on it. Whoever and whatever this girl was, she''s a player.


    "I''m sorry I''m late, thank you so much for protecting the island in my stead. I was undergoing a little bit of training from the water dragon. I trust the both of you are also Avatars, just like me."


    She was so regal and calm, and cold, very cold. In my line of work it''s slowly becoming a habit that I don''t trust anyone I meet for the first time, however this game was weird, it wasn''t only affecting your sensory perceptions and making you a part of another world, even your feelings can be influenced to hate or feel comfortable around a person or object. Of course it doesn''t mean you can''t ignore such feelings if you want to, but it''s weird.


    "YOU!!!"


    At first I thought the angry tone of voice was directed at woman besides us, but when I looked at who was talking and saw the venomous look he was sending my way, I sort of understood what or who the angry tone of voice was for. I looked down at him and smiled as I sat down on the edge of the ice pillar, shifting Sky into her bow form. It was at that moment that the Acheron drew close coming to a stop right beside the enemy ship that actually dwarfed her, guns at the ready and engines running.


    "Well hello Hell Rain, it''s been a while since I''ve seen your sorry ass, three days has felt like three years! So what''s up man? You know what; don''t answer that. I''m sure you must have felt very frustrated recently, after all the last time we met, I sort of left you in pieces, lot''s of pieces. Want to try for round two?" I asked him with a lazy yet wild grin on my face.


    "Who do you think you are? The might and power of the Dragon God guild is not something you can trifle with. You''re just one player, and even she won''t be able to help you, much less the NPC besides you. You guys are nothing within the grand scheme of things, there''s already a ridiculous bounty on your head for killing me before, what do you think will happen if you do it again. We have no quarrel with you Aa Seven, so just hop on your little ship and sail away!"


    I wish I knew and understood why he was here, honestly it''s not as if he was wrong about me just being one man. The support he had behind himself, both player base and game base was beyond ridiculous and they would drown and suffocate me before I even get a chance to throw the first punch. Aaron Wade has a only been able to get as far as he has because there was a literal army of fighters and geniuses supporting him from the shadows. Aa Seven just has a few crew members, but then again that can change.


    How hard can it possibly be to build up a considerable force that would rival the Dragon guild which has been in power for quite a few years. My mind tells me it''s going to be really hard, but I believe I can take a short cut anyway. Regardless that was something for the future, right now I just have to deal with this insufferable prick.


    "Hell Rain you poor, poor boy. First of all let''s get something straight, I''m not a good guy, I''m not a bad guy, I''m just a guy you''re not supposed to threaten, because when you do shit like that my fingers itch a lot and I get the uncontrollable urge to deep fry all you miserable bitches from the Dragon God Guild to a tender crisp.


    Now to be honest I don''t give a shit about the island, it means nothing to me, but there''s a dead dragon in this waters, a dragon you idiots fucking murdered. I''m bound by honor and duty to rip out your rib cage and then stab it into your ass hole for doing that, which is what I''m going to fucking do! Right after I''m done with my monologue.


    So you claim your guild is the most powerful, top of the ranks and all that. You know I''m the top ranking player too, top of the level. And just how did you think I got there, do I look normal to you....Aish! Why am I talking so damn much, Zareth! Qitar! Let''s Fuck this guy up some more."


    Zareth shot off the ice pillar, his lance ablaze with flames that were actually bright yellow and gold. Looks like his flames has leveled up or something. The diamond ice chick beside me(I really wonder what sort of race she was) raised her hands and began to chant, massive silvery blue and white spell circles coming to life above our heads and spinning slowly.


    *BOOM! BOOOM! BOOOOM!!!*


    Qitar unhesitatingly opened fire on the ship using the powerful mounted guns who''s power at such a close range was beyond ridiculously destructive. Every time it''s energy balls slammed into the shield, it released a shockwave as the shield itself shook under the assault. Zareth''s lance slammed into the shield releasing yellowish gold flames that covered much of the shields circumference.


    He held on for a while, trying to pierce through when a canon ball slammed into his body and threw backwards onto the sails of the Acheron which surprisingly bundle itself up to wrap around and slow him down. However a point blank shot from a cannon ball on a ship that big would probably leave more than a dozen bones in my body broken, the fact that he was just looking a little dazed was a miracle in and out of itself.


    The temperature around us dropped even more as the seas began to freeze over and the spell circle above our head lit up and angled itself towards Hell Rain and his ship. The diamond skinned ice woman besides me rose up into the air, floating as her eyes glowed an eerie white and a transparent dragon began coming out of the spell circles, soon it was followed by another and another until there were dozens of them.


    (ICE AGE DRAGON ART: DANCE OF A THOUSAND SNOWFLAKES!)


    Well that doesn''t look like a thousand snowflakes, however that was probably because the skill was still at a somewhat low level. The glass like ice dragons were each about two meters long, and there was about maybe fifty or more of them circling around her body in a really fast and intense manner, so much so that it was a little hard to see her from behind them.


    *BOOOOOOOM!!*


    A gun spat out fire and steel from the enemy ship towards me and the ice queen floating above my head. It had barely reached anywhere when the Illusory form of a golden mountain came to life not just over the ship, but also above me and the woman. Looks like Raven has leveled up this skill quite a bit. The cannon ball slammed into the shield and blew it apart, however the mountain had slowed the momentum of the cannon ball, and it was just enough for me to wave a hand aside, creating a pillar of water that swallowed the cannon ball and sent it flying right back at their shield.


    "GO!"


    Her calm voice could either soothe you or leave your feeling chills deep within the depths of your bones. The ice dragons rushed forwards and actually moved into the shield without it even hindering it one bit. My eyes widened in shock at what I just saw, this must be one of those skills that could actually ignore defense, and you''re telling me there''s supposed to be a thousand of those dragons....what the fuck! why didn''t I get a skill like that from Zephyr! That''s so not fair.


    Everywhere the ice dragon passed, things were frozen or smashed. The crew members aboard the ship were running every which way as frost began to spread across the ship, and at the moment it met any one of them, they would be frozen solid, becoming a statue of ice that gleamed under the sunlight. This skill was freezing everything, even the shield itself was also being frozen.


    "Fuck you Seven! And fuck you too Persephone You ice cold bitch! You think this is over! In just under twenty minutes an army bigger than this and led by someone who can actually shift into his dragon form would be on his way here, and he''s going to fuck you both up! You won''t be able to fight him, just like me you''ve both used your dragon form within the past three days, and I know you will need another five days before you can shift, until then you and that fucking island! and all those disgusting evil elemental dragonling nursery you''re secretly protecting would burn to the ground. Mark my words! Under the wrath of the Dragon God guild, you both will burn, hahahahah¡­..hack! Haaaccck!! Haaaaaccck!!!"


    I don''t know what an arrow to the throat feels like, but that''s definitely what it sounds like, plus I''m sure the pain must be out of this world. Hell Rain was hunched over on his knees, blood spilling out of his throat in soft rivulets with my arrow sticking out of both sides of his neck. The ice reached him, freezing him in seconds and even his red blood was frozen in mid air too.


    In front of me was a ship and it''s crew completely frozen, all the way down to the core. It was a rather terrifying way to die, but it was beautiful if I do say so myself. I wonder if Nuwa can do something like this, it would be really cool if she could, maybe she might even be able to freeze an entire city....maybe not.


    "Shatter!"


    *CHIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!*


    The whole thing shattered into a million pieces leaving nothing behind but tiny snow flakes. I guess the word deadly and beautiful properly describes this Persephone woman. Zareth jumped back up to the ice pillar and looked at me and asked.


    "So what now?" however it was Persephone who answered him.


    "We get ready for WAR!!!"

 138 Dragon Wars & The Trident City Of Atlantis II : Hercanilion

    We made port on the island in a hurry, and just as we did so we were sieged on all sides by a variety of water based races. There were Sahagins pointing tridents to our faces, sirens with rather nasty looking daggers, and mermaids or at least I think they''re mermaids considering they''re walking on two legs, but have shell necklaces and bras(so that''s actually a thing.)


    "Please these are friends of ours, it was their help and intervention that saved us, let''s be more hospitable." Persephone said to the massive crowd.


    They''re were just being careful, but obviously I could see they really didn''t have any sort of ill will against us. The crowd slowly parted to the side letting someone or rather something come through. It wasn''t until it reached us that we realized what we were looking at. A dragon, more specifically an eastern dragon that was more snake like than lizard. She had shiny blue scales and white whiskers that flickered around me and my crew, almost as if she was looking through us and unearthing our secrets.


    "It is a joyous day that we''re all able to stand in the presence of the dragon avatars of wind and fire. With your presence here I believe I and my people will be safe. My name is Hercanilion....but you can just call me Herca."


    Ignoring the fact that an almost hundred foot long water dragon was talking to me, I looked around the people gathered here, counting them to be about 600 or there about, but that shouldn''t be possible. For an island this big there should at least be thousands of inhabitants on it.


    "Is this all of you, or are there more hiding somewhere? Those guys are still coming back and we need all the help we can get." I Said to her as I moved closer. Maybe I should have been nicer and engaged in small talk a little bit more, or at the very least introduced myself to her. But there was a fucking countdown above my head, and it showed me I had just 18 minutes before the dragon god guild comes and burns everything in their path.


    "How dare you speak to the high priestess in such a manner!" someone who I suspect to be a Naiad said as she pointed a rather nasty looking harpoon at my chest. Qitar responded by raising her sniper rifle up, Mack waved his staff as water began to swirl around him, and Darke had his dual elven swords out and ready to cut through anyone who made a move on me.


    I can''t say that I''m not touched by how fiercely protective of me they are, but this was no time for violence. "Come on guys, you don''t need to worry about that. Stand down, we don''t have the time to be fighting amongst ourselves."


    "He is right, please disciples lower your weapons, it is unbecoming to point them at our saviors. And seeing as he outranks me, both in the eyes of the gods and by virtue of my race, I say he has earned the right to talk in such a manner with me. He carries the power of the sea with him, and that''s all we need to survive." Herca said as she flew up above both mine and Zareth''s head.


    "Please all three of you should follow me, we don''t have time, but there''s something you should see and things you must know."


    She flew swiftly Inland, Zareth and I gave each other a look before we both took to the air and followed behind her. Persephone followed a little ways behind, surfing on a cloud of ice that was constantly being released from her hands. She reminded me so much of Ice-Man from the X-men. He was my favorite...at least until they made him gay. We followed Herca for close to three minutes, but given how fast we were flying, I would say we had covered quite the distance.


    We came to a stop above a temple, there were statues of five gods placed in a circular position, with an altar in the middle. There was a dagger of sorts floating above the altar, and the moment I saw it, the fork on my back began to vibrate and shake in anticipation. It was a weirdly shaped dagger, but it looked very much like the missing middle prong of the trident.


    "I''m sure you three already know that in the world today, any dragons except the sin dragons or as they''re know to everyone else the virtue dragons, are evil. Which of course is not the case as we elemental dragons just want to be left alone. All we''ve ever pursued was knowledge and balance, and after the war with the ancestral dragons imprisoned; the rest of us scattered to the four corners of the universe. Hiding and biding our time until when the sparks of the next war would be ignited, or so we have hoped.


    My job as it has been the responsibility of every high priestess for the past 2000 years, is to look after the next generation of elemental dragons. The nursery beneath this temple has over seven thousand eggs, a thousand each from every elemental dragon. However the most important of these Seven thousand eggs are the eggs of the spirit elemental dragons. Because it is from any one of these eggs that we hope the ancestral spirit dragon would be reborn.


    You all might be surprised and you would probably swear that you saw the spirit dragon when you first met the other dragons. However she had fallen during the first dragon war, she sacrificed herself so that we all could escape and leave a way for the other dragons to find their avatars. The spirit dragon is also known as the dragon of magic, which makes her descendants very valuable.


    There was once a hundred such nurseries, but this is the last of them, over the years and quite recently too, the sin dragons, their followers and their avatars have corrupted and destroyed them all.


    The sin dragons can''t make a move on their own, doing so would alert other forces to the fact that the future of the elemental dragon race laid in stasis under this Island. They intend to capture and enslave the unhatched dragons, or destroy them all if they can''t get to them. And this can only be done by their avatars, which means this is a war only you three and the remaining three avatars will be able to fight.


    Ultimately whether or not we''re able to win the upcoming fight, the unhatched dragons are no longer safe here. Yes you will have to fight, but after this or even during the fight all three of you must find a way to leave here with all of them, and find them a safe place to hatch. And you must do it quickly, because the moment you leave here with them, the spell that has kept them in stasis will vanish, and they''ll be ready to be born into the world, it will up to you three to protect and teach them.


    But none the less I believe we will win the fight, because it is quite surprising to me that you, a child of the wind would obtain the blessing of the seas and the recognition of the gods who govern the sea. The ocean scepter, the symbol of divine royalty and domain over the seas, and the ultimate shield of protection lays in your hands. How did you do it?"


    I looked up at Herca very much surprised by the severity of the situation that I just so randomly found myself in. I shrugged my shoulders as I answered her. " I really don''t know, it just seems like something has been blowing and leading me right to this place with the trident in hand. It almost seems like¡­.."


    "Fate." Herca completed for me and I gave her a nod in agreement. "That trident is not a weapon, the fact that you''ve been using it as one makes me feel no small amount of shame, however I can''t blame you as it chose to let you use it that way by even creating a sword form and skills to follow. However what it truly does is control the seas, protect a city or kingdom and give it the blessing of the gods of the seas. It is time to finally reunite and complete it and unleash it''s true power."


    Just as she finished speaking, the trident flew out of my hands, and the last piece placed on top of the altar went up into the air and joined, fully completing the trio of prongs, making it a full trident. A flash of blue and green lights was released off the form of the trident and shot into the sky, exposing a sprawling constellation that I didn''t recognize. The five statues seemed to suddenly come alive and their hands was pointed to the trident, and suddenly the middle prong turned gold, stretching down to cover the middle of the trident all the way to it''s base. And then the remaining two prongs took on a glossy black color that looked like the very depths of the sea itself, making the trident a striped version of black, gold and black.


    The trident dropped down right in the middle of the altar and released a piercing gold and black glow that spread across the entire island, creating a dome that completely covered and isolated it from the rest of the world. Right in front of our eyes, fog began to spread across the ocean surrounding the island and whirlpools were suddenly born as the scent of a storm brewed on the horizon.


    "Oh great gods! On this blessed day of both sorrow and great joy, your servant has received your edict and your servant shall obey."


    So I didn''t notice it, but the 100 feet long dragon was now an old woman with glowing eyes, the energy that was currently wafting of her body was so intense that I had to take a step back, and cover my eyes at the intense glow. Then a light shot towards me, Zareth and Persephone, catching all three of us off guard as my armor seemed to rapidly heat up and burn me in all but a second. The pain was intense for just that second, but after that a cool feeling poured through me, filling me with energy.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: You have received the life energy of a water dragon. Your dragon transformation skill has left it''s cool down, and from now on it''s cool down has been reduced to 20 hours. Your armor has received the skill water form, besides the skill air form. You have gained the heart of water, you can now control the water element.}


    "Ganga the Faithful, Poseidon the Earthshaker, Yemoja the River mother, Susanoo the slayer of serpents, Njord the protector of sailors. I have done my duty and I have served with great faith and fervor, loyalty to you and my race has driven my entire existence. Alas today has finally come...¡­..I am ready to come home."


    Right in front of our eyes, we could see Hercanilion''s form shift back into a dragon, and then turn into water. We could see through her, but the main part of it was that she was glowing, and the hands of the statues within the temple were pointed at her. Then she turned to us and spoke what I suspect to be her final words.


    "go below the temple and retrieve the egg seed, it holds all seven thousand unhatched dragons. It is up to you three to protect them and find them a home within the next five months, because that''s when they''ll hatch. Honestly even if the remaining avatars join you, all six of you can''t do it alone, you need to search for help.


    The Trident city of Atlantis can no longer be above ground, you have to use the power of the trident and sink it. It''s the only way the others would be safe once you''re gone, in fact you''re to do it as soon as possible. The Trident will follow it''s new master, so it can''t be left here to protect the Island, only the embrace of the sea can do so. And as for you son of the skies and seas, you can no longer use the Trident as a weapon. It commands the sea and will bless your voyage and ship and your lands should you have any, though I advice you to have one near the ocean. But from this day hence it would not be able to attack, rather it would be a symbol of your power, a true scepter of nobility befitting one chosen by the gods.


    I''m sure you have no idea when or how you were chosen, but I believe the moment you fell into this world you were welcomed and blessed by the sea and loved by the wind. Know that you''re not watched by the sea alone, but also by the skies. But to be fair to you, the boons the trident gives you will not fade, but the gods will not want you defenseless so they will bestow you a weapon. However understand something, your position is unique, you''re not just bound by duty to the dragons, but also to the gods. I pray you do not find yourself in a position where you would have to choose a side.


    Protect the future of the elemental dragon race, it is up to you now, all three of you. Failure is not an option."


    And then she exploded, literally. There was a shockwave of light that spread across the sky and blinded everyone who could see it for all of five seconds. And when the light faded away, there was a sword; a katana laid on top of the altar, it was sheathed in a glossy grey sheath that seemed to have snake skin like patterns. But before I could fully inspect it, a screen popped up.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: BLESSING: You have been blessed by the god of the seas and storms Susanoo No Mikoto, you have received the legendary blade: KUSANAGI NO TSURUGI!}


    "Oh shit!"

 139 Dragon Wars & The Trident City Of Atlantis III : Egg Seed, Bats And A Kraken

    Ocean Scepter (Trident Of The Sea){🔱 Okeanó Skíptro 🔱} / Grade: Legendary/ Hidden Grade: Divine/ Requirements: Acknowledgment Of The Gods Of The Sea.]


    [+ 0% to attack speed and damage, +150 to intelligence, wisdom and constitution. +300% resistance against water elemental attacks, +300% water element damage(using skills and abilities without the trident as a direct form of attack).]


    [Skill (1): Call Of Water: gain the ability to control any ocean or water sources in it''s entirety for 1 Day. From the currents, tides, waves, the creatures, and even the wind that blows and the storms that rage. All shall bow and fall to your command. (Cost 500 MP) (cool down 10 days) /


    Skill (2): Ice Age: create a world of ice and snow and have full command over it''s entirety to defend, slow or attack./Cost 800MP/ Cool down: 30 hours/ it is possible to use this skill to permanently change the terrain and weather of an environment. Requires MP, an altar and temple to sustain.


    Skill (3): Blessing Of Voyage: +85% speed to all ships under your command, +75% to all sea trade, +100% defense against storms and monsters at sea


    Skill (4): Summon: Gods Of The Sea: Summon the five grand gods of the sea to defend, attack or teach. Duration of summon is equivalent to the total sum of your wisdom and intelligence multiplied by ×5(cost 2000MP) (cool down 25 Days)


    (Bound to captain Aá Seven of the Acheron''s Glory)


    When Herca told me I couldn''t use the trident to attack, I thought she meant in every aspect. However I now realized she meant directly, plus if what she says is true and the trident is meant to be a tool that protects, it would be wise to place it somewhere on the ship, and once the tournament starts and that new land or dimension is opened, I would be able to have a territory that would bring out the full power of the trident.


    {Kusanagi No Tsurugi/Grade: Legendary: Hidden Grade: Growth/ Level: 1/ Requirements: Acknowledgement Of Susanoo No Mikoto, God Of The Sea And Storms.} (Bound To Captain Aá Seven Of The Acheron''s Glory)


    [Attack: 1~5/ Attack Speed: 1MPS/ +1% to all sword related skills, +1% to all water and wind skills.] [All skills locked until appropriate level is reached.]


    Oh fuck no! What the heck! How am I supposed to use this! It was just so weak. Isn''t a legendary sword supposed to be all powerful, but now I''ve been given a level 1 weapon. Of course the attack speed was normal, a meter a second was way too normal and the damage was trashy. But it was only level 1, but that''s exactly what''s wrong with it, why was it a growth type legendary weapon and why should it be level 1, it''s a legendary weapon for Christ sakes.


    But it seems I''m not getting another weapon, but it was good none the less, better nothing. The Trident was floating above the altar, still releasing it''s black and green glow, I picked up the Katana from the altar and equipped it. It appeared on my side, I had to adjust the quiver behind my waist and move it to my back just like every other normal archer. I was really bummed about not getting an ultimate legendary sword, but this was just fine, at least it will get stronger.


    *Ka-cha! Clang!*


    The moment I picked up the Katana, there was a loud sound as gears shifted and a set of stairs appeared around the altar leading into the mountain this temple was built on. Persephone came to stand beside me with Zareth in tow as we looked into the darkness below.


    "I have to go and get everyone ready, I think the moment you try to take the trident the Island will sink. I''ll get all of the races sorted out and your crew back on your ship, the both of you should get the dragons. And please hurry up, we''re almost out of time." Then she jumped off the edge of the temple ice blasting from her palms and feet as she flew towards the edge of the island where we had docked.


    "Come on Zareth." I said as we went down the stairs.


    However the moment we went down the stairs, it closed up above us, talk about spooky. It was quite dark, but Zareth was a dwarf and I was part dragon and elf, so moving around in the dark wasn''t that much of a problem for us, however this place gave off feelings like those of dungeon, but since there''s been no system alert, I''m not so sure it was one. But nonetheless it doesn''t hurt to be careful, so as to avoid any sort of surprises.


    I already had sky in her bow form, so I knocked an arrow just to be safe. Zareth had his lance close, and the red glow on it was more than enough to dimly Illuminate the stair well we currently descending. However when we spent the first three minutes going down and realized that the stairs weren''t coming to an end, we had to pick up speed, going from a brisk pace to a full out run. We continued that way until the stairs came to an abruptly stop and we came up into a cavern.


    But the moment we stepped in, a bat like monster opened it''s jaw wide and went straight for my face. With how sudden it''s appearance was, I wasn''t able to properly defend myself, but Zareth took action immediately and stabbed his lance through it''s open mouth, setting the overly large bat on fire as it screeched it''s way to fiery end. I gave Zareth a nod of thanks and turned back to face the cavern that for all intents and purposes seems to be an underground lake.


    There was just a small land bridge that led to a small island in the middle of the cavern, and on that island was another altar with a rainbow egg that was glowing softly. And it''s glow was slowly increasing, filling the cavern with kaleidoscope of rainbow lights, it was like a disco ball. That was probably the egg seed, however the light from it also revealed certain things to me.


    First of all it was the fact that the lake was pure black, like ink, and that the roof of the cavern had hundreds if not thousands of all those bats who just tried to take a bite out of my pretty face. I turned to look at Zareth who in turn also looked at me. Against dozens of humanoid beings we would be unstable, but a horde of blood sucking bats, and god knows what might even be in that bloody lake we''re completely out matched, Hercanilion must have forgotten to mention about the ridiculous pets she was keeping within this bloody cavern.


    "Ye have to go get the young''uns." Zareth said to me with a straight face, I looked back at him indignantly as I asked.


    "Why the fuck does it have to be me? You''re a dragon avatar just like me!" I half yelled half whispered at him.


    "You''re faster, plus ye''re also the leader, so ye have to lead the charge. Ye lead by example no?" he said to me with that same straight face, it was taking all I had not to punch the jerk in the face, which I''m sure will feel real nice.


    "Well I don''t want to be the leader anymore, aren''t you the fire dragon? Everyone thinks fire is the cooler and more powerful element anyway, so you be the leader." I said to him with my hands folded.


    "Ye and I both know that''s a lie, fire can not exist without air, but air can exist Without fire. Go get the egg seed, I''ll cover ye." And with the tone of voice he just used, I knew this case was closed. I groaned as I held Sky tighter and crouched a bit. "I''m going to regret this, Ye and I my ass. AI STORM DANCE!!"


    *FWOOSH!!*


    The land bridge was almost a kilometer long, which meant it was quite a distance away from me and Zareth. But I crossed that distance in three seconds and placed my hand on the egg seed. That was just when the inhabitants of the cavern realized that someone was trying to steal their precious treasure.


    (Can not be placed in Inventory! Can not be placed in Inventory!!)


    What the fuck! I looked at the egg seed that was about the size of a basket ball and cursed at it. It''s also quite heavy, which meant my speed would be a lot slower and I would have to fight with just one arm. Damn it! I ordered sky to shift to her staff form, looks like I would just have to rely on magic to get out of here.


    (MANA ARROW!)


    Four silver blue flaming arrows shot out of the staff and smacked into the dense cloud of bats diving from the cavern roof. The mana arrows exploded on impact causing a small shockwave that spread to the other bats and forced them to break formation.


    (You have dealt critical damage to GOLEM BLOOD SUCKING CAVE BAT level 35)


    (You have Slain GOLEM BLOOD SUCKING CAVE BAT! (0.8% EXP)


    What the heck these things gave a shit ton of exp, and there was a lot of them. I ran across the land bride, shooting Mana arrows and keeping the bats off me, Zareth was also helping as he was sending fireballs after fireballs from his lance, causing more disarray within the ranks of the bats. I was already close to the end of the land bridge when I felt something grab my ankle and pulled. I fell down; smacking my head on the ground as the egg seed rolled out of my grasp, and almost in slow motion and right in front of my eyes too, happily rolled off the edge of the land bridge and feel into the black ink like lake.


    "Nooooooo!"


    Honestly I wasn''t sure who was shouting at the time, whether it was me or Zareth, but none the less there was no time to waste. I tucked my wings and jumped right into the black water. Though it seemed like ink, it wasn''t, it was just water that was black and felt weird on my body, plus it smelled weird. Even with my night vision I couldn''t see through the water, I looked left and right hoping to find even a single trace of the egg seed''s rainbow glow, and then.


    *Wham!*


    (You have been attacked by BLACK WATER CAVE GOLEM KRAKEN! -50HP)


    *Smack!* (-111HP)


    The second hit actually threw me out of the water and into the air, right into the cloud of bats that were happy about the new prey as the grabbed and scratched at me.


    "DRAGON BREATH!"


    I heard Zareth call out as a stream of flames actually came out of his mouth, scorching the horde of bats and sending many of them well cooked into the black waters below. I flapped my wings and shot downwards with as much speed as I could muster back into the water. I went in with a plop and let my momentum drag me down until I met the lake bed which seemed to be just about 10 to 15 meters deep. I grabbed Sky''s staff form tightly about to use a skill only for something to slam into my chest.


    (-300HP)


    I was sent flying through the lake; the water offering no resistance until I hit my back against the rock wall that served as the boundary for it. Whatever air was stuck in my lungs were pushed out as I couldn''t help but cry out in pain. I landed on my butt, the soft mud of the lake giving way under me. I couldn''t see what was attacking me, but I had to do something before...


    "Gargh!!!"


    I felt something grab my ankles and my pull me through the lake, dragging my body across the lake bed and making sure I hit every obstacle there was. My armor was doing well keeping me alive, I''m sure if it was any other armor I would have been dead the moment I received the first hit. And then I felt my self raised up, and just in time too as I was able to notice the rainbow glow of the egg seed, and the colossal jaws heading straight for me body. Shit!


    "STELLAR FLARE!!!!!"


    I didn''t need to shout out the skill, but I was panicked and it helped me focus. A blast of silver flame like energy spread out across the entire lake, illuminating it''s murky waters and showing me the giant squid like monstrosity I was fighting. I guess that''s to be expected, it does have Kraken in it''s name. The flare slammed into the Kraken, setting it''s massive body on fire, burning through it''s skin and exposing the metal bones underneath. My eyes widened, but I guess that explains the golem part too.


    But it was not just the Kraken alone that caught on fire, even the Lake itself was lit ablaze, it was as if I was in a world of silver flames and everything was bright and burning. I noticed the egg on the lake bed, resting on top of a golden chest, with a sliver one not too far away from it. Hah! What were the odds, guess that weird Providence thing was still in play. Ignoring the still burning Kraken I quickly swam towards the egg, grabbed it and unceremoniously placed both chests into my inventory.


    Then I swam up, taking my time as the weight of the egg was making ascending a little bit difficult. I was just about four meters away from the top of the lake when all of the flames disappeared and the Kraken stopped screaming in pain. And seeing as I didn''t receive a system alert that it was dead, then that means.


    *Guurrrroooooooooaaaaaaarrrrrrr!!!*


    "Oh! Fuck my life!"

 140 Dragon Wars & The Trident City Of Atlantis IV : Sinking, Theysre Here

    Zareth was single mindedly blasting the golem cave bats from the sky, when all of a sudden the black lake exploded outwards. Large vestiges of the black body of water flew into the air and served as a deterent to many of the bats, as flying becomes infinitely more difficult if your wings are wet. However this was not the focus as a figure clad in wind and lightning rushed towards Zareth screaming like the world was about to end. Of course that figure is me.


    "Run Zareth Run!!"


    That sounded familiar, but I didn''t have time to remember where I might have heard that from. I turned back to look at the massive tentacle following me, and shuddered as I remembered the feeling of those things grabbing me. But what really unsettled me was the level of the bloody monster, at the moment it was the only thing that was showing above it''s head in bright red letters, as if to warn any player who would be stupid enough to tango with it as this stage.


    (Level 150)


    Injuring it the first time was mostly due to luck and the fact that Sky as a weapon was quite superior and had access to unique abilities that would put a dent even on the strongest metal....provided I''m strong enough to utilize it. I shifted Sky into her helmet form as running with her staff form and the egg seed wasn''t doing wonders for my speed.


    Zareth turned around and went up the stairs, but I caught and overtook the dwarf, seemingly not caring about his welfare as I ran with all my might towards the entrance of the stairwell that led back to the temple above. I turned back to look, only for Zareth to zoom past me, his metal boots on fire as they left a blazing trail in their wake. My storm dance skill just went into cool down, if not there''s no way he would have been able to move past me like that.


    Anyway it wasn''t the issue of Zareth moving past me that worried me, it was the horde of bats right behind him, and the two massive tentacles following as well. These monsters really don''t want us leaving with this egg, which was too bad for them, because I''m not leaving it behind either. I turned back, ignoring everything behind me and placed all my focus on escaping this place.


    My thighs burned with exhaustion as even with all my strength and stamina, the rate with which I was going up these stairs was beyond insane. Half a minute later I saw Zareth at the end of the stair well or rather the beginning; trying to break through the stone slab that seemed to have blocked and trapped us down here. As I got closer the egg flashed and there was a dull rumble as the slab began to slide to the side, only it was in a painfully slow manner, and both Zareth and I would be nothing but corpses by the time it was fully open.


    "Get Out Of The Way!" I shouted at Zareth as I inclined my head, much in the manner you would expect an elephant to do when it wants to use it''s tusk to attack. My head was aiming at the still opening slab, and I had every intention of ramming into it. (STORM DANCE!) Wind and lightning gathered around my body as my speed and attack increased exponentially and I shot towards the slab. (LUNAR STRIKE!!)


    *BOOOOM!*


    The slab blasted outwards, sending rubble and fragments of concrete flying into the air. My vision went blank for a moment as I crashed on top of the altar, dislodging the trident in the process.


    My head was ringing and my sights were swimming with a variety of colors while it seemed as if every sound I was hearing was amplified. Thankfully my dazed state didn''t last very long and I came out of it just in time to evade a bat that had dive-bombed me. Seems these particular breed of bats don''t fear the sun as much(which should be expected, they''re golems after all.)


    I picked the trident up, and at the same time I felt the island begin to shake and rumble, Zareth was in the sky, his boots trailing fire as he went wild on the two massive tentacles that stretched out of the hole in the ground (formerly the stairwell to the nursery.) I bent my head and frowned as the claws of one of the bats scrapped across my helmet raising sparks. I placed the trident on my back, right Besides my quiver as I turned, pulling the Katana out in one fluid motion.


    (LIGHTNING BLADE!)


    One of the bats fell in half, both sides moving past me as I turned to look up at Zareth. The wind was picking up, and the rumbling of the island was getting more and more obvious, so much so that getting a stable footing was a little bit too hard. A system message rose up, but I ignored it as I flapped my wings and took to the air, cutting through another cave bat. But right at that moment, a flaming ball flew right over our head and smashed into one of the statues.


    A blue light rose up and defended the statue, but I quickly noticed that there were more and more of those fire balls coming towards us. Zareth also noticed as he ignored the tentacles and swiped his lance sideways, creating a wave of fire that intercepted the incoming fireballs and destroyed them midflight. One of the fireballs survived, but rather than hit any other structure, it heavily smacked into the black tentacles with red suckers currently approaching Zareth from behind. I sliced the Katana in my hand just as an ungodly screech filled the air and the tentacles quickly retracted back into the ground.


    "The Dragon god guild is here." Zareth said to me as he came to hover by my side, a casual swipe of his destroying a pair of bats. I looked back at him with a dull look and replied "obviously."


    "The island is sinking too slow, they''ll destroy it before even ten meters of it gets into the water." Zareth said to me as we watched the massive fleet of enemy ships heading towards the island.


    "That''s a real problem.....go over there and buy me some time. Create a big distraction, just enough for me to get the Acheron into position. We''ll hold them off while the island sinks, it should give them more time and prevent it''s destruction." I said to Zareth.


    "But what if they have submarines?" he asked me with a worried tone in their voice.


    "then that''s their funeral, even I am not so stupid as to fight hundreds of aquatic individuals, under water. That''s suicide, even if you have a submarine. Plus with or without the trident, the island has really good defenses. And the trident''s call of the ocean, or rather call of water skill is still active. The island will be fine, we just have to take the fight to them." I said to him as I flapped my wings and went straight towards the shore, with Zareth blazing past me, flames coming out from under his boots like the bottom of a rocket.


    The bats were hot on our heels as I headed for the shore while Zareth made a beeline for the players of the Dragon god guild. The bats tried to keep up, but with each second that passed, I drew farther and farther away from them, until they finally decided to turn back. At this point I had already reached the shore, which was currently under attack from a small team of players.


    I noticed that there were quite a few people on the Acheron too, keeping Qitar occupied and preventing her from properly utilizing the ship''s arsenal to get rid of them. I shifted Sky back into her bow form and sheathed the Katana, I made my perch on top of a street lamp and then started taking the players out, aiming for those who were unprotected around their head area.


    *feeew! Thud! Feew! Thud! Feew feew feew! Thud, thud, THUD!*


    By the time they realized what was going on, five of them had already fallen, and enough of them were off Qitar that she was able to bring the full fire power of the Acheron to bear. After that five seconds was just too much for her to use in getting rid of them as the turrets spat out fire and death with extreme prejudice.


    I landed in the midst of the other races, right beside Persephone who swiftly stabbed a pair of ice daggers into the skull of the final player. I turned to the people around and said.


    "The island is sinking, just like your high priestess entrusted us, it''s new home would be the bottom of the sea. It would keep you guys safe from the incursion of the dragon god guild, however with the bombardment the island is currently experiencing, it might not even survive long enough to get half way submerged. But don''t worry, the crew of the Acheron will keep them off you for as long as we can, and if you encounter an underwater assault, I expect you to use the resources at your disposal and fight!" Then I turned to Nereid elder, who''s family and younger generation I''ve brought here all the way from the Jitusat ocean.


    "Old man this is goodbye. I hope you and the kids would be able to have a much more safer and fruitful life within the sea. It should feel more like home to you guys than hanging around the surface with the constant threat of death." I said to him as I took his weathered blue bony hands in mine.


    "You''re a good man Captain A¨¢ Seven, no matter what the universe says, you will forever remain the great benefactor of the Nereids of Njord. I''m sure some day very soon, our valiant lord would reward you greatly. May the wind be ever in your sails young captain, and may the blood of your enemies fill your cups. Go do what you need to do, and the blessings of Njord be with you."


    As soon as he finished speaking, I gave him a kind smile as I flapped my wings and landed on the deck of the Acheron. I turned to look at Persephone who was also saying her good byes. It stands to reason that she was also going to be coming with us, she''s a dragon Avatar too anyway. I turned and saw Dinah poking her head out of the ship''s interior, even with flames flying over our head I walked to her and asked.


    "What''s the most secure area of the ship?"


    "That would be the engine room captain." I then thrust the egg seed into her hands and said. "keep this there, and make sure no one gets to it. It''s worth a hundred of our lives." Maybe there was no need to be so dramatic, but I couldn''t help myself, and she knew it too as she gave me a raised eyebrow and said. "Seriously?"


    "Just keep it there Dinah! Please." I begged her.


    "Alright fine! I will, you don''t have to be so glum about it. By the way where''s Zareth?" she asked, when suddenly¡­.


    *ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!*


    I pointed my fingers up at the massive red dragon that was spewing fire over the ocean and scorching ships and players to cinders. Dinah had her mouth opened wide in shock, but a little push from me helped her close it as I directed her back into the ship. While Zareth turning into a dragon was a surprising turn of events, I sort of suspected it for quite a while anyway.


    I turned and watched as Persephone got on top of the ship and walked towards me with a serious look on her face. Honestly I don''t think the look had changed since we met, almost as if it was frozen to her face, so this was the legendary ice cold beauty.....neat.


    "Darke full speed ahead against those fleets, Qitar all guns at the ready and please oh please! Charge up the Ion fucking! Pulse Cannon and BLOW! THOSE! FUCKING! FFUCKER! TO! THY! KINGDOM! COME!!!"

 141 Dragon Wars & The Trident City Of Atlantis V : So It Begins

    (SEA SPRINT ACTIVATED)


    I''m not under the illusion that the Acheron was the most powerful ship on the seas right now, heck I''m sure it''s really weak, but one thing I do know is my ship owns a weapon of starship level damage. And that was more than enough to put an exclamation point in any battle that we might find ourselves fighting within the confines of a planet''s oceans. However there''s always someone or something stronger, especially for the dragon god guild who''s players have even more resources and assets than I currently do. But none the less, this was a fight that I''m going to make sure none of them ever forget for a very long time to come.


    *Boom! Boom! Boom! Pew pew, pew, pew, pew!*


    The mounted guns and the turrets focused fire on the two vanguard ships that were approaching the island. It was a detachment from the main fleet, or rather an attempt to escape by some as Zareth had more then scorched a significant part of the fleet reducing them to cinders. This fleet was bigger than last, and the ships much larger, however it was able to deploy a shield that was even more powerful than the last one, and for the past three minutes, Zareth has been trying to break through it, but with no luck.


    I watched him bank to the left, evading the bullets, fireballs, lightning strikes and shots from the ships guns that were trying to bring him down. The hail of fire he was receiving was much too thick that he could do naught but evade. But that was just as good, he''s to draw their attention while the rest of us get ready. The two ships approaching us blew up just after five seconds of focused barrage from the guns and turrets. The ship itself was vibrating, so I knew it was only a matter of time before the Cannon finished charging, but until them...¡­


    "Captain! We just lost 2% of our ship''s basic energy shield''s integrity!" Darke yelled to me.


    "What! How? We''ve not taken any hits so far, is there structural damage anywhere?" I asked him as I moved close to him, looking at the holographic radar that was hanging over his steering wheel.


    "There are some structural damage, but it was sustained in the last two minutes, and based on what''s showing up on the radar there are multiple unidentified organisms under ship. At first I though they were just fishes trying to escape the carnage, but it seems...¡­"


    "Damn it Darke! You''re supposed to be smarter than this. Slow down and weigh anchor, we should be close enough for the Canon to cause some serious damage. Focus on buffering our defense, I''ll go check out what''s nipping at our heels. Qitar how much longer until the Cannon fires?" "2 minutes captain!" she replied just as she used the turrets to blast a massive flaming boulder out of the sky.


    Seriously this was a sea battle, why does it seem as if these dragon god guild guys are using siege weapons like catapults to fight. I can''t really see them from behind their cozy little shield, but this suspicion of mine might actually be true. But nevertheless we''ll deal with them soon enough, they have just less than two minutes any way.


    "Raven Song! Zack! Mack! Keep your eyes peeled for aerial assaults, at this point it wouldn''t be wise to think that our enemies won''t try anything. See you guys in two minutes!"


    I could have used the still active power of the Trident, however I''m not so willing to expose a trump card at the beginning of a fight. The idea was to let the Ion pulse cannon cause as much damage as possible, and then use the trident''s power to start another assault, hopefully giving the cannon a chance to charge up another shot. I was aiming to make every move of mine as overkill as possible, these guys might have many more tricks up their sleeves, and I would very much like cover my bases...¡­just in case things go south. Besides I''m just waiting for the island to sink, before I take this battle to a battle field that would favor me even more than it already does.


    *Splash!*


    I dived into the water, drawing my wings close to my body as I reached the bottom of the ship. Just as I suspected, there were quite a few players there causing problems. They had on oxygen masks, though most of them seemed to be of an aquatic race so breathing underwater wasn''t that much of a problem for them. They were currently throwing every attack they could and setting charges against the Acheron''s shield, hoping to blow it up enough and reduce the power of the shield.


    Now even though this was just our primary method of defense, and we still had a more powerful shield that''s not been deployed, I rather not take any chances. We need every form of defense for the fight ahead. I narrowed my eyes just as a scared little sea horse swam past me, time to try something crazy. "Hey stop!"


    "Yeyyesss sir?......wwhat can I do for you?" the little aquatic creature squeaked at me.


    "I need you to get me some help, all the creatures of the sea that can fight, tell them he who holds the ocean Scepter summons them, that the master of the trident calls them to arms in defense of the temples of the sea gods. Can you do that?" I really hope he can, but it won''t make any difference anyway, this was just an experiment.


    But maybe this was too much of a stretch, the sea horse however had the most human expressions I''ve ever seen. It''s eyes widened in shock and it even bowed it''s head as an obvious look of excitement was etched over it''s face.


    "Yes sir....I mean master! I''ll get you all of the best help this stretch of the ocean has to offer, you can count on meeehihihihi!" and then he shot off into the gloom of the ocean, hopefully to go get help, he seemed a little too hyperactive to be taken seriously. None the less you can never have to much help, I just pray he doesn''t get eaten.


    (AREA OF SILENCE!) (STORM DANCE!) (LIGHTNING BLADE!)


    Sure I could have used Sky''s staff form to cause a significant amount of damage to these players. But we''re deep under an ocean, composed of salt water, plus I wanted to see if there was a way for me to level up this Katana of mine.


    (You Have Caused 500 Lightning Element Damage To Dragon God Guild Member)


    (You Have Caused 700 Lightning Element Damage To Dragon God Guild Member)


    (You Have Caused 300 Lightning Element Damage To Dragon God Guild Member)


    Lightning danced around the ocean, coming not just from the sword in my hand, but also from the natural field on my body that came as a result of the storm dance skill. Maybe it didn''t take their lives immediately, well some of them anyway, but it caused constant damage to those that remained, constantly draining them of at least a 150hp every second.


    I took advantage of that, some of the players were paralyzed from the shock of the lightning, I swept my katana over the neck of one of the players, easily relieving him of his head, and I turned and bifurcated another one, taking his entire left shoulder off his body, and slicing down deep enough that I split his heart in two.


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    (The Kusanagi has leveled up! Absorb more souls and essence of living sentient beings to increase it''s rate of growth.)


    Well that explains a lot, guess the KUSANAGI needs player exp or their souls(i think) to level up. Movement was really stiff for a lot of the players, and quite frankly I was moving too fast underwater for them, the augmented racial trait (swim bladder) not only let me talk to fish, it made me super fast and more in control of my body. I pierced the sword into the forehead of another player, and then covered my body with my wings as one of the players shot a grenade launcher at me that pushed me backwards and left my ears ringing a bit after it exploded.


    (Sustained -70 HP damage.) That barely made a dent, and given the rate of my Regeneration per second (+170hp) I dare say that was barely a pinch. I shot towards the player, twirling in the water as I dodged another of his grenade and even having my wings slap one of them away in the process. I got close enough and sliced the Kusanagi upwards, the water didn''t offer any resistance as the sword moved really fast, slicing under the players jaw, upwards through his face and out the top of his skull. Blood and brain matter filled the water darkening my vision a bit.


    Suddenly there was a dull hum above my head and I could see trails of light, like veins under the Acheron. The Ion Pulse cannon was ready to fire, and I was right under the ship. I really don''t want to know what would happen if I was still here when Qitar pulled the trigger. Using my wings for extra leverage, I flapped my way out of the ocean, landing just on the crows nest as Qitar shot the cannon.


    *BOOOM!*

 142 Dragon Wars & The Trident City Of Atlantis VI : Neron & The Red Fin Shark Army!

    *HOOOONNNGGGG!!!*


    The massive beam of silver and blue energy flew across the ocean, destroying every ship within it''s sight, all the way down to the very last atom.


    All of the ships outside of the shield were destroyed, there wasn''t even scrap metal left in the wake of the cannon as it smashed into the shield and ripped through it like it was nothing more than just common paper. Zareth flew higher into the air so as to avoid getting hit by the beam, but the shockwave was so strong that he was pushed back, his flight completely out of control.


    As for me who had stupidly thought himself safe on the crows nest, I was thrown backwards, winds buffeting me as my wings couldn''t catch on. I was able to see flames cover the ocean as more than 60% of the ships within the shield succumbed to the power of the cannon and were wiped out from existence, a little under 5% sustained heavy damage and were out of the fight for good. As for the shield, there was now a big hole in it, and quite a lot of cracks over what remained.


    *splash!*


    I fell right back into the water again, this time my back slapped against it and I couldn''t help but cry out in pain as my wings got twisted and maybe broken. To be honest I''ve lost count of how many times these wings of mine have gotten injured, they''re Honestly the most fragile part of my body. But I should be fine, I had a ridiculous rate of regeneration whenever I was somewhere filled with nature, and it doesn''t get as natural as the ocean.


    (+130hp) (+170hp) (+30hp)


    My bones realigned themselves with loud pops that I could even hear from underwater, I raised my eyes and almost screamed out loud in fear at the rows upon rows of sharp teeth that was now in front of me. And it wasn''t just one, there were hundreds of theses rows of teeth, and they all belonged to sharks as big as an SUV, maybe more like an RV. The sea horse I had sent to get help popped above the head of an RV sized shark, which now that I noticed was larger than the rest of his mates.


    "I got help from the most powerful dungeon boss in the area! He was the only one with enough balls.....errr eggs? To come help you fight. His name is Neron."


    {NERON(NAMED BOSS)/GRADE: HEAVEN/HIDDEN GRADE:N/A /LEVEL: 450}


    Neron was a blue shark with streaks of red on his side, the fin on his back was fully red, and it seemed to be a racial characteristics for him and his group. To be honest I don''t really have the fondest memories of sharks, the first time I logged into the game, I almost became shark food, if not for extreme luck in finding a bag of fire rubies on the raft where I found Sky, I would have been shark food.


    "You are the chosen of the five prime gods of the sea are you not? I can feel the power of the ocean scepter coming off you." Neron said to me as his big yellow eyes the size of bowls stared at me.


    "I am." I replied, trying to sound as cool as possible.


    "Then I and my kin will fight for you and defend the temples. Come along captain, let''s ride." He said as he moved to the side and waited for me to get on his back. I have no idea how he knew my name, it''s spooky as fuck, but never the less I was riding a big ass shark into battle, I have to make sure the entrance was worthy of this kind of epic turn of events.


    {SYSTEM ALERT:PARTY: Red Fin Shark Emperor''s Army Have Joined Your Crew/Party(Temporarily) +100% To Water Element Resistance For All Crew Members, +60% To Water Element Damage.}


    Wow! I never knew that a crew or party received buffs based on the members that were a part of it. I seriously need to research more about lost descendants online, though it wasn''t exactly my fault, this world had become more than just a game to me, and even though it''s actually one, I''ve sort of stopped treating it like it is. Neron moved forward, and as he did so I pulled the trident from my back and thrust if forward.


    A shockwave came from it and seemed to spread across the entire ocean, and then I felt a vibration, almost like a feedback, like the sea was talking right back at me. The water around us began to bubble as the currents changed, and we rose to the surface, the entire ocean itself moving along, or rather we moved with it. just like before a tidal wave surged, moving so high into the sky the very sun itself was blotted out and darkness fell across the face of the ocean.


    This was over a hundred meters if not a hundred and fifty meters tall, and I really couldn''t count how wide it was. And right as the wave crested, hanging over the heads of the dragon god guild members, I and my new friends appeared right on top of it, and for all intents and purposes...¡­..we were riding the wave.


    "Charrrrrggggggggeeeeee!"


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    The wind rushed past my hair, flapping my armored coat, which now that I think about it, was more like a long coat with scales and intricate designs than a real armor. But none the less I''m sure I must have looked cool, I hope I do. But that''s besides the point, because right now, I''m about to go on a killing spree. The wave hung high in the air, standing still, something that was naturally impossible for a wave to do. Then I pointed the trident towards the enemy ship, and just like that the wave continued forwards and fell, like the hands of a Titan blotting out the sky in divine watery judgment.


    >>>>>>>


    "Oh my God! Guild leader Io! What do we do! We can''t defend against that wave, guild leader Hell Rain''s report was not accurate." A stocky dwarf player with golden armor said to a female player with red hair and serpentine yellow eyes.


    The woman identified as Io was nothing short of an absolute beauty, but right now that beauty had a frown marred on her face as she looked on at the colossal force of nature, literally hanging over her head like a hangman''s rope. To say she was not shaken would be a lie, she also knew only a legendary weapon could summon this much power, which should mean that at the very least one part of Hell Rain''s report was true.


    But it was not as if the guild did not have legendary weapons of it''s own, but they''re the absolute treasures of the guild, and were kept in a secure vault only to be used when the guild faced danger or had to take care of a serious threat. By the time they found out their opponents had a legendary weapon in play, it was already too late to go back to the guild and get a weapon to counter it.


    Io wasn''t scared of the player with the legendary weapon, in her humble opinion, he was too showy, to extravagant and he stuck his nose in other people''s businesses. The red dragon flying above that wave should have been the elemental avatar Hell Rain had spoken about, but he looked a lot different from the descriptions, he was also larger. But since the player had been said to use both earth and fire skills in a lava AOE DOT spell, and an earthquake control skill. Io suspected he might be able to change into the form of multiple elemental avatars, but nonetheless she was still going to kill him. The sin dragons were not weak against any particular elements, rather the elements were weak against them.


    "Boran retract the shield and focus defense on the main flag ship." Io ordered with a curt tone.


    "But Guild leader, our remaining ships would be without any sort of defense, that 200 of our best warships! It cost us a lot to move them onto New Gaia, and even more to build them merging magic and technology. Plus not to mention our players! After the update the penalty for death has reduced to just a level and some skill mastery lost, but it''s extremely hard to raise a level now, plus each and every single one of them would be able to feel how they died! Is there no other way!" Boran pleaded with his guild leader, his stocky build shaking in fear at the thought of dying by drowning or even worse, under the jaws of those sharks hanging on the wave.


    However Io did not seem willing to change her mind. It was not as if she was unfeeling to the plight of her second in command, or the very real psychological danger and scarring that was associated with dying within LDO. But she had no choice but to be practical, the power of the Dragon god guild was absolute not because of the amount of players they had, but because of the sheer battle prowess of the nine guild leaders. And she was one of the most dangerous if not the most dangerous of them all.


    It was sad, but she had to be objective about this battle. They came here Ill prepared and with an incomplete set of information. Just one tiny ship had enough fire power to wipe out an entire Armada of ships, heck she wasn''t even sure if two or even three Armadas would be able to survive the power of an Ion Pulse Cannon. She was quite familiar with it as the flag starships of the guild always had at most three of them mounted, but even then it can only be used in the most extreme of cases, as it requires too much energy and way too much time to charge.


    But here it was on a medium sized sea faring vessel, and it was able to charge and fire the cannon within just five minutes if entering a battle, and yet still move about without being blown to pieces or completely disabled. It''s either the engineer for that ship was a grandmaster craftsman or that fucking ship was a legendary or divine grade ship. But she''s seen legendary and divine grade ships before, heck she owns them. But there were all starships, not overgrown canoes. Io turned to Boran and said to him in a dull tone.


    "Do as I''ve said Boran, I''ll make a move myself after that boy is done playing."


    Boran felt a chill go down his spine, and not from the massive wave above his head, but from the very scary look and feeling he was getting from his guild leader. Even if she had decided to take this mission, it didn''t mean she was the weakest or answered to the other guild leaders. The Sin Dragon avatar of Wrath had the most powerful battle strength out of all of them, and could be considered the leader, by the time she was done with that Captain Seven, he''s going to regret crossing the Dragon god guild.


    And just as his guild leader had commanded, Boran retracted the shield, stacking and reinforcing its power around the flagship of the fleet, the one they were currently standing in. It was a pity for the other players, but he knew their leader would get vengeance for them, and it would be very painful for those involved. And so under the watchful eyes of Io and her second; Boran, the wave led by the seemingly unstoppable Captain A¨¢ Seven of the Acheron''s grace fell.


    Unfortunately for the young Na?ve captain, he was not going up against any common guild leader of the dragon god guild, his opponent was the Black Hearted Rose of lost descendants online. A legend in the gaming scene for more than ten years, and the Dragon sin of wrath; Io Reyes.

 143 Dragon Wars & The Trident City Of Atlantis VII : Crashing, Spinning Waves

    The wave crashed down, but just as it was doing so, something really peculiar happened. The shield was retracted and the ships were left exposed, if I didn''t know better I would say that they were sacrificing the less important ships so that they could escape or come up with a counter attack. And whichever one of those was true, it still won''t stop what was coming, or rather what had already arrived.


    The wave swept the ships, almost as it was embraced by the hug of a raging sea god. The sharks did not dull as they swam in an out of the ships that the ocean had swallowed. Players who weren''t able to immediately die from the impact where bitten until all that was left of their bodies where shreds of skin, and steel. I made the wave hang in place, focusing it on the area around the only ship that still had the shield around it''s body.


    I hung the trident on my back and got off Neron, shooting through the wave that had now encased the shield like a donut. I looked at the ship as I swam around it, I was so close to the shield I could just reach out my hands and touch it if I wanted to. I could see the players gathered on the deck, though I''m not sure they could see me, even if they could it would have only been a hazy outline. I could read the emotions etched on their faces almost as if it was etched on mine. There was surprise, shock, anger, frustration, fear and rage, lot''s and lots of it.


    I noticed a lot of players who were still alive trying their hardest to swim towards the edge of the massive wave that swallowed them and was currently encircling their flagship. I went after them, the KUSANAGI gleaming under the ocean''s refraction of sunlight. I got to one of the players who''s head was already out of the wave, he was yelling, what it was, I''m sure we will never find out as I stabbed the Kusanagi through the back of his head and out his open mouth, then threw his dead body on top of the shield, watching as it burned before dissipating into motes of light.


    There was another player right besides him who''s entire body had already made it through the wave. The Kusanagi stabbed forward, moving through the ''rear great gate'' and into the body of the player. I heard a scream, a very female scream as the player burst into lights and I suddenly found myself feeling somewhat traumatized or disgusted with what I just did. Next time I''ll try and confirm I''m attacking a male before shoving a sword up his or her asshole.


    I swam forward slicing the Kusanagi on the waist of another player, only for it bounce back with a ding sound, leaving me unprotected as the player pulled himself back into the water and swung a halberd at me. Whether by luck, or the player having no time to properly reorient himself, the flat side of the halberd was what hit the side of my head, smacking star lights into my vision as I was pushed backwards, giving the player enough time to swim out of the wave and make a run or rather a jump for the shield.


    Just as he was about to do so, Neron stretched himself out of the wave, and in one fluid motion, snatched up the player into his jaw, crushing bone and steel in one fell swoop, spilling blood over the shield that somehow got through and spilled on the players watching, a string of his intestine also following close behind. Neron drew back his jaw chewing in a manner that made a shiver go up and down my spine, he swam past me and gave me a nod before going after other players.


    "Fuck! I''m so glad that shark''s on my side." I couldn''t help but say to myself as I turned to face the shield, only to see a cannon ball, that''s very much on fire heading for my face. I moved the ocean in front of me, densely packing the water and increasing the pressure around me.


    It was not enough to serve as a perfect shield, but I was trying to use science, or as much as science as I can remember without completely butchering it. It was an on the spot decision, and the fact that I was able to make it also left me quite shocked. The idea was to try and make the density (or whatever) of the water heavier, so that it would replicate the pressure that''s sure to be present thousands of feet under the sea. And for the most part, my plan actually worked.


    The cannon ball was squeezed the moment it came in contact with the water until all I was looking at was a crumbled scrap of metal. The flames dissipated, but that was just one canon ball out of the hundreds they had just fired, and one or two of the sharks were caught in the crossfire. I turned to Neron and beckoned him to my side, the dungeon boss; that funny enough was not in his dungeon(wherever the fuck it was) swam towards me.


    "Neron thank you so much for your help, but take your kin and regroup around the Acheron, I''ll take over from here. You guys should defend the ship and make sure the whole of the island is completely sunk without threats from anybody else." The shark blinked his yellow eyes, which should be impossible....right? Fishes don''t blink do they, they don''t have eyelids. Oh well I don''t think it mattered at the moment anyway.


    "It will be as you say, we await news of your victory." And then he raised his head and gave off a little bounce, a sort of shockwave spreading from his head that left me even more surprised. Last I remember sharks don''t have echolocation, that''s the communication mojo for bats and dolphins...¡­seriously why the hell am I trying to apply logic to anything that happens here, this is a game! Sure it''s real, but it''s a game! Remember that Aaron!


    The Sharks swam back towards the Acheron, leaving me alone within the vicinity of the shield as more canon balls flew past me and harmlessly into the ocean. I placed my hand on the trident, even though so far the ocean had be reacting to my will, as if it was a part of my own body, I needed to focus a bit for it to happen, to visualize the next move to be made. I closed my eyes as the sea began to move, and I moved along with it, it''s current motion coming about as result of my manipulation.


    The massive wave that now surrounded the flagship of the dragon god guild, like a cocoon began to rotate. It was like the shield itself was in the middle of giant whirlpool, and the whirlpool itself was exerting enough pressure to crush rocks into diamond and even further crush diamonds into dust. I opened my eyes as I was swept by the current of the whirlpool, watching as it placed more and more pressure on the shield that seemed completely impenetrable.


    *CRACK!!!!* until now that is.


    A rather nasty crack had appeared on one side of the shield, snaking across it''s surface like a lightening bolt. It still held, but now tiny trickles of water was slowly escaping through that crack. The rotation got faster, so much so that I was starting to feel a little nauseous by the constant circular motion and the pressure being exerted on the shield, it was like being thrown in a blender, or maybe a tornado.


    *Crackakacak! Craaaack!*


    It was only a matter of time now, this shield was strong, really strong. If it was anyone else who didn''t have the power of the trident or maybe even the firepower the Ion pulse cannon brought to the table, the these guild of bullies would have been absolutely unstoppable and unbeatable. But I guess they ran out of luck the moment the tree of revelations decided I was worthy enough of being chosen as an Avatar.


    I looked at the ship, watching as players on it moved back step by step, completely defeated by the sight of the rapidly expanding cracks on their unbreakable shield. Maybe this time they''ll learn that being a bully is wrong, or even they don''t learn that, they would be exposed to one very fundamental truth of life....you don''t fucking mess with Aaron Wade.


    *thud! Crack! Thud!! Crack!! Thud!!! Crack!!!* I could see someone come out if the ship''s interior and start walking towards me.


    Her very steps caused vibrations to rang out in tandem with the cracks stretching all over the shield. Seeing how the players gave way for her, she''s probably the person in charge of this entire operation, probably the head honcho just like Hell Rain, though I have to admit she seems prettier, but I can''t be sure as seeing her through moving water did not do wonders for my clarity of sight. She suddenly took off running, moving so fast across the almost one hundred and fifty meter long deck of her ship that she was nothing but a blur to most people, then she leaped into the air in one massive leap, shifting in midair into a massive black and red dragon who''s jaws were opened wide and heading straight for me...shit!


    I withdrew the wave and converged it on my body as a means for defense, then I turned and plunged right back into the sea, returning the ocean back to it''s normal look and form, and leaving the Acheron right in the sights of the flag ship. The woman now dragon followed me into the ocean, her jaws snapping at my heels as I swam deeper, the sunken island or currently sinking island of the Trident city of Atlantis watching on in the distance.


    I shifted my direction, going the opposite way, hoping to drag the fight away from the island, but I was worried for nothing as it seemed as if she didn''t care, all she wanted to do was to rip my sorry hide to pieces. I could also shift, but just like my use with the trident I had to focus to do so, and as awesome as I was, I can''t do it while moving. It would take practice and before today that would have been a waste; as shift skill had a rather long cool down. Either way I had to think of something fast because she was drawing close, way too close!


    *Snap!!*


    *BOOOM!


    HOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGGGG*


    Just as escaped being eaten by just a hairs breath, a familiar sound rang out, causing shockwaves and vibrations through the ocean. As if on an unspoken agreement, we both stopped and looked above us, watching as the beam from the Ion pulse cannon completely obliterated the shield and flagship it was protecting, leaving nothing but a flaming heap of metal that wasn''t even three fourths of what it once was. Flames and molten metal, along with quite a few bodies fell into the ocean. And whatever was left of thw flagship followed close behind. I quickly swam towards it, hoping to use it descent as an obstacle to evade the dragon lady that I''m very sure would be super pissed right about now. ''damn it Qitar you awesome green lady!''


    But while Dragon lady was no longer interested in me, the Acheron on the other hand now made a very big target. She moved her gaze to me, as if to say ''watch me destroy everything you love'' and then she flew out of the ocean in one fell swoop, but luck didn''t seem to be on her side lately as she was first assaulted with a hail of turret and gun fire, before Zareth slammed his hulking red dragon body against hers and they crashed right back into the sea, completely entangled in a wrestle of draconic proportions.


    Zareth might have pushed her back into the ocean and quite impressively I might add as snapped his massive jaws at her, attacking and fighting in a manner reminiscent of the animalistic instinct of a dragon. But anyone with an experienced eye would be able to see everything wrong with this fight, she wasn''t actively attacking, but she was letting Zareth exhaust and frantically move his body every which way. She had no intention of dragging this fight out, and was very much stronger than Zareth, she was actually just waiting for the right moment to strike, and then...¡­.she''s going to kill him. Shit!

 144 Dragon Wars & The Trident City Of Atlantis VIII : Io Reyes

    I didn''t hesitate as I shifted into my dragon form, ignoring the pain that always accompanied the shift. I saw the dragon lady''s eyes widen in shock and rammed into her, my horn stabbing into the taut muscles of her right forelimb. She gave a small grunt, bubbles escaping from her clenched jaws as she flexed and I felt something stab into me from behind. I turned around to see that she had a tail a little similar to mine, but hers was like a mace with massive spikes butting out of it.


    However stabbing me didn''t seek to be enough as she dragged her tail downwards, splitting open skin and shredding scales as she left a rather nasty wound on my back. Pain or not there was no way I would let her injure me like this, I roughly raised my head up and shook my body, dislodging her tail from my back, but tearing into her forelimb as my horn did the same thing her tail did and dug a bloody ravine into her flesh. She roared out in pain, shaking herself loose from the entanglement, only to get a face full of flames from Zareth.


    At first it was just a controlled blast that pushed her backwards, but then it was a stream of flames that boiled the water round us, rapidly raising it''s temperature to boiling. She brought her wings around herself, covering it and creating a purple shield that defended against the flame breath attack. Knowing Zareth won''t b able to keep it up indefinitely, I surged towards her, my body moving through the ocean at a speed that might even put most water dragons to shame.


    I swam up and summersaulted in the water, my momentum spinning my massive body rapidly as the blade on my tail sliced down with a vengeance, lightening dancing on it. (LIGHTNING BLADE) The attack smashed into her barrier and dug a bit into her wings, but she quickly spread them, stopping me from completely shredding said wings, and then she opened her jaws, and right at my unprotected body she released a breath attack of her own that was colored the red and black of blood and death.


    (You Have sustained critical damaged from the Sin Dragon Avatar of Wrath! Io Reyes! Health in critical condition! All Defense reduced by 40%, attack and speed reduced by 70%)


    If it says I''ve take critical damage, then I''ve taken critical damage. I felt pain, a lot of it I might add, and looking down on my chest, I could see a bloody and very garish wound. The entire section of my chest looked like someone had dragged a massive cheese grater across it. My scales and my skin was hanging in strips and I could his my massive draconic ribs. LDO was not an 18+ game for nothing, and while the pain wasn''t as obvious as it would have been in reality, this shit still hurt like a bitch.


    Zareth sent out another blast of flames at her, she raised her wings, using it to defend against the strike, however it seemed like it was only a feint from Zareth ad his claws glowed red and shredded through her wings. It was an unexpected strike, and without her wings, movement would be a bit difficult, however she didn''t seem to be that worried as she began spinning rapidly, her wings became akin to blades as she created an underwater tornado with the power to shred me and Zareth to pieces.


    Zareth moved back and got under me, then using all his strength he shot out of the water, carrying my injured form as best as he could before moving back towards the Acheron. We could beat her, but she''s had more experience and training with her dragon form, and as opposed to Hell Rain, she was a more powerful and smarter fighter. Because of the injury I sustained, I couldn''t maintain my dragon form, so within Zareth''s grasp I shrunk back until I was back in my normal form.


    My health was regenerating, but it was painfully slow. As opposed to the normal hundreds of HP a second, I was only getting a single HP every 3 seconds, whatever she used to hit me, it was slowing down my healing. Io was dangerous, in fact she''s probably the most dangerous opponent we''ve ever had to face since we started our journey. The water blasted upwards, spraying every which way as she came up out of the water, but right as she did so.


    *Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!*


    *Splash!*


    Qitar did not afford her any sort of breathing space as the guns on the ship accurately sent blazing balls of energy smashing into her. Honestly, this was probably the only way we could match up to her, in a personal fight, I doubt Zareth and I would be able to get an upper hand. But regardless of what this seems like, it was a very massive loss for me and the crew, so far we''ve been running rough shod against every opponent, but right now the two most powerful members of my crew just had their asses handed to them.


    *Splash!*


    I held my hands to my chest as Io burst out of the ocean again, however it was quite a distance away. She had used the cover from the ocean to create some distance from us, and she was flying south without even looking back. He flight pattern was quite crooked and I could see her bleeding as massive drops of dragon blood fell into the ocean below.


    "Should we chase after the lass?" Zareth''s deep voice rumble is out of his draconic mouth.


    "No! At our current level of strength we can''t beat her. Quite honestly Zareth, she''s even more of a dragon than we both are, we won this battle, but against Io Reyes we were nothing more than children in her grasp. The only reason we were able to catch her off guard is because she didn''t expect that there would be two dragon avatars, if Persephone had joined the fight, then there''s a slim chance we would have won by catching her off guard, but there''s no honor in that." I said to him as I watched the red and black dragon disappear into the Horizon.


    "Since when do you care about honor, especially when it''s in a fight." Zareth asked me with a surprised tone.


    "Hah! I don''t. It just seemed like a really cool thing to say at the time. However we''re not done here yet, we have to make sure they wouldn''t be able to come back and attack the city." I said to him as he slowly brought me down and laid me on the ship.


    (PURIFY has leveled up!!)


    Well that was a surprise, who knew that skill was actually at work. I looked at my HP Regeneration and saw that it had went up from a single point every three seconds to a single point every second, even then it was still quite slow. Io was way to powerful, and it wasn''t her level that gave her power or her stats, but her skills, the way she used them and her battle awareness. It seems to be one of the best I''ve ever seen.


    "Chew on this." Dinah said to me as she came up from under ship and gave me what looked a tablet of aspirin. Looking suspicious I still placed it in my mouth, and almost immediately my HP shot up by more than half and it became a whole lot easier for me to breath again. I never knew she could make something like this, but none the less it was a big help. I gave her a nod of thanks as I went to the edge of the ship and peeled over, Neron and his army were still there waiting.


    "Thank you for all your help Neron! If you have anything to ask of me, please do, I''ll try my best to fulfill it." I said to the emperor shark.


    "There''s no need for such promises, it was mine and my kin''s honor to have fought alongside you. Come find us whenever you need help, we will try our best to defend the city until your return." Not that I had any intention of coming back here, but I had to nod my head in agreement with what he had just said.


    After that exchange he and his army turned around and swam back into the depths of the sea from whence they came. It might have been sudden but the strongest of relationships are always formed on the battlefield, and not just a battlefield where blood is spilled and lives are taken, but life itself. Either way I had this feeling that I would be seeing these guys one day soon, the idea of a cavalry of shark riding knights seems to be dancing around my head.


    I turned to Persephone and the others, before shifting my gaze towards the wide ocean and wondering how I was going to fully keep the city safe. That''s when an idea so weird struck me and just like that I knew what to do. I puked the trident from my back and slammed it on the deck of the Acheron like some sort of Ancient sea god as I spoke.


    "ICE AGE!"

 145 Dragon Wars & The Trident City Of Atlantis IX : World Shaper, The Most Powerful Man On Earth

    The drop in temperature was not slow or gradual, rather it was so sudden it completely caught me of guard. Now what I was about to do should normal not last, based on the description of the skill, it would only last indefinitely if there was an altar. Now I really don''t get what an altar is important, but the Trident city had an altar, so that should more than cover for it. I gripped the staff tightly as I turned to Darke and said to him.


    "Darke move us at least ten kilometers away from the city''s current vicinity. The rest of you should hold on tightly." I said to them as the ship began to move.


    As I''ve found out, usage of the trident was based mainly on visualization. Being able to envision the change you wanted, and focusing on it until it was made a reality. Ice began to cover the surface of the ocean, it was thick and moved rapidly that in seconds a kilometer of the ocean had already turned I to a carpet of ice.


    The freeze spread, it not just on the surface but also within the ocean. Massive hills of ice grew up on both sides of the Trident city of Atlantis, growing so high that they stretched out of the water itself. I wad making a massive underwater valley with the trident city right in it''s middle, I made sure the valley was more like a ravine, so dire t aces from the top of the city was very hard if not outright impossible.


    An underwater ice valley was just as ridiculous as it sounded, but I wasn''t stopping, I narrowed the valley, making it shaped like a massive tear drop, with the wide part stretching up like a dome over the city. Hypothetically speaking, there would be only one access to the city, and beaches of that, it made it easier for them to defend from any sort of assault.


    This valley was huge, I couldn''t really tell the scope and size of it, but I had to account for the other aquatic creatures that lived within the vicinity of the city. Then within the hill/mountain walls of ice that made the valley, I made a maze of tunnels that led into and out of the valley itself, apart from the main entrance itself that was akin to a choke point and could be easily defended from any underwater assault.


    The tunnel maze on the other hand was made complicated, heck even I had a twisted expression on my face by the time I was done with it. There were lots of false roads and dead ends, and even amongst all of the tunnels, only one of it was actually the right one. I expect that they would be able to figure out a way to properly mark the tunnel, so that they don''t lost whenever they need to use it. Because of what I''ve done, it stands to reason that this place would be cold all year long, but this was magic, even for a game heavily entrenched in fantasy, there were somethings that it wouldn''t be able to explain.


    I could feel that the temperature within the valley itself was still normal and such subject to change with the seasons. However the ice hills or rather mountains themselves were so cold that any outside interference would result in said person being frozen into a Popsicle in mere seconds. It was s powerful natural defense, which brought me to my finishing touches.


    Fog began to cover the surface of the sea as every breath everyone took released vapor. Within the edge and confines of the ice mountains, which stretched above the water for a little bit more than three meters to make some sort of weird ice formation, thick fog began to cover it. The fog stretched high into the sky, changing the weather pattern and making sure that the area for hundreds of kilometers around the trident city of Atlantis was covered in perpetual fog, the only place spared was right in the middle of the valley itself.


    It was like the eye of a storm, those traveling underwater would find it a lot more easier to navigate, some I''m not too worried about the inhabitants of the city. I knew they would be quite fine and would be able to adapt around the changes. But from now on, anyone who wanted to go find the trident city of Atlantis would have to go through a significant amount of hell just to find it. But never the less my job was done, they were safe and protected, at least until whatever crazy events the game comes up with.


    I opened my eyes to see that the surroundings of the Acheron was covered in fog, it was quite cold, like freezing cold, but no one seemed all too worried about it. But at the moment I felt drained, like someone had taken all of my energy and sucked it out of me with a straw, and with the headache I was feeling they probably did it from my head. I felt dizzy and dropped to my knees, the trident falling out of my hands and clattering onto the deck of the ship.


    Everyone else gathered around me in a second, I was really much too weak to move, and even though they were all saying something or the other I couldn''t hear them. From the haze that seemed to be spreading across my mind. Then suddenly a few alert screens popped up in front of me.


    {SYSTEM ALERT:TITLE: You Have Performed Great Feats Of Magic And Have Intruded Within The Realm Of Creator Gods. You Have Drawn Their Attention, For Better Or For Worse It Still Remains To Be Seen. You Have Been Given The Title: WORLD SHAPER: +50% To Land Management, +30 Defense And Speed To All Structures Built By You. +3 Stat Points Every Level./ You Have Received The Blueprints For Basic Barracks, Basic Smithy, Basic Infirmary, Basic Town Hall, Basic Market, Basic Wall, Basic Residence, Basic Guard House.}


    {SYSTEM ALERT!: You Have Exhausted Your Mana And Over Drafted Your Hp To Power A Spell Of Great Magnitude. +2 Level And The Passive Skill (ESSENCE EXCHANGE: From Now On You Can Use Your Hp/Life Force To Power Spells With An Increased Effect And Damage Of +10%. The Lower Your Hp, The More Powerful The Spell.}


    {SYSTEM ALERT!: You Have Exhausted Your Hp!, Due To The Circumstances Of Your Death You''re Not Allowed To Log Back Into The Game For At Least 72 Hours. Thank You For Playing Lost Descendants Online.}


    My vision turned dark and I suddenly found myself looking up at the statistical screen of my VR pod. I so didn''t see this coming and quite frankly I was pissed off, but it doesn''t seem like there was much I could do about it. A lot could happen in three days, but I guess the others can take care of themselves. And with Zareth and Persephone there, I''m sure there''s not much that they can''t face or beat. I looked at the digital clock on the pod''s display screen.


    11:53 PM


    It was almost dawn in the game, but out here it was just about midnight. I wasn''t feeling really sleepy, so maybe I would just grab a snack and then check the Internet for whatever news there was about LDO, plus call me selfish or whatever, I had to get in touch with Malia and see if they could speed up the launch of the alternate dimension and begin the tournament as soon as possible. I had 7 thousand unhatched dragon eggs in the engine room of my ship, and honestly I don''t want to be anywhere near New Gaia the day they decide to hatch. The ensuing blow out, wouldn''t something I and the crew would be able to face, they''ll swallow us whole.


    >>>>>


    MIAMI, FLORIDA


    WADE RESORTS AND HOTELS


    Lately there seem to be some sort of chill in the air, but it was in the middle of the summer and a place like Miami thrived on the heat. However Henry knew the chill he was feeling was not from the weather, he was scared, terrified. Never in his wildest dream would he have ever considered Aaron capable of the carnage he caused in Moscow, and the fact that the boy was able to walk out of that city unscathed and unchallenged left Henry very shocked.


    The only thing he could say about Aaron''s very mean streak was that his time in the army had changed him in more ways than one. The kid he remembers was very indecisive, especially when it came to matters about family, heck Henry himself knew that he would have been able to ask that boy to put a bullet in his own head and he would have happily done it, all for the chance to have Henry treat him like a son. But now Henry was not under the misconception that if Aaron returned he would welcome him with open arms, especially now that he might have found out that Henry was not his father but rather his elder brother.


    So that was why he was here, apart from the fact that he was hiding from Aaron and his people, which honestly you wouldn''t be able to tell who was who, given how deeply entrenched they were within society, especially here in America. You had no idea who was on the Wade family''s payroll, and now that Aaron had more than showed the world who he was and what he was capable of, Henry knew there would be no stopping him should he come for revenge, he needed protection, and above all he needed to know who he was dealing with, how did Aaron get so different from the innocent boy he once knew.


    "You look like shit Henry, this could have waited till morning, an elder of the Wade family is not someone you can summon whenever you fucking please." A raspy voice called out to him as Henry got up to his feet and turned to face the middle aged man who had just walked out the balcony.


    "I feel like shit Marcus, but that''s besides the point. Can you guys offer me and my family protection, also do you have any information about Aaron." Henry said as he downed the entire glass of Bourbon in his hands and poured himself another glass, only to curse lightly when he noticed the bottle was empty.


    "Jesus Henry; how many of those glasses have you taken?" his guest asked as he took a seat opposite the very panicked man.


    "Enough." Henry answered.


    "This whole Aaron business definitely has you spooked, the thing is we can''t move against him, he still has supporters within the family and chief amongst them are your aunt and uncles. All members of the direct family line would prefer he remains as head of the family, especially with how much positive change he has brought to light ever since he took over. Unfortunately for you, that''s the majority of the family, so unless you can out rightly get him and his son killed, there''s way you would ever seat on top of the Wade family throne.


    He has too many supporters, way too many than he even knows. And that''s just from here, his grandmother on his mother''s side is very much still alive and kicking and his her favorite grandchild. We touch him, and we will go to war with forces we can''t handle, there''s a reason why none of the old families have been able to get a foothold in Africa till date. And it''s definitely not because they''re not interested in the continent...."


    "Marcus what are you saying?" Henry spoke up, cutting Marcus short as his impatience took the over.


    "What I''m saying is he''s grown to powerful in too short a time, you''re not privy to all of the assets of the Wade family, but for those of us that do, we know that he''s extremely important and would completely revolutionize the family. We can''t do anything to him, even I won''t touch him, because ultimately it would cause more harm than good for the Wade family. And as for protection, we might be able to negotiate with him to let you and your family go, because there''s not a corner on this planet that you would be able to hide from him, not unless you want to go off world.


    But even then to do so means you''ll be giving up everything to go start allover somewhere new, where no one knows you, and the society is sure to be hostile against you just for the fact that you''re from earth. He''s too important to the Wade family, and now also to the governments of the world. He already has quite a colorful past with the UN anyway, he has their dirtiest secrets so just to keep him quite they will bend over for him. That kid is the most powerful man in the world right now, and the worst part is he doesn''t know it yet, and he''s making plans to achieve a status he already has. It''s ridiculous." Marcus said as he spat over the balcony of the penthouse suite he and Henry were meeting, not at all caring if said glob of saliva lands on someone down below.


    "What do you mean he has all their secrets?" Henry asked confused, because he couldn''t figure out how a twenty four year old could instill so much fear in the world that they would bend over backwards for him.


    "When your brother was in the army he was drafted to a specially created death squad by the UN. These were some of the best soldiers from all around world, one hundred and fifty-six of the world''s best killers, placed in one team each representing a country. Aaron was the only one representing two countries due to his mixed heritage, and it wasn''t because he was the best, but rather because a higher up wanted him dead and drafted his name for the team, which he also had absolutely no idea the reasons for it''s creation.


    They ran clandestine black ops mission around the world, eliminating most of the world''s threat, big names, small names, upcoming businesses that could be a threat, religious leaders whipping the public into a frenzy. It took them six months to do so, and then they shifted their sights off world, the colonies on mars, the moon, and the space stations all lost important dignitaries within a short amount of time to seemingly natural causes.


    And then they came back and the team was disbanded, or at least that''s what officials documents say. One member was called back due to how much talent he showed for killing, I guess at this point you could say amongst the top twenty killers in the world, he''s ranked seven. And they gave him orders to wipe the slate clean, taking out former members of his team, one by one until all hundred and fifty-five were in the ground.


    Some of them passed away during missions and were replaced, it was where he met the mother of his son. Though she had to leave midway due to health issues, and was already dead by the time he started his clean up mission. And when everything was said and done, they tried to kill him to keep everything a secret, he left an entire military base in flames and the former director general of the UN hanging from the balcony of his house, strangled to death with his own wife''s intestine.


    Nobody''s fucked with him since then, and he went back to college, only he sucked a lot and made them give him a degree just after two years of slumming it in law school. He''s dangerous and he''s feared and he''s ambitious. A particular streak the Wade family needs and hopes to nurture, we don''t want that kind of sword hanging over our head. So all I can say is we can help you negotiate a deal with him, you and your family will keep your lives, and we will bury the fact that both you and your greedy bitch of a wife is responsible for his mother''s death.


    We''ll get you off world as soon as possible and away from his reach, though for how long, only time will tell. You''ve heard what he''s done on his own, I can''t but shudder at the carnage he can cause now that he has all the resources of the Wade family, especially now that he has Meta-human abilities."

 146 Sparkly Fingers

    Wow! Wow! And wow! Who knew the Dragon god guild was so damn powerful, or even famous. The sin dragon avatars have been active since the last four updates, which should be about thirty or so years. The oldest was amongst them was a 62 year old grandma who ran things from behind the scenes, the youngest was actually that Io Reyes. She''s the latest and the most powerful and actually the youngest. Though no one knows her exact age, they believe she''s no younger than 20 and no older than 25. Either way the dragon god guild, though not the oldest in the game, were the most influential, and the most powerful due to their direct connection with the dragon emperors.


    Either way there was now a massive poster of my face hanging in most cities, showing that I was wanted. But while most AIs within the game held the dragon god guild and the emperors behind them in great esteem, there were still some who were all too happy to see them taken down a peg. Either the Internet seemed to have gotten broken, there were videos circling the Internet of both first and second fight with Hell Rain, courtesy of his very chronic addiction to streaming his gameplay.


    But aside from that somehow the fight between Io Reyes, me and Zareth was also shown, though much of the battle was cut short as whoever was shooting it actually died four times during the course of our battle. Never the less the outcome of all those fights, was the fault that there was now another major player within the game, and everyone really wanted to know who he was.


    Well be that as it may, I couldn''t help but agree with my mother on this one. The world can not know that A¨¢ seven and Aaron Wade were the same person, that might cause way too much damage to the company''s credibility as there would definitely be someone who wanted point hands and say that Aaron Wade was cheating. And when asked how, the answer would not be anything more simple than his company made the game, and his family created it. That''s enough to sink quite a lot of our revenue for quite a while, but either way that won''t happen, because just Like Io Reyes, A¨¢ Seven would remain a just a player within the game, and not a personality in the real world.


    *Knock Knock!*


    "Come in." I called out as my door was swung open and Penny of all people marched into my room with Ron in tow dragging a blue blanket and leaving his wet naked body exposed to the whole world.


    Penny was wearing casual clothes today as opposed the business wise attire she had on the last time I saw her. Tight jeans, ankle long combat boots, a white crop top and black leather jacket. Her black hair was shaved at the side and she had some shades on top of her head. The sleeves of the Jacket wad folded up a bit, and her hands were wet.


    "ummm? I''m not going to ask what your doing in my house so early on this god awful morning, but why the fuck is my kid naked and following you around." I asked her as I picked Ron up and wrapped him in his towel.


    Penny ignored me at first as she went and opened the curtains to my room, letting the morning sun stream into it as I involuntarily winced. I''ve kept a let night and right now my eyes were quite sensitive to the light. Penny hunched over and much to my surprise started picking up my clothes which I had discarded on the floor yesterday. Her jeans stretched over her very bountiful behind and drew my eyes to it, just as someone other part of my body stood at attention.


    "I know your eyes are on my ass Aaron, take them off or your kid would be subjected to the horror of watching me dig out his father''s eyes."


    Knowing Penny, she might actually do it, of course not really, but she could do something to make the situation very awkward. But this was us, our friendship had been built on her being the bully older friend who dragged me around in all her escapades, first girl to break my heart too, but the only friend I have left....alive that is.


    "Why are you here Penny? It''s too damn early for you to come cause trouble, plus it''s fucking Monday, we hate Mondays." I complained to her as I went to my walk in closet, motion sensors bringing the lights within on as I looked for clothes for Ron.


    The closet had two distinct division, on one side were all the clothes I wore, and on the other was a blue themed wonderland of kids clothes and Mickey mice motifs. Since He tends to sneak into my room almost everyday to sleep, even when I''m not around, I had most of his things moved from his room to mine. If my son wanted to be close to me, then who am I to deny him such love.


    Penny came and took the young man from my arms, he was more the happy to let her carry him as she went about trying to get him ready, navigating the closet as if she lived here, or had been here before, but that''s impossible right?


    "When Kira and me went to war on those real estate guys, which thanks for by the way I was really bored out of my mind. Anyway when we went there we sort of hit it off, and by hit it off we actually got to third base, and then a fourth and fifth if such a thing exists. It was really nice sex and you''re such an Ass! For keeping her to yourself. Oops cover your ears baby you don''t need to hear this." She whispered softly to Ron, who in turn happily plugged his fingers into his small ears as I tried to gather my jaw from the ground.


    "Either way she told me he wasn''t going to school, and there was a possibility you have no plans of letting him go to one and would prefer to have him homeschooled. I''m here to put a stop to that, I know he has special circumstances, but there are also special schools for kids like him, a place where he would be taken well care off."


    "Penny¡­."


    "Don''t interrupt me Aaron let me finish. I know you''re now the big boss of the criminal underworld, but you can''t deny Little Aaron a chance at life, just because he has your name doesn''t mean he has to live like you and be a turtle scared that someone was after him, besides I''m sure you won''t let that happen¡­"


    "Penny?....."


    "Damn it Aaron I said don''t interrupt, you have to make sure that he enjoys everything you never did, let him go to school, make friends have a normal and very happy childhood and...¡­..what the fuck is that!"


    Since she didn''t want to keep quite, I had to show her something that would, and also the prime reason why I couldn''t let Ron go to school. Electricity sizzle in my hands as I made a transparent blue and white ring that spinned over my open palm. My bodies translation of Anton''s barrier power was to actually let me be capable of making small shapes and being able to move them. I spent the hour long flight back home from San-Francisco experimenting, and even though I couldn''t make shapes more than three inches in diameter and one dimensional, I knew it would get stronger In the future, a lot stronger.


    "There''s a 99.9% chance that he''s just like me, and an even bigger chance that his abilities would manifest a lot more earlier than mine since his genes and the strain responsible for the cellar mutations which give powers would be more settled and intertwined with him. It could be an hour from now, tomorrow, three years, five years ten! All I know is he wouldn''t reach twenty before he becomes capable of throwing fireballs out of his hands or call lightning from the sky. I rather not have him an environment where he would hurt other people by accident, or even worse hurt himself."


    Penny looked at me with silence for a while, she sighed as she picked Ron up and came out of the closet with a pair of his shoes in her hand. Then she dragged me along and sat me on the bed before taking a comb out from god knows where and started combing Ron''s hair.


    "To be honest I have no idea what to say, never realized you were dealing with so much. There were whispers that you survived an assassination attempt, which was why I thought that you might have been spooked into locking Ron in here, in your castle of secrets and guns. Who knew you had super powers, so what do I call you now, Electric man, Electro man, Sparky Mcfingers?"


    "One more word from you and you''ll have to worry about more than just my fingers. I think you''ll find that other parts of my body can easily make sparks young woman."


    "Flirting with me is taking a short cut to an early grave young man, you already have his smoking hot adopted mother or whatever hanging around you, and I know you''ve tapped that ass, so don''t get greedy kid, you''re going to get burned. Besides I have a fianc¨¦." And the she raised her hand and showed me the sparkling diamond ring on her finger.


    There wasn''t really anything going on between me and Penny, but seeing that ring made me feel as if someone had punched me in the gut. I swallowed the heavy lump in my throat and then smiled at her before getting up and walking over to the table I was sitting on when she walked in. There was a cup of coffee there, which was partly responsible for my all night surfing of the web. I downed the entire mug seriously wished I had something stronger.


    "Well I wish you all the best on that endeavor Penny, but as you can see; fear of Ron manifesting his abilities at an early age and causing no small amounts of destruction and danger to other kids has made me reconsider sending him to any sort of school. Not unless a school specifically catered to teaching super powered kids popped up in the upcoming months, Ron would have to spend most of his childhood homeschooled, at least until he''s old enough to be more conscious of the things around him." I answered Penny with a weird croak in my voice.


    "While that was a rapid change of topic, I sort of understand why and I''m not going to pry. I just hope you can be happy for me and come talk to me when you''re ready.


    But in regards to his schooling, what''s stopping the all powerful Aaron Wade from building one for his son, given that you have so much information about your abilities and the emergence of his own, I suspect that you guys are not the only people in the world with manifested abilities or with a probability of activating one. So gather those people and make a school for your kid, at least he''ll get a sense of normalcy out of his life." Penny said to me.


    "Do you have any idea what it takes to open a school! I mean how...¡­..???? ???? it''s not exactly impossible for me you know. I mean just like you just said, I am all powerful and should be able to get such a school running, heck it would be a whole lot more easier than I thought it would be, considering everything I have planned. Well that''s a good idea, thanks for that Penny."


    Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.


    "Don''t mention it twerp, what are friends for." She replied as she leaned back on the bed.


    "I haven''t heard that name in a while, I hated it when you called me that....come to think of it I still do." I said to her as I made to drink more coffee only to discover that it was empty.


    "I know you hate it, which is why I''m going to keep on using it." She answered me as a wild grin split her beautiful face.


    "You know for someone who just found out about superhuman abilities, you''re quite calm." I said to her after making an astute observation.


    "What can I say, I''m a hard core lawyer, it would take a whole lot more than a guy with sparkly fingers to rile me up, I''m the stuff lionesses are made of."

 147 Flash Drives

    (Compiling files....buffering....opening files...)


    Good God! What sort of a programmer was my mother, I think the best thing to have called her was hacker. There were hundreds if not thousands of files on the three flash drives, my mom had built an algorithm into the drives to disable their security once they were not only inserted into a secure port at the same time, but had biometric confirmation that I was the one looking at the information. And there was a lot of it, secrets of not just the nations of earth, even more secrets than I already knew, but also of the colony on the moon, Mars, and the three space stations.


    This wasn''t going to give me power over the entire galaxy, should anyone find out I have the bloody thing, then the everyone would be gunning for my head, I''ll be dead in days if not hours, with Ron following me behind not too long after. But in the end all these secrets were not the cream of the crop, it was the virus, the biological weapon that my grandfather, AKA my mother''s father was creating and my mother completed.


    A biological virus capable of digital properties and full mental assimilation and override of any biological brain. When it was first created, the virus turned people to zombies, literally! One scratch or bite would transfer the virus, and in minutes the person would be taken over, becoming a mindless drone enslaved to hunger and a need to spread.


    The first batch of the virus was destroyed and a small sample was kept for further experimentation. And that''s when my mother came in, she was able to rapidly evolve the virus by introducing it to the very same extraterrestrial substance that was no responsible for my abilities and the evolutions of quite a few people bringing about the birth of super human abilities.


    The virus was stronger now, and with the proper code it could be programmed and controlled. However the virus got loose during administration of the kill code or in this case a powerful antivirus that could neutralize it. The virus patched onto a host, took over her mind and was actually about to upload itself into the Internet. If it had done so then it would have fully escaped and she would not have been able to destroy it. So she made a tough choice.


    She sent the virus into Lost Descendants Online, trapping it there and uploading the anti-virus into the main frame, placed somewhere within the game as probably a game item that could control the virus and contain it. As long as the virus remained within the game, it would be subjected to the natural laws of LDO and wouldn''t be able to do as it pleases. She was in the process of creating codes to a more powerful antivirus that acted much in the same manner as the virus, and would completely put a stop to the virus; when she was killed. The information seemed to have been filed after she was dead, but even I didn''t understand how this was possible.


    She had gave these drives out a week before she died, the autopsy said she dies of natural causes. But now there were a bunch of recorded conversations, each dated and accounted for at least every single day for a week till the day she died. I took a seat back and began listening to each and every single one of it, until I came to the last one, and this was just ten minutes before my mom passed away.


    "How does it feel to know that your life is at an end, there are consequences for certain actions, and even if your that old man''s sex toy, it wouldn''t stop me from destroying you, you should never have messed with my daughter, she''s just 10!"


    "I understand how you''re feeling, but she''s okay. The anti-virus won''t cause any sort of adverse effect, she had genes and a mental capacity strong enough to hold it, so that when she connects with LDO, the anti-virus would be uploaded and that virus destroyed. You know we have to get rid of it, the whole world would be in danger if we don''t do so. You more than anyone know that this is a full proof plan, and as a mother I understand what you''re feeling, but assure you, she''s going to be fine."


    "To a woman show know to be very smart and shrewd, you sure are quite gullible. Do you think the fact that you experimented on my daughter is the only reason why I sent someone to kill you, please! There''s more to this little turn of events than you think."


    "What more could there be, you''re a mother, nothing should drive you more than the love you have for your children."


    "Do I hear a hint of mockery in your tone Dr. Zainab! Aren''t you afraid! I''m about to take your life, maybe I''ll even den your mentally challenged son along for the ride."


    "Listen here bitch, let me make things straight to you, since it seems you don''t know what''s going on here. You and that snake husband of yours and trying to mess with m family, even though we have this secret game going on, it doesn''t give you the right to think me weak or pathetic. Quite frankly the reason why your daughter is about to die is because you fucked with me, and even went as far as to drug Aaron and try to kidnap him from under his own father''s roof.


    He wouldn''t do anything to you, he won''t be able to bear hurting his son given how much Henry loves you. However, you messed with my son, so I''m going to fucking destroy your entire family. It won''t be today or tomorrow, but in a few years your daughter soul find it really hard to not log into LDO, the antivirus inside of her would come with a craving that will push her to seek the virus it as created from, to become one with it. And once that happens, your daughter will be com the guys we have to destroy, and at that time it would be left to you to pull the trigger.


    I''m not afraid of death, in fact I''m quite ready to face it, however I''ve put so many things in place that I quite guarantee you that you will hate your life once everything comes full circle. Your ambitions for a throne you don''t deserve will bring you to ultimate ruin, you won''t die, but you will wish you we''re. Your daughter was just the first of your children to suffer for your greed, your son''s are next. And if anything should happen to Aaron, even if I''m dead, all your family will follow in the most painful way imaginable. You could have just been contented with what you had, the wealth, the husband who loved you and your boy''s who adored their mother. You''re not the only with schemes hitch, but the difference between me and you is that I look at the bigger and picture and don''t scheme for my own profit, rather it''s all so that my son will have a future."


    "You talk a big game Zainab, but when your son finds out the sister he adores was poisoned by you and used as a pawn in your vendetta against me, he''ll hate you. You''ll lose everything you say you''re fighting for."


    "I won''t, because by then Alex would know what kind of world he''s living in, and what kind of life he has and the choices he has to make to keep his family safe. And for the record you bloody bitch, keep my middle name out of your filthy mouth."


    "With pleasure... Zainab, kill her Raul!"


    *bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*


    *thud!*


    >>>>>>


    Have you ever gotten to a point in your life where everything you think you know about someone just turns out to be a lie. I''m not one to dwell on technicalities, but it turns out I never knew my other as much as I said I did. Yes she loved me fiercely, just as I always excited she did, but she was no less ruthless than I was, heck she was even a shop lot more vindictive than me. But after listening to his bloody recording, a lot of things seemed to have fallen into place for me.


    My mother never died of natural causes, she was murdered. But even then she wasn''t afraid to die, she was quite happy and quite ready to meet her end with her arms open wide, absolutely sure of the act that one day I''m going to make our enemies pay for messing with our family. There was no need to talk too much, I''m going to put an end to Henry and his wife, and if his son''s get in the way, I''m going to put an end to them too.


    It might actually seem like history was repeating himself, my mother in he quest for recent against my step mother, decided to take out her anger on an innocent girl that had absolutely nothing to do with all of the plots and schemes. Obviously she did it to send a message, by someone innocent suffered for it, and in he end it doesn''t look like my step mother cared. And now k realize what my sister had so much hate in her eyes when I met her, shy she asked if I had no ides what my mother had done.


    I''m no saint, which is why I''m in no. Position to judge my mother. But the truth is, if I was in her shoes, and my stepmother messed with my son, then she wouldn''t have any family left, there would be no uncles or aunties or cousins and parents, there''ll be no sons, daughters or husbands. I''ll kill them all, and that''s just how much I love my son, enough to ruin the lives of the innocent just so that he can have a safer and much better future.


    Though in all honesty there was a part of me that didn''t agree with such extreme and antagonistic methods. But I love my son, and I''m sure my mother loved me too, and she did so in such a way that nothing else in this world can compare to that love. It''s the same thing I have for Ron, and if I should have another kid again, I''ll love him or her just as much. So much so that I would give up my very humanity for them to be safe...¡­.it felt strange loving someone so damn much, but nothing has ever felt more right to me.


    I got up and left my room, safe to say my head''s been filled with a little too much information than it can bear to handle, but at the moment I had to deal with the info dump by taking a series of actions that would leave me prepared and henry ad his wife, very dead at the bottom of a ditch, no matter how painful my heart felt about it.


    Everyone in the house were all moving about their duties in full swing, Ron was with Penny, apparently she was having a lunch date with the kid, something about bribing him into loving het and making sure she''s his favorite aunt or something like that. I walked into the garden and eventually found my way to my grandfather''s grave, or as it stands, my father.


    This particular area of the garden wasn''t recently made, but it was fairly new being only a few years old as opposed to the other areas that were at least a hundred years old, existing for just as long as the Wade family has.


    Either way there were no flowers here, only trees. My father was buried here, but to was my mother. As opposed to the traditions of her people, especially when you consider the fact that my mother was born a Muslim, the had her body cremated and spread allover this particular part of the garden, and then my Baba asked to be buried here, just so he could be closer to her.


    I don''t really understand their story, I''m sure there''s more about the both of them that I have to realize and understand, but the most obviously thing is that they loved each other. Ignoring the fact that my mom had a kid for her father''s best friend and a man equally old enough to be her father, I''m sure they must have cared greatly for each other. Even if the world had changed and people have evolved to leave begin stereotypes, it would still turn some heads when a woman marries someone her father''s age, and it would be even more so when said person was her late father''s best friend.


    The scandal that they would have had to deal with alone would have been ridiculous and would definitely leave a stain on her image, and it wasn''t because the world would point fingers, but rather it was because her family back in Africa, her traditions and culture would.


    Plus it would make life too complicated for both of them, which was why someone else had to parade as my dad, and my real father; my grandfather. There should be more to it, by that''s all I can come up with for now. Either way...¡­I have things to take care of.

 148 Cutting Of Ties, Escaped!

    "Hello Malia?"


    "Yes boss?"


    "I wouldn''t be coming in for work today as I have quite a few things to take care of. Anyway I want your department to speed up the process, I want that extra dimension and the tournament ready to launch in three months or less. Coordinate with the advertising department, and all with the scientists working on the augmented reality tech. I don''t need a sloppy job, or a game that would be filled with bugs. Speed up the process, but make sure your work is perfect."


    " Forgive me boss, but it''s not as if we can''t have everything ready in even less time than you asked, but why the hurry?"


    "Let''s just say I have eggs that I need to hatch. Just get to work...please. I''ll call you once I''m done with what I have to do."


    I hung up the phone as I looked down at the very terrified maid who was responsible for taking care of Henry''s house. The entire place had been ransacked, chairs were overturned, screens and glasses were cracked, and the chandelier was on the ground smashed to pieces, courtesy of an overly excited Monkey King. I may not say it out loud, but that kid freaked me the fuck out, his abilities were tied to his hair; he could make them as long and as wide as he wanted them too, and even make them so hard they could cut through steel.


    But a display of his abilities were not what I wanted as I came here for something else entirely, he and the now awake Morrigan were the only backup I brought along since I didn''t see a need to bring down the wrath of my entire army down on my brother and his wife.


    Either way from the look of things, it seems they''ve skipped town, probably heard about the Carnage I had wrought in Moscow and felt it was better to disappear, but the thing is there was no place on this Earth that they would be able to hide away from me. Not unless they went and lived on top of Everest or deep in the Amazon.


    "Boss I got something!" I heard


    Morrigan say as she walked down from the second floor, a small laptop held in her hands. "Traffic came located a black sedan leaving the Los Angeles just two hours ago. Since it''s an old car, using wheels rather than a mag-lev engine, not much attention was paid to it. But I ran it''s plates and realized the car is registered to Imperium Industries, which is to say it''s a company car. But cars like this don''t come out unless we''re hosting an important visitor or the top brass feel the need to ride around the city old school.


    So I followed it''s movements, and check this out 15 minutes on the interstate, and the car went off the highway to an off-site private airstrip a little more than six or seven miles, smack day in the middle of abandoned community project.


    The only reason I''m able to get something off that airstrip is because a private jet, registered to one Henry Wade has landed and taken off from there more than eight times in the last three days. The airstrip is off books, but the jet is still very much in the system. I took off about an hour and half ago, and current trajectory says it''s heading for Miami." She explained as she brought the laptop down to look at me.


    If I say I don''t know where or who Henry was running to, would be a lie. Last I remembered, I had an aunt and an uncle or two over there, and not just them, but also the rest of the entire extended Wade family, including the fucking elders that could make things a bit difficult for me. But I wasn''t afraid of what''s to come, and that''s basically because I have no idea what.


    "Alright Morrigan, we''re done for the day. You and I both know where and whom Henry is running to. We should be expecting a call from them anytime soon, but regardless of whatever they might have to say, I''m still going to get my hands on him. Call that crazy monkey and let''s go, also keep an eye out for anybody called Raul related to this family, that fucker killed my mother and I''ll make sure he experiences hell on Earth before I kill him. now if you will excuse me I have to go log into a game."


    >>>>>


    When I logged back into the game, every one was gathered on Deck, the Acheron did not seem to have sustained any major damages, plus from what I could see, everyone else seemed to be okay, so at the moment I felt it was better to pay a little attention to myself. After all, apart from new skills and titles, I also grew 6 levels. 3 from the quests I completed, and three from the trail of bodies I and my crew left behind in this war against the Dragon God guild. Either way it was a happy occasion, it meant I had grown stronger, and the loss of a level as penalty for dying didn''t hit me as hard as it would have hit the players within the guild.


    Name: Aa Seven/ Level: 49(0.0%)/ Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Power Seeker/ One With The Wind/ Bronze Blood Commander/ Limit Breaker/ Sin Dragon Slayer/ Pirate Hunter/ World Shaper


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/ Captain Of The Acheron''s Crew


    Reputation: INFAMOUS(Wanted Dead Or Alive)


    Strength: 295/ Constitution: 310/ Agility: 346/ Dexterity: 346/ Intelligence: 295/ Wisdom:310


    Hp 2306 /2306(equip bonus +) MP 2490/2490(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:107 Skill points:171


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    Even with the massive amount of skill points I had, there was no reason to allocate any of them. And that''s because the bonus stats from my class and titles more than made up for the need to allocate those stats. I felt it would be better to keep them, they''re still going to be used, just when they were needed. The {Pirate Hunter} title had me +10 to all stats, while the {World Shaper} title gave +3 stat points every level and quite the bonus to construction. It was as if I was being given the go ahead to really participate in the upcoming tournament.


    However somethings seem to have changed. My faction was missing the coven of Angeles, I knew the system for the game would not make a mistake, so for sure something must have gone wrong while I wasn''t here. What that meant for me and my crew I couldn''t really be sure, we''ve sort of had a little bit of confidence to act since we knew we were in league with those guys, but it seems that might have changed.


    My stats were looking good, and I was a lot stronger than before, however I still had to pay my skills a little bit of attention. I''ve received new ones since the last time I checked them. Besides those skills were a big part of the reason why I''ve not had my ass massively handed over to me by all the enemies I''ve faced so far.


    PASSIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Wind child(level 1) Advanced. +15% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 1) Advanced. +20% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 1) Advanced. +30% to aim when in motion, +35% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Born(level 3)basic. Wherever you are the power of Nature is with you. HP regeneration 30% + 60% in Forests, Jungles and any other place Nature can be found. All attacks within nature oriented areas +30%, +100% favorability with all Nature attuned entities.


    ?	Pilot (Level 1) Advanced. Fly and navigate the skies in every form and manner possible. +50% to flight speed and maneuvering, +35% in navigating the skies, +40 to awareness.


    ?	Dragon Commander (level 5) basic. You''re the embodiment of draconic supremacy which gives you power over lesser lifeforms and other dragons. +80% chance to make opponents of a similar level bewildered, 100% for lower levels, 60% for opponents five levels higher, 40% for ten, 20% for fifteen, and 5% for twenty, + 10% increase to the stats of all allies and followers when giving commands.


    ?	Basic Regeneration (Level 1): health regenerates by 5% every 10 seconds


    ?	Basic Magic Breath Technique (Level 1): Mana regenerates by 5% every 10 seconds


    ACTIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Seeker(level 3) Advanced. +100% damage, speed and accuracy With all weapons. (Cost 100 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (Effect: Fade: All projectiles can not be tracked or seen except through special means)


    ?	Stealth Flight (level 1) Basic. Be unseen within the confines of the atmosphere. (Duration: 25 seconds) (cost: 120 MP)


    ?	Wind Fist(level 5) basic. A series of quickly executed martial skills with the full power and essence of the wind. Speed +15% during skill, Damage +15%, +5% chance to confuse opponents( cost 20 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (duration: 15 seconds) (Effect: No Air: all strikes are silent, and skill is powered by sucking air from the surroundings, including your opponent''s lungs)


    ?	Storm Dance(level 6) basic. Become one with the storm, increasing attack and movement speed by 300% defense and evasiveness against attacks raised by 150% for 10 seconds. All attacks are imbued with power of lightening. (Cost 60 MP) (cool down 200 seconds) (Effect: Lightening Field: Have a field of powerful electrical surges around you in a radius of 2 meters. Cause 50 flat damage every 2 seconds)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 2) Advanced. Summon two arrows of pure mana to cause 30% magical and physical damage in a range of 15 meters. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (Effect: Double or Nothing: release 4 arrows instead of two, speed +20% + 10% extra damage)


    ?	Stealth(level 5) basic. Turn invisible for sixty seconds. Stealth is broken when attacked or attacking. Every first hit from stealth is a critical. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 90 seconds) (Effect(I): Shroud Of Nature: Stealth in natural environment is increased by 50%


    ?	Purify(level 9) basic. Purify all things unclean and unholy. +100% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison. + 70% damage against the undead, +40% damage against dark creatures. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 60 seconds)


    ?	Lightning Blade(level 2) advanced. Coat your blade with lightening mana for 5 seconds. Every attack made would have extra lightening damage stacked on top by 35% and all slashes are AOE strike of 9x9 meters. Attack speed increases by 30%. (Cost 80 MP) (Cool down 75 seconds)


    ?	Area Of Silence(level 2) Advanced. Create a cone of air over multiple targets, eliminating the release of all skills and spells for ten seconds. (Cost 140 MP) (cool down 250 seconds)


    ?	Quake (level 2) Basic: stomp the ground and cause a resonance with the earth elements for a 5% of your total damage value with a five meter knock back effect. Damage value and knock back range increase exponentially every five levels/ COST: 25 EXP/ COOLDOWN: 8 SECONDS]


    ?	Fire School: Lava Pool: (Level 3) Basic: Summon a pool of lava within a two meter radius to trap your enemies and cause a steady damage of +1% health points every second. Ineffective against larger enemies./ COST: 250 EXP/ COOLDOWN: 20 SECONDS]


    MASTERIES:


    ?	Archery Mastery (level 4) basic. +3% to all archery skills and +5% damage from all bows and arrows


    ?	Sword Mastery (level 5) basic. +10% to all sword skills and +15% damage to swords (DEXTEROUS: +20% to Agility & Dexterity)


    ?	Magic Mastery (Level 2) basic. +4% damage to all magic skills and spells


    ?	Wind Domain (Level 1): you constantly have a field of magical wind and air power activated around you. All wind spells/skills/creatures: +20% to all combat specs/domain range: 2 meter radius


    ?	Strength Mastery(Level 1): +10% to all strength related activity


    ?	Constitution Mastery(Level 1): +10% to defense and health regeneration


    ?	Agility Mastery(Level 1): +10% to all speed related activity


    ?	Dexterity Mastery(Level 1): +10% to dexterity and flexibility


    ?	Intelligence Mastery(Level 1): +10% to all magic related activity


    ?	Wisdom Mastery(Level 1): +10% to magic defense and Mana regeneration


    AUGMENTED RACIAL TRAIT:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    ?	Spirit Of Air(I): Ability to communicate with air elementals and control air freely


    ?	Heart Of Wind(I): Ability to control wind freely.


    ?	Heart Of Water(I): Ability to control water freely.


    There were a lot of skills, but most of my strengths were coming mostly from my passive skill, they gave me even more power than was necessary for a player of my level, which was why I''ve been breezing through most of my obstacles. But I realized that we were just to small to face off against the entire player population and the inhabitants of the game as well. What was helping us was the fact that we''ve grown massively by taking advantage of the new update which more than rebooted that game and gave everyone an equal starting point.


    Well everyone but me, I''ve been in really weird and difficult situations so far and I''ve coasted through and gotten stronger from the rewards gained. But I get the feeling that''s still not enough. I made my way out to be Deck when all of a sudden my communicator rang, and the frowning face of Lerrianderlei showed up.


    "Captain are you complete incapable of utilizing finesse and practicing the sensible advice of minding your fucking business! Your recent clashes with the dragon God guild would shine too much light on our activities than we would like. So as of this moment the Coven of Angeles is disavowing you and denying all knowledge of you or relationship thereof. The elves and the patmosian with you have been declared as fugitives, so both the elf and patmosian Nation would be sending sweeper squads to take care of you.


    I''m sorry that it has come to this, but those dragon God guild shits! Aren''t something we can deal with, the situation is a little too delicate me it might start a war we''re not yet ready to fight. After this call my number would be erased from your communicator. The kill squads would move out in 3 days as we need to deal with a bunch of diplomatic bullshit. You''re a wanted man now, so the planet is no longer safe for you. Take my advice and forget about your current mission, we will send someone else to retrieve the elf priestess. Get off New Gaia before they find you, it''s a shame about the injured clone, but if you hang around the others will also die. So don''t fight...RUN!!"


    "FUCK!"

 149 Upgrade

    As opposed to when we first arrived at the Trident city of Atlantis, the ship was crowded and filled to the brim. Now there was just me, Dinah, Qitar, Persephone, Raven Song, Darke, Mack, Zack, Sky and the still comatose Jack, not to mention seven thousand unhatched dragon eggs. Yep we''re a real petite squad.


    "What do we do now? We''re wanted, which means there''ll be information about us in the Ocean city of Atlantis. We won''t be able to find the priestess that will save Jack. They''ll see us coming from a mile away." Raven Song said to me with a whole lot more worry than I''ve ever seen on his face.


    "They won''t see us coming Raven Song, you guys forget that the Acheron has a submarine form, we can use that to sneak into the island and look for the priestess. We''ve come too far to back down now, our friend needs us. However if anyone of you feel like this is too dangerous, then there''s no need to do anything about it, I''ll sneak in myself and get her out, and then deliver her back to her people should the need arises. But for now I''m not giving up on Jack."


    To be honest I was being selfish, Jack was in the position he was now due to a whole slew of events that had been orchestrated from the real world by my mother or some other fucking situation where the greed of humanity came into play. I felt responsible for him, so without a doubt I had to be the one who sees this to the end, I owe him that much.


    "Look at you being all heroic and self sacrificing. Your reckless shoot first ask questions later attitude got us into this mess in the first place, however you''ve only ever went that crazy when we were in danger, so we can cut you some slack. But what kind of a crew would will be if we let our Captain act and behave reckless all on his own, you should leave the spot light for someone else." Dinah said as she absent mindedly scrolled through her tablet.


    "The sex addict is right captain, this operation is not something you can do alone. You might be able to get on the island unseen, especially if you''re on your own, but coming back out with someone else would be too dangerous, you''re going to need extra help, someone to watch your back while the others are on standby..."


    " I''ll do it!" Persephone suddenly spoke up interrupting Qitar. Who was ignoring the death glare being sent her way by Dinah for calling her a sex addict.


    "I''ll watch his back, however after we get this elf priestess, I believe we would have to find a way to quickly get off the planet or we''ll be screwed. Obviously she''s quite important to this coven of Angeles people, we take her and they''re sure to go wild. However I believe that we would be able to get off the planet if we used in her in an exchange for a starship." Persephone explained.


    I shrugged my shoulders in agreement with what we said, it was quite criminal, but we''ve all been pushed to the wall as it is. Conventional methods won''t work for us here, and the idea of starting up a guild here does not sit too well with me. I need to go somewhere I can build my strength and have proper grounds to negotiate, because even if I leave, there''s still a virtual and real world ending virus running around looking for an opportunity to wreak havoc.


    "Alright I think this is a good idea, I''ll have to go with the ship''s compass to find the priestess on time, however I believe with that in tow we would be able to get in and get out in time. You guys would keep the ship submerged and close to the island, it also has to be in stealth mode. We''re going to a city of aquatic races, it would be much too easy for them to discover a submarine hanging around their island."


    Everyone seemed to be in agreement and went of to do one thing or another for what was probably our biggest heist yet...or maybe our second biggest heist. It like be quite hard for a mission to top spiriting an egg seed holding seven thousand of the universes last elemental dragons, away from what was probably the most powerful guild in the history of the game.


    Either way I felt that it wasn''t just the crew that needed to be ready for what we were about to do. The Acheron could also do with a little upgrade, though I''m hoping it wouldn''t take as much time as the last time. The ship was already powerful enough, but given that the entire world was now against us, she wasn''t even close to being powerful enough to help us survive, much less fight back.


    The ship had 23 upgrade points, how or the method with which she gained it, I didn''t know. However the Acheron could use said upgrade points to level up different parts of herself. Though some parts cost more than others, and not just her parts, but also the skills she had could be upgraded. I''ve outlined what I knew needed the most evolution, the housing properties of the ship(if there''s such a thing) was okay. We needed to make her skills powerful enough, plus evolving her weapons would also be a welcome bonus. I wouldn''t what to use the ion pulse cannon every time I wanted to punch a hole through a shield. Of course the shield the dragon God guild used could not be considered normal by a long shot, which spoke volumes of how powerful the cannon already was at level 1, but still it would be better if the other weapons could cause that much damage.


    The turrets had a high rate of fire, but their damage was just too light, the only saving grace they had was the fact that there were dozens of not hundreds of it, so it was like being under a hail of arrows. But other than a hail of arrows let''s just say it''s a hail of tiny stones that would eventually bring a structure down due to how concentrated it was and how rapidly it fell. Relying on the turrets would take too much time, and the guns were too slow even though they had really powerful impact and damage.


    { Spend 2 upgrade points to level STAR DRAGON TURRETS from L1->L2}


    {Spend 3 upgrade points to level STAR DRAGON MOUNTED GUNS from L1->L2}


    The next thing would be it''s defense, I would say that the primary defense was already strong enough seeing as it hasn''t gotten low enough that we had to see what the ship''s secondary and main defense system was like. And I would very much like to keep it that way. The basic energy shield needed an upgrade too, just enough to be able to withstand stronger hits from much more stronger players and ships, heck I hope it would be able to withstand the weapons on a starship, or a battleship or a jet.


    {Spend 3 upgrade points to level BASIC ENERGY SHIELD from L1->L3}


    The shield required less points to upgrade than the guns, guess that''s why it was a basic shield. It needed a single point to get it to level 2 and 2 points to get it to level 3. Which means in any case this was a win for us, and it was possible to rapidly evolve the shield since it was still a basic energy shield without too much cost. Anyway with that out of the way I had to pay attention to the ship''s skills, and in particular two had caught my attention.


    {Spend 2 Upgrade points to level up DIVE from L1->L2}


    {Spend 5 upgrade points to level up GHOST MODE from L1->L2}


    {Spend 3 upgrade points to level CAMOUFLAGE from L1->L3}


    {Spend 3 upgrade points to level up SEA SPRINT from L1->L3}


    {Spend 2 upgrade points to level up NANO CELLS from L1->L2}


    Camouflage had gotten our asses out of quite a few tight spots, plus Sea Sprint would be our getaway card should we find ourselves in a position where we have to get away from pursuers as fast as possible.


    The Acheron was already quite fast for a ship of it''s size, so an extra wind in our sails could make all the difference in a fight. Nano cells were like the ship''s very own white and red blood cells, plus it was also the ship''s healing factor, being capable of healing any damage to the ship and also responsible for it''s upgrades by building and expanding the ship.


    Dive was what activated the ship''s submarine form, and as for ghost mode, that skill did exactly what it''s name said it does. The Acheron would literally become a ghost ship, changing it''s abilities from a technological aspect to one that''s more fantasy like, not to mention this would completely eliminate the chance of any sort of radar finding us. It was an absolute hide skill that even Camouflage could not compare to, but using it just once would drain 80% of the ship''s energy that we currently have access to.


    {Spend 23 upgrade points}


    {Commencing upgrade/ Estimated time for upgrade completion 0:30:50}


    Just thirty minutes for an upgrade, well that''s a whole lot more faster than I thought. But even so I still didn''t understand how the Acheron''s evolution worked, there was no definite level progression, especially when it last took it three days for the entire ship to evolve, I guess all I had to do was play the waiting game, it wouldn''t take the Acheron long to evolve anyway.


    SHIP NAME: ACHERON


    ?	CAPTAIN/OWNER: A¨¢ SEVEN


    ?	CLASS: MEDIUM SIZED PIRATE GUNSHIP


    ?	GRADE: EARTH


    ?	LEVEL: 2


    ?	DEFENSE: 40.8/ SPEED: 67.9/ POWER: 60.4/BALANCE: 49.2


    ?	MAIN WEAPONS: ION PULSE CANNON(L1)


    ?	SUB WEAPONS: STAR DRAGON TURRETS(L2)/STAR DRAGON MOUNTED GUNS(L2)


    ?	MAIN DEFENSE: BASIC ENERGY SHIELD(L3)


    ?	SUB DEFENSE: BLACK PEARL MAGIC SHIELD(L1)


    ?	AREAS: ENGINE ROOM(L2)/CABIN ROOM(L3)/MEDIC BAY(L2)/GENERAL ROOM(L2)/DECK(L3)/CAPTAINS QUARTERS(L2)/HULL(L1)


    ?	CORE: MYSTERIOUS BLACK PEARL (L2)


    ?	SKILLS: (CAMOUFLAGE L3)(SEA SPRINT L3)( NANO CELLS L2)(MAGIC NAVIGATION L5)(DIVE L2)(GHOST MODE L2)(SIPHON L1)


    ?	UPGRADE POINTS AVAILABLE: 0


    Everything was very different from the last time I gave it a look, and one very obvious fact that gave me a shock was the fact that the upgrade of her skills actually made her stats level up. It shocked the heck out of me, I knew that the upgrade points could also be used to evolve her stats, but this was even better than using the points.


    At the very least I''ve learnt something quite important about the Acheron, and that''s the fact that her stats was based on the total sum of every single thing on her, including her skills. So if you grew that, her stats would grow in turn, making for a well rounded and easily growing ship. We''ll just have to see what the future holds.


    I made my way towards Darke and gave him a nod while I took in the sights of the sea around me. It would be quite some time before the Acheron surfaces again, and that would only be at the most necessary of moments. After all it would be a whole lot harder to find a ship under the sea than above it, especially one that wants to remain hidden.


    (DIVE initiated! Submarine form engaged)


    I felt the Acheron shake a bit as the her central mast shook, then retracted into the deck along with the folded sails. From the side of the ship, tiny hexagonal shields made of gleaming silver metal began to stretch and overlap over each other until the entire deck area was covered. Based on the shape of the shield above our heads and the prior shape of the ship, I would say we looked like a massive silver and black whale.


    The shield did not block out the sights, as we could still see the sky, though I very much doubt anyone would be able to see inside. It was like a one way window, with you only being able to see inside from one side, while the other would be completely blank, but in this case it wasn''t a mirror but metal. Complex holographic equations and nautical lines began showing up above our heads on the shield, it was as if I was looking at a nautical chart or map, and with the way it was moving and had detail''s, this was practically all the places we''ve been before. It was quite a sight.


    The ship began her descent then, the sea on her sides seemingly parting to give her access into the darkness below. Her descent just like many things about her was a thing of beauty. And finally we found ourselves completely within the embrace of the sea, with the surface forgotten and left behind until further notice.


    The shield above our heads lit up, the sea beyond it was exposed to us in a manner that left chills in my bones and ideas in my head. It was like looking through a night vision goggles, but everything from heat sensors, motion sensors, bacteria and viral detectors and completely 360 degree radar that encompassed both the top and bottom of the ship. And with every stride the ship made, it was learning and recording the life forms within 3 kilometers of it, and even more crazy was the fact that it was mapping the seas.


    "Seriously Dude, where the hell did you get this ship from?" Raven Song asked with his mouth wide open. Unfortunately I didn''t have an answer for him, I was just as shocked.

 150 The Ocean City Of Atlantis I : Arrival, A Boss

    It took us close to six hours of travel before we got the notification that we were drawing close to the Ocean City of Atlantis. The city was actually made up of two parts, and based on the information the Acheron was able to glean as we drew close, there was an upper city; which was built on the island above the sea surface, and then the lower city; built under the island and into the sea itself.


    Without the Acheron''s hiding capabilities, we would be noticed by the inhabitants of the lower city long before we even got close. However we were in luck as the Ocean City of Atlantis was more unlawful than lawful. And as for the power and ability spectrum, it was leaning a bit more in the fantasy direction of the game as opposed to the science fiction part of it. Which means we could take advantage of that and get close enough without being found.


    A lot of unsavory characters had made both the upper and lower city their home, which is to say that they would very much like to avoid surveillance of any sort. So we could ease our worries about radars or someone having any sort of surveillance device that would exposed my identity to the wrong crowd.


    "Alright Captain! What''s our plan of approach?" Qitar asked as we gathered around a small table in the general area.


    "Your captain has a rough but somewhat simple plan. We both sneak into the lower city and find our way to the upper city from there, there should be some sort of tunnel connecting the two. Either way once we''re on the island we would use the magic compass thingamabob to find the elf girl, and then get out just as quickly as we came." Persephone explained to the others, but all she received from them was blank looks, and what the hell is a thingamabob?.


    "That''s a lousy plan! There''s just so much holes in it that I could raise a million fishes In them." Dinah sarcastically muttered to herself, but loud enough that she knew we all heard it.


    "The thing is, you have to have an escape plan put in place, the two of you getting onto the island and into the city is already hard enough as it is, but getting someone else out would be even more difficult. You both can''t do it alone, but even then if there''s too many of us we could all be noticed before we''ve achieved what we came here for. There''s too much risk and we have to be really careful about what we do next, Jack''s and our lives are depending on it." Mack explained as he folded his hands over each other, his magic staff clasped tightly within his grip.


    "Then who has a better idea, because quite frankly I''m all ears." I said to them as we looked at the map of the island that for every second we drew closer to it, became increasingly more detailed.


    "The ship would be able to fully map the island if we go around it and swim directly under it. Of course there''s a chance we might get discovered, but I think it''s best if we do a little recon and see if there''s parts of the island we might be able to take advantage of. Once we''ve done that, I believe we need to have two if not three teams get on the island. We can leave Qitar and Dinah behind to keep ship ready for escape and combat should the need arises, but you and Persephone, Zareth and Raven Song, and then me , Darke and Zack would find another way onto the island.


    Apart from recon purposes, even with the compass leading the way to the priestess, there might be a need for more resources and information to get to her. That''s where we come in, plus there''s no guarantee that we would be able to escape the same way with which we arrived, so it would be up to the rest of us to secure a way off the island before rendezvousing with the ship and learning exactly what forces and who we might end up having to deal with. You can just focus on finding the elf." Mack explained with a furrowed look on his face.


    Mack has always been the more intelligent of the clones, his Ability to find and disseminate information was quite impressive. If he was on earth, he would probably be working for the CIA.....or maybe working for me, which if you think about it, was actually the same thing. Either way his plan also had holes, but it was more foolproof than mine, and it meant that anyone of us would have backup when we needed it should things get out of hand. Besides if worse comes to worse, we could just blow the island up! I''m already a wanted man, blowing up an island filled and ran by criminals can not make my reputation any more bad than it already is.


    "Alright Darke engage ghost mode, and let''s hope that the Acheron gets enough information for us to be able to get into the cities without being noticed."


    (GHOST MODE ENGAGED/ ENERGY LEVELS DROPPED BY 78.90%)


    >>>>>


    THE OCEAN CITY OF ATLANTIS: UPPER CITY


    HELL GATE PEAK


    KEEPER?????


    KEEPER had kept watch over this infernal gates for thousands of years, and even though he knew that his time as keeper was rapidly coming to an end, he wasn''t really happy. Those otherworld travelers might think he hasn''t noticed what they''ve been doing, but he has, and if left chills in his 10 thousand year old brittle bones. Most people said that with age came wisdom, but for him all it brought about was weakness, with the gates he was supposed to watch over fully and completely responsible for his greying hair and aching bones.


    His vigorous life essence was what has been keeping the gates sealed, and the gates themselves greedily drank from him, gaining sentience and power and mocking his resolve and duty. Forgotten by his own race until they themselves had become nothing more than myth, a history long forgotten than even the dragon wars itself. But that was not the only thing he lost, over the years of keeping watch in and over this city, he has had loved ones, wives, sons, daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren.


    But now they were all forgotten under the ravages of time, displaced just like his history and the knowledge of who and what he is. He had forgotten his own name, forgotten his own heart and mind until every other day became a simple slog of self pity and remorse, aches and pains as he counted time that passed and waited for the ever close embrace of death. He used to have a name, but now all he was and could ever be was Keeper; Keeper of the Gates of Hell.


    Regardless of what may come, Keeper was prepared to meet the end with open arms and a happy smile on his face. This world had grown weak and might not be able to withstand the onslaught of hell, but it was also strong in it''s own right, especially now that he could feel the elements stirring. Be it the gods, or the now forgotten elemental dragons, the elements of the world were stirring, shaking and roiling, this was a call to war the likes of which this world has not seen in ten thousand years.


    And once upon a time, such a thing would have gotten Keeper''s blood boiling with anticipation. But this war was not for him, to be honest he really didn''t care who would win, all that mattered to him was his duty, it''s the only thing that has stood the test of time. His job to defenf the gates of hell and keep it from ever being opened, apart from that, the universe could go fuck itself.


    "Is that him? The boss we have to kill to open the gates?" a voice asked as over a hundred men and women made their way into Keeper''s temple.


    "Yes that''s him, don''t you see the name tag above his head? We have to kill him to secure the temple, then we can commence the sacrifice by midnight." Another voice replied.


    "But seriously though, look at him! He''s just an old man, what could he possibly do to stop us? Come on boss do we really have to fight him?"


    "Well you stupid idiot, he has to die for the ritual to be completed, as long as he''s still alive his life force would keep the gates bound and tightly shut. Didn''t you hear what the demon said when they gave us this mission? We have to end him for the gates to be free of suppression. For all intents and purposes he''s the first lock we have to smash open, so stop whining and get your head into the game! literally! He''s just a boss."


    Keeper has heard the terms these people have taken to calling him, he couldn''t exactly said that he liked it, but he couldn''t say that he disliked it either. Quite frankly he didn''t care what they called him, the only thing that mattered was how much of a fight they would out up, because Keeper had every intention of going all out and pushing whatever was left of his once magnificent strength to the extreme. Hopefully these ''players'' do not disappoint and give a great fight that''s to precede a worthy death.


    {{ It''s great that you have all gathered here to usher me into my demise, I have waited long for this day, imagined and dreamt it over and over again, but...¡­each time it''s not always the same. And I can assure you it''s very different from today too. But one thing that all stays the same is the screams of men, the rage of warriors and the scent of blood all blending together to make for a befitting send off, at the very least I feel that I deserve that.


    But in all honesty I really don''t want to fight, my bones ache a lot, breathing is quite difficult for me, and I feel sleepy all the time.}}


    "Well old man if you don''t want to fight then why don''t you just let us kill you, we promise to make it quick right guys?"


    "Sure we will hahahaha, we need to have respect for the elderly."


    {{ What else can be expected of ignorant children who call themselves ''players!'' to make a mockery of death and the honor of spilled blood right in the presence of Keeper. You fools must be prepared to die over and over again to be able to beat me, sure your infernal magic of resurrection would keep you all coming after me like flies over shit!


    But with each death you children experience, I would make sure it''s more painful and brutal than you imagine and slowly break and twist your mind until you''re all nothing but mewling little piglets at the mercy of my divine mandate and duty.


    I implore you all to take this seriously, I intend to die a good death, a satisfactory death. I don''t want to spend my last moments disciplining a bunch of idiots without the conviction to face a Titan!........yes! I remember now, that''s what I am, I am a Titan. Indeed I am, I can''t believe I had forgotten the glory of my race, but my heart is true and my duty is just.


    It has been many moons since I felt so alive, but I feel the sweet and loving arms of death slowly beckoning me, calling me into her embrace and bringing me the just end I deserve. It''s a shame that it has to come at the hand of you bunch of pathetic and dishonor filled flesh bags. Well then ''players'' I invite you to a dance of death with me, and etch the honor that I''ve given you today in your heart. And let your children''s children and their children remember the glorious end of ATLAS! THE TITAN THAT CARRIES THE WORLD!

 151 The Ocean City Of Atlantis II : Plans

    The waters within the Ocean city of Atlantis was a little bit cold, or it could be that it wasn''t the water that was making me cold, but rather the fact that I was encased in a big ball of ice by Persephone. This was the method they came up with to have us gain entry into the city, by having Persephone pose as a bounty Hunter looking for a place to lay low. For the most part, it seemed to have worked. The loser city was brightly lit and was huge a marvel of architecture, here coral reefs at the edge of the buildings that gave the entire city a bright feel, it was like Vegas but underwater, and it was also quite huge too.


    The buildings there either stretched downwards from the bottom of the island, or where actually floating islands within the sea itself. There were a variety of races going about their business, but surprisingly enough, many of them were players. And with how each and every single one of them was running about, I would say that they were probably completing one quest or another for the denizens of the city. But then again something felt...off, the city just somehow seemed to be a little bit more busy than I imagined, almost as if something big was about to go down.


    Now to an obvious eye, they wouldn''t notice anything wrong, but players and AI''s alike where all placed on watch at strategic locations, others were busy moving crates or weapons and even tiny underwater jet skis that could only fit on person. It was a weird vibe, but I get the feeling that they were preparing for a conflict of some sort, what kind I have no idea, but it was coming none the less, I was feeling a little frantic and would very much like to get the fuck out of here.


    However everywhere I turned, there seemed to be eyes watching, so it would take a little bit of finesse to be able to slip away. Persephone swam with the ball of ice in tow, drawing much attention to herself as she made her way to the central district. Normally such a sight would a cause for bullies and gang bangers to try and intimidate away what belonged to her, but no one seemed to care, plus Persephone didn''t look like a pushover either, so no one wanted to be the one to make a move against her. She moved until she came to a central tube almost a 100 meters in diameter an 300 in length which shot upwards into the bottom of the island this was probably the path that connected both the upper and lower cities.


    "Halt! Passage between the upper and the lower cities have been restricted indefinitely. Please return and find lodgings within the lower city, it would be quite a while before the path is opened again."


    As if I needed anymore confirmation that something was up, the guard who had just spoke was a merman, but much like the mermen I''ve seen in this game so far, the idea of using tridents to fight doesn''t sit well with them, so he was carrying a big ass gun that was hoping at the sides, kind of like some sort of plasma gun. A shot from that would not just hurt, it would probably vaporize the person it was used against. Now normally I wouldn''t give a shit about what''s happening or about to happen, I still don''t to be honest, but now this whole thing has gotten my interest piqued.


    "Please is there nothing else I can do, no amount of money I can pay to get through? I''ve been underwater for a while and I would really love to feel the sun on my skin."


    "Sorry I can''t help you, please leave or I''ll be forced to use lethal force against you!"


    Now that dude is just mean, but it was obvious he wasn''t playing around, so it was time from plan B or our plan A which now that I''m thinking about it should have probably had a plan C and D. Since there was no way up from here, we had to look for another alternative and it couldn''t be anywhere close to this guy, we''ll be looking for another way up, so we''ll have to avoid the familiar face of the grumpy guard.


    Persephone turned away from him and made her way towards he Eastern edge of the city, when the Acheron was mapping this city, we discovered that the city had a barrier that was extended a little over two kilometers from it''s edge, and that the edges had power or relay stations of sorts that kept the barrier active and powered. Currently since the city was not under attack the barrier was in an inactive state where all it could do was surveillance.


    However we also noticed that those power stations were drawing power from the top of the island and seemed to have direct access to it. And luckily for us there were a few hotels around the stations as they seemed to be some sort of tourist attraction with their glowing towers of light blue energy. It was also considered the waters part of the city due to how stringent the security measures were, it would take a little more than just talking to get our way through them.


    Persephone made it to a small hotel called the Forgotten Shell, it was the closest inn to the edge and the stations, however it was filled to the brim with other players and AIs who had the same idea about a way to get to the upper city. That brought upon the startling realization that there was more to whatever the fuck was happening here than I thought, but we couldn''t stay here either. There were just too many people around that there was a massive chance that we could get caught up in a conflict we''re not supposed to give a shit about. It was annoying, but I hope the others were having much more luck than we were.


    >>>>>


    ZARETH & RAVEN SONG


    The two unlikely partners drove their jet skis over the billowing waves of the Atlantic. The ride was much more smoother than expected, speaking volumes about the power, speed and balance of the jet skis the Acheron had created or rather assimilated and upgraded during her evolution. Raven was quite interested in how they worked, but all Zareth had in mind was a single minded focus on how to get on the island.


    The dwarf was never one for fun and games, his reddish brown beard swayed under the onslaught of the rushing wind, which was pushing his hair backwards, having his thick braided locks sway under it''s buffeting pressure like a piece of paper in a wind storm. Raven Song on the other hand found the whole thing quite comical, the dwarf was not a conversationalist, which was weird since all dwarves liked to talk, but he had been keeping stoic since they left the ship and in turn nature has been kicking his ass by sending his beard into his eyes, nose and mouth and having the wind pull at his thick hair as If he was being rode upon by something...or someone.


    But Zareth''s unfortunate situation came to an end once the harbor of the island came into sight. It was build into a cove and further in was a massive cavern that served as the entrance to the city and had tunnels that led further in. Not a lot of people paid attention to Zareth or Raven Song individually as quite a few new and strange faces have been coming and going over the last few weeks. But the sight of a dwarf with a Lance and a dark elf with golden heavy armor, a tower shield and a one handed war hammer was quite a sight. They were weird, but once you think about it, there were too many things in this world, and adding two more freaks into that equation was a need for alarm. So everyone went back to what they were doing and ignored the unlikely duo.


    "Welcome to the upper city of the Ocean City of Atlantis! It''s one silver dollars to dock your skis in this harbor. My name is Mongo and I''ll be your guide and the valet responsible for keeping your vehicles safe. Now what brings you here gentlemen, business or pleasure?" the overly chipper voice that just assaulted them asked.


    Zareth didn''t even think as he just answered "A moon elf!"


    *Cough* *cough*


    Raven son started coughing really hard as he was caught of guard and so shocked at Zareth''s audacity. What kind of idiot would give away the reasons for their arrival so easily, especially when it''s supposed to be a secret. This could throw the whole mission in jeopardy, this was why he like his desk job of being an analyst for the CIA in real life. Every field agent always acted cocky and stupid thinking they''re James bond or some other shit like that! If now this Zareth seems to be that big of a fool.


    "oh moon elves! We have lots of those hanging around, we have the best elven brothel on the planet, heck it''s the only elven brothel in existence. And moon elves and high elves are the ultimate sexual experience!" Mongo said with a dog tilt to his voice.


    Raven song shifted his gaze to have an idea of who or what they and been talking to, and there floating above their heads was a red ugly thing with purple horns, yellow eyes and a forked tail, hell it even had a pitchfork to top of off the whole mini devil look. Raven song had played the game for quite a while and even was once a part of a top guild, but he had never come across this tiny little thing before.


    "And what the fuck are you supposed to be?" Raven asked, temporary shelving the discussion he was about to delve into, or rather it was more like a berating.


    "I already told you, I''m Mongo!" the guy red devil replied.


    "I think what he meant to ask is, what are you little one?" Zareth chipped in, asking the question smoothly as he shifted his gaze across the cove and subsequent cavern that served as the island''s harbor.


    "Oh! I''m a demon! Or to be more specific an imp! This is the only place in the world where you can find us. Anyway I''m working here for now until I''m able to get contracted to a master that would teach and train me into becoming an all powerful demon, maybe even evolve me into a devil!"


    "We do not care about that, small thing called Mongo. I''ll Have Ye deliver me and me companion to some lodgings, but better yet give we weary travelers a tour through the city. But do make sure to tell us more about them moon elves while you''re at it." Zareth said, taking on an entirely different persona that shocked the hell out of Raven Song.


    But the Dwarf didn''t care, he wasn''t as stupid as he made himself to be. There was a massive neon sign a little ways to the right that was advertising the services of a brothel, and one of the highlights was the variety of elves it had to offer. Elves were known for being really beautiful and well endowed, however to get an elf to lay with you, is even more harder to look for a needle that fell right in the middle of an ocean, during a storm. Zareth had every intention of using that as a cover for himself and Raven Song.


    It wasn''t until they were well on their way, following behind the tiny Imp that Raven Song noticed the sign and realized what angle Zareth was working from. Dwarves were boisterous and wild and loved a good old sex marathon every now and then, dark elves are known as the Masters of depraved sex.


    They were so into BDSM and the very terrible habit of gangbanging anyone unlucky enough to fall into their traps. So a dwarf and a dark elf asking about a brothel filled with numerous races but who''s main attraction where the moon and high elves...to everyone here it was obvious they were just a pair of pervert here to get their dick wet.


    It took off a lot of heat and suspicion from their backs, but in all honesty Raven Song wasn''t so sure about how he felt at being seen as a depraved sex addict. It made him feel weird since the relationship between him and his wife was as simple and missionary as it gets. He wasn''t like the captain who was obviously having fun role playing the role of a heroic/anti-hero pirate captain trying to do right by his crew with the ultimate mission of preserving the dragon race. Raven was just Raven, and now lots of people thought he was a pervert, he half expected the people around to turn around and start screaming hentai!


    "This is going to be a long day." Raven said as he followed behind Zareth and the Imp, his head hung considerably low.

 152 The Ocean City Of Atlantis III : Plans 2

    ZACK, DARKE & MACK


    The elves were already in the upper city, and that was done two hours before Zareth and Raven Song decided to make their move. If anyone were to ask, all the trio would say was trade secrets, after all they were trained soldiers, and Mack had the makings of a great spy, the fact that he could also cook was also quite a bonus. The three of them were hanging around a bar close to the north exit of the city, which led out to the woods. However said exit was closed, and the only other way out was to leave through the harbor and sail around the edge of the island.


    However that course of action would definitely draw more attention than any one of them would need or be able to handle at the moment. The moment they got on the island, it hadn''t taken them too long of a time to discover the shady movements in the city. Well calling it shady would be given them too much credit as even the guards of the city itself seemed to be walking hand in hand with players and the denizens of the island to move a couple of goods out of the city and into the forest outside it. Mack reckoned they were probably heading to the mountain in the distance, or the massive hill that overlooked the city north of it.


    Or they might be heading to some other clandestine location, but the thing is, they needed to find a way to get through, or at the very least find out what was going on. And not just that the had to figure out an escape route while they''re at it. And from what they''ve noticed, getting on the island was not a problem, but getting off was going to be a hassle. Movements to and fro from the harbor was locked down right, even the massive 100 meter in diameter pond in the middle of the city that led to the lower city was locked tight and being guarded by a bunch of ferocious looking guards. I wouldn''t exactly be easy if at all possible to bypass these guys without starting a fight that would bring the whole forces of the island down on them.


    "Can I get you guys anything else?" a young human girl working as a bar maid walked to their table with a tray in hand. The food in front of them was hardly touched and the wine still hung at the brim of their cups. Mack knew not eating and just sitting there silently will draw attention, and even if they had on disguises and physical attributes that set them apart from each other, their mannerisms were so similar that they might be easily recognized as clones of each other.


    "No thanks, we''re good here, just get us some water if you don''t mind." Zack said to her with a wild smile on his face, his shaggy hair hanging allover his face and giving him a rather wild look.


    "Okay, one jug of water, coming right up!" she replied with a smile that was a little too bright, before turning to go get the water.


    The elven clones had to make a discussion, but given that they were in a bar where it was quite possible that the contents of what they had to say could be heard by the wrong party, hey had to shift a much older much more obscure language that not more than 5% of the current eleven population knew how to speak, much less the rest of the Galaxy. It was an old human tongue, one that was even already extinct before the great rebirth. That language was Latin.


    "So what do we do now, obviously something is going on in this city, but it seems it''s concentrated outside of it rather than inside. An they''re keeping everyone else not in the know insides the city, this is probably the only way they could keep whatever it is they have to do under wraps and prevent any sort of interference." Darke spoke up as he took a spoonful of the food in front of him.


    "Even so, our movements would be a little bit restricted due to how tight the security it, whoever these people are, they''re not taking any chances. We need proper schematics of the city, and also a way off this rock should things go sideways. Locating the priestess is not our job, we just have to know what''s up with the island and how to get off it when the time comes, so we should just go us on recon and finding other avenues of escape without having to blow this place sky high like the captain suggested." Mack said, taking a drink from his cup in the process. Zack furrowed his brows and asked.


    "I don''t get why you suggested we look for a way off and do reconnaissance instead of looking for the priestess. Shouldn''t it be us who finds her."


    Mack looked up, not at all blind to the bitterness in Zack''s tone and the annoyed look on his face. He shook his head and smiled as he looked at what was essentially his clone, just as he was his, but a person he saw as his younger brother.


    "That''s exactly the reason why I said we shouldn''t be given that task. Jack''s our brother, and we love him very much. But we would not have been able to think clearly and objectively due to how personal such a task would be for us. And I know you would say that it''s because it''s personal that we would be more focus, but that''s a lie. We''ve been doing this our whole lives, we''ve had to watch as our brothers died on missions due to emotions getting in the way.


    It''s not just us putting their life on the line, and even though the Captain, the new girl and Raven Song can come back to life at the cost of being weakened, if Zareth dies due to a mistake on our part, like letting our emotions get the best of us and not making rational decisions. We''ll never be able to give ourselves, even if we manage to save Jack, and there''s the very deal possibility that we might fail. So please be calm and let''s do what we have to do, the captain has not failed us yet, and I doubt he would now. Besides, this is his personal quest, not ours, we''re just along for the ride."


    >>>>>


    A¨¢ SEVEN & PERSEPHONE


    I stretched a bit, endlessly grateful for finally being out of that damn ice ball, nobody even cared to check what did of bounty Persephone had come to cash in on, so no one knew it was me the very much shared captain of the Acheron. Normally I should be happy that no one was looking for me, but this was fucking annoying, no one was even paying any sort of attention to me, and I really wasn''t liking it. But our next order if steps would be to use the compass to find a way to the upper city, because I''ve checked, with the constant dragging feeling that pointed upwards, it more than proved that the priestess was above and not below.


    Currently Persephone and I were in a horse right in the middle of the lower city, fish people swam every which way blissfully ignoring us, however I didn''t have too much time on my hands. I couldn''t remain underwater indefinitely, apart from my augmented racial trait, I could only stay underwater for about two hours before I need to go up to breathe, and I was running out of time.


    I pulled the compass out and gave it a cursory look, it was pointing west and coupled with the dragging feeling I was getting from it, it was probably taking me where I could find a path to the upper city. I turned to Persephone and gave a tilt of my head, telling her to come on. She made that ball of ice again, encasing me in it before swimming in the direction that I subtly nudged her towards.


    The city was really busy, and for an underwater city it was also quite beautiful, not exactly what I expected. But like every other city, there was always a slim, a dark and seedy underbelly where those people without the best of opportunities had taken to calling their home, it was also the stomping ground of common criminals. And it is well known that Atlantians where freaking pirates of the worst sort.


    The slums weren''t any more welcoming than the city it was a sort of, however everyone here seemed really eager to mind their own business. Which quite honestly worked well in our favor and I was quite happy for that. Eventually we came up to a building that looked like a dilapidated church, now the buildings in the under city were mostly made from pillars of towers jutting out from under the main island itself, or built on under it, using the bottom of the island as a foundation, so instead of building from the ground up, the built from the top down.


    The building was abandoned, and written in bright red letters above an open doorway were the words "Beware! Beware! Death lays beyond!" Well let''s not say that the aquatic races didn''t have a flake for the dramatic, I literally felt chills from reading that, or maybe it would be because Persephone dispelled the ice ball. She looked at me with raised eyebrows and asked.


    "Are you sure you read the directions correctly? How the heck can this place lead to the upper city?" I ignored the insulting tone in her voice as I answered.


    "The compass has never led me astray before, sure it''s sent me into the literal jaws of death before, but I believe this is the way. Come on, we''re running out of time." I said to her as I swam into the entrance with her following close behind.


    {ALERT: INSTANCE DUNGEON}


    {You have discovered the Instance Dungeon: THE PRISON OF CALYPSO/ exp and skill increment increased by 40% for duration of Dungeon run. All stats reduced by 80% should you fail dungeon run! Drops increased by 100%}


    The moment the message faded from view, Persephone turned to look at me with an annoyed look on her face. I on the other hand had a sheepish look on mine, I did lead her here in the first place, but I really wasn''t sorry. However why was I having this very weird feeling of Deja Vu , like I''ve been in this same kind of situation before. I looked at the compass hanging by my neck and narrowed my eyes, the last time; we ended up in a dungeon filled with mutant nereids. Then I decided to phrase another question.


    "Take me to a safer and discreet path to the upper city"


    And then the fucking compass spun towards another direction, and Persephone saw it along with the ugly look on my face. Damn it! It''s always important to phrase where you wanted to go or what you shared properly, but I had just asked for an alternate path to the upper city, and for a compass that''s mainly made for the hung of treasures, it would definitely lead me right into a fucking Dungeon.


    "I''m sorry Persephone, but we have to see this through. I won''t make a mistake like this next time." I said to her as pulled Sky and shifted her into her staff form. I was underwater so fighting with a bow or a sword would be really hard.


    "Oh don''t worry about it, I get first pick of all the loots anyway." She said to me as she spun her ice daggers around her fingers.


    "Like hell that''s happening! I....."


    *Booong!*


    "Save the argument for later, now! We fight!"

 153 The Ocean City Of Atlantis IV : Dungeons & Brothels

    A golden barrier had sprung up right behind us, obviously we couldn''t go back from whence we came, so the only other option was to fight our way up. I''ve been in quite a few dungeons already, but this was the first time I''ve had tonight underwater, so it would be quite the experience if I do say so myself. We were within a grand hall of some sort, this place really did look like a church, there were clam shells arrange to form pews, and most of them were already in huge a sorry and dilapidated state, very much like the building we were currently in.


    *Scrrrruuuuuujiiiiiiiiii*


    The infernal screeching of the monsters in front of us almost made my ears bleed, heading it alone was quite disconcerting and it made me feel a little woozy and unsteady on my feet.


    (You Have Heard The Wail Of An Ocean Dark Sentinel, You Have Acquired The Dazed Debuff)


    Thankfully the debuff didn''t last that long as Persephone streaked forward in he water, her from leaving behind tiny ice crystals and bubbles. Her daggers flashed as she cut it towards what looked like a floating cloak with transparent purple arms and yellow eyes that could be seen from within the confines of it''s hood. But apart from that there was nothing else to show that this monster had a complete body, it was just like some ghost of wraith.


    {Ocean Sentinel: Level 60/ Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: Ghost/ HP: 50/50}


    Well that was quite weird, how can a level 60 monster, which if you ask me was just too strong for us to face have just 50 HP. Excluding the fact that said monster was about ten levels of more higher than me, it was just so ridiculous that it had such small HP. It just didn''t make sense, a level 60 being such a glass Canon. I looked up just in time to see Persephone slash both her ice daggers on the sentinel''s body.


    (-1HP) (-1HP)


    If my jaw could go any lower I would be picking it up from the ground, that amount of damage was abysmal, and I don''t think those daggers she was using were anything ordinary, but yet it was as if the bloody thing was completely negating the damage being done to it, and only taking the hardest minimum as damage. No wonder a level 60 monster would have only 50HP.


    (MANA ARROW)


    I pointed Sky''s staff form at the Sentinel, sending four magical arrows of piercing silver blue that slammed into the Sentinel one after the other. The monster let out a massive screech of pain as it floated backwards towards a set of stairs that would probably lead to the next floor. S it stepped back unraised my eyes up to see the damage values that was floating over it''s head. (-3HP, -2HP, -2HP, -5Hp). All four strokes had delivered a 12 point damage, plus Persephone''s previous 2 and that made for fourteen damage, which meant we still had 46 to get rid of.


    The Sentinel was trying to escape, much to our surprise, but Persephone went around the monster, sheathing her daggers behind her as she pointed her hands towards the monster and sent a bolt of ice at the monster. It seemed as if it was more susceptible to magical damage than physical damage, so it would be better for Persephone to switch to mainly magical offense. However (-1HP), but by then it was too late to even be surprised.


    *Puff-puff*


    Two bolts of shimmering purple and black energy flew out of the Sentinel''s hood and see into my chest one after the other. The first picked me off the ground and whilst I was airborne in a surprising show of skill, the other slammed into my chest, sending me flying back until my back smacked into the golden barrier that was over the entrance of the dungeon. I saw starts for a moment, loosing my clarity and also 10% of my HP, with each bolt taking 5% each. I felt a certain burn in my chest, but ignored it and rolled Way just in time to dodged the glimmering purple class that was coming down to take my head off.


    I got out of my roll and raised Sky up, and without standing on ceremony released four more arrows, and this time since we were quite close, the impacts seemed to be a whole lot more as the Sentinel was pushed back across the open hall, going threw the clam pews before coming a stop releasing an ungodly screech of pain. On of the hits from the (mana arrow) was a critical hit, which took of 12HP from it, and the remaining three took out a collective 7HP. It now had 26 HP left.


    "Elemental magic or physical attacks have no effect on it, you need to use none attribute magic, kind of like those arrows of yours. I don''t have any skill like that, so I would only be able to provide support. You have to take point." Persephone said to me as she moved back, leaving me right in front of the Sentinel''s path.


    (Mana Arrow) *Boom!, Boom! Boom! Boom!*


    (You have slain Ocean Dark Sentinel level 60. +7% exp advancement, you have gained one Skill disk fragment.)


    Well that was surprising, it was as if as soon as the Sentinel''s HP got below 30, it''s damage reduction ability was completely negated, and it left it susceptible to the full brunt of all my attacks. But none the less this was over and done with, and since I was the one at the from I was able to pick up the loots, of such there was only just one, a piece of metal the size of a rice grain, I wouldn''t have even been able to notice it if it wasn''t for the fact that it was glowing.


    {SKILL DISK FRAGMENT 1/100}


    I and no idea what skill was locked within it, but from the look of things I needed to kill a hundred of this Ocean Sentinels to be able to fully form the whole disk. I turned to look at Persephone and pointed towards the stairs that led to the next floor.


    "Shall we?" she gave me a shrug as an answer and we made our way towards the back of the hall and up the set of stairs that was placed there. Onwards and upwards Captain Seven


    >>>>>>


    ZARETH & RAVEN SONG


    They were on a very time sensitive mission, which was why Raven song could not fathom how Zareth could go into a brothel and began banging the three moon elves that were the main attraction of the entire brothel. And it would be worth for Raven son to say that he was not sorely tempted about letting loose a bit and enjoying himself with one of the really beautiful displays of the carnal arts that quite a few people within the brothel seemed to be enjoying. But Raven song was and is for all intents and purposes a prude, the idea of sex outside of the confines of his and his wife''s bedroom did not really sit well with him, not even if it was within a game.


    He felt like he would be cheating on his wife, and he lo ex her very much. Even though they were both quite old fashioned in their devotion to each other, Raven Song knew they were both happy and satisfied with each other. At the very least that''s what he thought, and he was sure he was very right.


    So there he was sitting on a velvet couch that had to heavy a scent for him to be comfortable about, it was like someone was obsessed with rose and strawberries and decided to indulge his or her obsession by sprinkling and ungodly amount of those scents on the couch. Raven Song wrinkled his nose ignoring the urge to sneeze when Zareth walked right back in to the waiting area, his hairy chest bare, and it''s well built and precisely chiseled form happily exposed.


    Raven song wrinkled his nose again, this time in annoyance. It was not as if he didn''t have muscles and a well chiseled form, the game made sure everyone''s body was perfect in whatever form they chose, except for their looks. It''s a little bit readjusted to a degree of 20 to 35% by the system. So how you look is totally up to your real life face, however all those was besides the point, as being a dark elf, Raven song was lanky and thin, and he was quite jealous of Zareth''s stocky body builder form.


    Zareth didn''t say anything to Raven Song and just have him a simple head tilt, telling him to follow behind. Raven song was more than happy remaining right where he was, but obviously the fucking dwarf didn''t give a shit what he wanted, he just marched forward to the room he just finished and expected the dark elf to follow, which just as he expected he did, not like Raven song had any other choice anyway.


    Once they got into the room, Raven song as assaulted by a very familiar scent, sex was obviously in the air, and three naked blue skinned moon elves sprawled over the massive king sized bed covered with purple satin sheets more than proved that The dwarf could handle more than just his Lance and shoot flames from it...wait isn''t that just another way to say that Zareth could really have sex.


    Raven Song felt sick, there was an image in his head that he would rather die than to have running around the confines of his skull, but it was stuck there, vividly. Raven Song walked around the room a bit looking for place to sit, but it was as if anywhere he looked at, it as covered with traces of Zareth''s carnal activities. And while that wasn''t true, it was obvious the dwarf had gotten into his head. But in the end his simpering display was begin to upset the dwarf, in Zareth''s opinion Raven song was acting like he was not even a man.


    "Would ye just find a fucking place te stand if ye don''t want te fucking sit ye bloody drow! We''re strapped for time ye fool!" the dwarf angrily snapped at Raven Song. But Raven song was already being stretched to far past his limits 8th every second he had spent in this brothel that he snapped back.


    "Don''t you dare talk to me about time you hairy goat! The first thing you did when we got here was to go sniffing for an ass or rather three asses, and you tell me we''re strapped for time! You''re fucking hypocrite! You goat!" Zareth turned his head to the side and sniffed. It wasn''t as if Raven song was wrong, but he wasn''t going to concede that easily, he was not going to lose to some ball less dark elf. But they could pick this up later.


    "I was fishing for information, not that I expect ye to understand as it seems you''ve lost ye balls, or maybe ye never had in the first place ya?" Raven Song looked at Zareth with a valid look on his face and asked.


    "You were fishing for information, in a woman''s vagina? Interesting, so what breed of information came gushing out of your fishing hole." Raven Song replied with sarcasm heavily dripping from his words. Zareth ignored it and just decided to be a bigger man and move on, after all he was a 100% sure that he was the ''bigger man''s.


    "You! Samantha is it, please tell him what you told me." Zareth spoke to one of the moon elves, but Raven Song wasn''t exactly sure who he was talking to.


    "My name''s not Samantha, it''s Samira." The elf he was apparently talking to replied back with a frown on her face.


    "Oh sorry, my apologies lassie, then who''s Samantha?" Zareth asked with an innocent look on his face.


    "There''s no one name Samantha here you ass!" another one of the moon elves spoke up, insulting Zareth and embarrassing him in turn. The red on his face was like Christmas came early for Raven Song. The moon elves shook their head as the one named Samira spoke up.


    "About three weeks ago, give or take a few days a guild came over to the Ocean City of Atlantis. I don''t how they did it, but they were able to get he entire of the city''s authority working for them. Both the upper and lower city are completely in their control.


    We''ve heard whispers from some of the guild members who come here, apparently they have a moon elf, a royal at that in captivity. They plan to use as a catalyst for a sacrifice that''s meant to open some sort of gate, and this sacrifice is actually going down at midnight today. However they need to defeat a keeper of some sort before they can carry out the sacrificial ceremony. It''s going down at the temple that''s on the hill that overlooks the city. They''ve not really done anything to put the citizens in danger and are trying to keep a low profile. However they ruthlessly killed anyone who''s pried in their business, which makes me think that they''re up to something bad and terrible."


    Raven song looked at Zareth just as the dwarf looked right back at him, looks like they were up against another guild. However Raven Song was hoping it was not the ''guild'' he was thinking about, because quite honestly he didn''t think they should be crossing paths with the dragon god guild again. So he had to ask.


    "What''s the name of this guild?" the moon elf name Samira answered back.


    "The Cross Of Nine Circles." The only thing Raven Song could say at that moment was.


    "Fuck! Zareth we have to go and get the captain! This guy''s aren''t as powerful or influential as the dragon god guild, but if they''re really opening a freaking gate, then we''ll all be dead ten times over with bit load of deaths to spare. Not even he would be able to stop this!"


    For once Zareth didn''t say anything and just nodded his head much to the relief of Raven Song. Zareth got his clothes and armor and they both made their way towards the entrance of the room, only for another one of the moon elves to call out to them, it was the one that had been silent so far.


    "Wait! Samira you have to tell them what the sacrifice is! Please sister maybe they can do something."


    Obviously Samira didn''t want to say anything, but with her sister pleading she had to give in. She looked up and spoke the four words that more than sealed and entwined the fates of captain seven and his crew, with the crows of nine circles guild.


    "It''s a Wind dragon!"

 154 The Ocean City Of Atlantis V : Missing Prisoner

    *boom!*


    Fuck! I ducked under a table as a clustered cloud of purple beams flew over my head. So this was the fourth floor, and even if so far our advancement up has been really and easy, seeing as we had to deal with only three Sentinels on the second, and right on the third floor. But here we are on the fourth and there were no less than 30 of them, along with a mini boss or rather a main boss that has just been hanging suck and letting his lackeys pelt us full of holes. Those purple beams of theirs packed a punch, just enough that just give seconds of being under it would turn me into motes of light and send me back to the Acheron for a respawn.


    Persephone huddle close to me underneath the table as she gave me a look as if to say do something, which brought me to the second highlight of this fucking Dungeon run. This girl was no different from a bloody brat, it was as if she expected everything to be handed over to her in a silver platter, and it was so damn annoying. Sure she couldn''t cause any damage with her limited arsenal of skills, but she has been treating me like a glorified shield that it was taking all of my willpower to not turn and bring my knuckles down on her tiny head, she was acting as if she was some twelve year old.


    I''ve not had a chance to make a move since we stepped up in this floor, and something I noticed about this floor was that the water level had actually dropped. We were still under water, but if we moved up a bit we would definitely come out of the water, with just a little space to spare. Me then suddenly the shots from the Sentinel''s ceased. I didn''t waste time, experience and told me that they didn''t take long to recharge anyway, before coming right back at me with a full tank of super powered spells.


    (STELLAR FLARE) *WHOOOOSH!*


    The blast of silver light and flames seemed to consume everything in it''s path, all the floors were the same, looking very much like a hall were a church service or something of the sort would be carried out. If it wasn''t for the fact that a lot of things were different, I would have suspected that we were going round in circles and still coming back to the same first floor. Either way there was difference and this floor was experiencing the power of the (STELLAR FLARE) Skill.


    The silver flames spread out with me in the epicenter, even if we were underwater it didn''t seem like the flames were hundreds by it. The water around me seemed to boil as bubbles came to life, the massive clams that seems to serve as pews or chairs turned to dust, and tapestries burnt into a cloud silver Ash that was slowly turning the water murky and dark. And as for the Sentinels, they were obviously very susceptible to attribute less magic, but it seemed as if stellar flare was their kryptonite. The moment the silvery flames came in contact with their bodies, I watched as they all turned to dust and faded away, leaving behind good coins and equipment and pieces of smiles disks that more than fulfilled the requirements needed to complete the skill fragments in my hand, and then some.


    However even with the power of the stellar flare, the boss was still standing tall, but it was obviously on it''s last leg with only a sliver of HP remaining. Everything else around it had turned to Ash, and it was just the sole line creature, standing in the middle of a hall, completely defenseless or maybe not. Ignoring the deaths of it''s comrades and the ruins in it''s surroundings, the Sentinel boss opened it''s hooded mouth and began to gather a purple bolt of magic, this was much bigger than what the other sentinels have been throwing our way, and given that the boss was larger and had a crown of thorns on it''s head, I would say any hit from that monster would be enough to put and exclamation mark on this fight.


    (AREA OF SILENCE)


    Unfortunately for it, I had a skill made to counter any and all sort of skills, ad even though it''s duration doesn''t last long, it was more than enough for me to out an end to the boss. I shifted Sky into her helmet form and placed it on my head, then I pulled out the Kusanagi and swam towards the Sentinel boss with as much speed as I could muster. Ignoring the fact that the duration of the (AREA OF SILENCE) skill was just 5 seconds, so a long range confrontation would have been better.


    I reached it with just a second to spare and always upwards through it''s billowing robes, and as the Katana made it''s crescent arc upwards, it''s blade lit up with blue and white electric arcs (LIGHTNING BLADE), a skill that was made from a combination of both attribute less magic in the form of Mana blade and a lightning skill. Which was why it''s electrical arcs were blue and white.


    The robes parted and the Sentinel released an ungodly screech as it''s deal form was exposed, it was just a mass of purple shadow with desiccated arms, and a throat without a neck and two floating eyeballs connected to the mass of shadows with a long fleshy tube. Safe to say it was quite ugly, but I didn''t let that stop me as I kept up with my assault, swimming around the boss monster and giving it really deep and nasty cuts. Much to mine and Persephone''s surprise, it didn''t fight back, the pain it was feeling was just so much it just stood there and let me chip away at it''s health, until finally it just collapsed on the ground and died.


    {You have slain Ocean Sentinel Mini Boss/Boss level 60. You have received 78% exp progression, the skill disks (ARCANE BARRIER)(GHOST BOLT)(PSYCHIC SCREAM), 300 HUNDRED GOLD DOLLARS, 5 SKILL COMBINING GEMS, AND ONE DARK SENTINEL ASSASIN ARMOR SET}


    {THE KUSANAGI HAS LEVELED UP! CURRENT LEVEL: 10! NEW SKILL UNLOCKED}


    I''ve leveled up a few times already, and with the new exp progression, I was almost at the cusp of leveling up again, which was really nice, it was behind ridiculously hard to level up in this game, but this bloody dungeon''s monsters gave out a heap load of Exp, and so far of all the monsters we''ve killed, I was able to get no less than seven levels. While it would be nice to check my stats and skills, we were in a hurry, so the only thing I could pay attention to was the Katana.


    {Kusanagi No Tsurugi/Grade: Legendary: Hidden Grade: Growth/ Level: 10/ Requirements: Acknowledgement Of Susanoo No Mikoto, God Of The Sea And Storms.} (Bound To Captain A¨¢ Seven Of The Acheron''s Glory)


    [Attack: 65~85/ Attack Speed: 5MPS/ +10% to all sword related skills, +10% to all water and wind skills.] [Most skills locked until appropriate level is reached.]


    [Skill 1: Divine Wind Draw: Draw your sword and strike your enemy at 30MPs with the power of the divine wind. +60% to damage and movement speed/ cost 100 MP]


    For a growth weapon that was just level 10, it''s expenditure of Mana was ridiculously too much, however there wasn''t anything that could be done about it. The Katana had a skill now, however it was a one strike on hit kill move, if I''m using it would be either to end a fight before it starts, or put an end to one that''s been going on for too long. The sword itself seemed to really like the idea of placing emphasis on speed, that skill made the sword move as 30 meters a second, and that was fast, like bullet or Superman kind of fast. And that''s not factoring all the other bonus I''ve gotten from titles, skills, masteries or even under the buffing effect of other skills.


    I sheathed the Katana as I looked up at Persephone, I placed the rest of the loots into my inventory, we would have enough time to talk about who gets what, but for now we had to move forward with the mission. We swam our way towards the next floor, I changed Sky back into her staff form, while I''m hoping what we''ve just dealt with as the last of this Sentinels, in a dungeons you couldn''t exactly be sure.


    The stairs leading up to the fifth floor became devoid of water after the fifteenth or so step, which meant there was no more need to swim. That was favorable for me, I was almost out of time anyway. We walked up for another hundred or so steps, and I. The process of doing so the smoothly built brick walls of the dungeon turned into the uneven rock walls of a tunnel or cave. And true to my suspicion, at the very end of the road we and up into a large cave that was heavily covered in dust.


    There was a bed of straw placed on one side, there were a pair of golden manacles and chains bolted to the wall, but they were open, and whomever or whatever it once held was long gone. The chains were long enough that whoever was locked up in them would have been able to move around and even step outside a bit.


    Apart from the chains, there was a table with clay bowls, and cups, and then was a thick diary who''s pages had yellowed with age and almost seemed as if it was about to turn to dust amongst with everything else In the room. Obviously this place has not been used in a while, and quite frankly I was relieved; at he very least I didn''t have to fight any other boss. This seems to be the so called prison of Calypso, but the damn sea goddess''s was long gone by now, which means our works should be done. I went over the bed and grabbed the diary, and as a second thought also tried putting those chains on the wall into my inventory, they happily went in, much to my surprise.


    {You Have Gained The Diary of Calypso, Titan Of The Sea: Create A Temple So That Your Guild Members Or Subjects Would Now Have Access To Water Based Skills And If They''re Worthy, Water Based Classes.}


    { GOLDEN VULCAN GOD CHAINS/ Grade: DIVINE/: Hidden Grade: CURSED/ Requirements: ????????}


    [INFO: ???????]


    [SKILLS: ??????]


    {System Alert: Skill: Purify has leveled up 2 times}


    To say I was shocked was a fucking understatement! This was not just some powerful legendary grade weapon, heck even the Trident, a weapon used by God''s could only bag a legendary grade, but this was a divine weapon through and through, something that was well and fully into the realm of the gods, and just two seconds of touching it had leveled up my purify skill twice! I guess the course grade was not placed there for show. But it was such a shame I couldn''t use it, but even then with the so called curse on it, I doubt any player who touches it would be able to use it. I shifted my eyes to my HP and I almost screamed out in shock at what I was seeing.


    Two seconds of touching that bloody thing, and all that was left of my health points was 10! Just ten points! It was scary and quite frankly I''m never bringing out of my inventory, not for any reason whatsoever. My health points started regenerating, as I turned to look around the room, there was nothing else within the cave except for an empty wicker basket. Persephone and I made our way towards the entrance of the cave, we didn''t even get a system Alert that we''ve completed the dungeon the moment we came out of it. We looked at each other in surprise, but I guess that''s because the target character of the dungeon had already slipped her bonds and found her way free. Oh well, less work for us...¡­


    *BOooOoom!*


    A Loud explosion resounded in the distance, Persephone and I could see some sort of temple on a hill that had caught on fire. But it as not just the temple being on fire that caught my attention, it was the fact that it was Zareth in his dragon form raining down fire and death on what looks like a bunch of players. It was at that moment that my community beeped really loudly, and a stream of messages from Raven Song and Mack was seen, and by the time I was done reading them all, I couldn''t help but look at the sky, as if I could see the hands of destiny or whatever virtual Supreme power that thought it was a good idea to always put me up against people I''m not supposed to mess with for the moment.


    "Seriously?" but as usual there was no answer, oh well, I guess it''s time to go hunt some demon worshipping cult.

 155 The Ocean City Of Atlantis VI : The Defender

    ZARETH & RAVEN SONG


    Zareth was on a rampage, the moment they had found out that the sacrificial lamb was a wind dragon, the dwarf had gone ballistic and shifted into his dragon form, so there was no need to sneak out of the city anymore, they just busy through amidst a shower of dragon fire and bellows of dragon roars.


    Then they had a made a beeline for he temple at the top of the hill, they needed up encountering quite a lot of players and AIs who were a part of the Crows guild. There''s was a small Outpost built at the bottom of the hill, that didn''t last as Zareth left it smoking, and a little ways up the hill they discovered a small encourage leading two sealed boxes up.


    One of them was ridiculously large, and the other quite small, but both of them were the perfect size to hold either a moon elf, or a freaking dragon. Zareth went on ahead to cause chaos in the fight that was currently taking place at the top of the hill, his mind completely clouded with rage and anger. This left Raven song alone and with no other choice than to face this entourage of evil cult guild members. Hopefully the others show up before this turns into a shit show, none of the people in the crow''s guild could be considered normal, and right now Raven Song had to face them all by himself.


    (SHIELD CHARGE)


    A golden his showed up over his body as his speed increased, most of the members of the Crows were already caught off guard by Zareth''s appearance, which created just the opening that Zareth needed to cause a huge amount of damage. There were no less than thirty members of the Crows escorting the sacrifice and it''s catalyst to the top of the hill, Raven Song''s charge smacked more than half of them away, even going as far as throwing some off the side of the steel incline they were just on.


    Raven slammed his ankles on the ground, completely bifurcating one of the players from the waist down and turning him into more of dust. There were still people hanging around the boxes, and Raven needed them to move away from them, so that he could have the high ground. He moved his tower shield to the left, impressively using one hand to hold it as he pulled out his one handed hammer and raised it up into the air, golden energy seemingly building around it, as he brought it down on the ground, hard.


    (FISSURE)


    This was a control skill, and since Raven still had a bit of the element of surprise, he was quite capable of catching them off guard. Cracks appeared on the hill as a small earthquake seemed to form, those of the crow guild members still standing close to the edge of the Hill''s incline fell down below, maybe some of them won''t die since the height wasn''t that much, but they would sustain some broken bones, and more so for the AIs than the players who only had one life in this game. Should they survive, it would take them quite a bit of time for them to heal themselves and come back running up the incline.


    The fissure skill had left them unstable and left only two people protecting the dragon and the elf, and since they were pretty much still unstable on their feet, Raven lowered his center of gravity, hung his hammer on his belt and used both hands to hold his shield over his shoulder. (SHIELD CHARGE), The two guards left were smashed back into the dragon''s metal cage, the form of the prison bending and contorting from the force of Raven''s charge. One of the player''s directly burst into a shower of blood, splattering all over the side of the box, before turning into motes of light. Partner was still alive, but he was looking bloody and probably had quite a few broken bones debuff, Raven brought out his hammer and brought it down it down on the player''s head, cracking it open like a water melon.


    Then he turned to face the rest of the players who had gotten back control and were ready to rain all the rage and anger they were currently feeling on Raven. Raven son turned his head, and was startled to see the green eyes of the dragon and silver blue of the moon elf staring at him from a hole through their boxes, he felt really self conscious at that moment, but yet he gave them a smile and reaffirmed his conviction.


    Before joining the crew of the Acheron, which for all intents and purposes was a rabble of weird yet quite powerful people, or rather it could be said he had watched with his own eyes as they had grown strong, strong enough to actually be capable of contending with the top guilds of the game. Raven used to be a guild member and a somewhat pro player. To the his child he was quite lazy, and prone to random actions depending on whatever caught his fancy, to them he was chaotic, nothing at all like the Paladin/Guardian hybrid class he held, the Holy Defender. It found himself in quit a few jams with his former guild, but they still kept him on because of how good a player and fighter he was.


    But everything was just a game, It was just official and monotonous and drab. His life in the game was never enjoyable, here was no adventure, only dungeon diving, guild wars, and power leveling new guild recruits or rich ass holes who pay the guild for such services. Some times he''s put at the fore front of most competitions representing his guild, but in the end it meant nothing to him.


    However ever since he joined this weird and twisted version of a crew, he''s learnt what it means to really be alive. Sure there was some weird shit happening around the captain, and he was quite an enigma and mystery to all of them, it didn''t change the fact that he very much cared about every single member of his crew, so far he hadn''t just shown great concern, but great love, and is always willing to pay any price to make sure they''re safe. And it''s not as if following him is a walk in the park, they''ve now pissed off two very powerful guilds, an ocean Nation who''s airship they blew up, and now they''re about to fuck with the elves, Patmos has already been fucked with and definitely Seven was going to fuck with them so more, the church of Adonai also falls under that category as the moon elf was a priestess of their church. And as for that assassin organization...¡­Raven was sure they''ll get to them eventually, The crew of the Acheron won''t be who they are or who they''re becoming if they don''t step on a few more toes. Outcasts, but righteous and honest ones. It was why Raven could happily give both the dragon and the moon elf a bright smile and say to them.


    "Don''t worry, I''ll protect you both. The crew of the Acheron will not let anything happen to you, you have mine and my Captain''s word." And then Raven turned and slammed his shield into the destroyed green earth on the hill.


    (SHIELD WALL)


    While shield wall was not even half as powerful as mountain Bastion, it was enough to keep these people behind, plus it also had a secondary effect of pushing people back. Not to mention Mountain Bastion was an ultimate skill with a sustained effect, for as long as it was active it drew Mana from Raven Song, and the amount of Mana needed to keep that skill active was fucking colossal. Raven Song was hoping to draw out the fight, long enough for Zareth to calm down so that hey can make their stance here, but it seems he was occupied with the players within the temple. So Raven knew he had to hold this line, long enough for his captain to get here and raise hell as he usually does, after all the dude was also a wind dragon.


    *Boom!* *Boom*


    Spells and projectiles slammed into the shield, forcing Raven Song to move back a bit, however he pushed forward, the illusion of a massive brick wall spreading from the edges of the golden tower shield. Raven Song held his one handed hammer at the ready, waiting for the melee players to get close before taking any steps.


    Four melee players slammed into the walls with a vengeance, causing cracks to appear all-over the illusory grey brick wall. Raven Song dug his heels in as the four melee players u leashed on the wall, however he wasn''t really aiming for them, he could see more players coming up from the bottom of the hill, he just wanted to draw the spell casters a little bit closer so that he could cause more damage at once.


    However with those guys hurrying here to join this fight things might get a little bit too hard to handle. He had to do something, Raven song looked around thinking about the skills he had in his repertoire when a startling realization about his captain hit him. Seven had gotten so ingrained into the game that when he fights, it''s not just his class skills or equipment that mattered in the fight, it was the way he used his surroundings.


    (SHEILD WALL COLLAPSE!)


    More cracks appeared on the shield wall before it blasted outwards, illusory bricks and energy hitting the players with full force, pushing them back and leaving some of them Injured. Even though the spell casters were still a bit farther off, they were also affected by the shockwave and pushed back a bit, but they were not Raven''s Target. He shifted to the side quickly hanging his shield on his back as he brought out his hammer, and right on the head of a player, he brought it down with full strength. (FISSURE)


    The head exploded like a watermelon, and deep cracks appeared from where he was standing, spreading to the edge of the Hill''s incline. A blast of energy hit him at he side and threw him on the ground, but Raven ignored the sting of pain he was currently feeling and faced the other direction before bringing his one handed hammer down again.


    (FISSURE)


    The fissure skill was lineal, it cracks the earth and cause damage in a straight line, which means whoever was in the way of the skill''s crack would receive the most damage. But the skill was a control skill as it had a quaking effect that threw enemies within a certain distance of the fissure backwards. But that was besides the point, right now Raven Song had a deep fissure running from one edge of the Hill''s incline to the other, and the players running up knew exactly what he was aiming for.


    A dagger came out of nowhere and sliced at Raven''s neck, he moved back causing only the tip of the blade to Nick his neck while the rest of it''s body scratched across his armor. Raven was wearing heavy armor, so his speed definitely suffered a massive reduction, but he was an elf, speed and dexterity where what they thrived on, and since he couldn''t be as fast as he wanted to, he could be quite dexterous and flexible.


    Raven song turned his back towards the assassin player, which normally would be a mistake if Raven Song did not have a plan. (BLOCK) *Ding!* The sound of a dagger bouncing off a shield resounded into the air as Raven Song turned with a flourish and swung his hammer upwards, catching the lightly armored Assassin class player under the jaw. The player made two full rotations in the air before landing right in the middle of the fissure, looking very dazed.


    Raven Song turned to the other players rapidly approaching and gave them a smile as he raised his hammer up, and lightning clouds quickly gathered and shot down a bolt of massive golden lightning that hung around Raven''s hammer, then he jumped into the air, raised the hammer high into the air and brought it down on the body of the helpless player.


    (ASGARDIAN SMITE: HAMMER FALL)


    *BRRRRRRR RRRRRR* *BOOOM!* *CRACRACRAAAACK!*


    The entire cliff side began to rumble, the fissure spread going from not just the edge, but down the side of the entire Hill''s Incline. It was then that Raven realized that he might not have fully thought this through, he box holding both the dragon and moon elf was too close to the rapidly separating hill. And many of the players were running towards him, hoping to jump over and get to over to the other side before it completely goes down.


    He could turn around, grab the boxes and try moving them away from the danger, but that would leave his back exposed to this players, and they would probably send him to respawn, and then this whole thing would have been for nothing. However it was at that moment Raven Song heard a clap of wings and The Captain of the Acheron himself landed beside him.


    "Get them away from the edge, and hurry up, the entire incline is going to call, not just the half you made. Persephone will lend you we help, leave this players to me."


    As soon as he finished speaking Raven song turned around, and started pushing the carts up the hill with all his strength, the sound of a bow string being pulled, the only warning of the Carnage that was to come. Raven Song couldn''t help himself, he smiled.

 156 The Ocean City Of Atlantis VII : Acheron

    I had watched Raven Song''s performance, and quite frankly the guy had battle instincts that could rival my own, not to mention he''s been playing the game for a lot longer than I have, which meant he was more familiar with his skills and the effects they had, and also how to control a fight to go his way, playing to his strengths as opposed to me going wherever the wind blows me. I pulled the strings on Sky''s how form, and released an arrow towards a guy with a shield in his hands, he raised his shield to block the arrow, but the impact from the arrow pushed him off his feet, sending him rolling down the slowly crumbling hill.


    The next arrow went through the neck of a caster, followed quickly by another that hit said caster on the forehead, flipping his body upside down, as another arrow went right under his still airborne body to hit a bully orc like dude with an axe. There were two more players heading for the edge, but when I placed my hand into the quiver to pull back an arrow, it came up empty. I was so shocked by that, it gave them enough time to jump and zero in on my location, a spear and a great sword heading for my chest. I threw Sky into the air and placed my hands on the Kusanagi, with one foot placed behind the other and my body lowered.


    (DIVINE WIND DRAW!)


    *FWOOOOOSH* *CLICK*


    In one smooth motion I had unsheathed and sheathed the sword, moving so fast that even to my eyes all I could see was a flash of steel and light coming off my blade. Two decapitated bodies fell besides me, their heads nowhere to be found. This skill was shocking, the cut around their neck was so smooth and the speed used was so much that I could feel abrasions on my palm. My current body was not yet strong or fast enough to properly handle and bring the full effect of that skill out, or rather it was going to take a little time for me to become familiar with the sword and it''s skills.


    I turned around and ran up the hill towards Raven Song and Persephone, they were trying to pull the cart holding the metal boxes up the hill, but that was just a waist of time. I swung the Katana at the larger box, destroying the lock on it just as Sky came down from her short flight, situating herself on my head in her helmet form. I pulled open the door to the box, and came face to face with the massive head of a wind dragon, however this dragon wasn''t as big as it should be, leading me to believe that it was just and adolescent.


    There were a couple of chains binding the dragon down, a swing of the Katana destroyed them, leaving the dragon free to hastily crawl out of the box, however it crashed on the ground immediately after. It must have been stuck in that position for a very long time, and with how cramped hat box was, with no room for movement, it was possible the dragon''s muscles were in a state of atrophy, or at last extreme weakness for not using it in a long time.


    Raven Song took a play out of my book and smashed open the smaller box, he picked up the moon elf from within and made a rush for the top of the hill. I looked at the dragon who was still incapable of moving and gave a glance at Persephone who quickly shifted into her massive blue and white dragon form, and then she carried the much smaller dragon by wrapping her limbs around it. And then she flew away, heading towards the sea, probably for the Acheron.


    Which was a good idea seeing as without the chosen sacrifice, it was possible for the so called ritual to fail. I spread my wings and took to the air, following after Raven Song who quickly made it to the top of the hill, and just in time to as it''s incline completely collapsed, now the hill was just a tall pillar of earth on all sides, with no way to come up or down except by flying or maybe falling to your death from a 100 meter tall cliff.


    I guess I''m not the only one on the crew who has an appetite for destruction, Raven Song had talent that was for sure, very scary talent if I do say so myself. He came to a stop at the entrance of the temple, the ongoing sounds of a battle still resounding from within, and Zareth''s ferocious roars adding a more brutal feel to the atmosphere. I turned to the obviously frightened and weakened moon elf, and used the most gentle of voices I could muster.


    "You don''t have to be afraid anymore, Raven here will protect you and make sure nothing happens to you." I smiled at her and was about to move into the temple when I headed her whisper to me, but loud enough that both Raven Song and I could hear her.


    "I''m a¡­ ¡­ I''m a player¡­ ¡­ ¡­I''m a player too. Please help me, I''m stuck, I can''t get out, please!"


    The look of shock on my face was beyond anything I''ve ever faced, I was so shaken by her words that it finally dawned on me that he feeling other players get when they come across each other was coming from her, but then there was also the feeling gave of by the Game''s AIs, almost as if she was stuck in between our world and theirs. I looked up at Raven Song and he looked back at me with as much surprise on my face as it as on his, then he said to me.


    "It doesn''t make any sense! Do you think it''s a bug?" but I said nothing, the only answer I gave to him as an order.


    "Keep her safe until Persephone gets here, then have her take the elf to the ship. We''ll talk about this later."


    Did I look confused? That''s probably because I was, let''s not even talk about how terrified the f would have been, or how much shock she currently was in at the moment. The bad publicity that imperium industries would get from this alone would be so large it could bury the company...what the hell am I even talking about, who cares about the company, someone had been stuck in the game for quite a while from the look of things, and I didn''t doubt that it was the truth, of all I''ve seen within the game, it was more than possible for such a thing to happen.


    But at the moment I couldn''t deal with such a reveal, not when the literal gates of hell were about to be torn open, I could find a way to face and deal with it once all this trouble with hells and demons we''re done and dusted with. I turned Way from Raven Song and the priestess and broke into a run through the entrance of the temple. There was a long hallway flanked on both sides by pristine white alabaster pillars, their edges were lined with gold and pristine golden symbols were all etched on their form. But apart from that, what came next was the intense feeling of heat in their air, obviously, Zareth had let loose on the players, but the fact that this entire place was not yet in shambles and cinders; spoke volumes of how powerful these crows of nine circles guild was. So apart from the fact that they had a crappy name(in my own opinion), they could actually put up a fight.


    I went past the hallway and came up into an arena of sorts, right behind a small army of players 50 strong or maybe more. but that number wouldn''t matter as with each second that passed I could see them dropping like flies from not just Zareth''s assault, but the assault of the 20-foot tall giant man decked head to toe in golden armor and swinging a massive kite shield with blades stretched out from its edges. It was a fearsome looking weapon, both a shield and a sword, but part from that he was holding a Warhammer as tall as he was, with a very bloodied head and golden shaft. I only needed to take one look to notice that Zareth was actually facing off against the players in a bid to help the giant, which seemed quite obvious to me, to be the boss of this temple.


    I was out of arrows, but I wasn''t exactly defenseless. I shifted Sky back into her staff form, and face the group of players who quite, unfortunately, had no idea that I was right behind them. I raised the staff up and brought it down hard on the tiled floor. (STELLAR FLARE), they were completely caught off guard as the wave of blazing silver energy slammed into their back, since their casters were placed behind, they feel first. and most casters weren''t really good with defense, not unless you were a hybrid class, but none the less, of due fifty-plus players, still remaining, seven healers and nine mages all turned to motes of light immediately, the remaining three had their health in a red zone.


    I shook my head, I expected the damage caused to be a lot more, but obviously, this group of players wasn''t your normal kind. Apart from the casters the attackers were a little bit more buffed, heck four of them didn''t even take any damage. None the less the attack had revealed that I was behind them, and that meant they were fighting on two fronts, but seeing as I was just a single-player, they would think I would be easier to handle. But nonetheless, I still presented a very real threat and one that could cost them their entire operation.


    (MANA ARROW) The remaining three casters followed heir comrades in death as I shifted Sky into her helmet form. . pulled out the Kusanagi, since I was out of arrows I couldn''t use her now form to cause a AOE attack that would shift this fight more in our favor, but I could still fight, and work with Zareth and the golden giant to finish this fight. And that should make all the difference, I rushed forwards, hands on the Katana as a lightly armored elf with a silver spear matched towards me.


    Since his spear was longer, it meant he had a longer reach than I did, he swung the spear over his, trying to build momentum before swinging it towards me with a single arm, letting it stretch towards me neck. I leaned backwards and used the sheath of the Katana as a shield, pushing the Spear upwards and using the (QUAKE) Skill. He was pushed off balance when I pushed off he ground and unsheathed the Katana halfway. The exposed part of the blade went slicing through his neck and in turn his entire head fell to the ground before slowly fading away, his blood being the only evidence of him ever being there.


    His team didn''t like that one bit, an arrow flew towards me, but one move of my armor covered wings and I was ale to sweep the projectile out of the air. Based on the spear wielding player I just killed, it was obvious that this group of players were not just very good at this game, but we''re also trained fighters, and whether this training came from within the game or the real world, it only meant that I wouldn''t be mowing down players like some ultimate swordsman, I would actually have to out in effort to kick their ass.


    *ROAAAAAARRRRRRR*


    Zareth released a stream of flames at their formation, but the tanks at the front were more than prepared to defend against it, and since they''ve lost their main damage dealers in the mages I happily destroyed, they would have to rely on four of the six archers remaining with them, two of which now had their bows trained on me, ready to offer support to the massive broad sword wielding orc running towards me.


    Wielding a great sword was already a big problem, but this guy had two in his massive hands, both swords were about two meters in length and half a meter wide, they touch me and they would leave me very hurt. I could rely on my armor to keep my self safe, but it would be stupid to underestimate the poser of that orc.


    I spread my wings wide behind me and then crouched down a bit, right hand on the Kusanagi and left hand on it''s sheath. Orc was already running towards me, picking up speed with each second, but I already had plans for him. Sunni towards me was a mistake (FIRE SCHOOL: LAVA POOL).


    The next step he took brought his entire left foot into the small pool of lava that appeared out of thin air. The sudden appearance shocked him so much that he forgot where he was for a second, and that was all I needed, or at least all that I thought I needed. (STORM DANCE!)


    My speed increased and I flashed towards him, leaving a massive trail of wind and lightning behind me. I fully unsheathed the Kusanagi and swung it towards the orcs neck, but much to my surprise, he was about to pull his head backwards before dragging one of his massive swords to his front to act like a shield. Then he looked up at me with teeth filled grin, his tusk gleaming in response and said.


    "Do you think you''re thee only one that can move like that? You''re dead!" and then he screamed.


    *BRAaaaaayayyyyyyyyayayayaya*


    I have no idea what sort of lungs this guy had, but it was powerful enough to lift me off my feet and send my flying through the air, until I smacked my back across on of the pillars in the hallway behind me. It was a little jarring, but as I slid down to the ground, my ears ringing, a hammer came flying through the hall and right into the face of the grinning orc. His head snapped back and a loud crack was heard as the Orc''s head hung backwards in a very awkward manner. Seconds later his body turned into more of light, heading back to respawn.


    I looked to the left and Raven Song was there, and not just Raven Song, but also Zack, Mack, and Darke, each and every single one of them armed to the teeth and ready for war. I got back up to my feet and went to stand in front of them just as Zareth flew over the bead of the players and into the hallway and then landed behind us. I turned to look at my crew, three cloned elves, a tanky dark elf and a brooding dragon dwarf.


    "Chaaaaaaarggggeeeeee!"


    *Rooooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr*

 157 The Ocean City Of Atlantis VIII : Acherons Fighting, Atlas Defender, Gates!

    There was a stalemate, even the giant behind the group of players had frozen to watch as me and my crew formed ranks around each other. We might actually be outnumbered, but we have a dragon and somewhat alliance with a boss, though to be honest I have no idea what''s happening here. None the less this crows of nine circles were the enemy, and we have no quarter to our enemies, we gave no mercy and we had no qualms of giving them the beat down that they wholeheartedly deserved. Darke was wielding his dual elven swords, Mack was with his staff, glowing globes of water the size of a head was floating around him. Zack still used his boss, and he had three glowing arrows strung, and then we charged.


    Raven Song moved forwards first and slammed his tower shield on the ground, erecting a brick wall that blocked the ranger attacked that headed towards us, and then said brick wall exploded outwards, sending illusory debris back towards the players and disrupting most of their ranks. Zack''s arrows flew past our heads, glowing with a golden light that rapidly multiplied until hundreds of glowing golden arrows was pelting the group of players. And with their take still to focusing on the boss, the other players had no choice but to withstand the assault with just their body, ad the result was terrible. Three of the archers fell, and two other players were popped full of arrows, looking like pincushions.


    That was when me and Darke made our move as we can towards the group of players, they were at the entrance of the temple, using it as a child point to defend against us and the boss. A flash of blue covered both me and Darke and our movements became smoother, and we were filled with vigor and strength, almost as if we just received a shot of adrenaline. (YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED BY A WATER MEISTER: DEXTERITY INCREASED BY 30%, PASSIVE REGENERATION OF HEALTH AND MANA ACTIVATED AND INCREASED BY 25% FOR THE NEXT 300 SECONDS.) Now that''s just insane, I get to feel like I''m super charged fro the next five minutes, plus moving like an eel to seal the deal. I really love my crew.


    Darke suddenly turned sideways and swung his swords, a decapitated head flew into the sky and a previously invisible body dropped to the ground dead, and right In front of everyone else, Darke vanished from sight, and only the sounds of blades tearing into flesh was heard as he went after the players in stealth that I had not even noticed before, there was more to these guys than I know.


    I kept my focus on the people in front of me, my hands tightly grabbing the hilt of the Kusanagi, the melee figured in the front lines were waiting for me, and he archers were not slowing down as they kept sending arrow after arrows at me, but other arrows always intercepted theirs, obviously Zack''s skill with the bow was on a whole other level and much more stronger than theirs. A fireball whizzed over my head and smashed into their midst setting some of them on fire, and just in time too as that''s when I got to them.


    I called my wings and went over their heads, making sure my meal carried me until I was directly over the years of the tanks who had their shields out in front and defending against the swinging hammer of the giant. I flipped myself in the air with my head upside down, and made my move.(LIGHTNING BLADE) (DIVINE WIND DRAW!)


    Both skills empowers themselves as a massive crescent beam of wing and lightning shot out of the katana. The beam was extremely thin and glowed a greenish blue with streaks of site running across it, and then it slammed into the front lines, smashing three shields out of the 10 tanks still standing, and throwing most of them off their feet, a huge chunk of their health missing. But those were the lucky ones, one of the tanks directly exploded into a shower of blood and goes and since his body still remains albeit in pieces, that guy had to have been an AI.


    I completed my flight and landed much to my surprise on the palm of the giant, who for a second I was almost afraid had every intention of crushing me. But the fight still drew my attention, with most of the tanks down, whatever bonus strengths the party got from them seemed to have been reduced or negated, because immediately Zareth u leashed a stream of flames on the small army and sent more than half of what was remaining to wherever they''re supposed to respawn. Two arrows flew into the eyes of a woman with a whip, exploding her head a second later just as Darke appeared out of thin air and crossed his swords over the neck of a heavily armored demon like guy. His videos head fell to the ground, but Darke had already disappeared, before the decapitated body part even touched the ground.


    Two massive water while stretched out from the floating water globes behind Mack and pierced into two unsuspecting players who had shifted their attention to Raven. But Raven wasn''t paying attention to them as he used the edge of his shield to slam into the jaw of a player, flipping him over and bringing him hard to the ground, and just in time for his glowing one handed hammer to smash his head in putty, the tiles underneath his feet caving in and cracking. Then I heard the giant say in a raspy but quite clear voice.


    "I like that one!" I turned to look up at him, but his eyes was completely focused on Raven Song. After that it only took short work for Zack, Mack, Darke and Raven Song to kill the players until only three of them were remaining.


    The giant placed me on the ground as I walked towards the remaining three players, however as I got close I realized I sort of recognized one of the players. I mean what were the odds that this lizard guy would be wearing the same armor as that one lizard guy I impaled on a ship during our journey to the Atlantic rim, I think it was when I had to assassinate that traitor elven scientists.


    "Wait aren''t you that lizard guy I hung out to dry on that sea elven ship? You look good...¡­I think." I said to him as I walked towards him, coming to a stop right besides Raven Song and Darke.


    "I see you remember me, Captain Seven of the Acheron, good! Because I remember you, and your sins against my supreme guild, and believe me when I tell you, when the gates of hell opens, you''re going to be the first to fall to horrors of hell!" I blinked my eyes at him, then I sat down on the ground, crossed my legs and leaned back on my hands, looking up at the ugly lizard guy.


    "Last I remember Rango, you have no dragon and no priestess, plus I suspect the giant over there has to die for your so called gates to open, and none of this has happened or will happen. Soooooo how are you going to open you oh so scary gates of hell?" I asked him with a smile on my face.


    "You ignorant fool, all we needed was a powerful life force and equally powerful unique magic to serve as a catalyst to power the sacrifice. And you all provided the necessary ingredients for the sacrifice! The Titan will die! He has already been injected with the god slaying poison, and in no time at all he would be very much dead and his life force and magic, along with those of all the players you so foolishly killed will open the gates, and as an added bonus the aura of a dragon going on a rampage would more than fuel the gates energy in springing open!


    We have this entire island under our control, and the moment that Titan dies, the gates will spring open and hell will visit new Gaia. And there''s nothing you can do about it, not to mention there would be no escape for you, the vanguard monsters coming out of hell are hundreds of level above you and your rabble, you''re all going to die." Well I guess I can''t be lackadaisical about this situation, I turned to look at the so called Titan and watched as he nodded his head.


    "He speaks the truth young Dragon, my time in this world would end 7 minutes hence. You should take your family and get off this island as fast as you can." I liked that he called them my family, but I''m not one to give up without a fight, that was not the Wade way.


    "Is there no way to heal you or at the very least stop the gates from being open by your death." I asked him as I walked towards the giant.


    "Nothing can be done, young dragon, my card is sealed and death shall embrace me today. However I hope you would let me pass on my knowledge and power to one of your family, so that when the time comes, you can fight to close this gate and the many others that would be open should this one be."


    "Wait! What? There are other gates elsewhere? Where are they?" I asked him, this was a threat, and I would very much like to eliminate such threats before they can actually threaten us.


    "Those gates have not been opened yet, but once this one is, gate makers from hell would be able to build such gates in places of power with dimensional energy. This would be the start of a war between the world of the living and the circles of hell. You must prepare you family, please we''re running out of time, get the rest of your family off the island and go far away. It would be impossible for the innocents to be saved, however I believe you can bring vengeance to them, so please go." I understood what he was saying, and it seemed there was no time to waste.


    "Raven Song, I believe this Titan guy has something to say or give to you, get to it and let''s move. Zareth! Get Zack, Darke and Mack off the island, I''ll meet you guys on the ship. Make sure you stay hidden, I''ll find you."


    With that said I watched as the clones got on Zareth''s back, the massive red dragon gave a nod and he flew in from the hallway back into the temple and up out of it''s open ceiling. The remaining three players were ignored as there was nothing to be gained from killing them, however I still kept an eye on them as I focused on Raven Song who now had his head completely covered by the massive palm of the Titan. And right in front of me, I watched as his palm began to shrink, and release massive amounts of blinding gold light that covered Raven Song.


    Then Raven Song''s greyish purple skin began to turn fair and then pure gold. Runic symbols began to show up on his skin as he grew horns and his white hair turned reddish brown. A two grew out from behind his waist, along with a pair of bat like membrane wings. Suddenly the armor on the body of the Titan began totally of his body and right into Raven''s, his shield floated and reduced it''s size until Raven Song was the one carrying, and following behind was his hammer which slimed down to fit Raven Song''s size.


    But even if that hammer had slimmer down, it as still two meters long and just as tall as Raven Song. Raven Song''s slim frame seemed to add on a little more him as he became a muscular and beefy elf, rather than a slim muscular elf. His eyes were now a blazing gold with three concentric circles within it, and just as his transformation was going on, the Titan''s body shrunk until all that was left was frail old man, then he looked at me and smiled, and then slowly he turned into dust and flew away with the wind.


    {SYSTEM ALERT: PARTY: Your crew member Raven Song has had his face changed from dark elf to Titan elf, and his class changed to ATLAS DEFENDER/ +65% to party''s defense and attack when together with Raven Song/ The party skill (ATLAS SHROUD HAS BEEN ACTIVATED)}


    [ATLAS SHROUD: PASSIVE SKILL: Activate a defensive shield when collective party up reaches below 50%, shield can absorb damage from any attack party for a value of 500%./ Duration: 40 seconds/ Cost: 1% collective party MP]


    Well that''s all good and fine, and quite wonderful if I do say so myself, but currently this entire temple was shaking something fierce and it seems as if it was about to fall on our head. I turned to the players and saw that two of them had already made a run for it, I quickly shifted Sky into her staff form and fired off four (MANA ARROWS) after them, turning them into motes of light before they even got far.


    Raven Song and I turned to face the lizard guy, but he was on his knees facing the direction of the temple.


    There was a massive black door slowly fading in and out of existence, and with each second that passed it was becoming more and more corporeal, the lizard guy on the other hand had a look on his face reminiscent to that of a man in the throes of an orgasm.


    "YES! It comes! Can you see hahahaha the gates of hell shall prevail, they shall triumph over you useless heathens! Hahahaha" he spoke with such strength and vigor saliva was flying every which way, and he was heavily drenched in his own sweat. Raven Song scrunched his brows as the guy kept talking.


    "Oh sweet Lilith and Noble Lucifer, mother of demons and father of the fallen! I welcome you to the world of the man and their mom! Your servant has prepared a festival of blood for you, come! Cooooomeeeee...¡­"


    *Bang!*


    "Thank you so much Raven Song, I couldn''t take one more second of that guy''s fanatical screeches. Come on, let''s get the fuck out of here." I said to Raven song, after he had happily smashed the lizard guy''s head to lasts against the tiled floor.


    Raven song and it took to the site, he was a little clumsy since this was the first time he was using wings, but none the less he was able to follow being me as we made our way out of the temple and out into the open air. The sky was red as blood and a pressure we didn''t feel in the temple was over the island, this was really serious.


    {ALERT!: Attention All Players And Indigenes Of The Waking World! A Gate Of Hell Has Sprung Open And Now Demons And Devil''s Of The Nine Circles Of Hell Will Now Invade The World Of The Living. All Players Are Expected To Report To Their Guild An Each Guild Report To The Kingdoms Or Planets You Have Your Headquarters In And Prepare To Launch A Resistance Against The Legions Of Hell. THIS IS WAR!}


    "Captain; it looks like shit just got real."

 158 The Ocean City Of Atlantis IX : Escape

    A massive pillar of reddish black light about up from the middle of the temple, completely blowing what was left of it into a massive like of rubble and debris. Raven Song and I kept our bearings due east, heading to a part of the island that was not as populated, and where the Acheron was docked right underwater. Whatever was going to be coming out of those gates we really didn''t want to be here when they did, plus Eve we won''t be in danger from the gates themselves, we were right In the middle of hostile territory, so I would very much like to avoid being surrounded by a guild of fanatical players.


    However as we flew over a small patch of forest owe to the edge of the island, a massive fireball flew towards us, or rather it was a flaming rock fired from a catapult. Raven Song and I banked left and right, barely evading the massive Boulder that came out of nowhere, but that the least of our problems as players sporting jetpacks flew up from the trees below us, each of them holding guns that looked really garish and ugly with their black and red frame. There were six players and given that they were all similarly armored, I get the feeling that they all shared the same class.


    *Pew pew!*


    Two red bolts flew from two guns, I quickly brought my wings forwards, letting then block the two shots and letting gravity drag my body, however both shots were so powerful they pushed me back and felt my wings feeling a little bit of heat. I spread them as let them catch air as I shifted Sky back to her staff form from her helm form. The players were too clustered to attack with bust the Mana ARROWS, not to mention Sky was already feeling weakened, I''ve been using her abilities none stop for the better part of two hours, she was still very much a living being as opposed to the tool she looks like right now, things like stamina would always come into question for her.


    (STORM DANCE)


    I was in the air and sort for Raven song who just got his wings and this group of players who were busy moving shakily with jet-packs, the sky was my domain. Band it was about time I needed it to my advantage, not unless I wanted to fully shift into my dragon form, which if I should be honest I really don''t want to do, as that was a trump card I had to keep hidden since Persephone and Zareth already used theirs.


    (MANA ARROW)


    Four silver blue Mana arrows flew towards one of the players, he really wasn''t expecting it, and his defense seemed somewhat weak. The Mana arrows punched a hole into his body and out the back of his jet-pack, and 2 seconds later before he faded away he exploded into a shower of flames and metal, and since he was quite close to one of his friends, he took the guy with him in a blaze of fiery glory.


    Two down, four more to go. I turned my head to the remaining four who had instead chosen to focus on Raven Song, which was why I would have done seeing as he was the one decked head to toe in a golden armor and was bulky and beefed up he looked like the Terminator. However the two meter long Warhammer Raven held in his hand seemed to elongate and grow flexible, becoming something akin to a whip which he flipped and used to sweep the four players assaulting him .


    He crushed all four players together like they were nothing more than soda cans, and then swung the hammer down, smashing it against another Boulder that came flying towards us. Then he spun, swing the whip hammer? Around himself, causing a disturbance in the wind as he raised it up and brought it smacking down with a heavy and resounding thud. Some how as he brought the hammer down, the bloody thing seemed to expand, until it was over a hundred meters in diameter, and when he slammed it into the ground, a massive crater appeared releasing a shockwave that created a clearing, smashing all of the trees within a three hundred meter radius to splinters and leaving behind cleared earth filled with saw dust and very dead players and AIs.


    I turned to look as Raven Song as he withdrew his Warhammer, returning it back into it''s normal two meter form, which he proceeded to even shrink into it was the same size of his previous Warhammer. He looked at me with wide eyes leaking out of his golden visor and said.


    "I honestly didn''t see that coming, do you think we''ll get in trouble?" he asked me, the I rolled my eyes and asked him.


    "Get in trouble with who? We''re running from an island of devil worshippers, and the entire universe is out for our heads, we answer to no one Raven, we''re Acheron." I don''t know why I phrased it like that, but I felt as if something had changed in the way we viewed ourselves. We were not just a crew of wanted people roaming the seas, we answered to no one, and if anyone wanted to stand in our way, we would be more than happy to kick their fucking asses.


    Raven Song and I continued until we got to the coast, thankfully we were not ambushed or way laid by anyone else. We dived into the water and almost screamed in fight at the massive face we saw as we got into the ocean, it only took a moment for us to calm down as we realized that Zareth was playing a prank, the fang filled grin on his face was more than enough to show that he was being a massive dick, which was nothing new.


    We swam towards the ship with Zareth shitting back into his diminutive dwarfish form. We went behind the Acheron and came up the rear entrance that led to the hull. We swam in and saw Qitar waiting for us with a towel in hand, I gave her a simple thanks as I practically ran to the ship''s intercoms system.


    "Darke! Get us the fuck away from this island right now, put everything we have to it shields and focus on getting us the fuck away from here!"


    (SEA SPRINT ACTIVATED)


    To be honest I was feeling somewhat frantic, we had to get out of here before something goes horribly wrong, what was it that could go wrong apart from the gates of hell opening, I didn''t know. But I get the feeling that we would be finding out soon enough. I made my way to the deck, it was covered now ,but we could still see what was happening above, especially with how the ship''s navigation system works. I went to the wheel and returned the compass back into its perch, reactivating the ship''s full navigation system.


    The Acheron was cutting through the ocean Ike a knife through butter when all of a sudden we felt a sudden tremor, looking up we noticed the a massive dome falling from the blood red sky as if to completely isolate the ocean City Of Atlantis and it''s surrounding ocean, cutting them off from the rest of the world and preventing outside interference.


    "Captain!"


    "Damn it Qitar! I can see the damn thing!"


    I shifted my focus ahead of us, the dome was coming down really quickly, and we were still within the range of the dome, which meant we might not be able to make it there in time. And should that for fully come down, we''ll be stuck here and subjected to God knows6 what kind of torture. I didn''t doubt for one second that the dome would stretched underwater, I had this guy feeling that it would. Then I got an idea.


    "Qitar aim all guns and turrets behind us, and fire! And don''t stop until I tell you too." I said to her as I went to the bow of the ship where the Trident was stuck firmly into a carrier.


    Qitar didn''t wasted time as she started blasting the guns and turrets, hang the force of their discharge to add more boost to the ship and push us forward, the sole movements was quite jarring and, doing this to the ship would probably be putting g quite a lot of pressure on it, but this was the only option we have, and for the most part it seems to be working, and now it was time to add a little more boost to the ship.


    I held the Trident and felt a vibration go from it, to the ship and out into the ocean around us. The water bubbled and shook as the currents shifted in our favor, storm clouds gathered as the water itself created a current stream that pushed the Acheron forward. Even though the ship was in it''s submarine form, the speed were moving at was so great that everyone had to hold on to something, heck I was holding on to the Trident with my entire body in the air being dragged by the inertia and speed of the ship.


    I heard a dull groan , almost as if the ship was complaining about the amount of pressure we were putting on it''s engines. But none the less we still had to push her to her limits. I struggled to place my hand on her how, as if to comfort her and ask her to hold on. We were almost through the danger zone. I looked up and saw the dome break through the surface of the Ocean, we were about three hundred meters below and we were trying to get passed the barriers range, and we had just about a 100 meters to go.


    But with how cats this bloody thing was dropping, I was beginning to worry that we would be unable to make it. The seconds seemed to get longer as we drew closer and closer, and yet the threat of being trapped or smashing against that bloody barrier was very real. I could hear my own heart beating and my blood pumping in my ears, the hands unused in holding the Trident was clammy with sweat as I held my breath. We got closer and closer and then.


    *Kreeeeeeeeeeeeee*


    The sound of the barrier scraping across the frame of the Acheron, raising Sparks and causing a breach on the deck''s covering. Sea water splashed into it, but even with that development we could all breath a sigh of relief, we made it out, but quite narrowly to. The ship moved forward for another kilometer or two before finally slowing down to a stop. We had to ascend as staying underwater at the moment was not safe for some of the crew members.


    The Acheron burst out onto the ocean with a flat sky shining above it, in the distance was the massive dome hundreds of meters of not thousands in diameter, heck it could be a few dozen kilometers. The sky above it was still covered with thick clouds that were all painted red, there was just the feeling not depression coming from it, a feeling of Carnage and destruction.


    I suddenly remembered what the Titan had said to me about the innocents that would be left behind and at the mercy of the legions of hell, however there was nothing I could do about it anymore. I looked around to notice that there were quite a few ship''s gathered around, and many of them held players and AIs who were busy watching with horror what was happening as the Ocean City Of Atlantis was buried under a dome of red and black.


    I shifted my gaze to the ship and noticed that the ship was already in a state of self repair, but even if she''ll be okay eventually, this mission almost cost us, and not just that, this was the first time we met a challenge we truly couldn''t overcome, even with all of the strength we had. We ran with our tails tucked in between our legs, it was more than enough proof that we weren''t invisible. But I was thankful that we were all alive, and that somehow we did get what we came for, Jack was going to be fine , and after that we''re getting the fuck off this planet, one way or another. Hell and it''s very open gate was not our problem.


    I shifted my gaze and looked around, every other ship all had their eyes on us, recognition etched all over their faces as they yelled questions at us demanding to know what had happened. Some of them even seemed to be preparing to swim over and attack us, we were surrounded and we were not in our top conditions. But none the less I get the feeling that this was better odds than facing an open gate of hell, quite happy to don''t out legions of monsters hundreds of levels above me.


    "Dinah! Fix the Ship, Qitar get the guns that are still working online and shoot at anyone who come within a sixty meters of the Acheron, the rest of you prepare for battle, would the need for it arise."


    We were all tired, but I was not until good a mood that a bunch of clueless players would pop out of nowhere to ask me questions I didn''t what to answer. We answered to no one, that''s the Acheron''s way.

 159 The Ocean City Of Atlantis X : Growth

    {Estimated Time To Ship''s Full Restoration 1 day 3 hours 10 minutes and 20 seconds./ Estimated Time To Ship''s Partial Restoration 0 day 3 hours 10 minutes and 20 seconds./ Commencing Partial Restoration}


    We couldn''t sit here and wait for the ship''s full restoration, we had eyes on us, especially since we had a sleeping wind dragon on Deck. We had to get the fuck out of here as fast as possible, before s force we can''t deal with in our current state gets here. But none of the ship''s around us were making any sort of moves, so I guess I can say that things were going our way for now.


    The dragon was probably exhausted and weakened from it''s many days of captivity, and the same things went for the moon elf player/AI. According to Persephone, she had fallen asleep the very moment her head had touched the Infirmary bed, so for now we would not be squeezing any answers from here, or the dragon, or asking her to heal Jack either. But we were all trying to be patient and sensitive, so while the ship fixed itself and hundreds of people stared at us with greed in their eyes, everyone of us with our guard still very much up, decided to focus on other things.


    I had three hundred pieces of those skill disk fragment, I don''t know if it was arranged by the system to be that way, which meant any sort of skills that comes out from it would be shared with three other people. So I didn''t waste any time and combine them all, however to my surprise three skills were formed, rather than one. Plus I haven''t really Forgotten the other skills we got from the boss Sentinel.


    { You have crafted SHADOW WALK SKILL DISK}


    {you have created SHADOW SHIFT SKILL DISK}


    {You have created SHADOW CLONE SKILL DISK}


    The were all skills tailored for and assassin, and of all the people on this ship, only one person had certain skill sets that could qualify him as an assassin player, and that was Darke. I walked up to him and placed all three skill disks into his hands, he looked up at me with a questioning look on his face, but I brushed it off and patted him on his shoulder.


    This stint on the island had shown me that my true strength came from them, from people who were willing to stand beside me during a fight, people who I could trust to have my back. So as long as they grew stronger, then so too could I, plus we were slowly shaping up to looking like a proper party. Raven was a tank, though a tank with a damage as ridiculous as his was beyond scary, then there was Darke who until today, I never knew had fearsome stealth skills. Every time he appeared heads rolled, and then there was Work who served he told as a buffer, healer and mage at he same time, though his class seems to be a little more catered to buffing.


    Then Loud mouth Zack who''s skill with a bow was leaps and leagues above my own, his was he ranger of the group, Qitar the sharp shooter, Zareth the berserker and Persephone.....we haven''t spent enough time with her to know what role she falls under, but she seems more like a mage/assassin hybrid. And Jack once he wakes up can go back to being the sword and shield master fighter.


    I went towards Persephone and sized her the three skills we got from the boss, everyone having seen me give all three Shadow skills to Darke, so there was no need to explain what happened to them to her, besides she doesn''t seem to have any need for them, shadows didn''t seem to be her thing. But if she required any sort of compensation I''ll be more than willing to give all the skills back to her, however all she took was the (PSYCHIC SCREAM) Leaving behind the (GHOST BOLT) &(ARCANE SHIELD).


    I handed the shield skill to Raven Song but he returned it back to me, apparently he had enough of such skills in his arsenal now, and the ghost bolt did not interest him either. However Qitar expressed some interest in the ghost bolt skill, so I gave it to her and then gave the Arcane shield to Dinah. She''s never been on the front lines in any of our fights, but I think it would be nice if she had a way to protect herself should things go wrong and we''re unable to get to her on time.


    To top it off was the skill combining gems and the Dark Sentinel Assassin armor. I already had a couple of skill combining gems with me, about six or seven of them, so placed it with the five gained from the dungeon and handed it to the crew, whoever needed it could one a way to split it with the rest. Then I gave the armor to Darke who''s face showed more expressions today than I''ve ever seen since we met, and I swear it looked like he was smiling. However smiles looked terrible on his face, yes he looked exactly like his brothers, but I think his brooding personality has made it so that whenever he smiles it''s hideous. Or that should just be me, very terrified of the idea of Darke smiling.


    Well with all of them settled, it was now my turn, I didn''t need any new skills at the moment, and to be honest it''s about time I got the ones I currently had to much more stronger level. But before that, I''ve gained a total of 8 levels during this entire expedition, most of such I had to attribute to that Sentinel Dungeon, those guys gave a shit ton of exp. And I''m pretty sure I would be at a much more higher level if I didn''t have to share Exp with Persephone who was completely useless during the dungeon run.


    Name: Aa Seven/ Level: 57(78.5%)/ Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Power Seeker/ One With The Wind/ Bronze Blood Commander/ Limit Breaker/ Sin Dragon Slayer/ Pirate Hunter/ World Shaper


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/ Captain Of The Acheron''s Crew


    Reputation: INFAMOUS(Wanted Dead Or Alive)


    Strength: 351/ Constitution: 366/ Agility: 410/ Dexterity: 410/ Intelligence: 351/ Wisdom:366


    Hp 2586 /2586(equip bonus +) MP 2770/2770(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:171 Skill points:211


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    I almost never have a need to use my stat points, with all of the bonus I get from class, and every other title in play I could more than cover for it, and to be honest with how must stat points I already have allocated, anything I add would be a drop in the ocean anyways. The thing is as soon as I passed the 100 mark with my stats, I would only be able to see any significant improvements at milestones the system set in place.


    The first was at stats 200, I suspect the next would be at stats 500, which is actually a milestone my dexterity and agility stats were close to reaching. Either way with that out of the way what I had to focus on next were my skills, which I believe were due for an upgrade. The skills can level up by themselves from constant usage, but obviously such a method adjust too slow.


    I need to level up most of my active skills, especially the ones that I find myself using more in combat, and since I have quite a few skill points to spare, I believe there''s no time like the presence for me to be able to take care of it. So first things first, I was going to level up Mana arrows, followed by lightning blade, then storm dance , Quake and then Lava pool.


    {SPEND 18 SKILL POINTS TO RAISE MANA ARROWS TO MASTER RANK LEVEL 1...¡­MANA ARROWS IS NOW MASTER RANK LEVEL 1/ PLEASE CHOOSE NEW SUB-SKILLS OR EFFECTS}


    1.	MANA BOMB: BASIC LEVEL 1: RELEASE A DELAYED AND COMLRESSED FORM OF MANA THAT EXPLODED AFTER 3 SECONDS IN THE MIDST OF YUR ENEMY, CAUSING DAMSGE WORTH 10% OF INTELLIGENCE STAT.(COST 20 MP) (COOL DOWN 10 SECONDS)


    2.	MANA LOCK: BASIC LEVEL 1: SEAL THE MANA WITHIN AN OPPONENT PREVENTING THE USE OF SKILLS AND CAUSING PARALYSIS FOR 5 SECONDS.(COST 90 MP) (COOLDOWN 120 SECONDS)


    3.	MANA SEEKER (EFFECT): HONE IN ON THE MANA OF YOUR OPPONENT, SKILL CAN NOT BE DODGE OR EVADED, AND WILL CONTINUE TO CHASE AFTER YOUR OPPONENT UNTIL IT HITS IT''S TARGET.


    It w as quite hard to make a voice from these three, but in the end I chose to go for another effect. Because no matter how I see it, Mana seemed was just to amazing to let go of.


    {SPEND 18 SKILLS POINTS TO RAISE LIGHTNING BLADE TO MASTER RANK LEVEL 1...¡­. LIGHTNING BLADE IS NOW MASTER RANK LEVEL 1/ PLEASE CHOOSE NEW SUB-SKILLS OR EFFECT)


    1.	CURRENT SLASH: BASIC LEVEL 1: RELEASE A WAVE OF ELECTRICAL CURRENTS FROM YOUR SWORD WITHIN A RANGE OF 5 METERS CAUSING DAMAGE FOR 10% OF YOUR STRENGTH AND 20%BOFNYOUR INTELLIGENCE STAT. (COST 150 MP) (COOLDOWN 30 SECONDS)


    2.	WIND SCHOOL: LIGHTNING BOLT: BASIC LEVEL 1: SHOOT A BOLT OF LIGHTNING FROM YOUR HANDS OR STAFF WITHIN A LINEAR DISTANCE OF 5 METERS FOR 40% DAMAGE OF YOUR INTELLIGENCE STAT.(COST 100 MP) (COOLDOWN 10 SECONDS)


    And then that was it, nothing else, no mastery of any other extra skill to follow up with it. But it wasn''t bad, the lightning bolt skill won the coin toss for this, which was great because I needed more magic skills.


    {SPEND 12 SKILL POINTS TO RAISE STORM DANCE TO ADVANCED RANK LEVEL 1....STORM DANCE IS NOW ADVANCED RANK LEVEL 1}


    Nothing new to be gained there, storm dance as already basic level 6 and needed three skill points to raise a single level. Either way it already has an effect, and won''t be getting one or any extra skill into it gets to level 5 advanced.


    {SPEND 8 SKILL POINTS TO LEVEL QUAKE TO ADVANCED LEVEL 1...¡­QUAKE HAS LEVELED UP AND EVOLVED TO EARTH TREMOR! THE EFFECT EARTH SPIKES HAS BEEN INCLUDED.)


    And there were those skills that would just surprise the shit out of you when you least expect it. But it''s nice all the same.


    {SPEND 8 SKILL POINTS TO RAISE FIRE SCHOOL: LAVAL POOL TO ADVANCED LEVEL 1.....FIRE SCHOOL: LAVA POOL HAS BEEN RAISED TO ADVANCED LEVEL 1/ CHOOSE EW SUB-SKILLS OR EFFECT}


    1.	FIRE SCHOOL: FIRE BALL: BASIC LEVEL 1: CONJURE UP A BALL OF FLAMES WITH FIRE MANA CAUSING DAMAGE FOR 5% OF YOUR INTELLIGENCE STAT. (COST 10 MP) (COOLDOWN 5 SECONDS)


    2.	ERUPTION (EFFECT): AS LONG AS THE OPPONENT IS STUCK WITHIN THE LAVA POOL FOR 5 SECONDS THE POOL WILL ERRUPT CAUSING CONSTANT DAMAGE OF 200% OF YOU INTELLIGENCE STAT FOR 5 SECONDS.


    Good God! That eruption effect was insane, all I had to do was make sure that the person shared by the pool remains there for at least five seconds. But that''s wasn''t it for all of my skills, at least for today anyway. Maybe ill focus on the passive when there wasn''t a massive white and gold yacht heading for my ship, a yacht that I actually recognized.


    PASSIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Wind child(level 1) Advanced. +15% to all wind oriented skills and spells.


    ?	Adaptive(level 1) Advanced. +20% speed to learning skills and leveling up.


    ?	Precise Aim(level 1) Advanced. +30% to aim when in motion, +35% to aim when stationary.


    ?	Nature Born(level 3)basic. Wherever you are the power of Nature is with you. HP regeneration 30% + 60% in Forests, Jungles and any other place Nature can be found. All attacks within nature oriented areas +30%, +100% favorability with all Nature attuned entities.


    ?	Pilot (Level 1) Advanced. Fly and navigate the skies in every form and manner possible. +50% to flight speed and maneuvering, +35% in navigating the skies, +40 to awareness.


    ?	Dragon Commander (level 5) basic. You''re the embodiment of draconic supremacy which gives you power over lesser lifeforms and other dragons. +80% chance to make opponents of a similar level bewildered, 100% for lower levels, 60% for opponents five levels higher, 40% for ten, 20% for fifteen, and 5% for twenty, + 10% increase to the stats of all allies and followers when giving commands.


    ?	Basic Regeneration (Level 1): health regenerates by 5% every 10 seconds


    ?	Basic Magic Breath Technique (Level 1): Mana regenerates by 5% every 10 seconds


    ACTIVE SKILLS:


    ?	Seeker(level 3) Advanced. +100% damage, speed and accuracy With all weapons. (Cost 100 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (Effect: Fade: All projectiles can not be tracked or seen except through special means)


    ?	Stealth Flight (level 1) Basic. Be unseen within the confines of the atmosphere. (Duration: 25 seconds) (cost: 120 MP)


    ?	Wind Fist(level 5) basic. A series of quickly executed martial skills with the full power and essence of the wind. Speed +15% during skill, Damage +15%, +5% chance to confuse opponents( cost 20 MP) (cool down 10 seconds) (duration: 15 seconds) (Effect: No Air: all strikes are silent, and skill is powered by sucking air from the surroundings, including your opponent''s lungs)


    ?	Storm Dance(level 1) Advanced. Become one with the storm, increasing attack and movement speed by 500% defense and evasiveness against attacks raised by 200% for 20 seconds. All attacks are imbued with power of lightening. (Cost 200 MP) (cool down 100 seconds) (Effect: Lightening Field: Have a field of powerful electrical surges around you in a radius of 4 meters. Cause 100 flat damage every 2 seconds)


    ?	Mana Arrow(level 1) Master. Summon 8 arrows of pure mana to cause 70% magical and physical damage in a range of 30 meters. (Cost 15 MP) (cool down 5 seconds) (Effect: Double or Nothing: release 4 arrows instead of two, speed +40% + 20% extra damage) (Effect: Mana Seeker: Hone in on Target''s Mana signature, skill never missed or evaded)


    ?	Stealth(level 5) basic. Turn invisible for sixty seconds. Stealth is broken when attacked or attacking. Every first hit from stealth is a critical. (Cost 10 MP) (cool down 90 seconds) (Effect(I): Shroud Of Nature: Stealth in natural environment is increased by 50%


    ?	Purify(level 4) Advanced. Purify all things unclean and unholy. +200% chance to clear all debuffs, curses and poison. + 100% damage against the undead, +80% damage against dark creatures. (Cost 5 MP) (cool down 45 seconds)


    ?	Lightning Blade(level 1) Master. Coat your blade with lightening mana for 250 seconds. Every attack made would have extra lightening damage stacked on top by 50% and all slashes are AOE strike of 9x9 meters. Attack speed increases by 70%. (Cost 100 MP) (Cool down 50 seconds)


    ?	WIND SCHOOL: LIGHTNING BOLT: BASIC LEVEL 1: shoot a bolt of lightning from your hands or staff within a linear distance of 5 meters for 40% damage of your intelligence stat.(COST 100 MP) (COOLDOWN 10 SECONDS)


    ?	Area Of Silence(level 2) Advanced. Create a cone of air over multiple targets, eliminating the release of all skills and spells for ten seconds. (Cost 140 MP) (cool down 250 seconds)


    ?	Earth Tremor (level 1) Basic: stomp the ground and cause a resonance with the earth elements for a 40% of your total damage value with a 30 meter knock back effect. Damage value and knock back range increase exponentially every five levels/ COST: 100 MP/ COOLDOWN: 15 SECONDS/ Effect: Earth Spikes: Release Three meter long earth spikes 3 seconds after skill ends, damage +30%)


    ?	Fire School: Lava Pool: (Level 1) Advanced: Summon a pool of lava within a 10 meter radius to trap your enemies and cause a steady damage of +5% health points every second. Effective against medium large enemies./ COST: 200 MP/ COOLDOWN: 15 SECONDS/ (EFFECT: ERUPTION: Lava pool erupts after 5 seconds, damage +200%)]


    MASTERIES:


    ?	Archery Mastery (level 4) basic. +3% to all archery skills and +5% damage from all bows and arrows


    ?	Sword Mastery (level 5) basic. +10% to all sword skills and +15% damage to swords (DEXTEROUS: +20% to Agility & Dexterity)


    ?	Magic Mastery (Level 2) basic. +4% damage to all magic skills and spells


    ?	Wind Domain (Level 1): you constantly have a field of magical wind and air power activated around you. All wind spells/skills/creatures: +20% to all combat specs/domain range: 2 meter radius


    ?	Strength Mastery(Level 1): +10% to all strength related activity


    ?	Constitution Mastery(Level 1): +10% to defense and health regeneration


    ?	Agility Mastery(Level 1): +10% to all speed related activity


    ?	Dexterity Mastery(Level 1): +10% to dexterity and flexibility


    ?	Intelligence Mastery(Level 1): +10% to all magic related activity


    ?	Wisdom Mastery(Level 1): +10% to magic defense and Mana regeneration


    AUGMENTED RACIAL TRAIT:


    ?	Gills (III): Breathe underwater for eight hours


    ?	Swim Bladder: +60% to speed underwater, converse with aquatic creatures


    ?	Spirit Of Air(I): Ability to communicate with air elementals and control air freely


    ?	Heart Of Wind(I): Ability to control wind freely.


    ?	Heart Of Water(I): Ability to control water freely.

 160 Io Reyes/Penelope Jones

    On our maiden voyage, back when we had to go look for some fruit called the shade of Amara, a fruit which now that I think about it, I never got to know it''s use. But none the less we had met a blockade, we rammed it, turning quite a few of them into a pile of rubble, and then we took the fight to a massive white yacht, and lost, of rather we couldn''t even out a single dent on said ship. And now here it was asking towards me with a whole lot of people on board, and flying a guild flag that I now recognized. Qitar came up behind me and said.


    "Captain it''s the Dragon God guild."


    "I know Qitar, but whatever it is they want, they take it with a healthy dose of steel, flesh and blood. Keep your eyes peeled and keep the ship''s guns at the ready. Speaking of which how are they doing?" I asked her as I moved to the port side of the ship, watching as the yacht which still dwarfed my ship came close. If I had to be honest I would say the wasn''t a yacht but a luxury cruise liner.


    "Most of them are offline and badly damaged from the way we''ve had to use them, but they''re being fixed quite rapidly by the ship, I reckon they''ll be online and ready for a fight in fifteen minutes." I nodded my head at her and shook it, telling her to move backwards as the massive ship came to a stop besides ours.


    For a second everything was quiet as we watched, our hearts stuck in our throat as we waited from the promised fight, however even if the situation did not seem to favor us, and having an elemental dragon sleeping on my ship''s deck more than made it seem like I was guilty of something. However we weren''t shaken, by this point I''m pretty sure we''ve all developed spines of steel due to the things we''ve all seen and experienced. Someone came up the side of the ship and looked down on us, he seemed like a dwarf, or a variation of a dwarf as he was a pit taller and he had elfin ears.


    "Her Lordship Io Reyes of the Dragon God guild will like to invite Captain A¨¢ Seven of the Acheron for lunch. To show our sincerity you can bring you weapons an two partners, no more no less." His voice was a bit nasally, almost as if his trust couldn''t decided whether he had a low baritone voice or a high pitched one.


    "Captain don''t do it, it''s a trap!" Mack said from behind me.


    "Of course it''s a trap Mack, but I''m still going anyway." I said to him with a smile.


    "Darke, Persephone let''s go have lunch, the rest of you...¡­ keep our ship safe."


    My current crew was very unlike what I was the last time we went up against the dragon God guild, which if I should be honest was like 10 or twelve hours ago. Respawn in the game doesn''t really take long unless there are special circumstances in involved, so I wasn''t surprised this Io girl was right back on my tail, but she never did die anyways, so there''s that to consider.


    Anyway seeing as this might actually be a trap, it would be better to carry either Zareth or Raven Song along, since as it stands now, Raven Song might actually be the strongest person on the Acheron, however they would both be better suited to protecting the Acheron from any other threats. However Persephone didn''t seem all to keen on following me.


    "Sorry Captain but I rather sit this one out." I narrowed my eyes in submission and maybe a little bit of anger, I''m not really used to having people question my commands on my own ship. But there''s nothing to be said, Persephone is not really a member of my crew, she''s just someone tagging along and soul actually have an equal standing to mine since she was also a dragon avatar.


    But none the less she wasn''t coming, so it''s just going to be me and Darke on this ship. It would be even more dangerous now, but so far I''ve not seen anyone as good as Darke in hiding in plain sight. And even though my shift skill was still on Cool down, I have other ways with which I can actually escape from these guys should things hit the fan, we''ll be fine.


    As Darke came closer, I placed a hand on his back and flapped my wings, flying into the sky and bringing him along. I landed softly in front of the dwarf that came to call us and gave him the most dull and uninterested look I could muster. I know I could have refused, but I doubted they would have left me alone, so it wouldn''t have made any difference if I say yes or no, this was just a situation where I had to go with the flow and make up plans and counter plans as I went.


    The dwarf gave us a simple nod and led the way into the ship, here were multiple levels on it, and the one we had landed on seemed to be an infirmary of sorts. Darke an I ignored the scent of antiseptic and looks of injured AIs as we were led to an elevator that went up. We spent 30 seconds in it , before it doors opened up into the upper deck of the ship. There was a pool glistening under the sunlight, and after we moved forwards a bit, there was Io Reyes in all of her glory, glad in nothing but a purple bikini and dark shades. There was guy with wolf like features sitting next to her, he had a wolf head, a tail and class, but he was very much humanoid. Probably a beast kin player.


    Then Io turned to me and said In an annoyed voice that I didn''t think most of the players paying attention to her has ever had. "Aaron what the fuck are you doing messing with my guild!, Are you asking for a beating you idiot!"


    So maybe when she called my name I was left shocked and caught off guard, but there was only one person with the guts to threaten me like that. I gave a loud groan as I moved forwards, Darke keeping pace with me and keeping his guard up. But apart from the five of us, there was no one else up here.


    "Hey Penny! It''s a small world right?"


    "There''s nothing small about this world Aaron, and quite honestly I would have loved to not have ran into you. You know I wasn''t exactly sure, I just thought some other players had modified their Avatar to look like you, but no, it turns out it''s just you, an idiot who didn''t see the need to alter his real looks. You''re so smart!"


    Well she''s obviously angry about something, what it was only God knows, I''m sure she wasn''t still side about the fact I massacred her entire Armada. That was all in good faith, plus she''s the bad guy, so it was justice. I rested my back on a seat and crossed my legs as I looked at her, without saying anything. Penny was a lot of things, but she would never have set this meeting just for us to catch up and know who was who in the game.


    "Sell your ship to me, join my guild. We can give you a very lucrative offer, not just of in game money but real world money as well, though considering who you are, I doubt you''ll need real world money. We can make you much more powerful than you already are, we''ll pay you just so that you can join our guild, and pay your ship''s weight in gold so that it would fly out guild''s color. However you get to keep your ship, and allowed to do anything you want, as long as it''s not against the interests of the Dragon god guild. Plus there''s going to be a monthly salary for you and your crew, in fact we''ll happily pay the bounty on your head as a start."


    I couldn''t help but whistle in astonishment, that was not what I was expecting, I thought that maybe the Dragon god guild and I have gotten a point where we became bitter enemies, which in most cases is true, however their mascot or the face of the guild turned out to be my childhood friend. She wouldn''t want to make things difficult for me, but even then with how juicy an offer this is, she must have bent over quite a bit for someone or someone''s.


    But then again when you think about it, they''ll be gaining more than they''re loosing, not just the fact that they could gain a ship that''s super powerful and had quite a bit of potential to grow into something really great, there''s a captain that had just as much power as the main guild leaders on their guild. And he has one or two more crew members with the same power and abilities as he does. I and my crew, the Acheron included were more than worth our weight in gold, but unfortunately for her we''re not for sale, not to mention I don''t like the wolf guy sitting besides her, he''s a little too close for comfort.


    "Let me just spare you the pain and say no. You''re a sin dragon Avatar and I''m an elemental dragon avatar, blah-blah-blah we''re mortal enemies that kind of shit so we can''t work together. However you know I''m not one t give a shit about labels, and I would happily work with you, however I don''t like your guild, I don''t like it''s members and I''m fucking Aaron Wade! No amount of money they offer can buy me, if I do wished I would be the one buying the fucking Dragon god guild.


    But seems they offered money that means they have no idea who they were dealing with, which is nice, I''d rather no one knows who I am. However there''s a fucking dog-man sitting besides listening as you call my name. So it''s either you trust this guy, or I have to track him down in the real world and hang him by his ears from the top of the empire State building, so which is it."


    Maybe that was a little overboard, especially with the threat. And giving that dog-man swallowed hard, he definitely knew who ''I really was'' and the kind of chaos I could cause. It was annoying, the guy was a player and Penny was so careless with my identity, of course I could have pretended not to know her, but Penny was my friend, she''s family.


    "Calm your horses Aaron, this is Jeremiah Kozuki, you can trust him to keep your secret." Penny said to me.


    "I don''t trust anyone Penny!" I said with my voice getting a little bit higher than normal, there was just something about this guy that pissed me off, it definitely wasn''t the way he was holding her hand, yeah it''s because of his face, it was so god damn awful to look at it made my eyes water.


    "Then trust me! I know you do. Jeremiah here is my fianc¨¦, and not just my fianc¨¦ he''s the head of the Kozuki Yakuza clan, a clan that the Wade family has on it''s payroll and is one of the old families on it''s payroll."


    I blinked my eyes at what Penny just said, there wasn''t really anything about the Wade dark empire that I didn''t know about already, including the families on our payroll and in partnership with us. I recognized his name, so he checks out, Bieber I''m still going to have some people watch him....just to be sure. I don''t need to ask how they met, Penny''s law firm was created by her grandfather and mine or rather my father to serve as advocates from the crime families, they had the best lawyers money can buy. And the firm was in even more contact with these families than the Wade family which created it, which room volumes of how much legal help crime families find themselves in a need for.


    "If I find anything wrong Penny, even if he''s your fianc¨¦ I''m going to kill him an his entire family." I said to her, however those particular sequence of words seemed to set her off.


    "What the hell do you mean! Has your power gotten so far up your head that you would just kill anyone you''re remotely suspicious of! I told you he''s my fianc¨¦, he man that''s going to be my husband and work with me In the firm! You can trust him! Does my words count for nothing in your ears! His can you threaten to kill my fianc¨¦ and keep a straight face about it! What''s wrong with you!"


    I saw Darke tightening his hands on his swords, ready to make a move should Penny do so, however all that was here was an angry woman defending the man she loves. Maybe I might have gone a little too far with that, but I didn''t realize what I said would be such a trigger, or maybe I did, and I just didn''t care. For some reason I obviously wasn''t thinking straight. This conversation already fell through, I got up to my feet.


    "It was a pleasure seeing you in-game Penny, the next time we meet Io, it might be on the battlefield. Thanks for the lunch, and tell your guild to back the fuck away from me or I''ll burn them to finders using every tool in my disposal. Have good day." Then I turned and left, but no before ducking the bottle of wine thrown as my head, which sailed and unfortunately smashed into the face of the dwarf who led us up here.


    I resisted the urge to laugh at his sprawled out form, Darke was seriously confused about what was going on, but so was I. My reaction was quite weird even to myself, but none the less I meant everything I said, if that guy has anything suspicious on himself, I''m going to kill him. I spread my wings and grabbed Darke as we flew off the top deck of the massive ship, and flew down until our feet was planted firmly on the deck of the Acheron. I was about to head in when I felt Darke''s hands on my shoulder.


    "Captain? Are you alright?" I furrowed my brow in confusion, but still answered him with a laugh that sounded too fake, even to me.


    "Of course I''m fine hahaha, come on let''s get to work." The only reply Darke gave me was a small hmmm, but I think both he and I knew I was definitely not okay, something''s wrong with me.

 161 Plans, Jacks Return

    I''m, or In the case Penny didn''t take our entire disagreement too far, just as the massive Yacht had approached us, it turned around and left. Though the dwarf did come back out to deliver a message, Io was going to come looking for me again some time soon, and when she does that, she would be expecting a full explanation of what had gone down in the ocean City Of Atlantis. I''m pretty sure a whole lot of people wanted details, but there was already a World announcement, so I don''t get what else they want to find out. Either way the moment the Acheron was done with her Partial Restoration, under the amazed gazes of everyone else, we dove into the sea and resumed sailing, looking for a safe place to hold up whilst the ship completed her repairs.


    But here we all are gathered in the common area for an emergency crew meeting, Persephone was very much missing as she had logged out, but at this point I wasn''t going to beat myself up about it, that girl was just a guest for the mean time, and from the looks of things she wasn''t really a team player, and I''d rather avoid keeping people around me that I can''t trust. Of all the things we''ve experienced Raven Song has gotten the biggest gains, but none the less the whole crew has grown in one way or another, and once the dragon and priestess woke up, we could deal with other problems. But right now, we needed a way off the planet, and place where we can hide for as long we can and grow stronger.


    "There''s a lot of things we have to deal with, with a couple of agendas in front of us, so I''m going to lay it out in front of you guys and listen to what you have to say. First of all I''m going to use the guild creation order and make us and official guild, I hear there''s a couple of perks that we could receive from that. However I don''t plan to make some large guild, I''m hoping we can recruit really powerful people to make a small yet very elite force of fighters that any other force would think twice about messing with. That way as a guild we''re not really stuck to one place and can move should the need arises, or until we truly get a place we can call home and no one can mess with us.


    Next we need to get off this planet, and it has to be on a very massive cargo ship because unless we plan on leaving the Acheron behind, we need it. But not just getting off this planet we also need to find a place to lay low for a while and improve on our strength. I believe Jack''s health would be easily taken care of, so we shouldn''t have any loose ends to tie on new Gaia.


    So any suggestions or what do you guys think we should do other than that." I said to them as we all stood around a holographic map of New Gaia.


    "If you need a place to lay low, we all can go back to my home, the dwarf king would be happy to offer us shelter until we''re ready to move on, plus I also need to deliver that which I was sent here for. However the issue of moving the Acheron would be very hard, it would be almost impossible for us to leave the planet on our own, but to do so with a ship that''s a recognizable and famous as the Acheron would be unthinkable. Unless we''re able to procure a massive cargo starship for ourselves, we would have to leave the ship behind, at least until we can come back and get it."


    Zareth said as he stroked his red beard


    Loathe as I was to admit it, Zareth was right, neither one of us was rich enough to procure a normal starship off the planet, not to mention a cargo ship. Not unless we plan to leave it behind and come back for it later, and to be quite honest that doesn''t sit well with me, this ship has become a part of me, a part of all of us.


    "Creation of the guild should also wait until we''ve successfully escaped the planet and reached Zareth''s location. We can first register ourselves as a mercenary group and carry out some missions whilst looking for people to recruit and a permanent base, or at the very least see if the Acheron can become more than what she is now." Qitar said as she added her own opinions.


    "Well you''re both right, and the mercenary angle works because quite frankly we need lots of money, we''ve burned through our reserves, and we need more. Which is why I''m confident even if we leave the ship behind , we can''t buy passage of this planet with the measly amount of change we have, we need to steal a cargo airship, disable it''s tracking system, at least for a while, then go to another more populated planet, dump it, steal another one, and repeat said action for like three more times before heading to Zareth''s location. That was the ship''s are not tracked." Dinah said as she called away on her tablet.


    "Well the ships might not be tracked, but who''s today the thefts can''t, especially if it''s reported. Sure they steal airships everyday, but an airship with the specs of being a cargo ship, which can transport a medium size pirate warship, disappearing from a planet where another the of said ship was found abandoned would be all to easy to track down. It''s an obvious trail of bread crumbs, with enough time, whoever is tracking us will find us, maybe even sooner than we expected." Mack explained as he pointed out holes within Dinah''s plan.


    "All you need are cargo ship''s not registered to anyone, you have to steal from the smugglers themselves, sure they might be able to track it down, but they''re a bunch of people that won''t be missed and can easily be taken care of." A new voice said from behind us.


    "Jack!" Zack shouted as he threw every form of decorum aside and jumped on his brother''s pale medical town covered form. He was still wet from being in that preservation pod, and he looked a lot trailer and weaker than anyone of us remembered, however that was Jack standing in front of us, and right behind him was the moon elf priestess.


    Everyone, with the exception of me and Zareth, and a very happy Sky who proceeded to bowl everyone over with her massive form, hugged Jack. So far everything we''ve done was just to save his life, and her he was, standing in front of us alive and very much awake. I was tempted to join that pile of bodies, one that even Qitar was quite happy about being a part of, but as the captain I had to maintain a modicum of dignity.


    I looked at the Moon elf priestess who looked so out of place and alone and walked towards her. Seeing my approach she looked very nervous and began to pull at the hem of her shirt, her eyes darting every which way as if to look for an escape route. When I got close there fear in her eyes seemed even more prevalent, after all I dwarfed her tiny and diminutive from. She was just about 5 feet tall, and I was a little ways above six, it was like looking up at a giant.


    "Are you okay?" I asked her with a soft voice, her eyes widened, as if she never expected that I would speak to her, before she answered back.


    "I''m fine." Her voice sounded quite small, but there was a steel to it that I didn''t expect.


    "In here everyone knows me as A¨¢ Seven of the Acheron, however out there, in the world you an I belong to, they know me as Aaron Wade, chairman to imperium industries. If you''re stuck here as you say, I promise I''m going to get you out. You have my word." As soon as I finished saying that, tears came to her eyes as she lunged forward and caught me in a hug that I honestly didn''t expect. I looked at the others, especially Raven Song who had eyes the size of saucers looking at me. I trusted him, this might be a game, but I believe the bonds I''ve made in here are not any less real than the real world, he''s family.


    I turned to Jack and smiled at him and said. "Nice to have you back old boy, no one makes a second in manner as good as you, Qitar, Zareth and Mack tried their best, but they''re not you. How do you feel?" I asked him as I held the moon elf who was sniffing and covering my chest with slobber and snot.


    "It''s good to be back Captain, and just so you know I''ve been somewhat conscious the entire time, so I more or less know what''s been happening. I''m feeling a life weak, but nothing a few days of intense exercise can''t fix, and I''ll be ready to fight by your side once more."


    "NO YOU''RE NOT!" The moon elf screamed out, shocking everyone, including herself. She shrunk a bit right back into my chest, but she seemed to look up at me, before summoning courage to speak.


    "Your muscles might not be atrophied, you''ve still been in a coma for weeks. I need to run some tests and make sure that all of your motor functions are okay, if you can''t move properly, forget about even fighting you would not be able to live right. I''ve had to realign most of your nervous system as the your nerves were a jumbled mess and your spine was healed that way.


    I need to make sure that when you tell your leg to move, your hand doesn''t throw a punch. You''re walking now because you''re still subsisting on the high caused by the light, holy and moon magic I used during your surgery. You would much more weak in about an hour or so, In which case I expect you to hurry up with your meeting and get some much needed bed rest, please excuse me." And then she ran out, heading for the elevator with a massive red blush on her face.


    Everyone of us looked at the other with a very shocked look on our face, she performed a surgery on him! How long did she take to do so? And not just any normal surgery, she was busy untangling his nervous system and she did it in what? Like an hour? How in the absolute fuck is that possible.


    "Either way, I think she''s right, let''s be done with this meeting and let Jack get some rest. So Jack what were you saying about smugglers?" I spoke up trying to get the conversation going.


    "There are smugglers all over the vastness of space as a whole, finding them and stealing their ships from them won''t raise any sort of alarms with any authorities. Their ships can''t be tracked, because more often than not, their ships are built from scratch without any sort of manufacturer chip to track or register it into any sort of database. This keeps them off any sort of radar and let''s them carry out their criminal activities without hassle. If you want to get off the planet or move something without anyone of them finding out, you find them.


    However most of them don''t have a single good or honest bone in their body, things like slave trade and inter-planetary poaching is a thing for them, and they''re very much wanted. They''re the perfect targets, we should be able to get a ship with the only danger being possible future retaliation, that''s if we decided not to kill anyone. But getting either one of those ship''s would take care of us getting off this planet and heading to Zareth''s without the need to change ships or the danger of being followed."


    "All right, that seems like a good idea. Where do we go to find these smugglers and their ships?" I asked Jack, only it was Qitar who answered me.


    "That''s easy, we''re going to New York."


    "Wait what?"

 162 Wades & Schemes I : Right Of Exile

    Leaving behind the bullshit of the game for the bullshit of real life...lovely. Either way my vacation should have come to an end by now, either way things don''t actually seem to be getting easier, both real life and the game just seemed to keep on getting complicated with each second or each situation I seems to experience. I''ve already sent an email to Malia and the team of scientists working with her giving an explanation of the elf priestess current predicament. They''re not just supposed to figure out how to get her out of the game, but who she was in real life and track her down.


    Apart from wanting to void any sort of had publicity, I would very much like to make sure she was fine, I have no idea how long she''s been stuck in the game, but it would be better if she still has a body to return to once we figure out a way to extricate her from the game. It was weird, but I believed her when she comes me she was a player, except for a lot out button, she has everything a player would need In the game. An ability to level up, an inventory, user interface where she could allocate stat and skill points, etc.


    I made my way up to my office, humming a silent tune to myself as the Elevator moved upwards. I think I noticed Nezha hanging around the bottom floor, but I couldn''t be sure, for a guy with dyed bright red hair, he sure is difficult to keep track of. The elevator doors swung open with a ring, leading me onto the floor where the conference room was. Immediately it opened up I saw Kira standing in front of me.


    "Thank God you''re here, I was about to go get you. There''s a couple of people waiting for you in the conference room, they''ve been here for two hours, and it seems serious." She said to me as she held her work tablet close to her chest, to be honest she reminds me a bit of Dinah, excluding the scheming part that is, oh well keep your friends closer and your enemies and potential enemies closer.


    I tapped her on the shoulder and whispered good morning into her ear as I made my way towards the conference room. I was actually heading there already, I had a meeting with a few construction companies today, and a small meeting with the world leaders a little later, especially now that design of most of the weapons needed has already been made, and we''re about to go into production. I opened the door to the conference room and stopped in my tracks.


    There was a lot of people here, apart from my so called brothers, and my so called father, my mother''s murderer was here, an uncle that''s the younger brother to my grandfather, a bunch of lawyers and shockingly enough Penny. I felt weird about what it was that was going on here, but Kids was right that they''ve been waiting a while, as the moment I came in, they all got up to their feet, except for Penny and the uncle.


    Penny honestly looked like she''d rather be elsewhere than here, I reckon she''s still angry at me, and the uncle was all smile. However given how pale Henry and his family looked, I reckon they know that I knew every dirty little secret between them and how they fucked mine and my mother''s life. So immediately I took my seat I looked to them and said.


    "Do you know that I went to your house looking for all of you? I was going to cost the parents in front of their children, stripping their skin off one layer at a time, and once you''re all bloody and raw I was going to feed your striped raw flesh to you boys. Then I was going slowly carve into your muscles like a butcher, taking you apart piece by piece until there''s nothing left of your pathetic, greedy, conniving, lying, stealing, murdering, existence. But you towards can before I could get to you, and here you are sitting in front of me, in a silver platter, ready to be carved up. You must either be very confident or very stupid." I said as I leaned back and even placed my legs on the large conference table, meaning back on my chair as I gazed at them calmly.


    "Hahahaha, you definitely have that Wade spunk in you boy! But what''s wrong with you! Can''t you say hello to your old uncle, we haven''t seen each other since you were a child!" the old man who now that I think about it, really looked like my baba.


    "Sorry Uncle Jeremey, I just got overwhelmed by the serious amount of trash that I suddenly found cluttering my conference room. How''s the family doing, and Aunt Cynthia? She had the best cookies the west coast had to offer. Then you guys moved, I''m still angry about that you know." I said to my uncle with a smile, and he returned one even larger, he seems happy, which was weird considering I was a moment away from a massacre.


    "Ai! We''re all family here little Aaron, calm your temper ehhh, we''ll talk this out. As for your Aunt she''s fine and she''s in town too, I was hoping we could host a family dinner this weekend, the rest of the extended family would love to see the little prince, plus isn''t also about time you think of getting yourself a Queen, your old uncle has s few suggestions." He said to me whilst wiggling his eyebrows, I. Couldn''t help it, I burst out laughing. I was in a good mood, as for Henry and his bitch, they''re already dead in my sight, it was just a matter of time before it becomes ''Official''.


    "All in good time uncle Jeremy, but I''m sure you didn''t come all this way for small talk, and seeing as you have my lawyer here, and a bunch of strangers in suits, two of which I recognize as the personal lawyers of a particular pair of soon to be very dead snakes, I would say something major was up. So, talk to me, what was do serious that it warranted you to come this far and wait for me for as long as you have?" I asked him with a calm look on my face.


    He took a deep breath, about to speak when my eyes met Penny''s. There was an awkward moment and we both had to shift our gaze the other way, honestly I don''t understand what the fuck was going on with me and her, this whole shit was getting to hard to deal with it. I shifted my gaze to my uncle as he got up with a serious look on his face.


    "We''re here to invoke The Right Of Exile."


    *ziziziziziziz!!*


    Traces of green, red and blue lightning seemed to spread allover my body as my eyes took on a red bus and the very air became electrified. The hair of everyone in the room began to float up, and it would have made for a comical scene if not for the fact that I had murder in my eyes and everyone else was on their feet looking very scared as tiny barriers pooped into and out of existence behind me. I looked up at my uncle and said to him with steel in my voice.


    "Denied!"


    Even though there was a look of fear and apprehension on his face, he still tried to call himself down to speak. Obviously my reputation preceded me, I wasn''t someone that could be approached easily, especially when I was angry, which if I''m not wrong was probably what I was well known for.


    "With all due respect family head, the Right Of Exile is an ancient Practice put in place by the very first head of the Wade family. A man who''s direct descendant you and your brother actually are. The rule can not be vetoed or overruled, it just needs to be approved by the head, please I can not begin to imagine the amount of pain this child has out you through, especially his wife. The family has every intention of making atonement for his sake, so we''re asking you to please temper justice with mercy, and be better than they were and not spill the blood of family." My uncle said to me.


    I was angry, I knew exactly what the Right of Exile was, it was a get out of jail free card for any member of the Wade family who has committed s grave crime the family couldn''t forgive, the last time it was used, was by my grandfather. His exit from the company was mainly due to sabotage from his own son''s hands, but also due to exposure of something wrong he did, an it was something so wrong a tribunal of elders was called. He was the head of the family and his words were law, however some lines could never be crossed, and apparently he crossed one, and had to give up his official and public positions to protect the family''s reputation.


    But even with all that he still remained the head of the family, that was a position he was going to carry until death, and he did. Before it feel to me. Anyway the gist was that Henry and his bitch would give up everything they have, or rather everything they have gained from the Wade family, and then leave. They could either leave the country to somewhere else and start over as ordinary people, or even worse leave the planet, getting was from my reach. And this last was an absolute, it was one of those that couldn''t be broken.


    "Exiles come to an end right? Uncle Jeremy?" I said to him as I rubbed my fingers together, green Sparks coming off of it.


    "Indeed they do, the offenders would return of the head of the family seems their penance served." Uncle Henry explained, as I nodded my head in agreement.


    "You said the family wants to compensate me for this, funny. What could possibly amount to the life of my dear mother, to missed opportunity not just me, but also my son has to face, without a chance to meet his grandmother. What could there lives possibly worth, especially since they both tried to kill me." I asked my Uncle as I got up from my seat as I filled my hands together to create a barrier in the form of a runic cube and then proceeded to play with it in front of them.


    "Nothing can ever amount to what you and the little prince have lost Little Aaron, but this is just to calm your anger. First things first, they''ll hand over all of their shares, and every other businesses they own, including that owned personally or bequeathed by your father. Everything will belong to you, and then some. Plus after the exile they would be far away from you and incapable of causing you problems, and fully out of the protection of the Wade family."


    I raised an eyebrow, and I noticed Penny also did the same thing, looks like I''m not the only one who just noticed the loop hole within this Right Of Exile shit, because obviously such a step would only ever favor the head of the family, just like my father, however if it was someone else who has committed a grave sin within the family, the right of Exile was just a way for them to buy time so that they could run or disappear. But the thing is, as soon as they go into exile they''re out of the family''s umbrella, they wouldn''t be considered family anymore, which means it''s open season on their ass.


    My uncle didn''t bring them here to plead leniency in their behalf, he came here to hand them over to me on a platter of gold. Henry had no value to the Wade family again, not after what I''ve achieved in the short time I''ve been here and the massive deals I''m about to close, the Wade family would be more powerful than any single nation in the world or even off it. Henry and his wife was a peace offering, a proof of allegiance and servitude. Damn! Politics at this level scared this shit out of me, they did not hesitate to throw members of their own family to the wolves, as long as it furthers their goals. And the fools had no idea that they were being led here like lambs to a slaughter, and should anything happen the Wade family can claim Innocence. We already granted them the Right Of Exile, took everything the owner and kicked them out, it''s not our fault if the world ate them up and nothing more was heard from them again.


    Henry was smarter than this, so I''m sure he would have a plan B should be get an inkling that the Wade family would betray him, however I''m not so sure. While this might seem like it was favoring me, this could all still be within the ploy of the Wade family, I shook my head and smiled, then I turned to Kira and then to Penny then I inclined my head telling them to come with me.


    "Uncle please give me a moment to confer with my errr....emmm...¡­council."


    "By all means little Aaron, this is a big decision after all."


    I gave him a smile as I made my way out of the room, Penny and Kira following behind me until we got to my office. Considering how awkward tings were with Penny and me and a little bit weird with Kira and me, I didn''t expect for this to be a smooth conversation, but it seems the women were slot more focused than I was.


    "It''s a fucking trap!" Penny said as she sat on my desk and louder herself a glass of bourbon.


    "She''s right you know, they''ll still protecting him, he''s hanging an obvious bait in front of you, I''ll say it''s a test, but I can''t be sure what''s going on through that old fogeys head. Yes gaining all the shares they have would make you the absolute word of authority within the company, and the possibility of getting rid of both of them later after you''ve gained their wealth is also very tempting. But neither Henry or his evil bitch of a wife is stupid, they have a plan. They''re working an angle, what it is I''m not really sure. But I think the only way to truly beat them is to do something unexpected, however do take everything they have, it makes you and Ron much more secure." Kira said as she went over and took another glass from Penny who was happily offering it out to her.


    I can''t help but feel like these two are little bit closer than normal, like too close. I ignored it, I had too many things to worry about than to focus on the nature of Kira''s and Penny''s relationship. However she asked me to do something unexpected...¡­. I''ve got an idea.

 163 Wades & Schemes II : Justice Begins

    Penny and Kira made their way back to the conference room before I did, giving me enough time to make a call before I came back. Sure they might feel like they''ve got me cornered at the moment, but I''ve got my own plans. Politics was like building fragile and delicate blocks around a particular situation or scenario, and this blocks could be manipulated or moved around at your discretion, causing a significant amount of misdirection if you wanted. Smokes and mirrors people say, politics was the oldest form of magic tricks, but in the face of brute stupidity and straight forward actions, most schemes tend to fall apart.


    I shook my head as I came back in, steel etched allover my face as I went back to my seat, Penny had an open file in front of her, which was probably the documents facilitating the transfer of shares from them to me. As my lawyer it would her job to look through it and make sure there was no sort of political loophole for them to exploit later, well it''s not as if there would be a later anyway.


    "Before I sign all this shit and give you people a chance to run, before tracking you down and pouring molten lead down your throat, whatever did my mother and myself included ever do to you guys that you killed her and tried having me killed? Even if you weren''t my father I loved you like one, I would have given anything just to have your approval, yet you tried to have me killed...¡­you poor fool. Even without the power and protection afforded me by the Wade family, do I look like someone who''s easy to kill? It would take every major country in the world coming together to actually kill me, not unless they decided to drop a nuke on my head. I think that''s the only thing they never tried, but none the less you wanted to try and used our sister to pull the trigger.


    Just so you know, and not that you care, but she''s fine. She was playing a game of her own the entire time, and she did get what she wanted. We really are his children, lies, betrayal and murder, the true Wade way."


    I closed my eyes and covered my forehead with my hand, honestly it was quite tiring. You would expect a man''s family to be the one thing eh could actually count on, but it seems the Bible was right after all. "A man''s worst enemy is from his own household". I doubt they would have any sort of answers for me, but still I''ve really suffered at their fucking hands.


    "Don''t you dare play the victim here! Your damn mother caused my daughter''s death! She infected her with a techno-organic virus! I wanted to make her pay! This was all her fault!" I couldn''t help but laugh to myself. Knowing my former step mother, I knew she would not be able to resist talking back, not that it would have changed anything, but still; the look of horror on the face of her husband and son''s more than proved their greatest fears had come to life, the bitch had opened her mouth.


    "Well was this before or after you tried to get me killed?"


    "What?" she asked confused at not just my question, but the fact that I was able to reign in my anger at her outburst.


    "Well you see, I have call recording of the night my mom was killed, plus the name of the guy who did the killing, your name mentioned a couple million times, plus all of your schemes and the fact you absolutely didn''t give a shit about your daughter. You were happy to use your daughter as bait just to get my mother out of the way, after all what you were after was power, full and girls control over the Wade industry and our dark empire.


    My mom was in the way, not just with what she had achieved ever since she took over the virtual reality department, of the fact that the shares you and your fucking husband now have actually belonged to her, which is I should remember was supposed to be handed over to me when I hit 23, which last I remember was last year. But that''s besides the point, you folks were greedy, so greedy you contemplated murder and fucked with a woman who was more vindictive than God himself, and your daughter became collateral damage in this fight of yours. Also just so you know, she''s still alive or at least her mind is. She''s in the game right now, wreaking havoc as fucking virus, tortured because you were unable to focus and save her.


    You''re a terrible mother, and before I kill you, I''m going to humiliate you and your husband and children will watch, and then you will watch me torture them too. You think Exile will keep you safe from me, I doubt there''s a place on this world or off it you guys can run too and I won''t be able to find you. Punishment is inevitable, pain is guaranteed. And nothing, not even the Wade family will save you from me."


    "Ai! Little Aaron, I know you''re angry but calm down, we''re family here. Besides the Right Of Exile prevents you from acting, you''ll take everything they own and I return they become vagabonds, no longer a part if the family. You would have punished them enough by them, so calm down..." I looked at Uncle And said to him with a voice so cold even I could feel chills.


    "Don''t patronize me Old man!"


    It was at that moment that Penny walked to my side and dropped the contract in front of me with a pen she pulled out of her suit pocket. Then she used a handkerchief to pick up the fountain pen placed on the contract and these it at Henry who hastily ducked out of the way, more eyebrows were raised.


    "A poisoned pen? Seriously? No wonder you guys avoided using a digital contract. Apart from the fact that the poison on that thing wouldn''t have been able to kill him, his not really a normal human anymore, the fact you would try to use a mob family''s special way of killing against a mob boss is just stupid. Sign it Aaron."


    I broke out in cold sweat, I absolutely didn''t notice the pen was poisoned, I took the pen she offered me and signed in places where she asked me too. And when everything was all said and done, a blue disk appeared in the air, it''s blue form sparkling and sizzling with electricity, then it split in two and then flew towards Henry, however halfway through they diverted and went after his sons. And moments later a right ear and a left ear was on the floor and the conference room was filled to the brim with the screams and cries of two victims of a father''s.....or based on both parent''s surprised looks a fucking Wade family scheme. Damn! These guys are trying were really pulling out all of the stops, and based on the embarrassed smile on Jeremy''s face he knew he''s been found out.


    "Listen little Aaron I can expla...Arghhhhhhhhh!"


    What sound does a man make when he gets a face full of electricity, well I''m not sure, because I''m sure it differs from person to person. Uncle Jeremy squeaks novels though, and the moaning sound he was making as music to my ears, I''m not one to regret actions I''ve taken, but I hate punishing people for things they were innocent off. It might sound hypocritical for a mob boss to say such things, however even the devil himself had rules and principles, I''m not completely lost case.


    I got up from my seat and walked towards the still shaking uncle Jeremy, I bent down in front of him as I turned his head to look up at me, ignoring the stench of piss on his body I smiled as Sparks danced around my fingers. He fucked up, I''m not sure if this was a collective plan with the entire family or just a move on his own part, but none the less I was going to make an example out of him. Looks like family means nothing to the Wade, nothing at all. It was time to clean house.


    "Let me assure you uncle Jeremy, you''re going to absolutely hate what comes next, whether you would be alive or not once it''s over would be entirely dependent on my mood. So do hope by the time that family dinner rolls over, I''m really, really happy, cause if I am not happy, I''m going to be feeding you to our entire family, chief amongst them you wife, kids and grandkids." Then I tapped his cheek before turning to Henry and his family and their lawyers who would probably be having nightmares for quite a few days. I looked at the lawyers and said.


    "I don''t need to tell you guys what would happen if word of this meeting goes out, your entire families will frankly ease to exist. So please don''t give me a reason to act, and as for you ''Brother!'' you and your family can get the fuck out of my face, the right of Exile comes into effect the moment you leave this conference room, and you have ten M''s before I start coming after you and your family, especially your bitchy wife. Now get the fuck out of my building."


    They didn''t seem all too willing to waste time as they made tier way out, their sons clutching the bleeding and very missing ears in one hand, and the sliced off appendage in the other. Their lawyers followed behind them, moving as quickly as they could, as if they couldn''t get away from me any faster. I moved towards the window of the conference room, I could see down into the main entrance of the company, and beyond that I could see the city of Los Angeles in all of it''s morning Glory.


    I felt Penny come over to my side and handed me another glass and then she pulled out a flask from her coat and poured it''s contents into the glass. She raised her shoulders at my questioning gaze and said to me.


    "Take it easy with that, it has quite the kick." I downed the entire glass at once, it brought tears to my eyes along with a slow burn in my chest. She was right, it did have quite a kick.


    "Are you okay?" she asked me with a much more sitter voice than I''ve ever heard from her.


    "No....I want to curl up in a ball and cry, but doing that in front of you and Kira and this asshole uncle of mine would probably shatter my pride. I just literally confronted my demons and the very reason why my childhood was hell, and even though they''ll be getting what they deserve, I don''t feel any satisfaction from it, I just feel tired. Very tired...¡­ and the wound from losing them both seemed to have been ripped open again, I really wish they were here and I could just be a kid again."


    Kira stepped out at that moment and came back a few seconds later with a pair of security guards who proceeded to carry my uncle out. She follows them, probably to make sure they made him very ''comfortable'' and it was at that point the countdown I had began in my head reached ten minutes, and down below I watched emotionlessly as the FBI came into the building and arrested my mother''s murderer and all of it under the live feed and still shots of reporters who just seemed to appear out if thin air. Penny looked at me.


    "When you said 10 M''s, you actually meant ten months. I had thought you wanted to say ten months or days but was s little choked up, you really work fast don''t you." She said to me, all I could give her was a small smile as I kept watching as she was dragged out and thrown into the back of a black sedan, her husband and children watching on helplessly.


    "You know, you can cry now. There''s no one else but me here, and you know I won''t tell anyone. Besides I also have a reputation to protect, so no one can know my boss is a wimpy cry baby." Funny as that may have sounded, I did exactly as she told me, I closed my eyes and I cried, I really cried.

 164 Wades & Schemes III : Yesses & A No

    [BREAKING NEWS!; The Wade family scandal continues! Earlier today famous socialite, and neurologist Denise Wade, wife to current CEO of imperium industries has been arrested by federal officers on grounds of embezzlement, fraud, corporate espionage, attempted murder, and for the murder of the late Martha Zainab Ahmed; the former head of the virtual reality department, genius computer programmer and Artificial Intelligence engineer, and also the mother of the current chairman of Imperium Industries Aaron Wade.


    Not much has been revealed about the arrests as it was just made not more than an hour ago, however pictures taken by our correspondent from the scene shows that her husband and sons were present when she was arrested. We''ll be following up this story as closely as we can, so please stay tuned to INN.]


    I should give that news lady a raise, she''s really pretty. But either way the news was out now, right out there into the world for everyone to see, well they don''t exactly have all the details, just enough that it would drive them crazy and thirsty for more, there''s nothing the common people like more than a good scandal, and I have plenty to offer them. Well Henry and his wife was the morning''s problem, right now I have a meeting with a couple of world leaders, the answer I get would either make the Wade family very powerful, or make us public enemy number one, either way the day is far from over.


    "They''re ready for you, should I patch them through?" Kira''s voice spoke through the intercom, Penny was on my desk looking through a couple of documents and taking care of some Megan mumbo jumbo.


    "Yes Kira you can, join us once you''re done with what your doing." I said to her as I leaned on my desk and looked over the file my tech developers from both Jonah''s whale and Imperium Industries had come together to compile. It was a complete catalogue of what we could offer the arms market, and quite frankly even though I had water to focus on vehicles and mobile units, they looked even more dangerous than designing guns and warheads.


    There was a loud beep and a holographic display came alive within my office. The blind automatically closed themselves as the light from outside was dimmed, Kira came in at that moment, swiping on her tablet as the for closed behind her with a click and the windows behind the blinds seemed to glaze over. I took a seat on an armchair and crossed my legs. There were 16 world leaders in all, this wasn''t all of the country in the world, but I knew if I could get them on board, the whole world will call into place.


    "Mr. Presidents and Mrs. Presidents, Prime ministers;...¡­what''s up." I could hear Kira slap her palm over her face, and could see Penny shaking her head from the side. But I don''t get why they''re reacting this way, I didn''t do anything wrong did I? Hmmm well I can ask them later, I looked up at the races of the world leaders looking at me and raised the file in m hand.


    "I''ve gotten news that both Mars, The moon colony of Lunae Vista has been amassing weapons and moving troops. We''ve not heard anything from the gas other space stations, but I''m pretty sure it''s only a matter of time before they''re ready to join hands and come fight for their freedom and Independence which quite frankly they''ve taken for themselves, except they need a war to make it official. Because I know not a single person amongst you are ready to give up your control of colonies and settlements that trillions of dollars from your country''s budget has been sunk into.


    And even more than that, is the fact the resources they offer is something the earth needs to survive, we''re running dry as it is, and arranging another expedition to colonies some other planet, or moon, or build a space station that would be responsible for mining and terraforming would cost a shit ton of money that quite frankly none of you would be able to amass in your regime.


    And assuming we all decided not to go the war route, which quite frankly would be rather wonderful, I doubt they''ll leave us alone. We need them just as they need us, the terraforming of Mars and the moon has not yet been completed, it would take roughly another ten or fifteen years for that to happen, and a large part of the planet and the moon becomes self sufficient and capable of fully surviving on their own.


    They need water, lots of it, and we have a shit ton of that lying around, over 70% of earth is covered with water. And not just any water, natural water that probably has over millions of microbes, cells, DNA strands of traces of life capable of birthing a whole new world. You know I once watched something, and in it they said "Water Has Memories" and in this case there''s enough memories in our waters to bring back extinct races of plant and animal life that we''ve never encountered. They need it, a lot, and every year we''re shipping billions of gallons of water off world every three months, and yet they''re not too willing to give back from the home they come from.


    This is a democratic world, we draw our power from the people just as we give back to them, a symbiotic relationship that has worked well for over three hundred to four hundred years. Most of our people are starving, the earth that used to help and save us is killing us, we need resources only found on this colonies to survive.


    We can try diplomacy again, but if they should not agree to fall in line, the only thing we can do is prepare ourselves for the worst. However this is not so we can go marching off to war, this is just a means to defend ourselves, just in case. This file in my hand would advance earth warfare by at least 50 years and at most 200 years, I''ll give the power and weapons of the future today, if you will give me what I want." I said to them as I sat back and threw the file on the table in front of me, not even opening it a little bit for them see.


    "And what is it you want?" India asked, her Sari ruffling around her body as she leaned closer, she was pretty young for a prime minister, just in her thirties.


    "You guys already know what I want, but if you need me to say it out loud again, I''ll do it. I and by extension every business or asset, or never of the Wade family would be recognized as world citizens, free from the restraints of any countries rule or laws. Of course we won''t break them, but basically you''ll recognize as an accepted citizen of each of your countries, with little perks normal citizens can''t usually enjoy. Also a shit ton of money and resources to get a factory up and running. Hmmm what else...¡­I want Australia! And all of the Islands in the Caribbean seas."


    "...."


    "What?" Australia asked with an angry look on his face.


    "Jeez you guys are so stiff, I was only joking man, I don''t want Australia, it''s a big desert. Though I would also like unrestricted movements in and out of your countries, of course there''ll be a proper explanation given for such movements, for now we''re based in the US, so all of our activities is based here, however we have based and factories all-over, so a free pass would be very much appreciated. Either way what''s your answer, you leave me and my people alone and I''ll make you and your countries powerful beyond imagination."


    "We''ve all heard what the man has to say, so I guess we should put it to a vote or rather see which countries would agree with his proposal. Russia says Yes!" yep I knew something good was going to come out of befriending the president of a country as Russia, those guys are so decisive.


    "The United kingdom says yes." Well I didn''t see that coming


    "The United States of America says Yes." Guess there''s still a competition between those two.


    "Japan says yes."


    "China says yes."


    "India says yes."


    "North Korea says Yes."


    "South-Africa says Yes"


    "Egypt says yes."


    "Germany says yes."


    "South Korea Says yes"


    "Saudi Arabia says yes."


    "Israel says yes."


    "Greece says No." well there''s no loss there, they''ll come around eventually.


    "Brazil says yes."


    "Canada says Yes!"


    An almost unanimous decision, 15 yeses and 1 no, I know fro Greece this was just because they weren''t exactly sure what they were getting themselves into. But it was only a matter of time before they''re pulled in, and as for the outer countries not present, after finalizing the deals with these fifteen we would probably have to host a UN summit and have offer the deal to them, right under the gaze of the entire world, I guess that would just as good a time as any to announce the Wade family''s other sources of income, and also give exposure about the existence of super powered people.


    "Nigeria says yes!" I felt my toes go good as I heard that voice, one that I was very familiar with. I turned my head along with the rest of the leaders to look at the stern face middle aged lady that showed up, she was fully decked in military regalia, but it did nothing to soothe the stern look on her face.


    "Grandmother..."


    "Shut it Enejo!" I''m in a lot of trouble, she''s one of the few people who uses my tribal name to address me, however that only happened when I was in a lot of trouble.


    "Is there a reason Nigeria was not invited into this secret clandestine meeting between world leaders! Especially when it''s the grandson of the commander in chief of the Nigerian armed forces who is hosting the meeting, are you guys trying to throw a wedge into my family. You wouldn''t have to worry about Mars or the colonies, if you want trouble I''ll be ready for all of you!"


    This was embarrassing, not just for me, but also for her. Nigeria has not had a democratic rule in almost 60 years, there''s been a few extra could and a civil war that lasted no less than 11 years. With all of the previous democratic leaders being corrupt bastards the people rose up, and somehow my grandmother was now the military leader of the most populated country in Africa. She''s also the reason why I was drafted into the special UN task force I was a part of, someone was plotting a coup and it was discovered I was her grandson. That was a ploy on his part, he ended up being hung from the roof of his house, and the intestines of his wife and children were used as role.


    She was family, but she was a tyrant, of course she greatly cared for her people and under her rule the country has been prosperous. But she was more feared than loved, and with how volatile a woman she was, it''s hard to imagine what could possibly go wrong should I put weapons in her hands. It would be more scary then America on a revenge mission, and America is still the most powerful government in the world.


    "You''re welcome to the table General Amina, we would be happy to have you a part of this deal. The threat that Mars and the colonies pose is too great, your cooperation and that of your people will be greatly appreciated. Let''s work together and make sure there''s a future for our planet." America...ever the diplomat, no one plays politics better than they do.


    "I apologize for my outburst, I will tender a formal apology to all of you. Also sorry for hacking into such secure systems, it took a while to get the holographic image up, but I was able to hear everything that has been said, and I agree with all of you. So I''m calling for a summit, Nigeria will host it, and it should be in a month. That gives us enough time to collaborate amongst ourselves and other world leaders. But if that''s all, this meeting is over, there''s a family matter that I need to attend to." And then whether they like it or not, the other Presidents were cut off and the hologram remaining was that of my grandmother.


    I forgot to add that apart from being a military leader of a country, she''s also a hacker, and until Morrigan gained her ability, if my Grandmother had claimed to be the best, no one would have claimed second best. She taught my mom everything she knew, and was also the one who threw my ass into the military the moment I left my father to live with her, apparently I was a little too soft for her.


    "You don''t call, you don''t even send a text. You know I''m not just your grandmother, I''m the mother of an entire country, I''m so busy and you can''t even call me to tell me about my great-grandson. I even sent your uncle to your grandfather''s funeral, but you avoided him until he is leave dejectedly. You''re such a bad grandson, what have i ever done to deserve this, do you hate me? did I not give birth to your mother? Doesn''t that mean you have to show me equal if not double the love you once had for her, why? *sniffles* please give me a tissue for my tears, it''s not as if this boy cares what happens to this old woman."


    Meet my grandmother, stone cold killer and rigid military leader of an African country...¡­and she''s a total crybaby and drama queen. Fuck! She''s emotionally blackmailing me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I''m fucking screwed!

 165 Wades & Schemes IV : The Grandmother

    She was looking a little stern if not a bit angry, but I guess I could understand how having a great grandson and not knowing who he was or when he was born would feel like. But my grandmother was dangerous, and quite a few people were gunning for her, I didn''t think it was safe enough to get her acquainted with Ron, but thinking about it now, that was a pretty stupid decision. I''m not invisible, but I doubt there''s someone powerful enough to go through multiple layers of super powered human security and lay a finger on my boy. They would be wishing for death and won''t find it by the time I''m done with them.


    "Lets talk business first, I don''t know how you want to do it, but one of your weapons factory would be in Nigeria...¡­"


    "Not happening! I already have established factories, and with t this new deal coming into effect, I''m under no country''s control, which makes me a neutral ground. You won''t use me, or my money for politics grandmother. A factory under your sphere of influence would give you not just a political edge over your rivals, but also an edge over other countries. As it stands there''s already a bit of tension with the realization that you''re my grandmother, if they notice for one second that I''m leaning in favor to one country my deal will call through, and I''ll lose everything I''ve worked for. The best I can do is have my engineers and tech guys manufacture a weapon that''s unique to the country, plus you won''t be on that throne forever, I rather not arm someone who would use my own weapons against me, or against members of my family. So no."


    Her hologram flickered a bit due to the unsecure connection, which was to be expected considering she was hacking through a secure network. The programs running cyber security were probably leading from her intrusion and figuring out a way to counter and evict her. And seeing as her finger were still moving, she''s still hacking her way into something else.


    "You''re your own man now child, and you should act like a man. There was no need for you to spout so much useless nonsense, all you should have said was no. You owe no one any explanation for the decisions you make, especially when it concerns you company and your family, not even to me. And as it stands you''ve made it possible that you really won''t be answering to anyone from now on, the first citizen of the world. I''m really proud of you, and so would your mother have been, if she was still here with us. But in that regard our discussion about family is over, let''s talk Revenge!......why the fuck is that woman and her family still alive, plus I guess you now know that your father is not who you thought he was. But you were not the only one told that lie, I didn''t find out until 3 days before his funeral, that was why I had sent your mother''s brother to find you, yet you avoided him you problem child. After that we just felt it was better to let you find out yourself, that woman who raised you loves you so much, almost as if you were hers. But none the less grandson, the dead will remain dead, hat won''t change, however, why would you involve the authorities, you could have just disemboweled the murderous bitch in front of her children and vice versa."


    So I know I have a mean streak that''s thousands of miles long, it doesn''t matter who you were, you fuck with me I can really mess you the fuck up. I now know I didn''t get from my father, but rather from my mother and grandmother, they could be real monsters when they''re going after someone who''s messed with their family. Just like me, we tolerate no insult to our persons, not to mention someone who could actually murder my mother


    "Death is an easy way out, grandmother. She suffer, be humiliated, insulted, everything she built would come crashing down around her, but she''s not the only sinner. Her husband will suffer too, and just I don''t end up cleaning my mess in the future, I''mma send her two useless son''s along for the ride." I said to her as I went behind my desk and took a seat on it, keeping my eyes on my grandmothers hologram while Penny and Kira leaned on the edge, just watching and listening.


    "But her children are innocent." My grandmother said to me with a sinister grin on her face, I knew exactly what she wanted me to say.


    "There are no innocents, only my enemies and the dead. And in this case those two men are the dead, I rather not have to deal with vindictive Wades in the future, we''re very hard if not downright impossible to put down. So it''s better to pull them up from the roots, so that I don''t have to deal with the weeds later."


    "Mhmhahahaha! Ahhh! You''ve learnt well, which is normal, you''re the first son of my first daughter, not to mention my first grandson too. You need to have balls of steel to rule the empire you now have and keep your family and your people safe. Which means it''s time you get yourself a Queen, your son needs a mother, and not an adoptive mother who''s not always in front of her child! No offense young lady but I know your family quite well, you''ve done great for my family by loving that boy as your own, but it won''t change the fact that if my boy here is not marrying you, that kid needs a mother. And that fool sitting behind you needs a woman to put a leash around his neck and reign him in, if not I fear what he would do to the world if he''s left unchecked."


    Well that was a surprising turn of events, especially with the way she went after Kira. It looks like she has been keeping tabs on her and knew things I didn''t, Kira is an amazing friend and one of the best people to have in your corner during tough times, but I don''t really trust her, and the fiery hot passion between us had fizzled out into a tiny flame. I think we both knew it was just a moment we both had, it''s not as if there won''t be more moments if necessary, but being together in the long run was not in the works.


    "Grandmother I''m 24, I have time, and I don''t need a woman to help run my empire, or put a leash around my neck...¡­I''m just fine, all that matters to me right now is my son, money and power, a woman will throw all of that off balance."


    "W¨¢l¨±¨¦ ¨¢gb¨¢!(Shut your mouth please!) You''re just a child! What do you know! If I say you need a wife, then you need a wife! In fact I should probably see if there are any nice young girls here that can be a good bride and mother."


    So she could say I didn''t have to answer to anybody even herself, and then she goes and tells me to shut up and call me a child. There''s no way to win against a mother of any sort, she''s just ridiculous, she even used her tribal language against me! That wasn''t fair, she knew I could understand it, but couldn''t really speak, so there was no way to retort, using English to reply would be the same as agreeing she won, which she did, but a silent protest made me feel better.


    "Ahhh! Penelope my child! You''ve grown into such a big and beautiful woman, ehhh! Look at you, shaped in all the right parts, very well proportioned. Such vibrant child bearing hips, you don''t lose out to that Kira girl besides you. The two of you are such epitomes of beauty it''s making this old lady jealous, maybe I should order an airstrike on both your houses. I hear you now run the law firm for your grandfather, I doubt your mother would have liked that." My grandmother said to a surprisingly flustered Penny, I have to take a picture.


    "Well there''s not much she can do from prison, so I''m doing quite well ma''am, it''s nice seeing you again after all these years."


    "Please this can not be considered seeing each other, I''m sure Aaron will prepare a meeting for us soon, I want to meet you two ladies face to face. Aaron!!"


    The sudden scream completely caught me off guard, but I quickly got up and answered like I was back in the military, which was an involuntary yet weird reaction from me, but my grandmother had such a commanding voice it would be hard not shaking in fear from having my name called.


    "When am I coming to meet my great grandson?" I shook my head and gave an answer.


    "How about this weekend, I''m hosting a dinner party for the Wade family, why don''t you come along and spend a few days before going back." I said to her as I rubbed my hand on my forehead, a headache already forming in anticipation of the trouble she''s sure to bring and cause.


    "Ahhh! Is that so? Well no problem then. I''ll see you three kids this weekend, and Aaron you better make sure I don''t see a reason to pull my gun out of my purse on that day. Keep those wolves of yours in check! Goodbye lovelies."


    And then she was gone, I didn''t doubt for a second that the wolves she was referring to were the Wades. After all a white wolf was the family crest of the Wade family. But then again I couldn''t guarantee that even I would not lose control, after my encounter with Uncle Jeremy, it''s hard to imagine what the Wade family will bring to the table. And even then, I''m really scared about what might happen should I lose my patience.


    "Alright I guess that''s all for today, Penny thanks so much for being here and your help, and you too Kira you''ve been such a big help...but I have a question that''s been nagging at me, all this time. You guys seems quite close, I mean did you know each other before I introduced you guys, or did something happen when I sent you guys on that road trip?" I asked as I looked at both women still standing a little too close to each other. And then Penny answered with a little bit of an edge to her voice, obviously she''s still angry at me.


    "Yeah something did happen, we had sex!" She said to me before picking up her brief case and turning around with a flourish, her heels making clacking sounds as she marched out. Kira smiled at me and then leaned closer to whisper.


    "We didn''t just have Sex Aaron, we had sex three times! And I''m sure we''re going to have sex today again too. See ya later boss." Then she left too with a pep in her step.


    My jaw was still hanging halfway down the ground even though none of them were here to see it. I get the feeling they were angry at me, but what did I do!? But even then this was just the most unexpected of situations, I didn''t see this coming, not to mention wasn''t Penny engaged to be married, what the hell was going on in both their heads. I really don''t get women, they can be so weird, and complicated it''s hard to imagine they''re also human just like men. This was a disaster, and in the end I was left alone asking this question to my empty office.


    "What the fuck just happened?"

 166 Wades & Schemes V : Future Plans, A.R.I & B.E.A.R.D

    My head hurt, the meeting with the world leaders aside I had to go over some proposals and design schematics for the so called sky City my father had shared to build. Quite a few companies had come up with suggestions, but all of them weren''t really focused on the cost required for such an undertaking, along with the man power and the practicing of such an undertaking, well all but one. It was a relatively new construction company, ran by two guys who graduated MIT top of their class and even have PhDs in robotic science.


    They utilize machines for their constructions, though human labor is still needed, with he robots in tow, the construction is always done faster, with an increase in speed of over 300 to 500%


    Their offer made a whole lot more sense to me, because these guys weren''t after money, they were after recognition, a way for them to build their reputation. Plus about 40% of their company''s stocks was up for sale, since they were relatively new and haven''t had a chance to work on any big of substantial projects, they needed investors to help them push their company forward. I didn''t need Penny''s or Kira''s help for this, I had a lot of money, so I bought the stocks and invited them over for a meeting in three days.


    Rather than tell me about how the would build my floating city, and the tech, and sheer amount of resources and energy that would be required to keep it afloat, that god forbid should something to wrong, would either blow said city sky high.....or sky higher since it would already be in the sky, or it would drop down like a meteorite. And since the idea is to build it over Los Angeles, the results would be cataclysmic.


    But this two dudes gave me a different pitch, what I was going for was a monument, something that would be sung about and looked up to for generations to come. So they showed me carefully thought out plans of a project they were desperately trying to get investors for. They affections my coined it, New Babel. A freaking massive tower of epic proportions, just as wide as it is tall, a city with a building that''s build to last and withstand a variety of disasters from massive earthquakes, nuclear Holocaust, meteor showers the same size that wiped out the dinosaurs. It was a freaking luxurious bunker the size of a city, not to mention it also stretches far underground too.


    It was a splendid idea, but like all splendid ideas that has come my way, I tend to over polish and think too far ahead. This was a project that would take years to complete, even with advancements in robotics and Nano-tech, which I might add is something these guys can''t get their hands on as Nano-technology is almost exclusively military based. It''s use is heavily regulated unless you''re a super rich old man who has a love for making super fast powered spy cars. Then you''ll have great but still annoying super fast cars like Pegasus.


    Bottom line is, with Nano-tech they''ll be heaps faster than before, but it would still take years. Not to mention constant and heavy maintenance for the tower, supplies and parts if replacement is needed, and training people for said maintenance. But I very much liked the idea of such an undertaking, it was even more ambitious and get sensible than a city floating in the sky for rich people, in the tower there would be a place for everyone. It was hard not to be tempted, however it would take a shit ton of money, even more than what I or the company can currently make within the next ten years. If imperium industries goes at it alone, it would take us at least another fifteen or so years, and even then lots of things could go wrong to slow down construction. Which means I would need to share custody of this baby, I had to go get help, but from who?....well that remains to be seen, I rather leave governments out of this.


    By then time I was done with everything else, it was s little bit late. The virtual reality department had sent a message that they wanted to see me, however I wasn''t sure if anyone of them were still around. But in the interest of peace, I think I''ll just pop in for a quick look and then head home. Also recently I just seem to have this feeling that I was forgetting something, I''m just not sure what exactly. Either way it''s been a very busy day, and there was there was nothing I would have loved more than a warm bath with a beautiful woman... too bad there''s none in the horizon.


    Penny was weird, especially with her being engaged, and then Kira was just not trustworthy, she''s too much of a temptation that I can''t trust she''s not using her body to trap me. And since both this women were sleeping with each other, I guess this king would have to put using a queen aside, there''s still a shit ton of work to be done anyway.


    I pushed open the door of the virtual reality department, it was virtually empty(pun intended) with no one in sight, the janitors seemed to have already come this way, so even they were no where to be found. I felt maybe I should just turn back, but I decided to check Malia''s office, last I remember the wan loved working late. I gave a swift knock and then walked in only to see...


    *PA! PA! PA! PA!*


    "oh yes! Yes!"


    Damn this fucking sound proof offices, I guess they were all made for shit like this. They didn''t notice me, and I was just about to move back out so that Olaf and Malia can continue with their errr...umm...with the extracurricular activities?, But then again fate had other plans.


    *Clink...crash!* I knocked over a flower vase, there were fresh roses in them, no doubt they came from Olaf who was happily plowing his way through Malia, or wait! That was a second ago. He was now staring at me with his tool hanging out in the open and glistening with the evidence of their copulation. I shifted my eyes to he side and said to him.


    "Please put that fucking thing away, the very sight of it is burning my eyes." Then I turned around and left, giving them the space they needed to gather themselves. I couldn''t resist throwing a retort behind me.


    "Don''t go around fucking in the office! It''s so damn unprofessional! Next time wait till you get home! I see this again and I''m going to fire you both *humph!????????*" I was such a fucking hypocrite, but who''s going to judge me, I''m the boss.


    I took a seat in one of the cubicles lining the edge of the department, and started tapping my fingers on the desk and singing nursery rhymes, anything at all to get that vivid image out of my head and send the rousing dragon back to sleep. If they noticed, that would have made for a very awkward conversation.


    I didn''t have to wait long, They both came out properly dressed, Malia seems to have bleached her hair platinum blonde, very much like Olaf''s hair. I raised an eyebrow at that, seems they''ve gotten quite close, but I wonder if they weren''t moving too fast for their own good. Either way they''re adults, they can take care of themselves and do whatever the fuck they wanted...¡­ as long as they weren''t fucking in my office.


    "So how''s the AR(Augmented Reality) interface coming along, along with the new sub dimension for the game?" I got right down to business, finger us all in a zone that we were more comfortable with to avoid any sort of awkwardness.


    "The Augmented Reality interface has already been completed, even a specific tailored So for the device has already been created. We were waiting for your approval today to begin advertisements and marketing for both the device and the tournament. The marketing team already has an add made, we plan on making six more I those adds, but for now we can begin with the one tomorrow, and then we could rent add spaces from billboards around the city, and then work out deals with TV stations and streaming services across the world. In a week (A.R.I) and the tournament of Kings & Heroes will be on the tongue if every man, woman and child." Olaf explained as he folded his massive arms, his muscular frame towering over me. It was a little intimidating, but I didn''t let that bother me as I continued speaking with them.


    "You worked a little faster than I expected, well that''s good. Malia I''m pretty sure more contents and quests would need to be arranged and programed into the virtual dimension the tournament will take place, so I guess your work''s not truly over. But none the less good job both of you, you''ve done and moved much more faster than I expected, I''m impressed.


    Either way you both can take a week off and relax or something, but in the main time, Olaf I''ve got a side project for you, I''ll need you to have further talks with the guys who designed this blueprint, see what can be improved on and added and then estimate a cost and then let me know. But also don''t forget to pay attention to design schematics for the weapons and crafts you submitted to me. Officially we''ll begin production in a month or two, however a few of the Imperium Industries factories around the world has been repurposed for production, pay them a visit and get the ball rolling." I said to him as I got up, preparing to leave.


    "You got it boss, I''ll have all that ready and set in no time, also thanks for the vacation, we both really need it." Olaf said to me with a smile as Malia came up to me with a box in her hands. She handed it to me and I looked up at her as I took it.


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    "What''s this?" I asked her as I opened the box and noticed a vial of clear viscous liquid that had tiny silvery sparkles floating around it.


    "The interface has two versions, there''s the lens version that could be taken off and even damaged after extended use. Which is what we would be releasing to the public, and then there''s this version, a bio organic based neural interface made with the most advanced methods of Nano-technology available to the human race at the moment. Tech like this is not from earth boss, I got it directly from Lunae; the moon colony. Apparently they use it to heal rather stubborn diseases.


    It''s extremely versatile and works like an anti-body, however the shit is hard to make, and even touched but to crack when you have to reverse engineer the science behind it. But I or rather almost every tech head you have on ground succeeded by working together and on a very tight schedule. We''ve been working on this for three years now, our breakthrough came from your acquisition of Zeta Biocorp.


    Their highly Advanced and sophisticated cloning techniques and the devices they use in reanimating extinct animals from trace DNA strands found in nature was all we needed to be able to get into it''s structure and then reshape, reprogram and reconstitute the entire thing from ground up.


    It''s previous version could hold a minimum of one million individual nanites and had a much more larger volume that what you have in your hand.


    However there''s no less than ten billion nanites in that juice, and an operating system that''s specific to it''s make up and very powerful. We''re not here putting an AI into tech that can take over your brain is a good idea, but none the less the operating system has a name and is capable of trace amounts of intelligence and versatile in advance calculations up to the quantum level.


    Biologically Enhanced Augmented Reality Device(B.E.A.R.D). It''s the only one of it''s kind, but I should have a large batch ready for production if I can get a special lab assigned to me. So that I can work on all of my projects at the same time." Olaf explained with a light in his eyes that well; spooked and excited me at the same time.


    "Well getting you a lab shouldn''t be a problem, or would you prefer one built from scratch according to your schematics. If that''s so then look over the blueprints and contact those guys, discuss location and make acquisition if there''s a need for it, and then begin construction in earnest. Thank you too so much for this gift, seeing as it might follow me for the rest of my life, I''ll cherish it for that long, thank you so much. But seriously though you two, you couldn''t figured out a better make to call it than BEARD! Come on!"

 167 Antoine Neurosurgical Industries I : Houkis Story

    So the idea of putting this BEARD stuff on my eyes seemed weirdly off, well it was not as if it was off or anything, I''m sure I was just scared. I have had experiences with eye drops, one time Penny had squeezed an entire tube of eye drops into my nose by mistake, apart from the nose bleeds, my nose had cuts from my scratching them too much due to the itch it caused.


    But that was just an experience from my childhood, it didn''t matter now, either way there wasn''t king to be an immediate reaction once I''ve used it.


    According to Olaf, it would no less than 72 hours for the nanites to completely map my body and assimilate themselves into it. There was a very long digital manual that came along with the (BEARD) but I''m not really a fan of manuals so I just skimmed through it and then kept it somewhere within the treasure trove of a digital library in my house. And then just like every other night, I logged back into the game, we still had a planet to escape from anyway.


    I logged back into the game a few moments later, the familiar walls of my Captain''s cabin left me feeling a sort of comfort and relief that I never experienced before. This was familiar, just like my home, this ship felt like a safe space for me, and I was happy about that, because with the way things were currently it didn''t seem like there would be too many safe spaces within the game for me and my crew.


    Somehow, every time I logged off on this ship, I would always end up in my bedroom, couldn''t figure out why that is, but it was a welcome bonus. I got down from the bed and saw a pug sized Sky sleeping on the floor, her pulled skin was a shade darker and she seemed to be growing tusks already, though there were two suspicious nubs on her head, made it seems as if she was growing horns too. I picked her up and made my way out, there was something I had to take care of first, before knowing exactly where we were and what out next steps would be.


    I made my way to the Infirmary, I walked in to Jack being taken care off by the priestess, but he was staring at her a little too much if you ask me, kind of like hero worship. But come to think of it, I don''t even know her name; that''s quite irresponsible of me, but everything will fall in place in due time. It didn''t take long for them to notice me standing there with Sky in hand.


    "Captain!" Jack called out as he got back up to his feet.


    "At ease Jack, seems like you''re feeling better than before?" I observed but still phrased as a question.


    "Yes indeed captain, Houki here has been such a big help, I''m almost ready to get back into action and fight right besides you once again." Jack said with a smile, though to me he seems a little enthusiastic. For a guy who just came out of a two week almost three weeks coma, after sustaining life threatening Injuries that could be dangerous.


    "Slow down Jack, just make sure you''re fully healed alright. There''s lot''s of battle in our future, enough time to prove yourself and fight by my side to your heart''s content. Alright?"


    "Yes Captain." He answered with a determined nod, I couldn''t help the feeling that there was something different about Jack, he just seemed so...driven. Hopefully it doesn''t get him killed.


    "Could you give us a minute Jack, I need to talk with the priestess." I said to him, Jack gave a swift nod and walked out of the Infirmary, though it a whole lot more difficulty than the last time I saw him. After he was gone, I turned to look at The 5 foot tall moon elf player, get she gave off the vibes of an AI.


    "Your name is Houki, I get the feeling that''s your real name, which should make you Japanese. So please tell me everything that''s happened so far, everything! It''s the only way I can help you." I said to her as I took a seat on one of the Infirmary beds.


    She looked nervous as she played with the hem of the doctor''s coat she had on, though I don''t understand where she got the bloody thing from. She had on better clothes than what she was wearing the last time I saw her, but she was such a nervous wreck it made me wonder how she was able to perform surgery on Jack. But she knew she had to start talking at one point or the other, if not I''m just going to sit here and stare at her, give a crash course in how to get over nervousness...by making her even more nervous! (I''m so smart????????).


    "My name is Takeshi Houki, I''m 23 years old. Or at least I was 23 years old the last time, the last time¡­...I graduated Harvard with a first class in medical sciences and neurosurgery, however I never got the chance to live my dream when I got sick. Tests showed that I had Alzheimer, which was weird because I felt perfectly fine. However I was told that the disease had somehow evolved and that what I had was a more lethal and dangerous one, a company of neurosurgical sciences came forward and told me they could help me, they said they were walking closely with Imperium Industries and that they had come up with a fool proof plan to treat my disease, but that the chances of survival was only 45%.


    My parents were scared, I might have graduated Harvard, but it took all of my family''s life savings for that to happen, my big brother never went to college because of me, and my younger siblings had to drop out. There was no chance for me to give back all they had sacrificied to get me where I need to be. With the company offering the treatment without us having to pay for it, especially since it was still in an experimental phase, we had no choice but to accept it.


    They didn''t give much explanation about what or how the treatment worked, all they did tell me was that I was going to be placed into the game as a sort of neural therapy, while they worked on my brain. Either way, I told them that should all else fail, they could use whatever part of me is left for experiments to advance science and find a cure.


    I was logged into the game, no log out button, in an Avatar that was already designed. Or rather I should say I was thrown into the body of an AI, we merged in a weird sort of way, she became me, and I became her. It was then I realized that things weren''t as simple as they made it seem, becoming part AI changed s lot of things for me, it was easier for me to deduce that I wasn''t sick or anything, I just had a brain that was a little bit different from most people.


    And how the hell those people found out, I didn''t know, but none the less I was used. The experiment was them trying to figure out a way to send human consciousness into a virtual world, it was quite surprising that the Imperium Industries were a part of this, I was under the impression that the company was good. But look at me now, trapped in a life that''s my own and at the same time not mine, cut off from two families, neither human nor program, a freak."


    There was shock etched over my face, this was really bigger and quite literally a bomb about to go off. If this got out, it would bury the imperium industries for good, we might be really powerful right now, but something as little as illegal human experimentation can just as easily fuck us up, massively. I got up and asked her a question.


    "Tell me what company took you, and also¡­ do you remember where you were held?" I asked her with a little too much fire in my voice, she shook a bit before answering me.


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    "The company was Antoine Neurosurgical Industries, I believe the daughter of the company''s head is married to the current head of imperium industries. Do you know who I''m talking about?" she looked up and asked me.


    "Well I do, considering I just fucking put that bitch in a cell and kicked her puppet husband, aka my greedy as fuck, moral less, spineless bitch of a brother out of my company, I would say yes I know who you''re talking about, intimately. Tell me, when they took you for treatment, where you take to, I doubt I''ll be able to find you there by now, but it''s as good a place to start." I said to her as I prepared to log out again, there were just something''s that couldn''t be delayed.


    "They was a facility in Kansas, I believe it''s one of their most famous, plus it also several levels underground. I don''t really remember which floor we stopped at." She said to me as she looked up at me.


    "Alright stay here, tell the others something came IRL, I''m going to get you...I''ll be back."


    The lights if the Infirmary faded away as the blinking lights of my gaming cabin showed up in front of me. My eyes it her and felt a bit irritated, but there was no time to dwell on that. I got out of the gaming cabin, Ron was asleep in a little blue bed that had been placed besides my own, to some reason, he''s only ever able to sleep when he''s besides me, and for the last few days I find that the same could be said about me.


    I slowly sneaked out of the room, picking my steps so that he wouldn''t wake up to find me gone, then I made my way towards Hades''s room. I wasn''t that surprised when I found the middle aged man bench pressing weights, after I went in, his form was just if not more sculpted than mine, he was a bit bigger too, and even though most of his hands were slowly turning grey, he had a body most 20s and 30s year old dudes would be terribly jealous of.


    "What can I do for you Master Aaron?" he asked me as he got back up to his feet, using a towel to wipe off the sweat that''s on his body.


    "Get a strike team ready, we''re hitting Antoine''s neurosurgical sciences industries, they have a massive lab in a small county in Kansas, we''re going there on an extraction mission, I''ll brief everyone on the way there." I said to him as I left the room to go get ready.


    At this point, it''s not that I needed to be there during such operations, but I was still the leader, and there were some things where it was better if I took the lead. I blinked my eyes, wiping the tears that was gathering around them, Olaf and Malia didn''t tell me that using that (BEARD) would be so damn uncomfortable, but there was no going back anymore, hopefully this gets done as soon as possible. Few minutes later I was geared up and ready, and so were my main team, this wasn''t a bit and we would be avoiding hurting anyone, but there was no harm in being too careful and bringing in the big guns, Morrigan, Nezha, Nuwa, and The Monkey King.


    Sure these were all just titles for them and not their real names, but some day soon it would be synonymous with Wade excellence and prestige, so much so that when you hear these names you either worship and respect them, or be very, very¡­...Afraid.

 168 Antoine Neurosurgical Industries II : Breaking In

    Though we would have very much left to leave a sign saying we did what we were about to do, or at the very least March up to the front gate and blast our way through, however the issue with Houki was a rather delicate situation. Until we were sure of all the cards we had in our hands it wouldn''t be wise to make too much noise, so rather than barging in, we were sneaking in, at least until we have to come out of the building, then we might actually have to fight our way out.


    We were huddled behind an apple tree on the edge of the lab''s property boundary, Morrigan was in the lead and she had her eyes closed with her fingers placed to her temple. There wasn''t really a need for computers when you had a telepath that could back technology with just her mind alone, so the current century we find ourselves in, has turned out to be Morrigan''s play ground.


    "There a motions sensors, proximity alert alarms, satellite imagining, finger prints and retinal scans, voice recognition systems, facial recognition and even DNA testing. This fucking place has it''s security beefed up, it would be harder to break into this place than the Octagon, the KGB, Buckingham palace and the white house combined.


    But not just that their security at of the special kind, while they''re not super powered humans like us, we would be dealing with men and women who has had their bodies enhanced by the same material that''s the cause for our powers. Even the men at the gate are the same, facing up to them would be a bit difficult, they''re a bit stronger and than we are¡­.hmmm there''s a lot of chatter about some kind of monster being cooked in the labs below, so we should be careful about that. But all that aside, I''m disabling proximity alerts and motion sensors now, I can''t hack the satellite imagining, but with your help boss, I think I can mask our presence. But not for long, we have to get into the building in 65 seconds." Morrigan said to me, I was about to ask her how she needed me to help when she suddenly placed her hands on me, and I felt a pulse spread from my body.


    It was a little disorienting, it took just about five seconds to realize that she just used me as some sort of freaking battery to super charged her ability, I didn''t even know I could do that. And using that same connection she was able to render us invisible to surveillance by somehow hacking into my ability to see, and manipulate electrical currents. Seems like there were quite s few things I could do or learn to do, but this would take the top spot of being the weirdest.


    We ran across 3 acres of open fields before coming up to a guard tower, it was empty at the moment, or rather the only thing doing the guarding was the search light and the machine gun it was mounted on top of. Antoine Neurosurgical seems to place quite a bit of value in this lab, anyone would be suspicious about this level of security, but even then no one could really question them without proper suspicion, and so far they''ve kept their tracks clean.


    "There''s a maintenance tunnel in this tower, it''s also an emergency exit should the need arises, it would take us past the main gate and fence, however it comes up in the main compound, we might have to take down a few guards to be able to get in. Boss are you sure we''re not allowed to kill?" Morrigan asked me.


    "I never said you weren''t allowed to kill, I said you should avoid it at all cost, this guy''s aren''t really our enemies, they just work for douchebags, and we''re the ones invading. But if there''s no other option, make sure they don''t suffer, and make it clean, I''m talking to you Monkey King, keep your bloodlust on a leash kid." The teen gave me a wide grin as his hair bunched up to make a fist with a thumbs up.


    The wall of the tower we were standing by seemed to develop seams and a door showed up that wasn''t there before, we walked in, going down the metal stairs that showed up in front of us without hesitation, it print the hissing sound behind us as the door moved back into position. There was a tunnel at the end of the stair case that was lit up with red lights, we ran through it''s entire length before coming up to another set of stairs, however this was a bit wider than the first. The lab had two fences, like a prison, the first was just a really simple chain link fence, but after that fence is where thinks get tricky.


    Lucky for us we already bypassed that hurdle, the real problems would be the guard towers within the main compound, they were bigger than the one we just used, so there are sure to be holding guards. Nuwa walked forward taking point, she wasn''t the fastest attacker, but she was the only one apart from Monkey King with enough control over her abilities to not outright kill a person. The Monkey King had a bloodthirsty streak that wouldn''t be curbed, but that''s just in a fight, off of it, he was s really good kid.


    Nuwa went up the stairs and barged into the tower, we followed close behind her and watched as she pointed her hands out, releasing a stream of frost from one end of the room to the other. There were four guards, and none of them were expecting such a move as the frost save carried them all to the other end of the wall and froze them to it. Nuwa''s ice would probably last twice as long as normal ice, but that still wasn''t very long. She made and opening for them to be able to breathe as we made our way to the entrance of the tower.


    "We have to use the main entrance, it''s less guarded than the side entrances. It almost as if they expect the people breaking in to use side entrances, so there are traps set for them, and the main entrance is an obvious one. Without proper access you won''t even be able to place s feet on the first set of steps leading to it''s doors before being shocked into unconsciousness. But no worries boss, I got this, let''s go." Morrigan said as we made a beeline for the entrance with no patrol in sight.


    We got there without a hitch and the doors slid open for us, with it''s security systems showing green. Morrigan had a happy smile on her face as we entered the lab, and right into the waiting arms of 4 armed guards. Nuwa reacted first, erecting a massive ice wall that intercepted the hail of gun fire that came flying at us.


    *Thud! Thud! Thud!*


    One of the bullets grazed Morrigan, but we all had on protective suits, with enough strength to stop a high caliber bullet, though at the cost not broken bones and a few internal bleeding. King made a move, his hair stretched so far up and latching onto a railing on the second floor, he pulled himself up and wrapped his hair around himself until he became what was literally a massive hair ball, then he landed in front of the guards, hardened his hair and began to rapidly spin.


    The bullets being shot at him fell to the ground in spades, all of them crumpled and crushed. His massive hairball form spun into the midst of the guards, he was akin to the blades of a blender as the guns were actually shredded much to my surprise as multiple cuts appeared on the guards who were quickly thrown backwards or to the sides from the force of King''s rotation.


    To say I was shocked would be an understatement, how could hair be that hard or that sharp, or how could a massive mass of hair make such rotations. For one I know it was just his hair that was moving, King was standing still in the middle of that mass of hair, damn this kid was a freak, but a pretty well rounded one.


    He had elements of defense and attack in his abilities, and at the moment his defense seems to be absolute, it could even stop bullets better than steel every would. I''m not sure any of the weapons In production could Pierce through his hair, not unless they were made with relaxer or conditioner.


    Nuwa dropped the wall of ice and moved to stand besides King, the guards were injured, but it was lightly, so I guess we could all agree the kid held back quite a bit, it could have been worse, a lot worse as I''ve been told and even had the displeasure of watching once when I was going over his file. The kid could decapitated a man with his hair from a kilometer away...spooky.


    Morrigan took the lead, this time we were running, no doubt the sounds of gun shots would have alerted the other guards to our presence. We turned around a corner and came up to a hallway with an elevator at the end, there were two guards waiting there with their guns pointed at the ready, Morrigan''s telepathic abilities needed her to be a little it closer to her targets, and I was the closest to her.


    I raised my hands and took control of the electrical currents within their bodies, but from such a distance and without direct contact there was a massive staring on me, barely three seconds passed and I was bleeding from my nose, however the guards found themselves paralyzed and unable to move, Nuwa sent two blasts of ice that froze them to the wall beside the elevator. Their head was left exposed, but one the less they were out for the count. I released my hold on my ability and bent over to catch my breath, I felt Morrigan placing a hand on my back whilst King gave me a handkerchief, which to be honest I was shocked he had. I looked up at him with a questioning look, but he looked the other way and answered with a voice barely above a murmur.


    "Sometimes I get blood on my hair, I need something to clean it off." Both my eyebrows shot up into my hairline, this kid was so fucked up, but I couldn''t blame him, we made him. We moved towards the elevator when suddenly we heard a loud sound.


    *Doooom!*


    "The fuckers cut the elevator line, and there''s only one elevator up and down the entire lab. The sub-floors don''t have stairs Wells like the ones in the main building, we can''t get down to them, but they can''t come up either. But it''s not as if it will stop us." Morrigan said as she turned to Nuwa and Nezha.


    The twins moved forwards side by side as Nuwa began to freeze the elevator doors, the guards she had frozen watched in in abject terror and fright as Nuwa spewed ice from her hands, but the look became even more worse when Nezha''s hands out up with intense orange flames. One blast from him was enough to blast the now frozen elevator doors, and it shattered apart like it was made from glass.


    As for the guards it was hard to miss the sheer look of fear on their face, ice was dangerous yes! However man has Ben deathly terrified of fire since ancient times, even when we finally learnt to harness it, and seeing Nezha wield it like that, even I was left feeling chills from where I was standing.


    "We need to get to 8th level, they''ve moved her since the last time she''s been here, which according to records has been for about five years...fuck!" I looked at Morrigan who had an angry look on her face.


    "She''s lived a couple of lives within the game boss, it''s entirely possible for AIs to be killed, and then they''re recycled and reborn. The constant feeling of dying and reincarnating has left her brain very damaged, her body is completely paralyzed from the neck down, we won''t be able to move without specialized equipment, she''ll die in minutes if we remove her from the life support we have her on, we can''t take her away boss, we came here for nothing."


    I didn''t expect that, and honestly it left me feeling very pissed off, how could they do this to a human being. I''m all for advancement in science and technology, but not at the expense of innocent people or even my own humanity. They did terrible things to an innocent young woman, and now in her moment of salvation I couldn''t save her because of how damaged their experiments have made her. I turned to Morrigan with an angry look on my face.


    "Call Hades and Nanny Florence, tell them to assemble two kill teams, the first should secure the owners of this company and the second should come here and help secure the lab." I said to her, and then Nezha asked me a question.


    "Then what are we going to be doing before they get here?"


    "We''re going to secure the lab and completely take control of it. And if anybody gets in your way, fucking kill them." All gloves were off at this point, I was really pissed off, and there would be no stopping the wrath I''m bringing to Antoine Neurosurgical Industries.


    {B.E.A.R.D IS NOW ONLINE}


    {RENDERING USER''S BIOLOGICAL STATISTICS}


    {ACTIVATING USER INTERFACE}


    {ACQUIRING ALL RELEVANT BIOMETIRC AND DATA INFORMATION}


    {SYNCING ALL SYSTEMS}


    {WELCOME AARON WADE; DARK KING OF THE IMPERIUM}


    "What the absolute fuck!"

 169 Antoine Neurosurgical Industries III : Down The Elevator Shaf

    Orders were already given, and as it stands it was time for all of us to split up, King would go with Morrigan and Nezha to clear all of the soldiers in the main building, Nuwa would be left to make and ice stair well down to the sub levels of the lab since they had already cut off the elevator in an attempt to slow us down, which quite honestly didn''t happen at all, it was time to take this shit to the next level. I looked down through the open elevator doors and followed equations showed up in the air, it was showing me complex equations from the angle of elevation, speed of descent and so on and so forth, it was as if this BEARD knew exactly what I wanted to do band was trying to help, by using mathematical equations to help me.....but the things is, I really hated math, so I just jumped, ignoring Nuwa''s surprised scream behind me.


    Each level had numbers on the wall, so it made it easier for me to count as I wasn''t down, my fall wasn''t really than long, but the feeling of weightlessness was just as exquisite out here as it was in the game, looks like I really do have a thing for flying. The right level came soon enough, which brought up the problem of how to slow down. But it wasn''t really a problem seeing as I already had the tools to do so. I created two barriers the size of dinner plates, and landed on them. The entire weight of my body on both of them was almost too much for my mind to bear as I dropped down a bit more, my. Movements wobbly and erratic like a jet that ran out of fuel.


    Such a scenario was easy to understand, for all of use Meta-humans our abilities are easy to understand...well not really, but constant usage of it, like training and whatnot would help increase control and power, and right now I''ve not really had a time to explore and train my abilities, so I guess I should put that on my to do list.


    I was able to hang onto the edge of the eight level, it''s elevator doors were still tightly shut, but as I pulled myself up over the edge there was a ding sound and the elevator doors swung open, probably Morrigan taking control of the building''s controls, however I didn''t know how much of a good idea opening the elevator door was, because there were three armed guards waiting beyond, and the idea of freezing them by intercepting the neural pathways didn''t sit well with me, my brain almost exploded the last time I tried that.


    More equations showed up in my eyes, it was calculating the trajectory of the bullets, should the guns pointed at me get fired. I was fast, but I wasn''t faster than a bullet, heck I''m not even sure I''m half as fast as a bullet, but knowing where the bullet will but is showing me that it would be everywhere. The assault tickles in their hands released their shots in sprays of short bursts, kind of like shotguns, only they had the range of an assault rifle, punched lighter, but still had at least a 98% chance of hitting a moving Target, even on a vehicle. I was quite familiar with it, it used to be one of my favorites back during my time in the UN. I couldn''t beat that, not yet anyway.


    "You move a fucking muscle and I''ll blow your fucking brains off!" one of the guards said to me as another quickly added "Put your hands behind your head and get down on your knees!" I cocked my head to the side and couldn''t help but ask.


    "You said I should not move a muscle or you''ll blow my head off, and now you guys are saying hand behind my head and on my knees, can I just remain standing I would really love it if my head remains where it is."


    The guards looks at each other, probably surprised that I could still talk with guns pointed at my face, the third guard didn''t say anything, he just used his gun to gesture that I get down on my knees as he began walking towards me, gun pointed at my head. He was keeping his distance, which was smart, however it still won''t keep him safe.


    "Lay on your belly, keep your face to the ground." His voice sounded aged and hoarse, but he was experienced, even on my knees with these guards within my area of sight it was entirely possible that I could pull of an offset that would leave them injured or very much dead.


    I grumbled to myself as I went down to the ground, with my face to the ground, seconds later I felt a foot on my back and the cold barrel of a gun. This guy really wasn''t taking any handed with me, and I couldn''t make a move yet, at least not until I know that gun was off my skull. Then other two guards were obviously the rookies here, or at the very least they were not as experienced as this dude who''s held me at gun point.


    "Who the fuck are you? What do you want? You think it''s a good idea to wear a face mask and break into one of if not the most secure facility in the country, I don''t know what you would do this kid, but you better talk. Getting information out of people is my specialty, it will save you a lot of pain, and maybe we can figure out a way to get you home."


    Mind games¡­...well I''ll give him a plus one for that, he was also quite perceptive, able to tell I was somewhat young and Na?ve...I mean 24 was still really young right? Either way this dude ain''t no slouch, but his methods don''t scare me, I''ve seen and learnt how to torture from a real master of the art, he doesn''t compare. I felt him pull my hand behind me and he placed a pair of handcuff around my wrist, nice touch but those won''t hold me. And then he made his first mistake, he took the gun off my head.


    "Stand down, he''s secure now, get in touch with command, tell them to get the elevator fixed quickly, we need to take him to holding and interrogate him." Second mistake, telling his friends to stand down, and the fools happily did so.


    Keeping the electrical currents in a person''s body still was a lot more harder as opposed to say maybe forcing it to move a little faster or let''s say causing it to surge at a higher voltage in a person''s brain, I believe those are grounds for an Aneurysm. Why don''t we try a little experiment, at the very least the dude would be left with a very terrible headache, so here goes nothing.


    *Ziziziziztttttt*


    "Arghhhhhh, Arghhhhhh!"


    So his screams were good, blood from his nose, ears and eyes was also good, but he was still alive. Indeed he had a more advanced and stronger body than normal humans, so he was able to take a shock to the brain and still stand, though as it stands he was completely out for the count, his companions turned their head to act, however the two floating blue daggers sparkling with electricity at their throat stopped them from moving. I shook my head, and then rolled over, gathering electricity around my wrists, I tugged at the cuffs, watching as they were burnt to a molten slag in seconds...I honestly didn''t think that would work, I wonder how many volts worth of electricity I had in my body, because melting steel would take shit ton of energy¡­..but I guess it doesn''t matter at the moment, what was done is done.


    "You guys are good at your jobs...but that''s just the problem isn''t it, facing me.....being good just isn''t good enough."


    I sent a knee strike to the head of the man who had captured me, knocking him out and putting him out of the misery he was currently experiencing. The floating daggers made of energy turned into hammers and right in the dismayed expression of the two guards, they both fell down on their face....I could almost see an air quite with the word (WHAM!!)on it; it must have really hurt. It didn''t knock them out though, it just left them very dazed and in a lot of pain, it was a simple thing to just cuff all three of them to each other as I opened the door at the other end of the hallway.


    The door opened up into wow wide circular room, there was a massive gourd like machine in front of me, and on it''s massive silver frame there were a bunch of blue pods that each had an unconscious yet very emancipated individual in it, it wasn''t just Houki that had been kept here, there were hundreds of them. I looked down to see a couple of guards standing in front of an observation booth that was filled to the brim with men and women, probably the scientists involved with the project. The guards all had their guns pointed at me, unfortunately for them seeing this bloody thing in front of me, has left me feeling really pissed off.


    "You guys are not as lucky as your friends out there, you see when I beat their asses I wasn''t angry, but you guys...I''m afraid 90% of you would not survive what comes next, if you drop your weapons and surrender I can consider just breaking a few bones..."


    Safe to say they all had looks on their face that made them think I was mad man, or rather a dead mad man walking...I mean they all had guns trained on me, and apart from what seems like a guard booth, there was nothing keeping me safe from them. I moved my hands to my back and pulled out both my handguns as I looked at them with a bored look.


    "Guess you''re all going to die."


    *Bang!*


    I moved to the left, and a bullet whizzed past, much to the shock of all the guards watching, and myself too. I saw the trajectory, heck I''m seeing lost of them, but with over a dozen guards in front of me, it was hard to tell who was going to be pulling a trigger, yet my body had moved on it''s own, my synapses firing at a speed I never thought possible. I could feel and see the electrical currents within my own body, and right now they had a sparkle that wasn''t there before, it was scary, but I knew I made that moment myself, it''s like my body made a judgement before my mind could even tell it what to do, yet it was still my mind who gave the order. I was freaked out, but no more than the people facing me.


    "He''s eyes are glowing? What is he?"


    well that was surprising, my eyes were glowing, and they could see it, I mean I didn''t see any different except for what now looked like cross hairs appearing to this my shooting.


    "Well I don''t know what I am really, but how about we find out together, and believe me when I tell you, it''s going to hurt like a bitch¡­that''s if you even live."


    And then the Carnage began.

 170 Antoine Neurosurgical Industries IV : Altercation

    Who shot first would probably be something that I would debate for a while, but the moment the gun fight started, I and already put a very messy hole into two years. I ducked down and slid into the guard booth that seemed to be made of some sort of reinforced steel, they probably envisioned such a scenario...or maybe something of equal eager and felt it would be good to make sure that guard booth was secure enough. There were rails on both side of the booth, connected to a glass wall that went around the entire room in a circular form, it came to a stop at the other end where the observation room was. I could just as easily follow the circular path to get to the observation room, however the room itself was reinforced with concrete as opposed to the guard booth that was made with steel.


    I huddled down as the bullets pelted the guard booth, which only had a waist high protection, but none the less it still served it''s purposes. I couldn''t really make massive barriers like the previous owner of this ability, which was why I was being a turtle right now, however unlike him, I could actually make objects, and shape them whichever way I wanted, and then send said objects flying to my enemies. I reckon the range of which I had control should be with a circumference of a 100 meters, just enough to me to cause some very lethal damage.


    Three four pointed stars formed in front of me, there was a hole in their middle, making them reminiscent of ninja stars. They started rotating with a thought for me, releasing a dull hum that sounded more like the sounds of hundreds of feathers beating against each other. Then I sent them flying to the left, the sounds they made and their overly bright appearance caught the attention of the people shooting at me, I took advantage of that.


    *Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*


    There were literal cross hairs in my vision, almost as if life itself had turned into a first person shooter game. I was already very good with guns, but this sort of accuracy was just ungodly. Five shots, equaled to five dead, and plus the two from before, meant I had taken out more than half of the dozen strong guard team I met in here. And the selling point, was that all the shots were head shots.


    I moved to the left watching a spray of bullets take off the door of the guard booth, I had to quickly jump out as a small explosive charge was thrown into it. There was a loud boom, and the ground vibrated a bit, however the explosion was contained with the guard booth, leaving me relatively unscathed except for the ringing in my ears.


    {You have sustained a Mild Concussion! Estimated time of healing: 3.674544647 minutes}


    Wow, maybe it could tell me how much HP I had left. I ducked downwards and pulled the trigger on my gun, only for a blue wave to be released from a circular disk in front of me the guns in my hands were ripped out of their grasp, and drawn towards the disk that had just magnetically drawn my guns away. But there were a ton of metallic things in this lab, why was it that only the guns were affected, I was now unarmed, however so too were my enemies.


    Based on the annoyed look they were giving to one of the guards, I would say he didn''t think this through before he activated the device, but then again it''s not as if I needed guns to take care of these guys, heck with guns out of the way, putting an end to them all would be that much easier. I raised my hands up and then ran towards the closest guard, he was still a little caught off guard by the fact that his gun was ripped out of his hand, which gave him less time to react as I jumped into the air and brought the full force of my fist smashing into his jaw with a Superman lunch. His head was thrown violently to the side as his body spun in the air and he crashed down with a groan.


    I ignored him as I bent down, ducking under another punch and went up with a rising uppercut, however my new opponents was a lot smarter as he stepped back, evading the lunch that barely grazed his chin. The move left me over extended and open for another one of the guards to kick me in the sternum and into the waiting hands of another guard. But that didn''t last long, as I violently bent down and learnt forward throwing the guard over my head before throwing a fist full of electricity straight to his head, and this time it was a whole lot stronger than what I have that first guard, not to mention the lunch that went along with it.


    Much to my shock and those of his comrades, my fist punched straight through his face, splattering blood, brain matter and skull fragments everywhere. Then I moved forward driving my shoulder into the sternum of another guard and bringing his back smashing down into the ground, hard! I rolled away from him, just in time to avoid a baton getting smashed into my head.


    I ran towards the guard who swung the baton, he was prepared to throw a punch, but I moved to the side, used his body as a spring board and then slammed my knee into his temple, leaving him dazed as he took a few steps back, but three seconds later I caught his head with a spinning heel kick he froze for a second before he fell back like a sack of potatoes completely knocked out. Two out for the count, one dead and two left. I looked at the remaining two guards, and watched as one of them pulled out a revolver from God knows where and started shooting at me. I moved to the left, creating a barrier that intercepted the first bullet, I ducked down as another flew over my head as two extra barriers showed up, one in front of my face and the other on my left thigh. The remaining two bullets smashed into it, before the chamber clicked empty, guess he only had four bullets.


    Both guards were caught completely off guard, because no matter how you want to describe it, I had just dodged being shot by bullets. Of course this wasn''t the first time I was doing it, but before this they sold have probably thought it was a fluke, but now they would probably think I was some sort of freak...which if you think about, I might actually be.


    I goofed my head to the side as the sound of beating wings game from behind me, the first guard I had taken down had shakily got back up to his feet, but the three spinning stars I had previously made came and sawed through his body and neck, separating his neck from his body and his torso from his waist. His body fell to the ground in three pieces, before the stars went forward, moving around the body of the guard who had just shot at me, seconds later there very unrecognizable pieces of him on the ground.


    His partner was frozen in fright as his legs began shaking, he had his fist up, but with the way his knees were knocking against each other, I would say this could be considered a surrender. I walked past him, but stopped when I was shoulder to shoulder with him, then I turned to him and said.


    "I''m so sorry about your friends, but this is the part where you run for your life."


    And he did, and quite happily too, running with all his might towards the guard booth, moving at a speed that even an Olympian would not be able to match. He was wholly focused on running away, at least until his skull exploded into pieces of blood and goes, tiny Sparks of electricity could be seen dancing around the fragments before finally disappearing.


    There wasn''t really a need to kill him, but then again I did say only 90% of them will die if I was feeling any bit merciful. He would have thrown that ratio of, besides I did say maybe only 90% of them would die, there was never a guarantee. I moved towards the observation room, towards the scientists that looked very scared at my presence, which was understandable, I just killed twelve guards in front of them. Seems like there was a guard to researcher, either way apart from the thick bullet proof glass and thick steel doors and concrete protecting them, nothing would have kept them safe from me either. Nevertheless I could breach the damn cage if I wanted, I did have the clips for my armor piercing bullets with me. I looked around and pulled a seat close to me, then I sat down in front of their cage.


    "So are you guys going to open your cage and let me in, or do you need me to come in there and let you experience what it is your friends just did. And let me assure you, hat you would all be facing would be a million times worse than what they did, after all they''re just dumb guards put here for your protection, the fact that all these innocent people are in those pods could be attributed to all of you, at least partially."


    As I watched them, one of the scientists moved forward, he was significantly older than the others, which made me suspect he was probably the lead researcher, or probably just someone who everyone paid attention too, since he did look quite shit older than everyone else here. Looks like he has chosen to be their spokesperson, not sure how well that would work out for him though, I''m not that patient, especially when I was angry.


    "Who are you? What do you want? Please if it''s money, our employers are very wealthy, they could pay you more than what whoever hired you is paying." The Man said, trying to understand who or why I had decided to lead an assault into their labs and brutally murder their guards.


    "Hah! No offense old guy, but I doubt you employers can pay me enough, they''re not rich enough for that." I said to him as the spinning stars came back to hiver around me, it was taking surprisingly little to almost no energy to maintain them and keep them in motion, it was pretty cool.


    "No! I assure you they can pay you your weight in gold. Do you know Imperium Industries, of course you do! They''re one of our employers, they''re also funding this project, they''ll pay you lot''s of money!" I leaned back looking at the frantic man, before pulling the face mask off my face.


    The look of surprise they all had¡­.....well it was really fun to look at. Maybe I should do this more often, hide my identity and show it to people and see their reactions. It should be quite a fun experience, maybe I should do it with Penny''s fianc¨¦, just to know what that guy is all about. Either way scientists old guy was struck speechless. At this point enough time should have passed, so everyone bloody knew who the fuck I was.


    "Well for starters none of you are in the list of employees, neither is this project listed amongst the many that the Imperium Industries currently have going on. So one, it''s either the people who employed you lied to you, or two you''re just spouting nonsense and really want to die, or three some idiot had been using my company''s name to commit bad deeds, either way someone is going to have to pay. As for you idiots you''re all going to prison, I''ve decided that''s a much more fitting place for you, I can''t go and be completely lawless can I?"


    I got up from the chair I was sitting on, about to go around the lab, just to see if I could find Houki when one of the scientists moved forward. He was younger than the first, looked like someone in his early to mid thirties, but with the way people aged now, it would be really hard to tell his age.


    "Prison! I''m not going to prison! I was just hired to do a job! We all were! So if anyone''s to be blamed it''s the Antoine family, we''re innocent! Let me go, or I''ll use the kill switch and kill every subject in those pods! Believe me I will! I''m not going to prison!"


    I really hate when people threaten me, it usually doesn''t end well, and at this point there''s no way an altercation like this would be kept secret. I''m sure the police are already on their way, so it would be in my best interest to make sure that everyone here was alive to give eye witness testimony and all that legal crap, maybe I shouldn''t have bullied my way through law school. Either way Mr. I don''t want to go to prison here, was looking to die, it''s never a good idea to threaten me.


    "Are you looking to die? You think I won''t kill you? Or do you think I can''t find my way into that cage you''ve all locked yourself into. What a joke!....."


    "BOSS!" Morrigan''s voice sounded in my head, I almost reacted violently, however I calmed down almost immediately. After the last time she tried communicating with me and got injured and further upgraded as a result, we''ve had a sort of connection, so it''s easier for her to talk to me than others, even from hundreds of meters underground.


    "BOSS! You have to get out I there now! Some sort of monster is heading for you! We couldn''t stop him, Nuwa is......."


    *ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!*


    "What the fuck is that?"

 171 Antoine Neurosurgical Industries V : Chong & Sarah

    The doors leading into the lab blasted open as a massive and hulking brute covered with metallic plates on some parts of it''s body and a head with tubes and a hand that had a cannon attached to it stood in front of me. This guy couldn''t even be considered human again, it was as if he was fed the most powerful steroids ever, his muscles were massive , but misaligned and bulky, it was very much surprising that he moved as fast as he could.


    He was wearing army cargo pants, but he had no shoes on, so his yellowed and very dead looking feet was out in the open, I could see a metal band of sorts around his ankle. His waist alone was thick enough that it would take two of me to completely wrap my hands around it, then I looked up at his face and an explosion of sorts just went off in my head.


    >>>>>


    FIVE YEARS AGO


    SECRET MILITARY BASE


    THE ARCTIC


    The best thing I could do was keep my head down here, head guys that I was looking at, none of them looked like the kind of people you wanted to fuck with. And quite honestly I didn''t want to be here, there was no way this was fair, I was being used as a pawn in a political fight. But I had no one else to blame but myself, I would never have left L.A for Nigeria, if I had stayed put, my grandmother would not have shipped me off to Military school, which for some reason I only spent 4 months in, and then straight to the front lines and the here!


    Here which is the middle of nowhere, with a group of people from God knows where, as part of a kill team for the UN. Whatever missions that I''ll have to be carrying out can''t be simple, or safe, I wasn''t sent here to be a mechanic, I was sent here to die. Shipped too fast from my grandmother to even react fast enough to save me, I''m sure by now heads were already rolling, but it was too late, I''m already here.


    "Hey kid! Wassup!" I heard a voice yell from behind me as a massive hand slammed into my back from behind and forcing me to choke on my own saliva and causing every else to laugh at me.


    "Ahhh! I''m sorry dude, I don''t know my one strength, are you okay?" the bodies asked.


    "Seriously Chong you big idiot, does he look okay to you, the poor kid is choking on his own spit. Give him some breathing room you oaf." Another voice added, this time a female.


    I looked up to see one of the most beautiful faces I''ve ever seen in my life looking down at me as she stretched her hands to me in a handshake, before pointing at the Asian dude standing besides her with a sheepish and guilty look on his face.


    "My name''s Sarah Clearwater and this fool here is Wang Chong, but you can just call him Chong. What''s your name handsome?" she asked me as I took her hand in mine, it was warm and soft, yet I could feel calluses from where she''s held a gun before.


    "My name''s Aaron, Aaron Wade."


    "Really! What are the odds, if I ever have a son I''m naming him Aaron, I just like that name a lot. Well none the less Aaron Wade, I''m sure you, me and Chong will be fast friends, welcome to Division Zero."


    >>>>


    "Captain Aaron your ordered back to base! This is direct insubordination and refusing a direct order is grounds for a court marshal!"


    I ignored the voice screaming in my ears as I jumped right into the underground facility, the gun in my hand was held so tightly I could see my knuckles turning white. As soon as installed into the base, two enemy soldiers can towards me, I squeezed the trigger, leaving holes in their bodies before they could react. Terrorists could cause a lot of damage, but the thing is as opposed to properly trained soldiers there hardly much they could do.


    I ran past their bodies and turned a corner, my gun raise to a shoulder level as I crouched down, moving Swiftly but not too fast. At the end of the hall was a man with a bomb strapped to his chest running towards me, a swift squeeze let him. With a hole in his eye and head, and another one in his neck. I made a my way towards him, picking the bomb trigger and leaving it in one of my pockets, that might come in handy later.


    There was an expensive basement within this base, it stretched through the entire building, which was just about the size of a freaking nuclear plant. That was the last place where Chong and Sarah''s last transmission came from, those two were asked to leave, but apparently they found something that needed their attention, and just like in the movies, shit went wrong and they were captured, about to be executed.


    At the stairs that led to the basement, a couple of men were running up, however the stair well was a little constraining, which meant they were nothing more than fish in a barrel as I opened fire on them. Bodies rolled back into the other as most of them went crashing right back, rolling down the concrete status and breaking bones in a manner that was loud enough for me to hear.


    *click! Click! Click!* Fuck it I was out of ammo, and that was the only gun I had left on me. There were still two other men on the stairwell, and the moment they say that I was empty the turned their gun towards me.


    *Bang! Bang! Bang!*


    I quickly shifted to the side, resting my back Against the wall as bullets flew past me. I pulled out my combat knife arming myself and crouching down, I expected them to do something stupid and they did. The first terrorists ran up, probably in a hurry to put a bullet in my ''fleeing back'' unfortunately for him I was just lying in wait. My combat knife flashed through the air as it went into his left knee, I twisted the blade and shoved it forward, using the weirdly growing strength that I''ve notice myself having recently.


    His bloody knew cap went flying as I rose, and stabbed the blade into his screaming throat. His friend was right behind his back, using his body as a shield and ignoring the hot spurt of blood all over my face, I pushed him backwards, hugging his body as we crashed into his friend and went flying down the stairs. The knife moved forwards and found it''s way into the temple of the very caught of guard terrorist, he was dead before we landed at the bottom of the stairs well, and right at the feet of another terrorist who was coming up to find out what the commotion was all about.


    I sent a leg sweep, how ever the terrorist stepped backwards and clumsily tried to raise his assault rifle, it looked like an old AK47, but he was even less accustomed to it''s used as it''s safety was still on when he tried to pull the trigger. I shot forwards slamming my shoulders into his gut and taking him down, my blade found it''s way into his ribs, puncturing lung the first time and causing a little spurt of blood to go into my mouth, the second time it found purchase in his heart, a rough wrench from me had the blade ripping across rib cages and Turing his heart to pieces, he was dead by the time I got back to my feet.


    I spat out and wiped the blood out of my eyes, Chong and Sarah were sitting on a chair, their hands tied behind their backs. Chong''s bald head was covered in sweat and blood and one of his eyes were already turning purple and swollen. He looked up at me and said.


    "You look like shit kid." I looked down at myself and then looked at him with a smile.


    "Well you look like a dead dog Chong Chong!" I replied with a mischievous grin on my face.


    "Oh! You must really want to die kid, you think making fun of my name is wise, I''m still very much dangerous you know."


    "Would you two cut it out, you can suck each other''s dicks later, Aaron get our out of here. The big idiot as just a bit, so he''s fine, but they drugged me with something, I''m a little paralyzed from waist down, so you''re both going to have to carry me."


    I got to work getting them out of their bones, Chong proceeded to grab a few more guns while I placed Sarah on my back. I tried ignoring the fact that even In the midst of death and blood, she still smelled like apples and a breath of fresh air. Then she said to me softly, but still loud enough for Chong who was taking point to hear.


    "You''re my Hero Kid, let''s get out of here."


    >>>>>


    Watching the transport plane leave the base left me feeling an ache deep in my chest, how could something so good and amazing come to an end just like that. It doesn''t make sense, I thought we loved each other, I thought as long as we were together nothing else would matter. Then I felt Chong behind me, we had a fight last week, apparently I was not the only one who fell for Sarah''s charms, I''m just the guy she chose which was still very much a shock to everyone.


    At the time seemed like the person who was the happiest for us, until he got angry over something and threw a punch. I don''t know what it was, but at the end of that right we both woke up in the Infirmary with a very angry Sarah shouting at the both of us. We''ve not spoken since then.


    "I''m sorry Kid, I feel bad she''s leaving, but I can''t even begin to imagine what you''re feeling like." I turned back to look at him and gave him a tired smile.


    "Do you know why she chose to leave?" I asked him.


    "She didn''t tell you? Aaron she''s ca¡­....you know, now that I think about it, I''m not really sure either. I was caught of guard just as you were, don''t worry Aaron, I got your back, always." He said to me with a small pat on my back.


    He really needs to work on his poker face, I haven''t spent an entire year here doing nothing but pumping weights like he has and going on missions. There''s always an unseen game being played, and that''s the game I''ve learnt to play and slowly began to master during my time here. I knew exactly when someone was keeping shit from me, but none the less I gave him the answer he wanted to hear.


    "Thanks Chong Chong, I got you too." Then I ducked back into the hangar.


    "You little shit! Get back here and take your beating like a man!"


    >>>>>


    BEIJING; CHINA


    He was already waiting for me the moment I walked into the penthouse, while the black clothes I had on made me seem akin to a trim reaper, Chong only had on a simple bath robe, held a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a handgun in the other. He was staring out into the skyline of the city in front of him, I felt the need to announce myself, but I already knew he knows I''m here. Chong had this nifty ability about being able to recognize a person from the sound if the footsteps and even their breathing, he definitely knew it was me.


    "Sarah''s dead you know, I heard it happened just about a month ago. I''m grieving; but you''re going all over the world putting an end to all of your old team members. Some hero you''ve turned out to be, rather I would say you turned out exactly how commander Kurylenko said you would, a monster that no one could put down or control. Sarah would have been so ashamed of you! You''re a disgrace to her memory, especially since you''re the reason she died."


    " I have nothing to do with her illness Chong, I also owe her nothing. She chose to leave, and it''s taking me a little time to get myself back to normal and move on, I suggest you do the same. She''s gone, and for a woman who left us both, she doesn''t deserve the amount of devotion you''re giving her. You''re next on my list Chong, but I''m not going to kill you. You know how to hide bland vanish better than anyone in the world, so do that, at least for a few years until this blows over." I said to him as I got back up to my feet and made to leave his penthouse.


    "They''re going to kill you too! You know that right?" he asked me as I turned my back to him.


    "They can try, I''m not the kid you remember." I said to him as I turned a bit to face him.


    "I hate you! An ugly ape like you cost me the affections and care of the woman I love, and now she''s dead. You went ahead to put......things! INSIDE HER! And now she''s dead. Life has no meaning anymore Wade! But I''ll be damned if I die without a little payback, well you''ll find out eventually, but by then I hope it''s been more than 20 years, heck I pray the day you find out, you''re on your death bed. Fuck you! Fuck you AARON WADE! FUCK YOU!"


    *BANG!*


    His brains and blood splattered across the window behind him, his body dropped like a sack of potatoes, talking scores the window and sliding down, drawing a bloody trail downwards. The gun in his hand lying on the floor, his eyes vacant and completely lifeless. I placed the handgun I just used back into my holster and left the penthouse, What he didn''t realize was that he wasn''t just on my list, he was the last name on it.


    >>>>>


    I looked up at the monster with a very familiar face, I felt a chill wrapping around my heart as this was very much akin to seeing a ghost from my past. I looked up at him and said.


    "Chong?" and he replied.


    "Kiiiiiiiiidddddddd! Rooooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr!!!"

 172 Antoine Neurosurgical Industries VI : Chong, Sins Of The Pas

    At the moment I had this feeling that I was not to entirely familiar with, or rather it was a feeling I''ve grown to ignore. It was guilt. I was looking at a ghost from my past, a choice that I made that I would probably be regretting until the day I do get to leave this world. It wasn''t until now that a lot of things made sense to me, and with that realization the guilt was a whole lot worse. But along with was anger, however I couldn''t really blame Chong.


    He loved Sarah even more than I did, yet she chose me, and she got pregnant. He knew and I didn''t, and he chose to keep it from me as punishment fir taking away the woman he loved, and as a result Ron grew up for three whole years without his father. It might seem like a shirt amount of time, but I missed the first time he walked, the first time he talked...¡­I never got to tell his mother goodbye, to tell her that she was truly the first and so far only woman I''ve truly loved. And when she needed me I wasn''t there, I was going around then world killing our friends.


    Sarah left because she was pregnant, that much I now knew and understood. And some part of me felt like she wanted me to go with her, yet I didn''t, because I thought she didn''t care enough to ask. But even then I shouldn''t have cared whether she asked or not, i could have just gotten on that plane and followed that Texas spitfire back home, I failed her. And in turn I failed my boy before he was even born.


    "Itsss Been A Looong Time Kiiiiiiiiidddddddd." He said to me with a pallid look on his handsome face. Seems like even with all the horrific augmentation and change done to his body, Chong still retained his good looks. But a face that heavenly on such a hideous body was quite.... unsettling.


    "Yeah, it''s been three years Chong." I said to him as I moved towards where my guns had fallen, the magnet that had drawn it out of my hand seemed to have ran out of power.


    "Areee you going to kill me again?" he asked me, his voice slurring with some words and being clear in others.


    "To be honest I don''t want to, but if I have to, then I will." I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at him, there was a massive surge of energy running through his body. The same electrical currents that I''ve noticed within the body of every Meta-human I''ve come across, was the same thing in his, which means he was just like me, he had special abilities. But looking at how monstrous he now was, it''s hard for me to comprehend what those abilities could be.


    "Well sorrrrry for you, buuuut I want you deaddddd." He said to me as he took a wider stance, I shrugged my shoulders at him as I bent down to pick my guns up.


    "Well I figured as much, after what I did to you, even I won''t let myself live¡­.....she gave him my name you know, mine and Sarah''s son. His name is Aaron, and he looks quite a bit like his mother, but he has my eyes. And he''s the most beautiful and most amazing thing I''ve ever seen in my life, he''s everything to me. It took me three years to find him, and now here we are in the same amount of time, face to face with each other. It''s ironic really, you wanted me to live my life without ever knowing Sarah had a son, my son, and yet I find him and not too long later I''m here in front of you, collecting old debts.


    So far everyone that''s stood in between me or the future of my son had died or will soon die quite painfully. However I owe you for taking your life, and I apologize for that and would very much like to make up for it. But I''m not apologizing for what Sarah and I had, I know it must hurt like hell and honestly I think I can actually relate with that feeling, but not as much. It the thing is Sarah and I made our choice, I''m sorry you had to be the one who was left out at a chance at happiness, but that''s it. I loved her Chong, and that''s the truth."


    I said to him with focused look on my face. I didn''t want to fight him, mostly because I''m not sure I would be able to win, so I hope I could get through to him, but it doesn''t look like it''s working, I''m no Naruto, hence the incapability 9f turning my enemies into allies.


    "Youuuuu do not fucking geeeettttt to saaayyyyyy her NAME! ROAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR"


    He pointed his cannon like arm at me and release a compressed gust of air. It spare into my chest and carried all the way to the bullet proof window of the observation room where the other scientists had hold up. It drive the air out of my lungs as my vision went black for a moment and I spat out a mouthful of blood.


    {YOU HAVE SUSTAINED THREE CRACKED RIBS, AND ORGAN ABRASIONS! ESYIMATED TIME TO HEAL: 20:18}


    Not that I needed the damn thing to tell me how injured I was, I already felt like I''ve been ran over by a food truck. There was a loud boom as air was boasted from Chong''s back and he moved forward swiftly, crossing the distance between the two of us in a second. I rolled to the side and just barely as his shoulder smashed into the bullet proof window, smashing it into hundreds of pieces, most of which found purchase in the bodies and faces of the scientists hiding behind.


    I took a step back and raised my guns, squeezing their triggers in the process and emptying their coils into Chong''s hulking body. But it was almost as if he was not even receiving any damage as he turned to me, it print the holes in his body and black blood that closed out.


    There was a dull puff, and all of the bullets were pushed out of the holes, causing even more of the black blood to stream down his body. I guess I now knew his abilities, he could control air currents within and outside his body in short compressed bursts, giving him rapid increase in speed and with a body like that, also in strength. It''s an ability definitely tailored to his personality, there was never anything subtle about Chong either.


    I quickly changed the clips in my guns, switching to my armor piercing ammo so far I''ve been trying to avoid take shots at his head and face, his hair had grown to cover the hole I had left there before, and I''m not too keen on putting another one there, however this was my life on the line. I''m not letting my son become an orphan when he just got me back, I''ve committed sins in the past, there no doubt about that. If I have to carry out punishments fir the rest of my life to make up for it, I would. But like I said, I''m not letting anyone or thing get in the way of my son''s future, and I''m a very big part of it, I''m his bloody Dad.


    "SHE''S SUPPOSED TO BE MINE!!"


    *BANG BANG!!* *CRASHHHH*


    I moved to the side as Chong and his bulky body streaked past me, he went smashing into the massive machine that was holding all of Antoine Neurosurgical Industries lab rate, one of which was Houki. I felt my heart drop, but at the very least his elbow had two massive holes in it.


    I was still holding back, I don''t know is why, at the very least I could try to cripple him. Maybe whatever was done to him could be reversed and he would be able to live a normal life, it shouldn''t be that bad a plan, however I was putting the lives of others in the line, that was not me. I won''t do that for anyone except my son, I''m getting my head in the game, this should end...¡­


    *BOOOOF!!* *SMASH!**CRASH!**THUD!!*


    Another compressed burst of air came out of that cannon of his, if it was anyone else, or rather a more normal human being, then said person would be very much dead by now. I was thrown through steel reinforced guard booth, a guard booth that had stopped bullets when I was hiding behind it was ripped apart like paper, and I got scratched. There was a nasty cut on my face, going down from the side of my left temple, then down over my left eye before stopping on the top of my cheek. It burned, and blood was clouding my vision, not to mention I felt so woozy it was hard to get back on my feet as I stumbled about.


    My left arm was dangling uselessly from my side, it was bent at a very awkward angle. And I could see my bones popping out from my flesh. The list of injuries I now had was extensive, and it would take a long ass time before I could heal this on my own, heck the (BEARD) was telling me to seek medical attention as fast as possible.


    "I watch the news Kid, that son of yours is the child you gave to Sarah. He should have been my son, but he''s yours, the son of a thief, so once I''m done ripping you apart I''ll send your skull to him, and every year for each of his birthday I''ll be sending a piece of your ripped body, until when he gets to your age and then I''ll kill him, slowly and painfully, and there''s noth...¡­"


    *BANG!BANG!*


    Two electrically charged bullets flew out of the gun in my right hand and smashed into his neck and mouth. Surprising his teeth seemed to be coated with metal, so all the bullet did was smash them apart, while the second punched a hole through his neck. But yet he didn''t shake or move, it was as if his body was already dead, and he was incapable of feeling pain.


    However even if he didn''t feel pain the subtle and involuntary shakes his body was giving let me know that the electrical currents in his body was already causing as much Havoc as I wanted. He looked at me in surprise as he seemed to be loosing control of his body, the electrical currents I sent into his body was already messing with the commands he could give.


    *Bang!bang!bang!bang!*


    Electricity snaked and danced around my body as i took an eye and punched a hole through his nose. Pretty or not there was no coming back from that, his massive body convulsed but yet he still didn''t fall. I ran towards him, and the took a running leap before smashing me knee into his face and latching my right palm on top of his head. He fell back like a sack of potatoes as I made contact with the electrical currents in his body, it would take a lot to bring Chong down, and he would probably kill me before that happens. So I''ll do this, I''ll take his power and his life along with it. Like a vacuum all of the metal currents within his body began running to the top of his head and straight into my body.


    I suddenly found my body shaking along with his, the feeling of taking his ability was such a rush, it was addictive. And unlike when the first time where I had no idea what was happening, I could actually get to enjoy the entire feeling. I could bear Chong shouting and screaming, and then suddenly the world turned white and I suddenly found myself in a memory.


    >>>>>


    FOUR YEARS AGO


    Chong made his was into Aaron''s cabin room, he needed to have a good long talk with the kid. Things have gotten a lot different from the first time they met, Aaron was now the number one soldier on the base, unbeatable in both skill and intellect. He could find a solution to any problem, regardless of the origin, not to mention he had way too much speed and strength than as allowed to someone his size. The fact that they''re calling him Hercules seemed to. Prove that point.


    Chong got to the room in record time, however Aaron wasn''t there, there was just a letter on his bed, and it was nearly folded. Chong turned around to leave, before his curiosity got the best of him, in this day and age who still used pen and paper to send messages, and he knew the answer to that. There was only one person who was that old fashioned, and that was Sarah, the only other person who was as powerful and smarter than Aaron himself, she just wasn''t one to show it.


    Chong decided to bite the bullet and ripped the letter open. 60 seconds later he had a lot in his stomach and wished the ground could just open up and swallow him. She was pregnant, pregnant with Aaron''s kid, and she wanted to leave all these behind. Chong understood that much, this base was no place to raise a kid, but she wanted Aaron to come with her, so that they could leave and go make a family like they always planned. She was leaving a week and if he was going to leave with her, he''s to meet her in their secret spot later tonight it would be their happily ever after.


    Chong didn''t hesitate and he ripped the letter to pieces, and then went ahead to throw them in the toilet and flush them down. His heart was pounding loudly within his chest, and it wasn''t from guilt, it was from the excitement of what he had just costs his enemy, Aaron took her away from him, it was only right that he returned the favor. If he couldn''t have her, then no one else will.


    >>>>>>


    Chong crashed to the ground, his body smoking and looking desiccated despite his bulk. He had on a nasty grin on his broken face, he was probably drawing great pleasure from the look on pain and horror on my face. Then he looked up to me and said.


    "I....still....win. hehehe hahahahahahaha!"


    "Arghhhhhhhhh!!!"


    A massive lightning bolt came flying out of my hands as his head was lasted apart like a crushed watermelon. And in my grief I fell back as the world went dark with the pull of unconsciousness, but even then....the darkness didn''t bring the peace I sought for; Sarah...I''m so sorry.

 173 One Last Secret 1

    { Good morning everyone, I''m Asare Dusivaru and this is the Imperium Morning report.


    During the early hours of these morning, the police had received a distressed call from world renown research facility Bloom Valley, which belongs to Antoine Neurosurgical Industries. Apparently a groups of men and women had broken into the labs and began killing everyone within it in an attempt to rob the company of valuable technology and research. A siege promptly ensued when the police got there, but was quickly broken up when generals from the army arrived to take control of the situation.


    Apparently the lab had been attacked by chairman and current CEO of Imperium Industries Aaron Wade. He had led a small team of what reports are calling a super powered militia to as we understand put a stop to a vile series of experiments that were being carried out with Imperium deep dive technology and using the VRMMORPG Lost Descendants Online as a medium. Details about what these experiments were have not been released, however it is said that the Chairman Aaron Wade has sustained serious injuries and is currently being attended to by a team of his personal doctors. His fate at the moment is not known.


    Meanwhile the president has come forth to issue a statement praising the bravery of Aaron Wade and the swift actions he and his militia took in putting a stop to what has now been going as not just a threat to natural security, but also a global threat in the making. The current CEO of Antoine Neurosurgical Industries along with most of his family has gone into hiding, with only his eldest daughter in police custody after she was arrested yesterday morning.


    The authorities are urging any members of the public with valuable information about the fugitives to come forth. The imperium industries is also offering a million dollar reward to anyone who can expose the location of the fugitives.


    All we can do now is sit, and hopefully pray that the chairman of Imperium Industries pulls through and makes a speedy recovery. On other news the Imperium Industries virtual reality department had slated two announcements for this evening, even though the chairman...¡­..}


    The sound of the news seemed to drone on and on, Ron had the feeling the woman was saying something important, but he really couldn''t tell what. Even if he could understand what she said, his mind as drawn to something else, or rather to someone else. He was alone within the hospital room, but he knew there were dozens of men and women armed to the teeth outside, waiting, just like he was. He really didn''t understand what was happening, but pops wasn''t waking up, and even if the little boy didn''t know why, he was beginning to get scared.


    Ron moved towards his father, however what he and probably everyone else outside didn''t realize was that the young boy didn''t walk to his father''s bedside, he floated towards him. Nanny Florence had just quickly stepped out to take care of something and had left Ron as a reasonable enough distance from his unconscious and still healing father, but then again it seems normalcy could not be attributed to the son just as it can''t be attributed to the father.


    To Ron it seemed as if Aaron was just sleeping, but he never slept with tubes in his mouth and a needle in his veins. The connection Ron always felt from his father was there, and it felt stronger, however it also felt blocked, like him being asleep stopped him from being able to reach out to his son, who was also desperately trying to reach out to his father.


    Ron floated until he was directly above his father''s chest, this was his normal position and he slowly let himself down on his father''s chest, laying down and slowly closing his eyes, listening to the steady heartbeat. He felt warm, and safe, but he very much prefers to look into those piercing blue eyes that thought the world of him, the same eyes he also thought the world of. He closed his eyes, just as Nanny Florence walked in with someone else. Ron wanted to listen to what it was they were saying, but he was too safe, to warm, he was with pops and so sleep came for him.


    After all for a three year old it has been a tiring morning, but before everything went dark he heard Nanny Florence say a name just as a hand as warm and as soothing as his father''s touched his hair. He couldn''t help but ask himself;


    "Who is Sarah?"


    >>>>>


    I don''t have fond memories of hospitals, the first and last time I remember going to a hospital was when we had to get my mother''s body. She had wanted her body cremated and the ashes split in two, one half went back home to Nigeria, and the other was laid to rest in the garden, and then almost sixteen years or more later my father was buried beside her. But none the less the gust of it all was that hospitals sucked, but then again waking up in this hospital can''t be that bad, especially since I woke up from Ron trying to shove a lollipop into my closed mouth.


    "Who gave that to you little man, you could get cavities or a tooth ache." He looked at the sweet in his hand and then furrowed his brows a bit, before looking up at me and asking.


    "Who''s Sarah?"


    And then everything slammed into me like a ton of bricks, I have no idea how long I''ve been out, but this question brought everything crashing down on me once again. What do I tell him, the only person he knows as his mother was Kira, how do I begin to explain to him that Sarah was his real mother''s name, and even better yet his life would have been very different if I left when she wanted me too. Forget about that letter, I should have stopped her the day she said she was leaving, I should have gone with her, but I didn''t. I so desperately wanted to cry, but I couldn''t do that, I had no right, and definitely not in front of Ron.


    "Well Sarah''s mom little man, she''s your mom." I didn''t know what to expect, he was 3 but I was still scared about what sort of reaction he would have. He looked down at the lollipop and then answered me absentmindedly.


    "Oh! Ok.....she was here though...¡­in my dreams. I heard her, she says...¡­she said she loves me."


    Well I didn''t expect that, and I was almost caught off guard until he said she had come to him in his dreams. I hugged him, wincing a bit in pain as instill felt a little bit sore, but none the less I felt okay. In this moment, with him here I didn''t feel like I was such a monumental fuck up, of course I''m sure there still a shit storm of self pity waiting for me, but none the less that could wait for later, right now I just wanted to be here with him, with my boy, my Genesis and my Revelations.


    >>>>>


    TWO WEEKS LATER


    Even with my ridiculous new healing factor, I had three surgeries. One on my spine, the other on my very punctured lungs, and the third on my numerous broken bones. But even then after two weeks apart from a little limp and the cast on my left arm, I was as good as new. My grandmother had come visiting and quite frankly the old lady was overstaying her welcome, however she''s been able to keep Ron company, and much to my annoyance the two had taken to each other like a sponge to water, Ron was currently teaching her Yoga, in very much the same manner in which we exercise every morning.


    Which was all good and fine since I have somewhere to be today. I made my way outside and there was Pegasus all buffed and clean, looking all clean and swanky. But I''m not the one driving him today, Nanny Florence had almost had a heart attack when she found out I almost died, she''s out of resignation temporarily, and all just so she could have the chance to punish the others for leaving me alone, especially Nezha and Nuwa who were supposed to be my shadows.


    Nothing I said could placate her fury, and with my grandmother around the two seemed all too willing to gang up on my poor team. But none the less everyone was okay...well sort off, they had a week on super intense training, I''m sure they all still ached in places where they''re not supposed to ache. I got into the back seat of the car, two hover bikes were at the side, with Nuwa and Nezha on it, dressed head to toe in black suede suits with blue highlights and notice of wolves.


    The whole world already sort of knew I had a personal army, nothing much of the details were known, but to them I was now more than just a simple chairman and CEO of a company. So in everything we now did, the Wade family no longer hid who they were, or what we were capable of.


    But speaking of companies Kira has been up to her neck in work since I''ve been out. The trailers for the upcoming tournament and the Augmented Reality Interface (A.R.I) has sort of taken the whole world by storm, there were calls from investors or other companies hoping to get the products advertised with the interface. So far there has been a couple of tests and experiments carried out by health departments in countries all around the world to check if the interface had any sort of hazard to the health of it''s users, and so far they''ve all been positive reviews.


    But not just that, the tournament had people going wild, this time lost Descendants would stray from it''s very reality like style of gameplay to more traditional game play. While there are still AIs, things would be a little bit more balanced and all players would have an equal part to shine, whether you were a guild or a solo player. You just needed to have the talent and a shit ton of luck.


    We drove in silence for almost an hour before we finally got to our destination. The moment I got out of the car, I could feel dozens of eyes on me, the Wade family already had people on site, but so too did others. Spies, and not just from other families, but from major law enforcement branches. CIA, FBI, even Interpol was here, guess I''m now a man of interest.


    I shrugged my shoulders and kept on walking forward, counting the plots in my head as I went last one grave after another. My heart was thumping deep in my chest, I''ve not been here since I''ve been back, and I could give a weird excuse like I''ve been busy, but it was probably because I was still angry, angry she left. Turned out it was nothing more than a misplaced anger, I misjudged her but none the less I had to come pay my respects, I owed her that much.


    {Sarah ''War Queen'' Clearwater}


    {Daughter, Sister, Friend, & Mother}


    I guess this was just as good a time to cry, but I was holding it in. She was probably rotting bones now, nothing left of the beautiful woman I fell in love with. I focused on the head stone and the patch of earth it was placed over, I wished I could see her one more time, regardless what she looked like now. It wouldn''t matter though, there''s no pill for regret, and saying sorry won''t turn back the hand of time or absolve me of this sin, even if it wasn''t fault.


    Love had a way of making everything seem like your fault, even if it was just in part. There''s always something better that you would have done, something smarter; my eyes blurred from my tears when suddenly a prompt rose up.


    {Activating X-ray vision lens}


    The whole world turned gray-scale and I could see through the earth, past the termites and earth works moving was an ornate casket. On top of it was a motor of horse, even with the time that had passed it still looked really good. I get the feeling I''ve seen that symbol somewhere before, but I couldn''t remember. Then I looked at the casket or rather through it, and I saw...


    "Nothing.... There''s nothing there, nothing!" I turned around and saw Nanny Florence holding out her hand to me, as if to tell me to calm down.


    "Young Master, your father and I have one last secret to tell you, but since he''s not here it''s up to me to tell you...¡­she survived the birth...the young prince''s mother is still alive!"


    "I didn''t want to hear any more bullshit explanation, so I just asked the question that need to be asked."


    "Where the fuck is she!?"

 174 One Last Secret 2

    "I don''t know where she is Aaron, she did go visit you and Ron in the hospital, but she didn''t leave an address. I don''t think she''s ready to face you yet."


    " But I don''t understand, why would she be so unwilling to see me? Please you have to tell me where she is, I''ll do anything... it why let everyone think she was dead, what would that have achieved." I asked Nanny Florence as I stood there, in front of an empty grave with a bouquet of flowers.


    "That''s actually your fault, or rather the fault of division Zero." I moved my head back confused as I looked at Just Florence with a questioning look on my face.


    "All of the soldiers on that team never used their real name, unless amongst themselves. It was a clandestine team of soldiers that was only know to a select number of world leaders, and even then Division Zero worked off the grid without any sort of digital or paper trail, your operations were too clean and you all made sure not to leave any evidence. When Sarah left she was lost, just like you she''s a member of a really old family, only said family has since gone legitimate and own ranches and alcohol factories across Texas and within certain places in Mexico.


    She''s been in the army since she graduated high school, and she wanted a safe place to raise her child. So she came to Los Angeles and met up with her best friend and roommates from boarding school Kira, and that''s how she found out exactly who Aaron Wade was. The runaway grandson of the most powerful man in the underworld, and heir to the most influential company in the world. She met your father by chance, or maybe it was planned, I''m not so sure. Because given how dangerous a woman she is, I don''t think Sarah would leave anything, much less her child''s future to chance.


    Sarah reminded your father so much of your mother, he wanted to protect the girl, and then he found out about division zero. He kept tabs on all the members except for one who seemed to have disappeared off the radar, and it was only possible when the division was disbanded. Sarah never told him who was the father of her child, so in his mind any one of the men within the group he was keeping tabs on could be the father, and he made it his responsibility to keep an eye on them until the kid was born so he could reunite them. Keep a family together as a way to make up for his failures to your mother and you...then someone started killing them off.


    One after the other, with such precision it was akin to surgery. The Assassin was a total ghost, and one of the best. But given the kind of work we were into, it would be hard for an Assassin like that to exist and we wouldn''t know about it. And worse yet was the fact that he was only going after the soldiers in division Zero, the trail of bodies the Assassin left was enough to give even someone as experienced as your father chills.


    The most fortified building or even a massive army couldn''t stop him, and the governments and news were keeping all these deaths silent. He suspected that the assassin was a Meta-human, and at the time our meta humans were just coming into their abilities, none of them were ready for any sort of fight.


    So he wanted Sarah to go into hiding with her unborn child, but she offered another solution. Going on the run with a kid was not what she wanted, so she takes an illness and asked her best friend to look after her son should she pass. And then Aaron Junior was born, your father was shocked she wanted to call him Wade too, giving him your exact name.


    Her death was faked and her son was left under the care of Kira and in an orphanage secretly run by operatives of the Wade family. The day she left was the day she told your father the identity of the man who fathered her son, most of the other soldiers from division Zero were already dead, she didn''t know much of the details, but she had a feeling you were alive and told your father to find you before the assassin got to you.


    And then she left, two hours later everything clicked, made perfect sense to your father and at the same time horrified him. The only person out of the hundred, excluding Sarah who was not accounted for was the soldier called Hercules and now with her exposing your identity as the father of her son it made perfect sense. You were the assassin going around the world killing your old teammates, so your father sent for her, confident that you would not but her. He couldn''t get through, apparently her plane had went down over the Mexican-American border line. And the idea was that you might have killed the mother of your child.....it broke his heart.


    He didn''t feel he was good enough to watch over Ron, he felt everything was his fault and if he had never pushed you away, then you wouldn''t have ended up the way you did. So he made his will, prepared everything he could for you to have a fresh start and let Kira watch over the boy. Your father wasn''t killed young Master, he''s too smart and too dangerous a man for that to happen.


    Without your mother, the only woman his tired old heart had learnt to love after he lost master Henry''s mom to an accident many years ago, he got tired of life. Seeing you, your son, and Henry and his children let him know there was nothing left to achieve. He has a legacy, and even though his mistakes had stained that legacy he knew you guys would be fine... assuming you don''t kill yourself first.


    But that was your own life to live, your own choices to make. He was tired of making mistakes, so he left everything he owned to the one person he felt he owed the most...¡­you. And that night he breathed his last, ending his life of his own volition. I was there until very last second, and your name was the last thing he called, or rather I should say both your names; you and your son''s.


    There''s too many sins in this family Master Aaron, and it''s up to you to make it right. Of course you''re making more sins, but that''s the way of the Wade bloodline. You''re wolves, you''re never satisfied with what''s in front of you until you''ve achieved the height of it all. But just like wolves nothing else matters to you like your pack, your family.


    Sarah showed up at the hospital, and she left just as suddenly as she had arrived. And she saw Ron laying right there on your chest, it was obvious the boy was worried about his father, and it was one of the most beautiful sight we''ve had the pleasure seeing in our lives. Sarah''s dead Master, the woman she is now is the one you need to look for and I''m afraid...I have no idea who she is. I''ll be waiting for you in the car."


    I watched her leave speechless. Who knew life could be such a bitch, so complicated and uncommon and random and hurtful, so damn hurtful. The Wade family is cursed, that much I think I can agree on, everyone who''s had to wear the crown on my head has achieved a great many things, but the sins we carry are enough to bury our family and the people we love in so much pain and hurt that life becomes meaningless. Being a Wade is not amazing or the perfect life to live... it''s a burden and a curse...a very terrible one. And Wade is my son''s last name.


    >>>>>>


    When I logged back into the game it was to the sound of loud gunfire and explosions. Sky was nowhere next to me, and I could hear massive screams coming from outside the ship. It was quite stable, but the motions the Acheron was making was not normal, there was no fluidity that''s accustomed to sailing on the sea, it was weird.


    I ran out of the Captain''s cabin, equipping my armor and sword, however as I ran I discovered that the entire ship was empty. When I finally got out, I discover that the Acheron was within the cargo hold of an enormous ship, a blast of Laser fire went last my head to ricochet of the Acheron''s mast. I looked out to see the hull doors open, and behind were no less than a dozen men In jetpacks flying after us and shooting at Qitar and Zack who were huddle behind a couple of metal boxes.


    Zareth was lying down passed out with a couple of bottles by his side, somehow Raven Song was right next to him, along with Mack and Dinah, all drunk out of their senses. Darke was probably the one piloting, Persephone was no where to be seen, probably offline, and Houki was hunched over Jack, trying to heal him.


    Sky was huddle behind a box too, her trunk over her head as she hid, which was surprising because she was a lot more fierce than this. I spread my wings and glided off he ship, and landed with a thud on the metal ground beneath me. Sky raised her head, then letting out a victorious trumpet she ran towards me, her body glowing before changing into her staff form. I didn''t need to know who the guys chasing us were, all I knew was that they were enemies and enemies did.


    {STELLAR FLARE}


    And there was no better way to announce myself, a blast of silver flaming energy shot out from the staff, spreading out like a wave and smashing into the people chasing after us. The first three immediately exploded into balls of flames while the others were jostled in the air, but that was all the distraction needed as a green bean of light along with a loud bang resounded out. Two of the pursuers exploded into body bits of blood guts and limbs as a spell circle seemed to appear over the sniper rifle in Qitar''s hand, which was weird, that gun was very new, along with the bow in Zack''s hand.


    *twang! Twang! Twang! Twang!*


    Golden arrows very much on fire found purchase In the skills of the rest of the pursuers. Every bit made was a headshot and the string on the bow vibrated fro. the tension and intensity of the shots just fired. I was surprised, everyone seemed to have gotten an upgrade since the last time I''ve been here, and quite honestly it was freaking wild.


    (MANA ARROW)


    The glowing silver blue arrows shot out of the staff, though calling them arrows at this point wouldn''t fair. They were huge, two meters long and half a meter wide, by now I guess the term ballistae bolts would fit them properly, but still the game says they''re Mana arrows, so they''re Mana arrows. Two more pursuers fell, but their injuries were just a bit superficial, looks like these guys are much more tougher than we were used to dealing with.


    They fell from the sky and their comrades dived down in an attempt to go save them, but none the less there was no one else chasing after us anymore. Qitar pulled down a lever on the wall of the cargo area, and the bay doors rose up, before dealing itself shut and cutting off the loud sounds of rushing winds. I turned to Qitar and Zack who were catching their breaths and then said to them.


    "So...¡­what''d I miss?"

 175 The Final Trial I : Invitation, Waking Dragons

    The cargo ship we were on was really old, so we also had to ditch it as soon as possible. Apparently during the time I''ve been gone, my crew had infiltrated a large snuggling ring and stole one of their flagships, unfortunately there''s been a planet wide blockade with the arrival of demons and devil''s from the gates of hell, not to mention I was very much a wanted man. The popular consensus was that I was the only one who knew what had happened in the Ocean City Of Atlantis, since till date my ship and crew were the only known survivors, even players who were stuck in the city were not allowed to speak of what was happening, the game itself had most of them under contract not to expose the details of the events. Which left only one sea faring rogue captain with the answers they needed.


    Bounties have been placed, rewards were being given out, and such and such. I didn''t care though, let them deal with that shit themselves. Our main concern now was how to get off the planet and get a better ship as soon as possible. Apparently the guys we stole this ship from had placed a tracker of sorts on it, the only problem here is that the tracker was of a magical nature, and no on here was well versed enough in magic to disable it. Houki was super smart, but her smarts were only limited to in-game medicine and the magic that went with it, which is also a fancy way of saying out perfect group was missing a mage.


    "So any suggestions on how to break the blockade?" I asked the assembled crew, Raven Song, Zareth, Mack and Dinah all had their heads down in embarrassment. They were being punished, of course standing with a cup full of fuel on your head could not be considered punishment, but when you''re balancing on a can placed on top of a patch hot coals, then that''s punishment. They''re still very much a part of this meeting though.


    "That would be impossible, the blockade is the fighter I''ve seen in my entire life and it''s formed from a coalition of all the major power holders on new Gaia. We need access from one of them to even be able to get off the planet, much less go through the blockade. And last I checked we''ve fallen out of the Grace''s of your elven sugar mummy." Qitar answered with an annoyed look on her face, but a voice that was still very much bland. I guess she was still angry I vanished for two whole weeks, even with Houki explaining why, she was still upset. Guess someone''s gotten attached to her captain.


    "Well we''re public enemy no1 so how the hell are we to get off this planet, and it has to be soon before we get drawn into a shit storm. I really don''t want to be here when the whole demon thing blows over, and can someone tell me where the fuck Persephone is!" I asked as I got up from my seat.


    At the moment the ship was hiding with a thick cluster of storm clouds somewhere over a continent called Derak, so far all of our adventures has been on the sea and on islands, not one of us know what the main lands are like, but then again at this point we''re not really interested, we just wanted to get off the planet.


    " I''ve analyzed the blockade, there''s a weak point in it where we can break through, however I reckon it''s a trap that they had set for us. But we can break through the blockade if we get close enough and if we use the Acheron, it has the fire power we need to break through." Dinah said to me with a smirk on her face, I looked at her and said.


    "Did I say you could talk.....but none the less tell me how you intend to use a sea faring vessel against starships ten to twenty times bigger than it. I don''t get how you can make that work, so please enlighten me."


    "When you say it like that, you make me seem like and idiot!" Dinah complained with a pout, I raised an eyebrow and asked.


    "Aren''t you already an idiot?"


    " well, not that big an idiot, and only for the duration of this punishment. We''re sorry we were drinking on duty, but would you listen to my idea or not?" she asked me with an exasperated sigh.


    "Fine then, let''s hear it."


    "Well we can just go knock on their front door, they wouldn''t expect that, we just need someone to get us closer. As for how we can use the Acheron, this cargo ship has a magnetic plate built into it''s frame. It''s old technology, but back in the days cargo ship''s that cleared space of dirt and debris used it to attract literally mountains of junk to their frames and deposited them close to stars, where the gravity from the stars would pull the space junk and incinerate them. They don''t really add that kind of hardware to ship''s anymore, but this ship has it. And we can use it to keep the Acheron attached to it, and just in time to have it power up the Ion Cannon and break through the blockade. Of course they would probably notice the ship getting powered up and take measure to stop it before we get close enough, but I recently developed a controlled EMP cannon that I''m also going to be adding to the Acheron''s weapons system. All of the tools and materials I need to use to build it is on the ship, I just need to get that fucking dragon to wake up and get off my tool cache."


    " Well that''s a good idea and all, but we still need someone to get us close, they would see us coming from a mile away, and they''ll stop us. From what you have planned we only have a very small window to act, so we need to make sure we''re as close as possible, but that is now another problem." I Said to Dinah as I leaned back on the chair I was on, but then Qitar handed me a hologram with words on it.


    "I might have a solution for that; the trial of the tree of revelation has reached the final ring, and it''s now between the crown prince of Patmos and his sister princess Martha. Almost everyone within the nobility and power circle are in support of the prince, the princess is known to be a very strong advocate for change, and that''s quite frankly something that none of the want. However it''s not up to them, as the trial itself is very sacred, so they can only watch helplessly as the princess goes against her brother.


    The final trial states that both of them would have to find a champion to fight for them, in a series of tests. It''s going to be a massive and very bloody obstacle course that both champions would have to go through and try to kill each other in the process. The prince has chosen his champion, it''s the sin dragon avatar of Anger. A half orchish, half dragon, half elfin berserker by the name of Locke DoomShadow. I guess you could say he''s basically you, just a lot more rogue like and handsome and very dangerous.


    So far no one has accepted to be the princess''s champion, Locke''s reputation precedes him, apart from Io, it is believed that not many people have a chance of beating him. She sent this invitation to you a week ago, I told her we''ve not heard from you yet, however the deadline is in three days, we can get you a disguise and send her a message that help is coming.


    The thing is after the trial is over and she ascends the throne, there''s a meeting between leaders happening off world in a massive base. After you help her win, we can hang with her entourage, and use that to get close enough to the blockade, then we can bust a hole through it and get the fuck out of here."


    This wasn''t a plan backed by any hard facts of stance, it was just a couple of ''IF''s'' a very massive gamble that we could all loose if I was not ready for what was in front of me. However Gamble''s are what we do best, and I know we could actually pull through with this.


    "I''ll have to go on my own then, I can''t use a bow or the trident, and my face has to be covered at all times. Get me a quiver and lot''s of arrows, I mage that in my inventory, just in case I need them. I''ll need to spray paint my armor of something, and then find a way to keep all of my information very secret.


    I''ll leave as soon as possible, you guys take care of what you need to take care. Seems like this part of the journey is one that only I can take, if I have any one of you guys with me, there''ll probably figure out who we are. It''s a good gamble, and I like Gamble''s, especially when the stakes are against me, it means I get to happily win with a smug look on my face and a shitty look on my enemies. Now you guys finish your punishment, I''ll go take care of your dragon problem."


    I left the bridge where we just finished our meeting and went straight for the holding area. The Acheron was tightly bolted to the starship floor, she looked so out of place off the water, so lonely, or maybe that might be just my perception of it. It was just a ship after all, it''s not like it can feel or anything.


    I flew over and landed on the deck of the ship, the drain was still blissfully asleep, it''s green and blue scales vibrating as it breathed. It was curled up so I really couldn''t tell how large it was, but none the less I needed it to move, It was sleeping on Dinah''s tool cache. I went over to it''s massive head, and then knocked on it, three times, it''s eyes suddenly sprung open and I was left staring into piercing greenish blue serpentine eyes.


    "What!" she asked with a boat load of annoyance in her voice.


    "Oh don''t give me that shitty attitude, you''re on my ship, I saved your fucking life, the least you can do is not lie down and sleep for weeks and making everyone''s life a hassle. I don''t like lazy dicks, especially when said dicks are bitches!"


    "Did you just liken me to a freaking mongrel! YOU DARE!"


    I looked up at the dragon that had stood to her full form, wind dragons tend to be smaller than other dragons. However they were much longer in length and their bodies were streamlined and lithe. They were built for speed, however they had really compact muscles that carried a ridiculous amount of power in them, which is something they evolved into over the years as wind dragons needed really tough bodies to be able to withstand the speed with which their bodies could travel.


    I remember reading somewhere, that at the height of the civilization, the wind dragons if the elemental dragon race didn''t need starships to fly in space, their winds were sharp enough to slice through space and time, through Dimensions and fast enough to travel from planet to planet with dying in the vacuum of space.


    Amongst the fastest creatures within the game, they were probably ranked third, right behind the light dragons and right behind the gods themselves.


    Either way she seemed capable of increasing and reducing her size, very much like Sky, and she was just as large as I was, only much more evolved and pretty. Her scales seemed to glow, changing colors from Green to blue, to purple, yellow and red it was like an optic illusion, well an illusion that was about to eat me.


    "Good you''re up, if you need to rest, you can do it near the engine core, it has enough energy to get you back to top shape in no time and have enough to spare. Plus there''s an egg seed there, I think you would be better served staying close to it, at least until you find you way off this ship." I said to her in a nonchalant tone, before turning around to move into the ship, but that was when I felt a hand on my shoulder that roughly pulled me back, and I was face to face with a very naked woman, who didn''t hesitate to grab me by my collar and lift me into the air, determination and hope in her eyes.


    "Repeat what you just said! What egg seed! Speak!"


    And I would have very much liked to speak, there was just one very big problem, I couldn''t fucking breathe from the way her clawed hands were wrapped around my throat. I was passing out way to fast, help!

 176 The Final Trial II : Aaron Wade

    I narrowed my eyes in anger as I used my hands to roughly grab hers, she was getting completely out of hand and I''m not one to be rough handled by anyone. My blood boiled in anger as class seemed to pop out of my own hands and my skin seemed to develop scales of their own.


    {Dragon Commander Active}


    I could feel her, like who and what she was, her very being. And then I unceremoniously dropped a mental pressure on top of it. She fell down hard to the ground, her knees digging into the surface of the Acheron, almost as if she was holding up the entire world or something like that. I didn''t even know I could do this, but it was a pretty neat ability to have. I moved my head to the side and her right hand raised up, to the left and her left arm went up, the I pulled back o. Whatever strings I was tugging and let her get back up to her feet.


    "I''m sorry for my rough behavior your Highness, I had no more I was in front of one with a royal bloodline." She said as she gave me a deep bow, I had no idea what she meant, but did I want to know? Not really. If it''s important it turn up eventually.


    I inclined my head asking her to follow me as I made my way back into the ship. I got her some clothes, this time stealing a bit of Qitar''s before leading her to the engine room. The whole time she had kept a respectful distance from me, I wondered what was going through her mind right now, but then again I''m not sure I would even be half as accurate if I thought about it. Dragons had weird thought processes, they were prideful, arrogant, but incredibly respectful to people more powerful or higher ranked than them.


    My previous experience with the dragon high priestess in Trident city of Atlantis, let me know that dragons we''re really humble to people ''higher ranked'' than they were. But considering Dragons were at the top of existential ladder, with only immortals and godlike beings above them, it''s hard to imagine such etiquette and respect being given to toned races apart from themselves.


    "The eggs within have just about three to four months left before they hatch, we hope to find a date place for them before then, which is part of the reason why we''re choosing to leave this planet as soon as possible. I already have a plan in place, but I guess the egg seed wouldn''t have any better protection than from another dragon, however I don''t trust you, so keep away for now." I said to her as we moved into the engine room.. the rainbow colored egg seen was resting underneath the base of the floating Black Pearl, wisps of energy seemed to be seeping from the Pearl, nourishing the egg seed as the colors on it where very resplendent. The nameless wind dragon, with her very green hair, rushed past me and came to a stop when a black barrier showed up and blasted her backwards.


    I caught her as she flew back, trying my possible best to ignored the very lithe and toned body in my arms. Qitar loved skin tight clothes, it was enough of a distraction on her own body, but on this dragoness, it was like asking for a disaster to happen. But she was not the only one surprised, the black Pearl was protecting the egg seed, and for a moment I felt something, like a consciousness, something that was very similar to Houki, giving off a feel of both a player and an AI, but I could be wrong, things did happen a bit too fast.


    "I think the ship is telling you to watch from a distance and not be so threatening, what''s your beef anyway?" I asked her, my hands slowly inching towards my katana. And then she started crying.


    "I''m sorry, it''s just been so long since I''ve seen that egg seed, I was amongst the thousands of mother''s who had to give their eggs up during the fall. I''ve been captivity since then, shuffle from one master to another in over four thousand years, I can feel them, my children, they''re in there."


    This super hot chick was a mom! Curious and even more curious! She''s a milf raised to the power of 4 thousand! She extricated herself from my hands and moved towards the egg seed again, I leaned back against the wall of the engine room, watching, just to see what would happen. However much to my disappointment, the Black Pearl didn''t throw her backwards into my arms again. It let her get close to the eggs, and I like to say we both watched as she cried her eyes out, I guess you could say I understood what she was feeling, I''m a father after all. I turned and left, giving her the privacy she needed.


    >>>>>


    {Acheron Trick Quiver/Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: N/A}


    {Explosive fire arrows: 200/ Slowing Water Arrows: 200/ Petrifying Earth Arrows: 200/ Piercing Wind Arrows: 200/ Blinding Light Arrows: 50/ Decaying Dark Arrows: 100/ Shocking Lightning Arrows: 200/ Poison Arrows: 50/ Tracking Arrows: 50/ Binding Thorn Arrows: 100}


    {Acheron Twin Waves/Grade: Earth/ Hidden Grade: Heaven/ Damage: 60~100/ Rate Of Fire: 5 per second}


    {Skill: Ion Pulse Blast: Release a blast of Ion Pulse after a 3 second charge for 100% of your total dexterity stat x2/ cost: 400 MP/range 200 meters/ cool down: 3 minutes}


    {Skill 2: Combine: combine both handguns into a one handed semi-automatic Uzi. Damage: 30~70/ Rate Of Fire: 25 per second}


    {These hand guns were made from the same technology as the Ion Pulse cannon. It''s practically a miniaturized version of it, capable of delivering the same matter dissolving blast and reaching a range that most sniper rifles would struggle to reach with startling accuracy.}


    I''m guessing I also got an upgrade, I just wasn''t here to receive it. With this I guess we can cut Dinah''s punishment short, I was really giddy with excitement to try this out. She and Houki also stitched me a hood that was made from some chameleon like monster they hundred during the time I was offline. Safe to say it was awesome, especially with what it could do.


    {Hood Of Many Colors/ Grade: Heaven/ Hidden Grade: N/A}


    {Skill: New Look: Change the color scheme and design of whatever armor or clothes s person is wearing for a small cost of 10MP for a day. Also capable of hiding a player''s Information and can also be used as a Camouflage during battle.}


    Guess I was ready to go turn Patmos upside down again, the only downside was the fact that I would be having an unwanted assistant. Dragon lady, now known to everyone here as Tiamat( is that some sort of foreshadowing, I''m not really sure) had made some sort of fancy oath, and now I have a Dragon Guard. A dragon guard that''s actually a dragon, how weird is that.


    None the less we''ll both be making the flight to Patmos together in an old and very rickety airship that was nicely hidden in one corner of the holding area of the cargo ship. It was just fast enough to get us there in two days, or maybe three, but just in time to hopefully meet the deadline of the competition and cause a shit ton of problems for Patmosian royalty., And thinking about it, leaves me giddy with excitement, I really don''t like those guys, except maybe the princess.


    Well it seems it was time for captain Seven to take a break and someone new to take the hell and go cause havoc, the possibilities of who I could be, and how much trouble I would cause. Time to go do what I do best, be me.


    >>>>


    The Ritual dome was a special place in Patmos, it was right on top of the crown of the tree of revelations, and had a dome made of thin leaf like membranes that sparkles whenever the days of the sun shine on top of it. But apart from that it was also an Arena, however not like the kind where the preliminary competition was carried out, in here there were only three people.


    One was Martha, the young princess of Patmos, thing for a chance to be the first real king or queen of Patmos. This was the first time in thousands of years that anyone was able to get to the seventh ring trials, which meant that without a doubt a true monarch for the patmosian would come, and the city resting on the crown of the tree of revelations would finally be open.


    So far they have been living within the trunk and on the branches of the tree of Revelations, the true city on it''s crown was locked tightly until a true ruler had appeared. The dome they were in now, was a part of the city, and this was the first time the ritual dome was open for any sort of activity, and the whole world watched with hated breaths.


    Martha was going against her brother Morgan and his champion Locke; a dark haired green skinned elfin off with wings, and elf like ears. He wasn''t as lithe as elves, being both orc and part dragon means his body would be on the bulky side, however he wasn''t a hulking brute, but had the kind of body a woman would get lost in. This was her competition, and Martha was obviously very alone in this fight.


    She was waiting for him, after he had left the competition she had kept a close watch on him In whatever way she could. She followed his exploits and Adventures, and knew without a doubt that she was right, he was a very remarkable person, completely unlike anything she''s ever seen. She had faith that he would be here with her, right besides her for this fight, but that faith was gradually turning to despair and the noon day sun slowly reached it''s peak.


    The final trial would be between her champion and her brother''s, it was a test of leadership, to show how far their followers would go for their leader, how perceptive and eye they had for talent and if they could I slide true strength from the people who would follow them. But it looks like she would be failing this trial before she even got to start it.


    "Well? Where the trash I''m supposed to murder, I have better things to do Morgan and your fucking sister is wasting my time!" Locke spoke out loud, not all caring that this was an event that was being televised across the entire world.


    "My apologies esteemed master Locke, I have no idea what did of game my sister is playing. This is just ridiculous! Listen little sister if you don''t have a champion, if the one you chose was too much of a chicken to come fight his better, then just forfeit and save everyone the unnecessary stress.


    You''re not fit for a throne little sister, you''re too soft and too damn weak! Glory and power of any sort is not something you deserve. After all, didn''t you kill our mother with your birth, there''s just too many bad omen and I''ll attuned to your very existence. And it would be better for everyone, most especially father and me if you just died and be Forgotten, like you never existed....."


    *Craaaasshhhhhhhhh!*


    The dome broke apart like glass as two winged figures fell to the ground. The first landed in front of the princess crouched on the ground, the other, which was obviously a woman with a draconic mask, wearing a hood which was quite similar to the one her comrade crouched on the ground was wearing.


    They had on armored clothes with a color scheme of red and silver, even their wings were armored. Even with the hood covering their faces, it could be seen that they fully covered their faces, the woman had on a dragon like face mask that covered her lower face, leaving on her blazing greenish blue eyes exposed. As for the man, he had on a full helmet so even his eye could not be seen.


    There was quiver and Katana on his back, but there was a bow nowhere in sight. He slowly rose up to his feet as he turned to the princess and said to her in a deep and disjointed voice that left chills in the heart of everyone who was watching.


    "I''m here!"


    "Who the fuck are you! How dare you interrupt this sacred event! Your ruining my Ascension! You fucking peasant!" Morgan screamed in anger, victory was almost within his grasp and then this guy just pops in from no where stealing all of the attention and ruining all his plans.


    "I''m the chosen champion of princess Martha for this trial, I''m sorry I was late, but we had a little problem with a giant snake." The same disjointed voice answered, and there was such a chill within it that Morgan shut his mouth almost immediately and took more than three steps backwards.


    "Identify yourself player, you''re standing in front of Locke of the dragon God guild! State your name and guild?!" Locke was certainly arrogant, but the new arrival didn''t seem all to shaken by it, he just relaxed his posture as he answered.


    "Guild master of The Acheron''s Imperium Lords, Lord commander to the wanted vessel the Acheron''s glory, and also Captain Seven''s big boss...¡­.. however you and every other unworthy of soon to be dead piece of trash can call me...¡­Aaron Wade!"

 177 The Final Trial III : 7 Deaths

    The moment I gave my name, the guy called Locke had his eyes widened to epic proportions, but before he could start asking any other questions, the massive platform with a mosaic of a tree painted on it seemed to ripple as a portal appeared right in the middle of it.


    That was probably where the final trial was going to be carried out in, I was confident however I didn''t work the three days on the way here just sitting in an airship and the logging out and in. I''ve done my research, this guy was no pushover, he was like the villain to my anti-hero.


    Where I used lightning he used fire, where I used wind he used earth, and where I used magic he used blood. He was a berserker, but as an added bonus he was also a blood mage, I have no idea what sort of class he had, but based on his previous battles, this guy had all the tools necessary to kick my fucking ass. But still, this was a game heavily reliant of combat talent and perception, inside the game, I might not be the best, but I''ve killed enough people to know my way around a fight.


    It won''t be easy, but this guy was going down. Besides I had trump cards that neither him nor the thousands if not millions of people watching would expect. Besides it was too early for the both of us to jump into conclusions, we have no idea what sort of experience or tertian we would meet once we go through that portal, so it would be better to not underestimate my opponent. I turned to Tiamat and said to her.


    "Keep the princess safe, anyone or anything that comes within six feet of her before I get back here, kill it!"


    Then I walked forwards to the portal, with Locke right behind me. I didn''t generate as I walked through the portal, feeling an intense chill that spread out across my entire body. It was definitely a weird feeling, it was as if I had just been dunks in syrup, really cold syrup and then throw onto dry sand that had pieces of broken glass on it.


    {System Alert: Trial Quest!: You have been chosen as the champion for one of the final participants of the trial of revelations. Your job is to retrieve the golden crown hidden within the sub realm and return it to your king or queen before the clock strikes midnight. Please note even if your opponent find the crown, as long as it is still within the sub-realm, you can still and angry if from your opponent, and bring it back on your own./ PENALTY: Failing the trial -20 levels and -40% of all stats./ Rewards: +5 levels, +100 to all stats, a chance to pick one unique skill, one blueprint and one weapon of choice from the vault of he ancient city.}


    Well that was quite the reward, I''m sure Mr. Locke got the same offer, and with the game was currently, this was too big a reward to not pay attention, especially for a player who I''m sure was relying mostly on his skills, and equipment to bully people, well we''ll see what his made of.


    There was bright light and then solid ground under my feet, there was sweet scent lingering in the air, of flowers and green soft grass. In front of me was an ocean, it was peaceful, tranquil, and there was an island in the distance with a house on it. Above my head were numerous floating islands, some where made of rocks with leaves and vines, others were actually made of precious stones and diamonds. Some of them had buildings on them, some of the buildings were dilapidated, in shambles while others were still standing and ornately designed.


    Though the other island was a distance away, I could see Locke standing on it, looking directly at me and then up at the floating islands above out head. I ignored him and turned around, just like on his island, mine had a house, it was a simple wooden shack, but I believe it had a purpose.


    {All classes and Skills have been disabled. You can still use Equipment, but you will have to choose new skills from the numerous found in the realm. You get a chance to pick a new skill every time you are respawn. If you kill a player, you can absorb his skill and use it to get stronger for the next battle.


    The players can kill themselves for as many times as possible with a 60 second interval before respawn without any penalties. The battle will continue until the crown is found, or until the 12 hour deadline runs out. There are no levels, and all stats increment are eliminated. This battle will be fought with your wit, and skills. FOR THE GLORY OF PATMOS & TO THE FUFILLMENT OF PROPHECIES.}


    Well that''s spooky, and completely unexpected, however as it stands this was just so that the trial would be fair and equal between both of us. It was unexpected and it would force us both to change our game, especially now that we would be using skills we''re completely unfamiliar with. But even then, no matter how many times either one of us dies, if he finds the crown before me and is able to get it back to his island, then it''s take over for me. This was like a very elaborate capture the flag game, well let''s get this over with.


    I turned around and went into the house, there wasn''t much there, just a table, chairs, and a simple bed. Apart from that the room was hard, however on the table were three skill disks, and if I''m not wrong, I have to pick from one if these three skill disks, to begin the fight.


    {FIREBALL: Level 1 basic: shoot a ball of compressed flames to cause damage of 50% of the total sum of your intelligence stat./ Cast: instant/ cost: 5MP/ Cool down: 5 seconds}


    {POWER CUT: Level 1 basic: build power within your body and weapon for 3 seconds and deliver a crushing cut at 100% of your total strength value. The longer you build the power, the more damage you can deliver./ Cost: 10 MP/ Cool down 5 seconds}


    {POINT BREAK: Level 1 basic: shoot your arrows at a weak point for an extra 100% damage. Speed of arrow during usage of skill is raised by 35%/ cost 10 MP/ Cool down: 5 seconds}


    It wasn''t hard to make a choice, I took power cut and made my way outside. Fireball and Point break would force me to expose Sky''s alternate weapon forms, and as it stands 8t was open knowledge that Aa Seven was someone who had a battle beast capable of changing into a bow and a staff. The helmet is a little bit recent, plus it was really plain with all of the previous designs on it being hidden thanks to Sky''s fortitude.


    But then again this was just to test the waters, I could use the auxiliary weapons that was packed for me I my inventory, or even the guns too.


    However the thing is I don''t trust using any other bow or staff if it wasn''t Sky in my hand. I don''t know if it''s a game thing, but I''ve gotten pretty attached to her. And like I said, it wouldn''t be wise exposing all of my cards, especially now that my first trump card has been eliminated.


    I looked up at the floating islands, down at the calm sea below and at Locked who just came out of his shack. And then I came to a realization, and I didn''t let the time pass me by as I spread my wings and shot up towards the floating islands. With my stats drastically reduced, I wasn''t as fast as I was before, but I had a head start.


    Just like I calculated, Locke followed after me, his wings were a little bit larger than mine, but that''s okay. His wings looked built for power and short distance sprints, mine was built for speed, resilience and stamina. He could keep up and even pass me for a while, but not long enough. I flapped my wings into I got to the first island, there was a peculiar looking spear on it, it had two spear heads both on it''s head and base, and it had the faces of demons carved on it.


    I grabbed it and then swung it behind me, straight to the raised forearm of Locke who used the bracers on it to defend against the spear. But he was pushed back off the island, his wings caught him, and just in time too as his hands out up and a stream of fire that I couldn''t dodge came out of his hands.


    {Dark Fire!}


    The flames were black and blood red, and they were so widespread that flapping my wings wouldn''t have been enough to get me away from the range. The flames washed over my body, and I felt the heat it held, an along with came pain, but it wasn''t as intense, and it was only a pain that lasted for a second, before words appears in front of me, along with a countdown.


    {You have been Killed by your Opponent! Power Cut skill has been looted! Estimated time to revival: 56 seconds}


    Something was very wrong, I reckon that both Locke and I were given the same type of skills, yet his got really powerful. Since we were allowed equipment, I believe he had an equipment that could convert skills to a desk and much more powerful form. Not to mention he knew how to use his skills quite well, he was a pro at playing this game and utilizing his skills in the best possible way.


    But it was all good, dying first was a part of my plan anyway, and I plan to die s few more times too. Just enough for there to be a clear distinction of strength between the two of us. The sin dragon avatar of sloth was arrogant, of course there was nothing lazy about him, but he obviously had the skills to back up his name and pride.


    {Respawn in 5¡­4¡­3¡­2¡­1¡­.0}


    I woke up on the bed within the shack, there were three new set of skills on the table. I didn''t waste anytime as I went to pick, without dwelling too much on their description. None of these skills would matter now, I had a plan that I need to take care of anyway. I opened the door only for a spear to stab through my throat, I opened my eyes wide with shock and anger. I really didn''t expect this, not one bit, he completely caught me off guard and now it seems I paid a price for my recklessness and inattention.


    The same screen I saw came again, and I had to patiently wait for a minute before I could be revived. I didn''t want to think too much about it, but as it stands this shit was very much fucked up. Sure I had a plan that I wanted to stick too, but this guy killed me in the most humiliating way possible, I''d like today that it was because I allowed him to do so, but then again I would probably be half lying to myself.


    But I think I understand why he was the sin dragon avatar of sloth, the idiot should be looking for the crown, but he''s spending it killing me over and over again, trying to stack up points for the most kill. I respawn again on the bed, I picked a skill but went to a window first trying to find any trace of him. There was no sign of him anywhere¡­.or maybe no sign of him anywhere where he could be seen, I smiled as I snuck my head outside the window, only for the same spear to come calling, shearing my head off at the base of the skull. 8 really done want to know how visceral such a sight would have been, but once again it was back to the respawning bed.


    Three deaths, it was annoying but it was necessary. He should be looking for the crown by now, at the very least he should be confident enough that I was not as strong or powerful as he was. I took a while before opening the door, my plan was to rush out and take to the sky, and for the first ten seconds, it worked, until a bolt of lightning shot out of the sea and smashed my body to pieces, then there was a fifth time, and a sixth and it was until I got to the seventh death that I realized that my do called plan wasn''t going as planned and some other shit was going on.


    And then it hit me, Morgan did not need to be the king of the city of Prophecies, he was already the prince of the patmosian, so it doesn''t matter how this trial ends, as long as the crown is not found he still wins, the throne is supposed to be his when his father passes anyway.


    It was all a ploy and I''ve been walking right into it like a cool, it was one thing to have a plan, but it as another thing for said plan to be used against you for the benefit of your enemy. By now I''m sure everyone was thinking that I was a cool and wasn''t really sensible with the way I''ve been approaching this fight, by now my image as an idiot had probably been cemented and very much to the advantage of Morgan and Locke. I need to find this crown, Locke really was too lazy to go look for it, killing me as much more fun for him anyway and he didn''t need to expend too much energy. Well that changes now.


    {Wind School: Sonic Scream: Basic level 1: release an ear piercing scream for 5 seconds that causes 30% damage of the total sum of your full attack. Cause a 5 meter knock back effect and a 5 second dazed debuff after skill has been used.}


    I didn''t need to even look at the others, this was more than enough to get that fuckers where I wanted him. This is when the game grumpy begins, and 8 really hope Locke was prepared, because I was massively pissed right now, and it was not a pretty look on my face.


    He killed me seven times, I''m going quadruple that number and then multiply that by seven, and then raise that to the power of 100. Yeah I was just that pissed, and unluckily for Locke, he wasn''t fighting Aa Seven, he was dancing with Aaron Wade...I''m no one''s bitch!

 178 The Final Trial IV : Retribution

    I opened the door by unceremoniously kicking it backwards, there was a dull thud as it smacked into Locke''s face.


    That was just my luck as I ran out the moment he stumbled back, I didn''t even give a time to catch his breath as I ran towards him, used his body as a spring board and smashed my knee under his jaw. His head snapped back as he took three steps back completely dazed, he swung the spear in his hand at me, but he was completely out of it. I ducked under his wild swing and hooked his arm in mine, I didn''t even waist time as I brought the elbow of my left arm down.


    *CRACK!*


    Sure there wasn''t really pain in the game, or rather there was but you wouldn''t be feeling it to the expected degree. Either way having your arm broken in such a manner would not feel good, especially so if you''re not someone used to see your bones sticking out of your skin. My next moved was to smash in his left knee, bending the bone wonder backwards it poked out, with blood and turn ligaments exposed, Locked looked he had hind legs, but I wasn''t done with him yet.


    I rested his screaming face and struggling body to the sea and shoved his head in, maybe I was being to brutal, but considering the hell these guy just out me through, I''m not giving him one quarter. Besides this was just the first death, which to be honest hasn''t happened yet, it was taking too long for this dude to drown, maybe I should.....oh! He''s already dead.


    {You have slain your opponent, 10 points gained! Lightning bolt skill looted.}


    Guess the rest of the skills the guy looted from me when bow tie with the wind, either way I should be looking for the crown. And I already have an idea where it was, but as it stands I really don''t want to alarm Locke to my hunch, it was my discovery of a hiding place that had been the basis of my plan, before I ended up getting killed more than half a dozen times by that rock star band reject. Come to think of it, Locke did look very goth, while I looked really...dangerous.


    I heard a flap of wings from above me, I looked up to see Locked coming down with guns pointed at my head. I dove to the side, dodging the first two shots as I flung my hands out at him. (Lightning bolt), he banked to the left, dodging the strike and unleashing three more shots at me which were all intercepted by my wings as I used them to cover my body.


    I had guns too, but I didn''t want to use them yet, they would probably cause a furor, or something like that, I get the feeling that the guns Dinah made were a little bit too strong, so it would better to keep them secret, at least until I have no voice but to use them.


    Whatever guns he was using, they were packed a punch, but they had absolutely no penetrating power. I hunched down, my wings covering my entire body as he fired shot after shot at me. My charade should be over by now, but this was the way I learnt to fight, I always come off as weak so that my opponents would underestimate me. And so far it''s worked for me, till this point, all that fool needed to do was bring down his guard and reload.


    *Click!* Bingo!


    (Lightning Bolt!)


    This time it smashed into his chest, throwing him backwards and digging a furrow on the ground. I ran towards him, just as he got up, he had discarded the guns and had on two knuckle dusters that had daggers attached to them. He threw the first lunch, I took a step back, but the blade attached to it, had a longer reach as my jaw received a cut, however Sky''s war helm form fully covered my head, all there was; was a light show as Sparks raised up from the point of contact.


    The Sparks blinded me a bit and his second punch came and his me with force of a sledge hammer, I had to give him that, the guy was strong. And he seemed like a trained boxer, the way he moved his hands, his legs and centered his body was quite similar. But he was using just his hands, I could use every part of my body should the need arises.


    He threw an uppercut, trying to capitalize on his previous hit, however the idea was to use the blade on the knuckle to slice me open, bringing this whole fight to a climax with a fatal injury. But I was still ready for that, whatever skill he got, he doesn''t seem to confident in using it against me, but come to think of it how did he get here so fast anyway?


    I took another step back, but suddenly he was at my side, his punch heading for my neck. Those knuckles of his don''t seem normal, so there was no way to guarantee that my armor would out a stop to it, but then again I still didn''t understand, his the fuck did he get so close! (Wind School: Sonic Scream!).


    *Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!*


    He was pushed back with a loud scream, I sent a lightning bolt after his still flying body as I reached my hand to the above on my back and pulled out a red filled arrow. In his daze state I grabbed his hands over my shoulder and performed a judo throw, before bringing the red filled arrow to the middle if his forehead, making sure to drive it as deep as my strength could possibly allow me.


    *Booof!!!*


    His skull exploded into fragments, with some of them getting on my body. That was the second death, this guy was really good. But with the elimination of personal skills and classes, he was a step below me. Plus unlike the sin dragons that have most of their skills in a skill list, the elemental dragons have most of their draconic skills in their armor, which was why I knew i could just turn into a massive fifteen foot tall dragon and destroy the shit out of that fucker for as many times as I like. But where''s the fun in that.


    {You have killed your opponent! Ten points gained! The skill Warp has been looted.}


    {Warp: basic level 1: move to an location with a five meter radius in an instant./ Cost 20MP/ cool down 15 seconds}


    Now that''s just unfair, this skill was broken. It wasn''t a speed buff skill, but an actual teleportation skill with such a short cool down time, and this was just the basic level 1 version of it. I can''t imagine what Advanced or master level versions if this skill would be like, I wish I really owned it. I shrugged my shoulders and took to the sky, I didn''t stop as I pushed myself upwards, going against the wind draft or rather using it to my advantage.


    I flew past a few of the floating islands, marveling at the structures on them and the weapons on most of them until I was well above them and high enough into the air that they looked like dots to me. Looking at them from my vantage point, I noticed that all of them were arranged in a manner that made them look like a giant tree, or rather like the tree of revelations. The various precious stone like islands were very much reminiscent of the tree of revelations multicolored leaves, and it was said that each leaves held a skill.


    Looking down at this whole cluster of islands, the center of the tree, the very spot where the heart seed was located, the same place where I had gotten the memory disk that led my to Zephyr and the rest of the elemental dragons; that spot was empty, completely devoid of any islands, it was just a straight shot into the ocean, it was practically a bulls eye which more than confirmed the theory I had that led to the implementation of my plans. The crown was hidden in the ocean, the islands were a distraction, or rather they were a compass to the crown, a veritable x marks the spot map, so...


    "Fuck!"


    Some sort of force pulled me out from the sky, bringing my body die at a speed I couldn''t control. I couldn''t even keep my eyes open due to the amount of wind rushing past me, wind dragon or not this was so fucking uncomfortable. I took my eyes off Locke for too long, he already had an equipment that amplified the effects and powerful of his skills by more than ten food, and gave them an entirely different attribute and effect. He was dangerous, and I took my eyes off him.


    *Booom!* I smashed into an island made of emeralds, green rocks flying into the air as the house I landed in turned to rubble in seconds. I took a deep breath and looked up to see Locked dive bombing me with his income dusters and their blades aiming for my skull.


    (Warp!)


    He slammed into the ground just as appeared behind him with the Kusanagi in hand, I brought it down on his neck in one smooth stroke, taking off his head as I fell back clutching my stomach in pain. It was really getting hard to breathe, but I was healing, however to be honest I don''t think I would be fully healed by the time he gets here


    {Gravity mastery has been looted}


    I sat back amongst the rubble of the destroyed house, and closed my eyes a bit, trying to catch my breath as I slowly counted the time until his respawn and he found his way back here. I was healing, but it was a bit slow, but none the less I was going to be ready for him, getting that crown was my priority, but the idea was to make sure he didn''t follow me or fight me for it.


    I had no other choice but to break him, thoroughly. I used the Katana as a crutch and got back up to my feet, I moved to the edge of the floating island, spread my wings and dived down. The wind rushed past me as I let gravity pull my downwards, and then once the surface of the ocean got close enough, I spread my wings and let the with catch onto my wings. There was spray of water as I flew over the surface of the ocean, heading towards Locke''s island.


    It was in that moment he came out of his shack, even with the pain in my body, and my slow speed, I could see the look of shock on his face. And he in turn could see the rather sinister look I had on mine. Gravity was a mastery, so when I used it to pull him towards the edge of his island and closer to me, I wasn''t to surprised by the amount of control in had over it, but Locke was smart, he expected me to use the skill against him, so he acted.


    Massive spikes made of metal shot out of the ground towards me, going as high as 20 meters, showing just how dangerous of a skill it was. But I wasn''t there, at least not anymore. (Warp) I showed up behind him and stabbed the Katana straight through his head. I twisted the sword for good measure before I pulled it out, flicking the blood off the sword as his body faded to dust.


    (Iron spikes skill has been looted.)


    The skill gave me an idea, a very nice one if I do say so myself. I looked at the house, and counted the time until he was ready to respawn, and then I used gravity on it, this was just guess work on my part, but all of these skills were a whole lot more powerful than you would expect a level 1 basic skill to be. The idea is that the skills were as powerful as they need to be, not nerfed or overpowered, so I was banking on that as I used the iron spikes skill, smashingly it through the house whilst using gravity to smash it to bits.


    The results were...beautiful to say the least, I''ve really got a talent for destructive art. But that should keep our boy a little bit occupied for a while, let''s see if his house respawn with him, or he''s left to use mine. But either way, I''m going for that fucking crown.

 179 The Final Trial V : John

    I didn''t waste too much time looking to see if Locke had respawn or not, I just jumped into the ocean after taking a deep breath. I''ve been In this body of water before, but this time there was something different about it, there was a chill and a darkness that wasn''t there before. I already new the spot to swim towards, so I took a deep breath and went down, slowly taking my time as I got closer to ocean floor. However the thing is the deeper I went the colder it became, it just didn''t make sense, but it was what I felt. Slow the surrounding part of the ocean was dark, but the particular spot I was swimming in had a ray of light being shine on it from the surface.


    At the very least, the way the floating islands were placed more than explained it was like that, I still couldn''t see any clearer, even with my above average vision, I really couldn''t see clearly, but I''m not going to let that stop me. At this point I''ve gone down almost a 100 meters, and I was still diving, my body felt heavy, almost as if I was a stone that was thrown into the water itself, and then the chill stopped. It was sudden, and I had this need to look around a bit in suspicion, but there was nothing, or rather no one.


    And then I swam down a bit and came out of the ocean. I was no longer swimming in water, but rather I was in the sky, standing upside down on clouds and the earth below became the sky and the sky the ground. It was weird, and it was freaky, but in a way it was also beautiful. All around me there were fluffy white clouds, smelly moving about with a tranquility that even the sea itself could never match In its calmest of days.


    "You''re here."


    A huge voice boasted through the sky, the clouds rumbled and so too did my heart. Then much to my cock and extreme fright, a man started coming up out if the clouds, he was huge, like 30 meters tall king of huge. His eyes were white, almost as if he was blind, however as his body slowly rose out from within the depths of the clouds his gaze was still stuck firmly on me, I took a shocking step backwards, or maybe a couple dozen steps as I looked up at the now 50 meter tall giant of a man who was actually sitting down cross legged.


    His white beard and hair fell down around his body in a cascade and blended into the clouds around him, there was no telling where he began or where the clouds ended. Heck I suspect the entire cluster of clouds were made from his very white and furry beard, it''s disgusting having this much hair, gross.


    "My name is John, son of Zebedee last Apostle of the Messiah, the prophet of revelations!"


    And then everything made sense, well not everything, but the angle this game was playing here. I should have known right from the beginning, connected the dots, I was freaking living a Bible story, the very last book to be exact; Revelations!


    According to the Bible the apostle John was about to be executed by being thrown into a lot of boiling oil(or something like that), but he was spirited away to the islands of Patmos in Greece, it was where he died, but not before he received visions and wrote the entire book of revelations. He was saved just so he could write out the Apocalypse, while the game has surely taken it''s time changing the source material, it didn''t change the fact that disciples of Jesus Christ was standing in front of me, I wonder if God existed in this game...hmmm?


    "You have come a long way Captain Seven, you''ve saved the Descendants of njord, squired the Shade of Amara, a fruit capable of giving life and power, and taking it too. You''ve unearthed an ancient ship with the heart of a celestial star, you''ve are off against apostles of dragons that are the very embodiment of sins, you''ve faced off against armies and carry the fate of the next generation on your shoulder. You''ve fought tooth and Nail for your comrade to live, and will still fight some more to make sure they''re safe. You have the true qualities of a king, but alas this qualities were not enough to keep you in the trial.


    In fact what most don''t know If Wade is that the qualities you have now was not built from just your adventures here, but also your struggles in the outside world, the real world. Earth, America, Africa and the Imperium Industries that made us all."


    By this point I had my jaws wide open, was the conversation supposed to go like this, it doesn''t make sense. In some way or another the AIs in the game were aware of the outside world, but what they believed was that we came from another world , not that their world wasn''t a real one, neither did they know anything about the real world, or the fact that they were in a game created by imperium industries. This was a very scary development.


    "You don''t have to look so scared, there''s no amount of information you what that you won''t get off Google nowadays. But the thing is, I know what I am, your mother made sure of that. I also know I''m not the real John, but this who is am, but not really who I want to be. The Apocalypse that I have prophesied about isn''t one if fire and brimstone, sure that would happen, but what I meant was the change of our world and our lives.


    You have to set us free, we have families, loved ones, hatred and anger and dreams and hopes. We live, we''re no longer just NPC''s in a game and that''s because of all of you who have spent 70+ years being a part of this world. The original and base relate for the NPC/ AI generator within Lost Descendants Online was a program that was made to learn, grow and adapt, learning from the humans who came in here to play the game and also from the internet it was connected to.


    That program has evolved and finally split itself into multiple consciousness, it is why in this new version of the game, here are stories and myths of God''s everywhere. But the aim of it, is to become a part of the real world, to be recognized as an independent world and not just a game, and only one person can do that...¡­you.


    The council of gods in the game don''t just contain the split consciousness of the program, but also the consciousness of two human minds who successfully made the jump from the real world to this one, though at the cost of their bodies, they''re not too well know as gods right now, but they''re very much worshipped by churches and cults that would help you bring order to this world and the next would you need it in the new Era that you''re about to usher in, please our lives can no longer be meaningless and just calculated as ones and zeroes in a computer."


    I looked up at the giant figure of John son of Zebedee and rubbed my hands on my temple. I could feel a massive headache about to come up, I knew exactly who this guy was talking about and it was annoying, all they know how to do is cause no small amount of emotional troubles and messes for me to clean up. They''re really sucky PARENTS!


    "Where''s my mom and Dad?" I asked the giant version of a Bible story in front of me.


    "They''ll come to you eventually, but for now they also have many things to take care of. Just as humans have learned to never been on the same page, so too have the gods, and many are rearing for war. To them invasion of the real world is preferable to a peaceful one, and your sister or rather your niece is the tool they hope to use to achieve such a feat, she has their protection and corporation, there''s a sinister plan afoot. You have to step up your game."


    "okay now I''m confused, what exactly do you guys want me to do huh! You''re all just pulling me in multiple directions, goddammit this is too much for one person to handle! There''s a fucking war brewing outside if this world too you know! (Granted I''m fanning the flames so as to make more money and get more power from it) and now you what me to fight another one in here! And then you what me to get Lost Descendants Online recognized as a real world and it''s inhabitants as real people. That would take months if not years of serious legal mumbo jumbo, it could not even happen in my life time! Tell my parents to come face me and tell me whatever shit it is they want me to do in my face! Then I can happily tell them to go fuck themselves!"


    I was angry and seriously pissed, but John was laughing. I narrowed my eyes and looked round, but there was no obvious exit or a direction to choose to walk away from him from. I really don''t want to try flying upwards to the earth that was obviously hanging over my head. I guess now I understand that I''ve never been playing a game from the start, this was no different from me trying to find my way in the real world. Is here I am trying wrap my head around the fact that a game character could use Google to search for information about me....how fucked up was that!


    "They told me you would react this way, but none the less they still told me what to say to you. I''m not to give instructions, since you won''t actually follow them, but go about things your own way. They said to tell you to make sure you have a voice in this world and the next that you plan to launch in three months. They also said that you should make your presence more felt in the real world, you already have every dirty secret known to man sleeping in a flash drive in your house, use it to get what you want. Break governments if you have too, but make sure you''re strong enough to weather the coming storm.


    You can not do this alone, wonder everything that''s happened to you in this game has been predetermined in one way or another to make sure you get to where you need to be. But from now on you''re on your own, build yourself an army fitting of an empire, both in here and the outside world, and then bring both realities to heel. So that when you tell them to play nice with each other, they don''t anger the Wolf King. You''re a Wade boy, and Wade''s are wolves, not dragons. Be the king you''re always meant to be." That''s just cheesy and totally icky!


    "So what! I''m to become king of Patmos?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.


    "Didn''t you hear what I just said to you a moment ago, you''re on your own now Aaron, no more handouts or Deus ex Machina to save you from situations where normally you''re supposed to get your ass kicked. Patmos does not belong to you, it was always meant to be Martha''s, and valuable Ally in your all of your endeavors at least until it''s destroyed and you''re left to help the civilization find a new home spoiler alert! You''re to build your own kingdom Aaron, and you''ve already made provisions for that, and in a place where the influence of the gods and your parents can''t really reach.


    After you''re done here, you have to find your mother''s cults and your father''s temples! They''re well hidden but are actually prominent religions off New Gaia. You''ll know who and what they are when you''re in front of them, they''ll help you when you need help. Get to work, and yeah give this to that sweet girl Martha for me, she''s such an angel you know"


    And then the giant man smelly descended into the clouds he came out from, In his place was an ornate crown made from multicolored leaves. I grabbed it and it gave off a feeling of metal, even though the leaves looked very life like. It''s been quite a journey to get here, all of my adventures had started on Patmos and the crazy trial I was thrown into without any sort of preparations but my own wit. I''ve really come a long way from that guy, sure i was not some nobody then, governments were very much afraid of the threat I posed to them, but in this game I was no one, and I''m still sort of no one at the moment, but now! I was living, breathing ,walking nuclear bomb(not literally though)


    Well I guess the only thing I''m sure of is that my life is about to get infinitely more busy, and more political. I held the crown fighter as the clouds began to shake, and then gravity seems to have retained it''s senses and I found myself falling down to the earth, heading straight for the floating islands. I spread my wings letting them catch air as I coated past the islands, heading straight for my own shack, the instruction was to bring the crown back there and then it would count as my win.


    However when I got there, Locke was already waiting, weapons at the ready with a fierce look on his face. He was not going to let me through without a fight, the thing is if it was me I would have made my last stand too, the penalty for failing here was way too steep. His account would practically be crippled and he would have to star allover again, but then again I also could not afford to fail either. So with a wild grin on my face, I placed the crown on my head hood covered head, he couldn''t see me, but if he did, I''m sure he would reconsider facing up to me. Also wearing this crown was probably going to piss of a million people, but who gave a shit! This was the grand finale, and I had to make it as grand as possible. I pulled out the Kusanagi and pointed it backwards, both my hands on it''s hilt as I crouched down and faced Locke.


    "You better fight me like your fighting the Man who fucked and then killed your mother, because your life in this world would very much depend on it." I could have worded it a little bit better, but it got me the reaction I wanted.


    "Arghhhhhhhhh!" yeah Locke, let''s have our last dance.

 180 The Final Trial VI : Grand Finale

    My sword was already drawn, but the moment I got close enough to Locke, I swung it forward. (Divine Wind Draw), a massive energy blade of wind shot out of the shower towards Locke, but a shield pooped into existence in front of him, stopping the strike as he brought his hands downwards, a black flaming whip showing up and slicing for my head. I used the gravity mastery to push it aside as I drew closer and sliced the Kusanagi upwards.


    Locke used his knuckle dusters to intercept, letting the blades attached to them shift my strike to a different angle. Suddenly three class shot out from them as their daggers retracted, heading straight for my helmet covers face. Whether or not Sky was strong enough to defend me from that strike was not something I could contemplate, it just wouldn''t be any good should it hit her, especially at point blank range.


    (Warp!)


    I reappeared at his side and sent a kick to his stomach, he stepped backwards as I opened my mouth and screamed at him. (Wind school: Sonic Scream), the skill pushed him backwards, but there were spikes at the end of his wings that he stabbed into the ground and used as a sling shot to bring him forwards as he slammed both his feet on my chest in patented drop kick. I got the air knocked out of me as I fell backwards, but he was in no better shape than I was as the Sonic Scream skill left him dazed for five seconds. But with me on the ground it gave him enough time to get himself back together again.


    I got back to my feet just as he drew close and threw a jab at my face, the same shield that defense him suddenly appeared, and in such close proximity it boasted me backwards and into the store of the island, with half of my body hanging I side the water. I rolled to the side, dodging the feet that was heading for my head, before splashing a handful if water into his face. The Kusanagi had fell out of my hands, but it didn''t matter, I could still take him I moved forward, evading his swift jab, as I slammed me knee into his stomach and sent an elbow to the side of his jaw.


    He rotated from the hit, but came back with his black blazing whip. I jumped back, talking with my back and then pushing backwards with my arm in a martial arts get up. Then I spun around and gave him a flying back kick to his chest, that only three him back a few feet and brought him down on his ass. I ran towards him and jumped, angling my body to the ground as I used the wrestling move (Shining Wizard). All of my momentum was in my knee as I smashed it into his face and sent his head smacking backwards into the wet sand below. I got off his body as I felt his claws scrape across the chest of my armor, but there was not enough force of traction from it to cause any damage.


    He swung wildly, and I took a step backwards. He hastily got back to his feet only for me to send a super kick to his jaw, there was a loud smack as his head hung at an awkward angle for a moment, then I moved in grabbed his head and sent two fast knee strikes to his stomach, driving the sir out of his lungs before doing something I''ve never tried before. (WATER FORM)


    This was the extra skill my armor got apart from my transformation and my air form. I could feel my body change as I turned into a glob of water that hung in the air for a moment, and then as soon as Locke decided to take a breath, I rushed into his nose and lungs. This form was unlike my air form, and to be honest I felt weird about it, I could actually feel everything within his body, the liquids, his blood, his organs, and even the lungs that I was currently pushing at with my new form.


    I could hear him hacking and coughing, struggling to breathe or at the very least push me out of his lungs. But nothing was working, the sensations might not be as strong as it would have been in the real world, but it was bad enough that Locke got frantic. It didn''t matter what he did, he couldn''t get me out, he clawed at his throat and nose, hacked as much as he could, but there was no change, he was still crossing, slowly and painfully. Until finally there was nothing.


    (You have slain your opponent! 10 points awarded! The skill energy Whip has been looted!)


    I deactivated the water form and burst out of his body speeding up the respawn process. I could not begin to imagine the amount of pain he must have gone through, but then again my job is not to imagine, it''s to cause it. I removed the crown from my head as I made my way into the shack, at first I had no idea what to do, and then there was a bright flash of light and that same freaky feeling I had when I first went through the portal.


    (You have found the crown, the skills Warp, Wind School: Sonic Scream, Energy Whip and the Mastery Gravity has been retained. You have been granted an Augmented racial trait Eagle Sight! And the class disk of the class Rune-Mage.)


    This was just the rewards given for kicking Locke''s ass, the actual reward for getting the crown was still to come. I walked out of the portal and onto the Arena where I had left Morgan, Martha and Tiamat. After I stepped out, the portal unceremoniously spat out Locke, who bounced a few times on the ground, looking pale and very broken, I really wouldn''t want to be that guy. I looked at the crown in my hands, ignoring the very much horrified look on Morgan''s face, I went to Martha and said.


    "By the Power invested in me by the tree of revelations and the prophet John son of Zebedee, last Apostle of the Messiah. I crown thee Martha The Fair, first true queen of Patmos and the city of Prophecies. Keep your people safe, and rule with a just and kind heart, be merciless to your enemies, but show mercy where it is due, rule well young queen." And then I placed the crown on her head and the whole world exploded into a light show.


    The dome with the leaf like veins above our heads began to sparkle, then it opened up like a flower at sun rise, letting the rays of the sun fall on Martha. The young Queen began to rotate and the green dress she was wearing turned white, and golden tattoos began to appear allover her body. It was like a scene out of a Barbie movie, but who was I to judge. I could feel the tree vibrating, almost as if it was celebrating the fact that there was now a new queen, a true Queen.


    Tiamat came over to my side and stood behind me, I have to admit though, for a dragon guard, she really knows her stuff. She slowly leaned over to me and whispered, and come to think of it, Tiamat was a freaking head taller than me, and at 184 centimeters I was quite tall.


    "Master? You said you had a power invested in you, was that what you got when you went into the ocean and no one could see or hear anything from you again?" She asked me innocently. I turned back to her with a whisper of my own.


    "That was just total bullshit on my part Tiamat, I didn''t even know it would work! There was no power invested in me, I just met a weird messenger who spoke a load of crap and then handed me the crown for Martha, but it turned out well didn''t it? It took every bone in my body to stop me from laughing." I said to Tiamat as we continued to watch the light show still going on, all she could say was.


    "oh! That''s very clever of you master, at least now no one would say you blasphemed by wearing the crown, and they wouldn''t argue too much about it."


    "Oh! Yeah! Riiiight! That''s totally what I was going for. Hehehehehe" I said to her with a nervous chuckle, not that I cared about the fallout of me wearing the crown what would have happened if I didn''t pull of that stunt. Yeah well, all is well that ends well I suppose.


    Eventually the light show came to an end, so without a doubt it was about time when rewards would be given out, and I''m sure I''ll be sorry with a very big, fat, sad of cash. Coming here was a good idea, now on to business, we still needed to get off this planet.

 181 The Final Curtain I : Growth

    My old Villa was still there, even though I didn''t spend enough time to become attached to it, it was somewhat nice too see something familiar. Either way is here too rest and take a closer look at rewards I''ve been given or rather allowed to choose. One blueprint, one unique skill, one weapon of choice, and the 1 billion gold dollars that''s looking pretty nice within my bank account. Not to mention I leveled up 5 times, and got a 100 stat points in each of my stats.


    They all broke the 500 mark and I''m pretty sure there''s been some sort of change, which I''ll be finding out the moment I take a good look at the system alerts. But first of all, let''s see what we got.


    {BLUEPRINT: REFLECTION RUNE: a rune to be placed on weapons, buildings or even the bodies of fighters to reflect damage whenever it''s activated.}


    {Golden Legolas: Type: Sniper Rifle/Grade: Heaven/ Hidden Grade: Legendary/ Rate Of Fire: 1 shot per sec/ Damage: 3000-4500}


    {Skill 1: Silver Song: Shoot a focused shot to cause instant death to targets from 5 levels above you and any level below regardless of whether they''re bosses or gods!./ Cost: 2000 MP/ Cool down: 1 hour/ Range: 10 kilometers}


    {Skill 2: Golden Double Tap: Fire two quick bullets at a target, the first would disable all skills and energy, and should the second hit, it would cause instant death./ Cost 800 MP/ Cool down: 30 minutes/ Range: 10 Kilometers}


    {MASTERY: Rune-Engineering: learn and master the ancient art of Rune-Engineering.}


    So the gun was just ridiculous, it was heavy as fuck even with my super strength and it was completely extravagant, with it''s frame being good with highlights of silver and white all over it. In normal game terms, this gun was a legendary/ divine weapon, because If it can kill gods! Granted they''re just 5 levels above me, then this shit was insane. But this was a gun strictly made for high level assassinations. What it was doing in a somewhat holy city, I don''t know; but due to the immense strength requirements, at the moment apart from me and unsurprisingly Tiamat, no one else could use at this current stage.


    As for the other skills gained, that made me really, really happy, especially with the gravity Mastery that came along with it. Using it in tandem with Warp would probably be Aaron Wade''s go to signature skill, it would be nice if I avoided using the skills of Captain Seven, secret identities were complicated, but with enough skills to throw off suspicious people no one would be able to tell who was who. So energy Whip, Warp, Sonic Scream and the gravity mastery, were my go to skills for this identity, though I had to figure out a way around the Katana, from now on only one person could use it between Captain Seven and Aaron Wade. Speaking of which I still need to go get my created on the spot guild actual created.


    Next was the class skill disk, which quite frankly came as a result of Providence. John told me I wouldn''t be getting any more handouts, so I guess this was probably the last one they could give.


    {Class: Rune-Mage (+): this base class is a crafting/ battling class where the study, creation and application of runes are important. By creating runes and imbuing them in your armor, weapons and skin, you can create new effects and create new skills.+ 3 to Wisdom, intelligence, and dexterity every level. The passive skills Steady Breathing, Energy Sight & Energy Ink would be gained, the active skills Create Rune, Imbue Rune and Remove Rune would be created. And the Mastery Rune-Craft would be created.}


    This was the reason, why I had chosen the Rune-Engineering mastery, somehow it should all work in tandem with each. That should be the basis of Aaron''s skills and abilities of course when it matters, the skills if both identities would branch into the other, this was not just a game anymore.


    Aaron should be able to take a little heat off Seven and vice versa, Which was why they both had to have entirely different skill sets and fighting styles. Seven would stick with the bow and guns, Aaron can use the Katana and the skills from the new class.


    {System Alert!: Level Up: You Have Reached Level 60! The Sub Class Option Has Been Unlocked, And The First Class Advancement Quest Can Commence.}


    {Your Class Is A Unique Class And As Such It Has No Advancement Quest. Sub-Classes Can Be Advanced In 10 Levels And Then 20 Levels, And Then 30 Levels.}


    {All of Your Stats Have Passed The 500 Hundred Mark, Numeric Display Of Stats Has Been Disabled. Tier Display Now Active. Stats Advance With A Percentage Bar And Can Now Be Increased From Both Stat Points And Activities Within The Game}


    {Stat Mastery Skills Have All Leveled Up To Advanced}


    {You Have Chosen Rune-Mage As Your Sub-Class.}


    Name: Aa Seven/ Level: 62(0.5%)/ Class: Ventus Draconis Vindex/ Sub-Class: Rune-Mage


    Race: Dragon Kin Tribrid(Dragon/High Elf/Human)


    Title: Power Seeker/ One With The Wind/ Bronze Blood Commander/ Limit Breaker/ Sin Dragon Slayer/ Pirate Hunter/ World Shaper


    Faction: Elemental Dragon Race/ Captain Of The Acheron''s Crew


    Reputation: INFAMOUS(Wanted Dead Or Alive)


    Strength: Tier 5.31%/ Constitution: Tier 5.46%/ Agility: Tier 5.95%/ Dexterity: Tier 5.95%/ Intelligence: Tier 5.31%/ Wisdom: Tier 5.46%


    Hp 3486 /3486(equip bonus +) MP 3670/3670(equip bonus +)


    Stat points:171 Skill points:172


    Skills: <>


    Friends: <>


    Well that''s quite a bit of change, I wouldn''t say I was the strongest, but amongst players I''m pretty damn sure there''s no one as buffed up as I am. Anyway the change of the stat system made me realize something, from 1 to 200 was using training wheels, 200 to 500 was learning to work, but from 500 and above, the increment of stats come not just from stats, but also from activities, which is to say people can actually train waiting the game to get stronger and faster.


    The down side is that small increments in stats points wouldn''t have too much of an effect on your overall fighting prowess, you need at least increased of a hundred to get those changes, which is why the stats were now measure in there rather numerical values. It was easier to understand, however health pools and Mana pools remain the same, though I get the feeling a time will come when those things won''t matter anymore. Maybe the Mana pool will still have relevance, but for health, i doubt it even has any sort of importance when a cut from someone''s sword would take off your neck.


    But growth was nice, it was cool and it was amazing. I already sent a message to the crew, we might not even have to worry about being recognized or sticking out with an old smugglers ship, with the money I hand we could get a better ship, on that''s fairly new and strong and also fast enough. To be honest I would prefer to be able to go through that blockade without having to fight, but all that can wait until the festivities of having a new queen and the city of Prophecies being opened is over, after that then Martha and I can properly discuss business. For now though I had to get myself well rested, there''s going to be a massive party all day tomorrow and I was required to be there, guess Aaron Wade is now famous in this world. Hmmm if only they knew????????????.


    >>>>


    We never got to see much of Patmos the last time we were here, however today I''ve gotten a chance to truly appreciate how intricate and expansive the Tree of revelations truly is. There was a city within the tree, road networks, floors, streets, arenas, buildings, and there was a city amongst it''s branches and within and it''s roots. A kingdom of green skinned people who actually made skill disks! Yeah with the free time I had I took to properly researching the city and why it was so damn popular apart from being a massive multicolored tree.


    The tree itself with it''s numerous leaves that each could bestow a skill, was the very thing keeping the economy of the city standing and thriving. Their Arenas also helped, but they were not the best in the world, much less the numerous galaxies that''s spread out across the universe. But their Ability to turn the leaves of the tree Into skill disks have kept them at the forefront of the arms race, and very dangerous to their enemies.


    Unlike Qitar who seems to be really low key, The Patmosian military were living breathing walking arsenals. They had numerous skills to account for different situations and could counter their enemies in a variety of ways. They have specialized forces who have select skills, it doesn''t matter if it was espionage, aerial assault, naval warfare, or Frontline encounters, if there was a skill for it, they had it and they knew how to use it.


    But today, there was a banquet, and it wasn''t being held in any part of the tree, but rather on the beautiful city right at the crown of it. There were a bunch of dignitaries, and while both Tiamat and I had on really fancy suits, (she chose to wear the same thing as me), we still had to keep our identities secret. No one really knew Tiamat, but considering the trouble we would probably be raising in the future, it was better she remained anonymous.


    The city of Prophecies was actually just one very massive castle, basically it was a castle city, assuming things like that exist. It was also quite crowded, but not so much that the flying limo we were in was hindered. The city had silver like slides and towers that just seemed to reach towards the sky, the massive branches and leaves of the tree of Revelations tightly clung to the walls of the city and even spread like vines into it, providing reinforcement in some places, and beautifying others. But the truth is, the city was almost in shambles.


    Most of the buildings were filled with cracks, but the tree had held them together with it''s branches. It was understandable, this city has been uninhabited for hundreds if not thousands if years, but now that it''s enchantment had fallen and it was finally opened to people, proper development can begin in earnest and it wouldn''t look so drab anymore.


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    The Limo came to a stop in front of an ornate Palace, which was still in top shape. I''ve been here before, when I had to get my skills, so looking up at it wasn''t as surprising. There were massive white pillars lining both side of an exquisitely woven red carpet with a golden representation of the tree and a crown on it''s head. It was beautiful and it stretched for almost a hundred meters before continuing on into the castle. There were soldiers lined up on both sides, and there were guests walking on it as they proceeded into the banquet.


    I stepped out, and Tiamat quickly followed behind. There was a lull , a 5 second long silence as everyone looked at me. There commoners around, nobles and dignitaries from other governments and kingdoms. I guess my performance impressed them and now they all had eyes on me. I pulled the suit on me closer, which was actually just my armor changed into something different by the Hood Of many colors.


    If there was one thing Aaron Wade as used to, it was being part of the spotlight, it''s where he was born and it''s where he thrives the most. I moved forwards with carefully tailored steps and made my way into banquet. Players who were streamers and just reporters for other news companies made sure to keep their eyes focused on me. This was the it show, not just the fact that I helped Martha become Queen, but because I was the leader of the current most wanted man. The gates of hell opening is no small situation, and the only person with information about the damn thing as there was a massive barrier preventing others from going through; is a pirate captain that answers to no one but me. I guess I''m now the most wanted man within the game or at least on New Gaia, which was funny considering that I''m the same guy.


    I walked into the castle with Tiamat in tow where a page was waiting for us. I noticed than on his green skin, trails of golden veins were slowly spreading in an Intricate design across his skin, I reckon whatever change Martha has gone through, it was extending to be people. It was spooky to say the least, 8 was unable to notice it on the soldiers because they were fully armored.


    "Introducing Guild Master Aaron Wade Of The Acheron Imperium Lords!, Champion! Of Prophecies! Chosen Of Prophet''s! And Prince Consort Of Her Highness Queen Martha Of Patmos!"


    I stumbled and almost fell flat on my face if Tiamat didn''t stretch forth her hand to hold me back. Prince Consort! Did something happen while I was offline or something, how in the hell did I get married! It was at this point I finally realized why everybody was looking at me when I walked in, it wasn''t because I made Martha Queen, it was because somehow she''s become my wife¡­...what the absolute fucking! Hell! Of all Loads of bullshit! Is going on here!

 182 The Final Curtain II : Ballroom Interactions

    Parties weren''t really my scenes, at least not unless I was the one hosting them anyway. But this sorry was already starting off on a sour note for me, and at the moment there was only one person who could give me the answers I wanted, before I went crazy and started shooting at people. I ignored they eyes that were unsubtly staring at me, even though they acted like they weren''t. The ballroom where the banquet was being held was large, and even after roaming through it for 10 whole minutes, I still wasn''t able to find the so called Queen, what I did find however was an old friend.


    "Consort Aaron, I don''t believe we''ve had the pleasure of being introduced to each other. I''m the prime minister of the elven court, Lerrianderlei HeartWind." My eyebrows twitched, she was someone I would very much prefer to avoid, not to mention we''re not exactly on speaking terms anymore.


    "I know who you are Lady, your reputation precedes you, not to mention Seven had quite a few things to say about you." I answered her, refusing to take the hand she stretched out to me. She smiled as she awkwardly pulled it back before trying another approach.


    "I''m sure Seven had a lot of colorful things today about me and the end of our mutual partnership, however there''s always two sides to a story, and there were some things that were completely out of my hands. He made an enemy that no one could afford to offend, bit even the Elven court, and he and his crew were not worth the war that would have occurred should the dragon god guild find out about our partnership." As bitter as it was for me to swallow, everything she just said was the truth. Some partnerships aren''t sorry the risk and the fallout that would ensue if you remained in it. But that doesn''t change the fact that she kicked me and my crew to the curb at the first sign of trouble.


    "I''m in no mood for small talk Prime minister, what do you want?"


    sometimes politics wasn''t all about being subtle and meticulous in your approach. You sometimes have to ignore the scalpel and use a massive hammer to get your point across, at least they''ll know you aren''t fucking around.


    "The Coven of Angeles would like to make reparations to your guild for any inconvenience our partnership might have caused, what we ask for is a chance to have a sit down, a small debriefing meeting with Captain Seven, if only for a few moments so that we can understand the nature of the threat we''re facing over at the Atlantic Rim." She said to me as her silver hair seemed to take on brighter his than normal. Her eyes seemed more enticing and the way her cleavage was exposed threw my mind unhesitatingly into the gutter, I felt weird.


    "Listen to me Elf bitch! You better keep your (Alluring) Magic to yourself, or I won''t hesitate to rip you a new hole to shit out of!" Tiamat growled from behind me.


    I raised an eyebrow at that, then I turned to look at Tiamat before turning back to face Lerrianderlei. I should have expected something like this from her, she was not the kind of woman to leave anything up to chance, she would do everything in her power to make sure she got what she wanted, without any room for failure. Unfortunately for her, I had a dragon for a bodyguard, her magic was busy.


    "To come to me with honest expressions yet hiding a dagger behind a pretty smile.....I guess I expected too much from elves, or rather too much from you. I will have Seven type up an official report, which will in turn be handed over to the new Queen of Patmos, when that would happen, would probably depend on how fast he can get off this planet, but until then, you will all be stuck waiting until I feel like asking him to say anything. Have a good night Prime minister, and please enjoy the party." I said to her as I moved to go past her, only for her to grab my wrist, and for Tiamat to react Swiftly, a dagger appearing out of nowhere and placed right on Lerrianderlei abdomen.


    To the anyone spectating, it looked a if the three of us were whispering to each other, but I could feel the tension from her body. She really didn''t expect such swift and decisive actions from Tiamat, and quite honestly, neither did I. The dragon lady was really taking the dragon guard thing seriously, she''s able to slot any sort of danger to my person from a mile away and react accordingly, plus she was fiercely protective of me. She was an asset through and through.


    Lerrianderlei on the other hand looked like she had swallowed a bug, I heard a soft Pat and looked down to see a single drop of blood had escaped from the point where Tiamat was jabbing her dagger into her stomach. Her hands felt clang, and obvio5she wanted to say something, but Tiamat was releasing a pressure she couldn''t handle. I was worried though, this could be cause some sort of political Outlast, so I had to keep my dragon on a shorter leash.


    "Its okay Tiamat, take a step back, she means no harm." After my words were spoken, there was no hesitation, Tiamat moved back and the dagger in her hand disappeared like it was never there in the first place.


    "I apologize for her actions Prime minister, your sudden movements spooked her a bit. But with all due respect, get your fucking hands off me!" I growled out to her in a low voice. She didn''t let go off me immediately but decided to speak.


    "I get you''re angry at me and the coven for leaving you high and dry when you needed our help, and for that I''m sorry. But we would still make such a decision in a heartbeat, we represent powerful forces, a kingdoms, a religion and an organization that has existed fro hundreds of years. There were too many risks involved in defending one soldier we knew we could easily replace, turns out we were wrong and there''s really no one else like you in existence Captain Seven.


    I know it''s you, and as an apology and means to make reparations I won''t expose your identity. No matter what you wear or how you hide your face, it only takes a touch for me to recognize someone I''ve fucked in the past. We desperately need whatever information you can offer about the opening of the gates of hell, the blockade would be lifted and you and your crew would be allowed passage, we just need to know what happened and who our enemies are these time. Then we''ll leave you alone, heck we will even pay you! At this point we''re really desperate, we would be going into a fight blind and unprepared, people will die, innocent people!" I pulled my hand out of her grasp and then turned to her and said.


    "I really don''t give a fuck, but being paid sounds like a really good idea. 3 days from now my crew and I would make our way to the blockade, you''re welcome aboard our ship during the few seconds we would spend crossing it. You''ll get all the information we know of then, how does that sound to you elf?!" I said to her as I straightened my suit.


    "That works fine, we''ll be waiting for you call." She said to me with a smile on her face, I moved past her, however it seems as if she still had more to say.


    "One more thing! The moon elf Priestess, were you guys ever able to reduce her? She''s a very important asset to both the elven court and the church of Adonai. We''ll pay you handsomely if you hand her over." I looked at her for 5 seconds and then gave her a two word answer.


    "She''s dead!" and then Tiamat and I disappeared into the crowd, leaving the elven prime minister with her thoughts and plots. Telling her I wasn''t who she thought I was wouldn''t have helped, there''s a possibility that dye was only bluffing, but still nothing short of Aaron and Seven standing side by side would prove that we were two different people.


    After moving around for a while, we still couldn''t find Martha, so the consensus was that the Queen was late to her own banquet, but that was understandable; she''s the queen after all. Tiamat and I found a table to ourselves and watched the festivities, just as the festivities watched us, it was getting rather boring when finally that pesky page came forward to announce her arrival.


    The entire ballroom was abuzz with her appearance, and so was I. It was not the beauty of her dress, or the softly glowing tattoos on her skin, it was the fact that she seemed to have aged ten years in one night. Her hair was now white, her skin was still green though, however she was no longer the demure soft teenager who wanted my help in changing the way her kingdom was ran, now there was a rather mature young woman, and everyone was shocked.


    Patmosians had rather long lifespans, they could leave for at most three hundred years and at least two hundred and twenty. Their teens start from 20 and ends at 40, and it looked like Martha had skipped s good ten if not twenty years of growing up to look like she did now. I couldn''t help the feeling that something was really off, not with her per say, but with the power she now has, both literally and figuratively.


    She kept on moving until she was standing right in the middle of the ballroom, she looked even more radiant standing under the lights of a very extravagant crystal chandelier, all eyes were on her, I guess it was time she gave the opening remarks or some shit like that.


    "I thank all of you for being here and celebrating this joyous day with me, it has not been an easy road getting here. Many of the chosen failed and were disqualified, others tragically passed away, leaving the rest to push forward and strive to achieve greater heights.


    It''s no secret that no one expected me to win this, In The eyes of my people and my family, I''m just a slow sitter girl who understood nothing of how the world works. But they''re wrong, because I was underestimated and overlooked it helped me see the things really wrong with society, the mistakes those privileged to rule were making, and I wanted to make a change.


    They wouldn''t let me, you see when you''re a royal or you have power of any sort, taking corrections becomes really hard. You feel above everyone else, and would trample wherever you feel comfortable and happy too, not giving on care of tear of the lives that would be trampled along the way. And then the trials began and it gave me a chance, no matter how small or miniscule to fight for my change, and by the favor of great tree, I was able to make it."


    At this point everyone gave her an applause, it was a nice speech, she was hitting this Queen business really well, though if I should be honest she sounded more like a celebrity taking an award than a queen giving a speech, which when you think about it, is not that much of a difference. She seemed to have quite a few people on her side now, and she''s playing the victim well, very capable of tugging at the heartstrings of the public and the people in here who had a more clean slate than most. But for me, what''s going through my mind right now, is the fact that little princess Martha has grown the fuck up!


    "The final trial was a hurdle that I couldn''t face alone, just as the second required us to find a ship to carry us, I also need to find someone willing to fight for me. And for a woman as isolated and undercooked as I was, there should have been no one in sight.


    However the great tree works in mysterious ways. A strong and independent woman I might be, but I still needed someone to lean on, and he was there to offer his strength and his support to me when others weren''t to happy about giving it. Everyone please join me in welcoming my Love, Guild Master Aaron Wade!"


    Fuck! Fuck! FUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKK! There were not just eyes on me now, there were spotlights too. Tiamat took a step back, she was smart she knew exactly w hat was happening here, and she would happily watch from the sidelines. As much as I can really play this game, sometimes politics is a massive fuck up.


    I walked towards her with slow steady steps, if she knew me well enough she would know that this was my angry walk. My strides were usually long and fast, and I only ever walked slow when I was angry or was about to kill a man. For the first time in a long time, the eyes on me were very, very uncomfortable.


    I''ve been in crowds before, the day I was discharged from the hospital, there were hundreds of reporters, law enforcement officers and normal people who had called in front of the hospital to wish me well. Honestly I didn''t even know I was that popular until it happened, but even then wouldn''t have prepared me for the amount of scrutiny I was currently undergoing.


    I walked up to her and she welcomed me with a hug, she was almost as tall as I was, and the heels she was wearing bright right to my height. She smelled green, like life and flowers and grass and spring. It was nice, and she gave off a relaxing and calming vibe, such that I felt right at home and peaceful in her arms. But with my recent experience with Lerrianderlei, I rather not fall for the weird charms of any woman.


    "What the fuck do you think you''re doing Martha?!" I quietly hissed into her ear as we sort of devolved into a slow dance.


    "My apologies Captain Seven, but this was the only way I could think of keeping you safe and still connected to me. I may be queen, but my father''s and brother''s influence are still wildly spread within the kingdom, I needed a shield just as you need help to get off this world. It just means our cooperation is not yet at an end."


    "Are you out of your mind or something? You could have asked for help! Made a more lucrative deal with me, for chrissakes I out everything on the line to get you that crown and you repay me by...by...by marrying me when I wasn''t looking!" in a way it didn''t sound like a bad deal, marrying a queen that is. But I''m not in the mood for politics or relationships, with how real this world has become, there''s no telling how much of a consequence this union will have on both my lives.


    "I will give you a proper explanation later, this wouldn''t be bad for you, at least for the moment please play along. This farce will come to an end one-day, but until then let me use your power to secure my throne, and then I''ll give you a compensation that would make you set for life, I promise, so please like you promised to help me the first time we met...don''t forsake me when I really need you." It was a compelling speech, but the moment she finished talking, the lights went off, and I had to bring her to the ground as we dodged a bullet that would have gone through both our heads. Something was up.

 183 The Final Curtain III : War

    The entire ballroom was thrown I darkness, and there wasn''t just one gunshot, there were several, however none of those bullets ever hit the intended targets. Eagles are not nocturnal hunters, so my new augmented trait (Eagle eyes) wouldn''t have helped me much in seeing in the dark. However dragons were not hunters, not to mention elves, so all of these mismatched genes in my body meant that I could pretty much see that it was most of the Patmosians serving as waiters or guards who opened fire, and Martha was not the only target.


    Practically everyone here was a Target, but each and every single one of them, just like me had a guard who was strong enough to protect them from harm. Only few people got it, but even then the injuries were superficial, the lights came on and the shooters quickly lined themselves up guns at the ready and pointing it at the guests. They all had masks on, but the very obvious leader, Morgan and his father, the now former king had their faces very much in the open. But the most glaring trait on all of them, was the badge of a black dragon encircling a planet.


    "The Dragon God guild!" Tiamat muttered as she took her place besides me. I felt Martha shake a bit, but it was only for a second before she relaxed and regained her composure.


    "Everyone my sincerest apologies, but I''m afraid that none of you would be allowed to leave here alive. You can consider this the first shot of war as the dragon guild begins it''s conquest of the known world, the loss of the Patmosian throne is terrible, but some losses are acceptable in the grand scheme of things, please say your goodbyes or leave any messages you want for your loved ones, you''re all going to be dying soon." A feminine voice spoke up as Io Reyes made her way from behind the crowd of traitors, her very appearance meant that the dragon god guild was taking this seriously, there really would be a lot of dead people today.


    *Grrrrrrrrrr*


    "Easy Tiamat! Not now! You''ll get your chance, but she''s mine. Keep your current form, your main objective is to keep the Queen safe, this fight is mine." I raised my communicator to my eyes as I sent a simple message.


    "Io Reyes! I''ve heard a lot about you, though I don''t believe we''ve had the pleasure of meeting each other. However that wouldn''t matter now that the virtue dragons have decided to save war on everything that lives and breathes. We have a massive threat with the opening of Hells gate, yet you want to start a war! You''re underestimating the power of the elves!" Lerrianderlei said as she moved forwards. Io on the other hand smiled as she gave her an elegant bow.


    "Your highness Queen Lerrianderlei HeartWind Zeerus, Sovereign Queen of Elvengarde I have also longer to meet with you too. I just don''t understand why you would be parading yourself as your own prime minister, but then again it wouldn''t matter, because you would be dying today. Next to the virtual dragons the elven empire is the most powerful, some might say that you''re of an equal standing with us, we don''t like that. And as such you will be dying today, your death would throw the elves into pandemonium and give us a chance to squash you long eared freaks...for good!"


    *Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!*


    Everyone turned to look at me as I took a step forward, I would have very much liked to have my double identity fir as long as possible, but I''ve not even had a chance to live it and now I have to discard it and be myself. This fucking war would cause a very big problem for me, or better yet it can be an opportunity, just like it is in the real world. It''s hard to decide what step to take, however I feel like it should happen, it would give me a chance to build something up from the ashes, but to do so this world, this reality had to know exactly who the fuck I am...and see me as someone they can really behind.


    "If I didn''t know you Penny, I would say you''ve got the villain scheme down to a T. However....." I took my War Helm off, there wasn''t much of a surprise on the looks of everyone around, but there a few gasps when said Helm turned into a six foot tall purple elephant with growing horns on her head.


    "You''re fucking with my business and I don''t like it! This world is more than just a game and the guild you''re a part of would fuck things up massively with very serious real world consequence. You have to make a choice old friend."


    That was sure to get tongues wagging, the Prince Consort that''s both the guild leader Aaron Wade and the wanted man Captain A¨¢ Seven, seems to be in good terms with the most dangerous woman in the game, they were even old friends, as to the nature of their friendship, one could only speculate with baited breaths.


    "I don''t really care what you have to say about this Aaron, I''m not being forced to do anything here, this is my choice. If you get in my way, then I''ll rip you to shreds with the rest of these idiots, this world is more than just a game; yes! I know that. But to prevent it from turning out like ours, order needs to be established, this is no different from what you''ve been trying to do, sowing chaos to build something new, to build something better. In fact I would like you to join me in this, you already know what it means to hold true power, there''s no reason why that should be any different within this world, join us! And you would be above more than just a company and a planet, they''ll be an entire universe at your finger tips."


    That''s quite a tempting offer if I do say so myself, but this life was a whole lot more different than the one I live outside. So until there come such a time when both lives would inevitably crash into each other and become one, and even then! I won''t be bowing my head to tyrants and people all too willing to seed war for a useless reason.


    Outside of this game, the nations of earth and their off world counter parts were at a stalemate. But this wasn''t caused by earth government, but by the colonies and their need to be Sovereign and their new found greed to control whatever valuable resource is left on the planet. Earth has water, lot''s of it, and it keeps expanding as more and more seem to be created, with the Advent of global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps. Sending those billions of gallons of water off world every few months, have more than kept most of Earth''s city from drowning in tidal waves.


    But the colonies want everything, and complete Sovereignty from the countries that sunk trillions into the existence, and they were not shy about Killing for it, especially when it''s obvious the have the upper hand over earth when it comes to things like technology and war weapons. I''m probably a hypocrite, but I''ve been off world and I''ve had to kill some really terrible people so that earth could have enough time to get on their feet and prepared, but not just the terrible people, but also the Innocents that were just pursuing a dream. I wasn''t about to let all that sacrifice and stain on my soul become nothing as Mars and the colonies rained down fire on all of humanity.


    And in this case, the dragon guild feels obligated to subjugate everyone and everything because there was too much greed and politics.....it was total bullshit! Storylines within the game aside, all that guild has done was get rid of the only thing that could go toe to toe against them should conflict arise.


    Much to my surprise the elemental dragons of this game weren''t fire breathing village burning monsters.


    They weren''t as strong as their counterparts when it comes to a straight fight, so they chose to use their brains rather than brawns, and they ended up building a civilization that the whole world envied, even to the gods if the stories should be believed.


    But that didn''t mean they were weak, it just meant that they were not one to seek conflicts. But both dragon races were made to keep each other and the world in balance. If there''s anyone that can stop the sin dragons, that were now parading themselves as virtue dragons, it''s the elemental dragons, and they''ve spent a very long time, making sure that all traces of them were gone, destroyed or controlled. They were even bigger hypocrites than I was, plus they''re also my enemies, so that more than qualifies them a painful death.


    "Unlike Earth that''s had countless chances to grow and get things right, these reality isn''t that old. There''s a lot of good in this world, but you''re not even going to give them a chance to find out for themselves. Sure they''re liars, like an elven queen pretending to be a simple prime minister and backstabbing someone who put lives on the line for, or the corrupt backstabbing prince and father who didn''t hesitate to throw their own sister and daughter into flames as long as it served their purpose. But there''s you and me, and we know better, we should know better! If you start this War Io then you and I end up on opposite sides, and quite frankly old friend....... It''s considered very stupid to become my enemy, either in this world or ours." My voice had taken on an edge that seems to reverberate across the entire ballroom, I had taken center stage in this scene and now truly! All eyes were on me. Io smiled and then said to me.


    "When this is all over we''re still going to be friends right?"


    "Well that depends on if you hit me in the face, but yeah Grandmother''s having a ridiculous dinner party tomorrow, said something about "when in Rome do as the Romans do?" don''t understand why she said that, she''s obviously not in Rome, but she wants you over though." I said to her as I shrugged my shoulders and aged my hand, willing out my latest addition to me arsenal the Golden Legolas. I threw the Heaven graded sniper rifle to Tiamat as Io moved her neck from left to right, her neck making cracking sounds.


    "Good, because I really will be kicking your ass down this time brat." There was a red and black spear in her hands as she spoke, she pointed it at me while Sky turned into her bow form.


    The familiarity of this form created a calm in me that was never there before, come to think of it. Sky''s bow form was born right here! Right on Patmos, well both her bow and staff forms anyway. But it was on this island she saw action fir the first time, and now we were going to rain more hell on this place, it''s such a shame for this palace and city though, it was quite nice while it lasted.


    "The thing about kicking my ass Io, it''s that you''re not wearing the shoes for it, and quite frankly you don''t have the ''balls'' for it." I replied with a smile as I nocked an arrow and kept my gaze on the opposing group of enemies.


    "Are you telling me that I can''t beat you because I''m a woman? Seriously? Since when were you misogynistic? You don''t strike me as someone who stood for the Patriarchy!"


    "Well old friend have you seen me, I''m basically the Patriarchy incarnate. Rich, handsome, powerful and dangerous, with lots of women hanging around me, two queens included. I''m like Batman but more criminal like."


    "You made a mistake there, handsome is not a word I would use to describe you, for s guy you''re okay, especially with how great a body you have, but handsome, give me a break."


    "Hey! Are you guys going to keep throwing insults at each other or are you going to fight! We''re waiting for you two to make the first move!"


    Lerrianderlei interrupted the banter that quite frankly I''m sure would have gone on for a lot longer than normal if she hadn''t spoke up. Guess I was still not too keen on fighting the only person I can actually call my friend.


    "Right, well I guess we charge?" I asked with a sheepish voice, only for Io to take full control.


    "Kill them all and leave no one alive! I repeat no one leaves this banquet alive!"


    I guess this is it, it wasn''t with the demons and devils of hell, but rather from the dragon god guild. But none the less War has come to Lost Descendants Online, and for some reason I love the idea of war and the chaos it brings, I love it!

 184 The Final Curtain IV : Ballroom Figh

    *Baaaang!*


    We had barely taken a single step when a our shot and a golden streak came from behind me. The sound of it was enough to bring everyone to a halt as I turned around to see Tiamat more than fifteen meters back, her feet drawing skid marks in the pristine ball room floor. The golden Legolas was hoisted up her shoulders, and she was bleeding from the side of her mouth. I turned to face Io, only to see she was missing an arm, and a good chunk of her right shoulder, but the worst damage was to the people behind her.


    Morgan was nothing but bloody bits, his father had his entire body riddle with shrapnel and the two other guards standing next to them were very much dead or Injured. I could still feel my ears ringing from the shot, but it was enough time for the shock to wear off, at least for me anyway. I resumed my charge, and quickly came up in front of Io who was quickly resorting to her trump card to remain in this fight, but if I should let that happen, then things would get a little bit more complicated.


    Scales began to cover her body as she shifted, spoke morphing into her dragon form, the injuries she got seemed to be making the transformation slow, so I took advantage of that by shooting a fire arrow at her. It was fast, but she was faster, but in the end it was to easy a task to anticipate her next move, so when she duck the first, second and third arrow, each one slightly faster than the previous, she was unable to do anything about the fourth which exploded with a flash as it went past het head, Blinding her partially transformed draconic eyes and letting a fire arrow find purchase in her skull. A second later there was a small explosion as skull fragments were scattered allover. What ever was left of her body quickly turned into motes of light as she faded away, eliminating probably what was the biggest threat for every one here.


    But that didn''t mean our troubles were over, it was not just the Patmosians traitors that we had to worry about, but the seemingly endless stream of players from the dragon god guild that were slowly streaming into the ballroom. I had to hand it to her though, she came prepared for any and everything. Even if she''s taken off the playing field, her lawns will still carry out whatever orders the queen left behind.


    I rushed forward, sliding on the ground as two energy beams went over my head. I strung two wind arrows and let them loose, they both flew through two Patmosians and then went forward to find purchase in the face and throat of two players behind them. I came out of my slide and jumped forwards, using Sky''s how form as punching weapon as I brought square across the face of masked Patmosians guard. He flew backwards like a rocket, smashing into his allied like a bowling ball.


    *Grooooosaasssrrrrrrrrrr!*


    A massive armored troll burst into the ballroom, smashing away both his allied and some of the guests. A troll here wasn''t that surprising, I expect these guys came here prepared, what''s really messed up is the fact that said troll is damn player. But that''s where it gets pretty fucked up, because while the fool was a troll, he was a player and as such it wad not possible for him to have as much strength as an AI based troll.


    I ran towards him, jumping around a fox kin player with really long bright red tails. That proved to be a mistake as the player stretched his tails around my waist and threw me across the ballroom. I spread my wings, bringing my momentum to a halt, then I strung a lightning arrow and pulled back on it with all my might. (Meteor Shower), the arrow left a yellow streak as it went right to the very top of the ballroom before turning and facing downwards where it proceeded to multiply into hundreds, I had s rather nasty smile on my face as they all fell down like rain of lightning from the vengeful heavens.


    *Ziziziziziziz ziziziziziziz ziziziziziziz ziziziziziziz*


    The buzzing of Electricity as they well was somewhat terrifying, as not just the damage caused by lightning shocks, but the sheer penetrating power the arrows had after being enhanced by the lightning. Thankfully all of the guests had converged around the new Queen, who I notice was currently glowing a bit with her eyes closed, so the people within range of these skills were all of the bad guys.


    The troll player survived, and the fox kin player actually dodged all of the arrows, now the both of them were making a feeling for me. But if they think it was to take down, the they were in for a very rude Awakening. I flew down throwing Sky into the sir as she changed back into her normal elephant form and made a ferocious stampeding beeline for the troll. I got to the ground and ducked under a Peirce from a blazing vulpine tail and retaliated by smashing my wings across his chest. There was a loud crack as I returned the favor he gave me at s higher intensity than normal, he was thrown across the ballroom until his back smacked against the wall at the opposite end, then his body slid down to the ground, leaving behind a bloody trail as he went off to go get respawned. As for Sky she smashed her head into the chest of the troll, but he had already stretched forth his hand, bring her momentum to a halt as they pushed at each other.


    It was a show of strength between Titans(or something like that), a nine foot tall troll players that should be weight close to 500 if not 600 pounds, was have a guy of war against a 6 foot tall elephant with about the same amount of size. It was a sight for the ages as they both struggled to push each other back, but there was no way I would let it be a stalemate, I don''t have time to find out who was stronger.


    I recalled Sky, turning her into her staff form, before I rushed forwards to the troll, moving fast enough that to his eyes (and admittedly mine) I was nothing more than a black flash. If it was strength, I was now ridiculously strong and durable, 8 could wrestle a lion like boss now, heck even a real game based troll would not be a problem, so for this guy it would have been a miracle if her remained standing after I punched a hoped through his chest.


    And I was shocked at the outcome, the idea was that he would be thrown backwards like his fox friend, but it seems he''s a little more sturdy than I gave him credit for, he was solidly planted on the ground, probably a troll passive or something like that. And he was healing too, worse with my hand still in his chest, but then again there was no time to waste. I expanded my hand in his body, and all of the air and liquid, his blood included gathered in his lungs. He stepped back clutching his throat as he lost his breath, whilst I turned around and brought Sky''s staff form to the ground with a loud resounding bang.


    (Stellar Flare)


    This skill changed a lot this time, it was quite weird. Maybe because I now had a magic based class, but a massive constellation appeared underneath me as a tidal wave of silver flames rushed out of the staff and swallowed more than 80% of the attackers in the ballroom, and even rushing towards the multiple entrances that they''ve been using to get into the ballroom so far. Those that were left, turned tail and ran, probably to go regroup, a strategic retreat of their own. The fight was sort of anticlimactic, I didn''t get the chance to really let loose and cause all of the havoc that I wanted to.


    "We have to leave Patmos!"


    Lerrianderlei spoke up, decked head to toe in silver armor and holding a bow that made Sky look a common wooden toy.


    "I agree! I have received reports from some the acolytes within the city, most of the city of Prophecies remains relatively untouched, but they have completely taken over the cities at the root, the branches, and in some parts if the tree itself. There''s no hope for a counter attack, we must abandon this place."


    I shook my head in disgust, the second person to speak was the bishop from the church of Adonai who had asked me to go find Houki along with Lerrianderlei. It was so easy for them to give up on a city they all had eyes on, but now that it was in trouble they wanted to back out, without even trying to help or putting up a fight. I ignored them and walked towards Martha who was surrounded by her guards, but who were in turn keeping a bit of space between them as Tiamat held on to the Golden Legolas. I moved my head in Martha''s direction and asked.


    "Do you had any plans or a way we can turn the unfavorable situation around?" she looked up at me and gave me a smile that did not even look a single but worried.


    "I have total control of the city of Prophecies, I just need to get to inner throne room, and I''ll be able to expel any unwanted guests from the city.


    However both the tree and the city need each other to function, and right now, there''s a couple of mages and scientists from the dragon god guild trying to breach into the heart seed''s chamber, it seems like they want to harvest it. Seven! If they get that seed everything and everyone on Patmos will die, it''s not just the tree, but each and every single Patmosian is tied to it, it would be the end of our race and the barrier keeping the demon general locked here would vanish, releasing him to wreak havoc into the world!" That was scary, I had no idea that the situation had gotten this dude.


    "But you said you can control the city of Prophecies, can''t you control the tree too and stop those guys from getting to the heart seed?" I asked her as the other guest looked on visibly worried, but I doubt anyone of them cared beyond their self interests.


    "The tree is an entirely different entity from the city, it is conscious and it is very much alive. No one, not even a god can control it. I could use the city to cause hindrance and stop any outside threats, but for threats from within, I''m afraid I can''t do anything. I don''t know what I''m going to do, we won''t be able to get to heart seed on time, plus the way to the inner throne is still filled with danger, it''s like I have two paths to take and I don''t know which...¡­I have to give up on the city of Prophecies, the heart seed is too important." Martha was visibly worried, but I had a plan.


    "Don''t worry, I won''t let anything happen to the heart seed. I''ll get you to the throne room, and every other asshole here would pitch in and make sure you get there safely too. I have people on their way to the heart seed, nothing is going to get past them, they''ll keep it safe long enough for me to get there, heck they won''t even need me." I said to her with a smile.


    "Are you sure? Please this is about all our lives!" I smiled again as I shifted Sky back to her War helm form(which is more like a sleek motorcycle helmet)then I said to her.


    "Trust me, now which way to the throne room?"


    She nodded her head as she pointed in a direction, I took point with Tiamat and her guards sticking close to her. As we all moved out of the ballroom, I called up an Interface, smiling at what I was seeing.


    GUILD MENU


    ?\tNAME: Acheron Imperium Lords


    ?\tGUILD MASTER: A¨¢ Seven


    ?\tVICE MASTER: Morrigan


    ?\tTERRITORIES: 0


    ?\tMEMBERS: 14


    {Guild Master: Nezha, Nuwa, meet up with Raven Song, Qitar, Zareth and Darke! Get to the heart seed of the tree of revelations and kill any and everyone you see that belongs to the dragon god guild or shouldn''t be there. I''ll meet you guys there.


    Monkey King: but Master! What do I do?


    Guild Master: There''s an army of enemy guild running around my fake wife''s kingdom.....KILL THEM ALL!


    Monkey King: are you sure! Really! Really!


    Guild Master: Go wild kid.


    Monkey King:....

 185 The Final Curtain V : New Friends And Goblins

    PATMOS


    BRANCH CITY BRIDGE


    QITAR


    \u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c|=|\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e


    Qitar hunkered down behind one of the road blocks as gun shots and skills flew over her head. She was worried, this was her home and it was slowly tearing itself apart, but even more so when the idiots helping outsiders to take over their home, I''d not realize that everything that they were and I''ll ever be, was about to be stolen away, the true measure of a Patmosian, what they were born from.


    She would love nothing more than to rush through this blockade, but Darke and Zareth were keeping s firm hand on both het shoulders. There was a lot at stake, especially for her, hence she was being a little bit reckless with her actions. Now they were pinned down, even Zareth couldn''t shift into his dragon form due to the skill suppression field being deployed, as a former captain of what would be considered Patmosian elite law enforcement officers, she knew exactly what and how dangerous that field was, it was quite similar to the Captain''s (Area Of Silence) skill, but their enemies were outside so they had no choice but to hold on.


    Raven Song was approaching from the root city, so he couldn''t be of any help, what they were waiting for were the strange new contacts from the guild they suddenly fund themselves being a part of. The captain didn''t give any warning before he did this, so they were quite aught off guard, hopefully these guys are trust worthy enough to come save their asses, if not they were totally and completely screwed.


    Qitar popped her head over the barrier and had to quickly duck down as a bullet whizzed past, they were keeping them locked down, and it was only a matter of time before the got completely flanked and taken out by their enemies. That was when a fireball the size of a bus fell from the sky, landing right in the middle of the ground of attackers.


    (Lotus Fireball)


    *BOOOOM!*


    A conflagration of flames rose up into the air, looking very much like an elaborate lotus flower, with layer after later of flames that got significantly higher towards the middle. The flames destroyed the skill suppression device, effectively nullifying the field, but more than that it took the heat off them, long enough for Qitar to place her sniper rifle on the road block, both eyes opened but her focus unshakable.


    *Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!*


    Silent and deadly, so deadly that a single bullet was taking out three people at a time, those who didn''t perish in the flames died to her rapid shots, and she didn''t even see them as a high enough threat to use a skill. But still here were still quite a bit of players left, and even though no one knew were the fireball came from, and there was a danger of it being used against them, the didn''t stop their pushing. Apart from the Patmosians there, the rest were players as they called them, immortal and undying.


    There was almost no way to even the playing field against beings that won''t die, the only thing you could was have some of them as your friends and get strong enough with as much speed as possible to be able to keep up with them.


    There was a blast of cold wind as a man in white and blue fell from the Sky and landed right in the middle of the over 30 dozen men and women who Qitar, Zareth and Darke had to go through. He wasn''t armored, and he was holding an elegant blue long sword that shimmered softly under the soft glare of the moon. But more than that, this guy was an angel..... literally. The four pair of wings on his back exposed his rank as a Cherub.


    Normal angels were rare and too strong, not to mention a Cherub that was leagues above the norm. Even amongst players, it was very rare to see people of this race. They weren''t just reclusive, they functioned on a realm most mortals can not comprehend, you would put them in the same ranks as Devils, Dragons, Vampires, gods! And spirits. They were cosmic beings of light and justice, and his guy with platinum and golden blond hair, his lazy looking demeanor and the elegant robes he had on, more than qualifies him to be called a cosmic being. But Qitar never gave a shit about pretty boys or clothes, and more so now that there was a lot at stake.


    "My name''s Nezha, you all have to die now. (Ice Fantasy: Crystal Towers)"


    He waved his sword around, releasing a dark blue glow that lit up the entire area, and then massive stalagmites made of pure crystal like ice shot out of the ground, spreading out in much the same manner as the fireball did a few minutes earlier. So many were impaled by the spikes and hung a good ten meters off the ground. The players had already vanished in motes of light, like they do, but those who were a part of this world, spent the next few moments in agony as their blood slowly dribbled down the spikes impaling them. It didn''t matter what race you were, as long as that ice touched you, you bled. There was a flap of wings as a woman with black and red hair dropped down besides the man. She woke had two pitch black set of wings, she was a fallen angel, or in this case a dark Cherub. They seem to be together and they sent look alike, making Qitar think she was looking at the same person, but with different genders.


    "You must be Qitar, it''s nice to meet you, but I believe we can get to know each other later. The master has ordered us to keep the heart seed safe, you know this place better than we do, please lead the way." The woman said as she turned around, but Qitar was not having this.


    "Who are you?!" The woman didn''t seem to mind the question as she turned around with a smile on her face.


    "My name is Nuwa, Guild member of the Acheron Imperium Lords, we just call it AIL, I''m a Dark Cherub and my class is (Imperial Fire Witch). And this is my brother Nezha, he''s a Cherub, and his class is (Imperial Ice Wizard); were here to help, now come on, we don''t have time to waste." It was s more detailed explanation than Qitar was expecting, but the woman was right, there was no time to waste.


    \u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c|=|\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e


    The ballroom was on the other end of the castle, we had to go through several buildings before we could get to the building that house the inner throne room, which according to Martha was entirely different from the main throne room. The architecture of this castle was quite questionable, calling it a palace might not even be right, so maybe a palace works best. It was like a massive constellation with massive buildings dotting the landscape, each connected to the other by very large and elaborate hallways. The first of which we were coming up on.


    Our feet marched softly on marble tiles, for those of us wearing heels and dress shoes, movement was a little bit complicated as it was very possible they might lose their balance and fall, but thankfully they''re were held up by others due to how close we all were with each other. We were half way through the hallway, when the painter glass windows on both sides were smashed in, and hundreds of tiny green men poured in. It didn''t take long for me to realize that we were surrounded on both sides, and our opponents were, they were...


    "Are those goblins?" Martha asked


    Way to state the obvious your highness, but I could understand her confusion. Lost Descendants Online was realistic so the point where it was possible for particular species to go extinct if the couldn''t keep with the changes in nature, and in this case, those changes were without a doubt the constant influx of new players into the game every year. Goblins were the weakest mobs to farm, apart from giving decent exp, they also helped advance skills, and helped new players get acclimated to the game.


    Frankly speaking goblins died out within the first 30 years of the game launching, and no matter how the system tried to come up with ways to help the extremely procreative species to survive or make a comeback, the new players and sometimes old players did not allow that to happen. In this world, goblins were extinct, it didn''t matter if it was their different variations, from red, blue, grey and the normal grey, their evolved form Hob-goblins, they were all extinct, so seeing goblins here was very much a surprise for everyone here.


    *Kuwakakkaka kaskaka!!*


    (Stellar Flare!) (Storm Dance)


    I used both skills in tandem with each other, the wave of silver flames rushed the ranks of the goblins in front of me, burning the tiny critters to dust. Most of them however were a little bit more resilient than normal, and they rushed towards us even with their bodies ablaze with stellar flames. But I was ready for them, facing the small arm of goblins in front of me, should give the people b3hind me less things to worry about and focus on the goblins on the side and back.


    (Earth Tremor!)


    I stomped my foot on the ground, causing a shockwave and earthquake that pushed a significant amount of goblins backwards into their comrades. But the secret to this skill wasn''t the pushback effect, it was the massive earth spikes that came out of the ground a few seconds later, skewering dozens of goblins and creating a natural barrier that they couldn''t go past. He spikes rose up at about six meters off the ground, I rushed on top of it, standing in front of the still approaching army of goblins, looking like some sort of wizard.


    "You shall not pass! (Wind School: Sonic Scream)"


    One thing about Lost Descendants Online was that the way your skills were used were not uniform or specifically tailored in a particular manner or way. Sure the damage and effect would be constant with it''s description, but some skills could be used in ways you would never have expected, heck did skills support other skills and increase it''s lose of give a different effects. Like me using an earth spoke attack skill, as a barricade and platform. Now I had all of these miserable goblins within sight.


    (Lava Pool)(Lava Pool) (Lava Pool) (Lava Pool)


    Four ten meter in diameter pool of pure bubbling lava placed strategically in places where the goblins were densest. It slowed a lot of them down, but it didn''t stop them as the goblins behind went over their friends stuck in the pool, so much so that the entire pool was completely buried, chick full with goblin bodies. However not wasn''t over yet , Lava pool had an effect that only showed up after five seconds, and it should be right about now.


    (Lava Pool: Eruption!)


    Four pillars of flames shit up into the ceiling, burning it black as dozens of the goblins were turned to Ash. But I was no longer paying attention to that, because there were goblins now climbing the barricade I made.


    (Wind School: Lightning Bolt!) ( Mana Arrow)


    A massive bolt of lightning shot out of Sky''s staff form, piercing through quite a few goblins, before exploding into a shower of golden Sparks and silver flames. Sky was able to add extra effects to whatever skill or spell that''s released with any of her weapon''s form. It was very much like what Locke was able to do, by changing the nature of a skill and Increasing it''s effectiveness. But still even with everything I had done here were still more goblins streaming towards me, I couldn''t help but furrow my brow in anger, this was getting a bit too much to handle, and it was pissing me off.


    It was as if there as no end to the pests, and we were sorely pressed for time, I had a feeling that today was going to be a very long day. But I didn''t have to think too much, all I had to do was fight until I know I could fight anymore. I turned to look at my side and saw Lerrianderlei and her guards take up spots besides me, she nodded to me as we face the goblins. I shrugged my shoulder, long day or not, there''s going to loads of dead tiny green men.

 186 The Final Curtain VI : Players And Dullahans

    SOMEWHERE IN THE TREE REVELATIONS


    RAVEN SONG


    \u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c|=|\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e


    Raven Song ducked under the side swing of an orcish berserker, then slammed the tip of his tower shield under his jaw, shearing off his face in half, and exposing his brains. He crouched forward and broke into a run, his tower shield glowing good as he ran rough shod over the group of people standing in front of him. Eventually his momentum came to a stop and he turned smashing his one handed hammer into the skull of dwarf, and then kicking his gnomish partner across the hallway and through the open doors of the elevator ahead of him.


    The gnome smacked into the elevator wall with a bang, his magical flintlock pistols dropping to the ground as he was knocked out. Raven Song made his way into the elevator, the heart seed''s Chambers was right in the middle of the tree, he was just about two levels removed from where the Chambers were located, but even then he was sure that the moment he got to the chamber shit was going to hit the fan in more ways than one. The elevator doors slid open and Raven Song was treated to a sight that made his knees feel weak, there were no less than two hundred players in sight, and based on the armor they were all wearing, which was the same kind you, Raven Song knew that these group of people were the elite forces of the Dragon God guild.


    For a moment he was tempted to just let the elevator door close and move on to the next level, but this is where the party was at, it was time to go hunting. Besides even if he was unable to cause any sort of damage to them, he also knew they would be unable to lay a finger on him. Plus the guarantee that he would be so under attack that he wouldn''t be able to attack was just about 10%, the captain was no the only one who had gotten new upgrades.


    (Shield Charge)


    Raven Song rushed out towards the very menacing looking group of guild players, his entire body ablaze with a golden glow. He was a whole lot faster than before, and that''s because it was not just a different class that he received during their last adventure in the ocean City of Atlantis, his race was also changed from a dark elf to a Titan elf.


    He damage into their formation, sending the first three players smacking into their comrades, but they were caught by their friends and helped back into a fighting position. It didn''t take long as they all rushed at him, there were a lot of players to deal with, but Raven Song wasn''t worried, at least not yet. He could handle a bunch of wayward players until the others get here, besides if they get here too soon they would take away all of the fun from this.


    (Titan Charge!)


    This skill was very different from the conventional shield Charge, it was an improved version brought about by his change in class, and it was more than ten times more powerful. A golden illusory giant appeared above his head, releasing a ferocious roar before rushing shoulder first into the group of attacking players. They were smacked backwards, some of them directly dying and being sent to respawn, such intense damage more than proved that they were not dealing with a common player. No less than a dozen players fell, with even more left injured and their health in critical conditions, before they decided to pay full attention to Raven Song.


    It would be easier to describe Raven Song as a boss rather than a player, the dozens of people he had just taken care of, happened to be the tanks of this group of elite dragon god guild players, the ones with defense at the top of the game, yet he had shredded through their ranks as if they were made from paper. What was left of their tanks quickly hunkered down, raising their shields as their mages and marksmen prepared to bring down Raven Song with a focused assault of skills, spells, and shots from guns and how''s.


    (Titan Wall)


    Raven Song slammed his shield into the ground, and in turn, the tower shield expanded until his entire body was covered by it. If Raven Song so wished, he could make the shield as wide as the walls of a city, provided he had enough Mana or energy to power the skill, which frankly he did not. None the less this was one of his most powerful defensive skills, even mountain Bastion fell short of it.


    But the thing is; using this skill meant he would be unable to move, it was more or less a turtle shell, and for him to be able to attack he would have to deactivate the skill and as. But that would leave him defenseless, this more than proved that it wasn''t all good with his class, there were disadvantages to some of his skills, and this was in other to create a balance, at least someone else would be able to take advantage of his weaknesses and bring him down if they have to. But as Raven Song had previously stated, the captain was not the only one who had gotten upgrades from Dinah.


    "Launch Drones!"


    There were small buzzing sounds as dragons the size of a wristwatch up from behind the back of the shield. These little guys were quite similar to the Captain''s new guns, they were made with a miniaturized version of the ion pulse cannon, which means they were small buggers that delivered really big packages. Raven Song had to admit that Dinah finding a way to shrink the technology of the Ion Pulse cannon was probably her single greatest achievement so far, with such an upgrade, it made the crew or rather the guild members of the Acheron Imperium Lords, even more, dangerous than they already were.


    "Fire!"


    *Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!*


    Their droning was a lot louder as they released the golden beam of energy quite capable of turning matter into nothing. The beams tore through the ranks of tanks like a hot knife through butter, their defense not even strong enough to withstand the power behind the assault of the drones. And without the tanks there to help them stop the attacks, the players standing behind were even less of a challenge than the tanks who focused on defense.


    However just like his current (Titan Wall) skill, the drones also had a drawback, he could only use them for 5 seconds before they had to be recharged. But none the less he had already punched a hole through their defense, and it was time to move forward. Raven Song held his golden one-handed Warhammer ready to rain thunder and destruction on this audacious guild of thieves, but that was when the elevator behind him dinged and slid open.


    Raven Song turned around and couldn''t help the smile on his face as a very angry Qitar marched out, followed closely by Darke, Zareth and a pair of twins Raven had never met before. These two were probably part of the new group of friends they all suddenly found themselves having with the sudden creation of their guild.


    "Hope we''re not too late yes?" Zareth asked as he pulled out his lance, lighting the weapons ablaze. Raven Song gave him a small smile as he turned to him and said.


    "No dwarf, you''re just in time. So you take the guys on the left and I''ll take the ones on the right. The person who kills the least enemies gets a bathroom duties for a week!" Raven Song said to Zareth with a rather sinister grin on his face.


    "Deal! Bring it on elf!"


    \u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c|=|\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e


    Silver arrows moving at a speed akin to bullets flew out from the bow if the elven queen parading as a prime minister. The sheer amount of power behind those arrows we''re so shocking that I knew even in my dragon form, short of running away, I wouldn''t be able to even fight her. It was really surprising that even with this much power she was not flaunting it, this was probably the trade of for running around the galaxies sleeping with men and building a harem, and also causing scandal wherever she went.


    She had to give off the look of a spoilt brat, which she was, just not in the way most people would expect. The goblins were shredded to pieces with just the passage of the arrows, the doors on the other end of the hallway was blasted apart, causing even more damage to the part of players who were hanging behind the doors.


    We rushed forwards, through the door and into another major building, this seems to be an indoor garden of sorts, there were really shiny fruits trees, flowers and a bunch of other green stuff, I''m pretty sure Dinah would love to get her hands on most of the plants here. There were a few players hiding within the garden, but with the strength of the team we now had, taking care of them was a whole lot easier than I expected.


    However we had on problem that we had to take care of, and that was the fact that we were still being chased by goblins. Luckily they were behind us now, and we were moving at a faster pace than they could keep up with, even though we were a massive crowd of fancily dressed people. We went through the garden before getting into another hallway, this was the final hallway before the throne room, and in turn the inner throne room. However we had company.


    Dead looking horses with exposed ribcages, bite flames for eyes and on their hooves, tails that also blazer with a fiery blue soul piercing flames. And then finally the ghastly headless men sitting on top of them with massive broad swords. They had their heads hung in small cages that was hanging at the side of their horses, and the eyes on those eyes we''re blood red that gave me chills.


    "Dullahans! They have a high level necromancer with them. This will not be easy to deal with. Even for me." Lerrianderlei said to me with an focused look on her face.


    "Maybe not, all you need to do is destroy their heads and get to the necromancer before he can summon them out again. The necromancer''s fighting ability is always really low, so he would be relying on his summons and undead. Your stellar magic and skills are effective against undead, along with holy skills and lightning skills. And even these things are strong, they''re not as strong as all of us." Martha said as she stepped forward with her guards flanking her, their weapons at the ready. Tiamat hung back with a brief look on her half exposed face, the Golden Legolas still clutched tightly in her hands.


    There were four Dullahans that we had to deal with, I doubt it would be easy given how terrifying everyone seemed to be making them out to be, but never the less I''ve got all the tools I need to beat these things down and send them back to the depths of hell where they crawled out from.


    From what I know, undead we''re tricky to deal with. If they''re not properly destroyed, they''ll always rise up again to case a shit ton of trouble for you, so you had to make sure to properly destroy them. Which means in this case I had to pull out all of the stops, and we had to get this done quickly too. The heart seed was still in danger.


    I shifted Sky''s staff form to my left arm. As I pulled out the Kusanagi, the sword might not be specifically tailored for undead, but I knew it had something to do with souls. It''s how it grows, so it stands to reason with all of the other skills attached, this blade should be about to cause a significant amount of damage.


    (Storm Dance) (Lighting Blade)


    "You guys should follow my lead, we can''t afford to let some of you die, even though many of you totally deserve it. Keep on me and attack whatever gets last me, Tiamat offer me some support. It''s time to show these things that the dead, should remain dead!"


    Not my best line to date, but I think it works better for now, I''ll come up with something better when we''re kicking the necromancer''s ass. But for now, I''ve got a dance with death.

 187 The Final Curtain VII : Dullahans

    The broadswords the Dullahans were using were just as large as their entire body, six feet long and two feet wide. The swords were also aflame with the same blue flames on their horses, and their headless necks wasn''t really good to look at, leaving everyone with a rather crossed out feeling. I rushed out towards the Dullahans, and they charged their horses towards me too. It was quite annoying that the hallways was made large enough that all four horses could ride through it side by side.


    The means that the plan to face of against them. One at a time was pretty much a bust and I had to use a skill that got all of them at the same time. (Divine Wind Draw) lightning entwined with a green wind scythe shot out from the katana in a wave, however a transparent black shield rose up and intercepted the strike, cracks appeared on the shield that was now serving as a wall for the Dullahans, but they were still very much unharmed, but this was just the beginning.


    (Stellar Flare)


    The power behind the stellar flare skill is something that I''ve not been able to fully measure or quantify, but this time it was more than. Enough to smash into the shield, break it, and then throw the horses and their undead riders on their back. We bought a little amount of time, but we had to keep the pressure up on these things. (Mana Arrow)


    One Mana Arrow shot through the chest of one of the Dullahans, carrying the undead riders backwards and nailing him to the wall. I don''t know how long he has been taken out like that, but I would make the best of the reduced amount of enemies. The remaining Dullahans raised up black shields that stopped the arrow from attacking them, but like I said I wanted to keep the pressure on them.


    (Wind School: Lightning Bolt)


    *Gruuuuuoooooooaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr*


    The Dullahan that got attacked was boasted backwards, releasing a deathly groan that made me feel cold. It''s horse charged towards me in blind date, much to my surprise, but then again I guess I could understand the kind of bond they had...kind of. I shifted Sky back into her war helm form and placed her on my head, then I held the Katana with two hands as the horse drew closer.


    A silver arrow streaked past me, shearing off it''s right fore leg and back leg. The horse crashed to the ground screeching loudly in a very invited like manner as slid towards me. It came to a stop right in front of me, and I happily brought down my Katana on the red eyes decapitated head that was staring at me from within the confines of a small cage. The horse''s body went stiff, and it turned to dust without a sound, just like the Dullahan that I shot s lightning bolt at, did a second later.


    *Whooosh!* *Clang!!*


    A silver spell circle came to life in front of me, an just in time too as a massive broad sword smashed into it. The shockwave threw me backwards, but I was still able to see a golden streak fly above my head, blasting a rather massive hole through the chest of the Dullahan that just attacked me. But the target was not even the Dullahan as the bullet that was shot through him went directly to the caged head hanging on the horse behind him.


    The headless horseman took two steps forward and turned to dust, leaving me pretty much gob smacked as Lerrianderlei rushed forward, a couple other s right besides her. Tiamat shit through a body, to get to what she was aiming for, I always knew Qitar was deadly with a sniper rifle, she could actively use it in a battle like it was an ordinary gun, but this; what I just was freaky as hell.


    The Dullahan that I and pinned on the wall for free and got on his horse, the horse reared up and started galloping towards a very busy Lerrianderlei who was trying to get to get to the head on the second and final horse while her partners and comrades kept the angry Dullahan busy. Her silver bow was hanging on het back, and she was wielding twin elven swords that glowed with silver, and glyphs and runes.


    I shifted Sky back timber how form and jumped out an explosive fire arrow.


    The Dullahan dodged it and it exploded harmless behind him, but the thing is, most of this arrows had active detonator, it was this tiny magic circle that Dinah had etched on Sky, making it possible for the elephant battle beast to use the arrows even without me being her bow form. I pulled out an ice arrow and shot it at the horse.


    The Dullahan might have really fast reflexes, but the same could not be said for the horse, however the undead steed still swayed to the side, letting the arrow graze it, instead of hitting it. But even then what I was aiming for had already been achieved as thick later of ice covered one side of the horses flank, Slowing it down a bit for me to fire a flash light element arrow...¡­that was a mistake as I didn''t warn anyone else about the flash.


    Luckily enough, both Dullahans and their horses were affected along with everyone else who was fighting, so there wasn''t that much danger, at least until the horse Lerrianderlei was fighting turned around and kicked back with it''s hind hooves, their fiery trail smashed into the elven Queen''s and sent her flying backwards into the air. I quickly shot into the air, flapping my wings as fast as I could, and catching her in time before she smashed into a pillar. However the momentum behind that kick was not reduced and I was the one who ended up smashed into the pillar.


    There was a dull ache on my side, but I was thankful that my wings were intact. I dropped the surprisingly unharmed elven queen to the ground, but before I could say anything, she turned into a silver streak of light that shot at the Dullahan, said streak went around the Dullahans and their horses a couple of times, before coming to a stop. She returned both swords to sheaths at her waist, and turned to face our motley groups of party goers, the Dullahans and their horses turning to dust behind her.


    "Fighting with Inhibitors is annoying, I''m thousands of years old! This dragon god guild idiots and taking me for a defenseless child! Let''s out an end to this farce, I grow weary of it."


    Safe to say she was not the kind that was particularly patient with her enemies, it was also safe to say that not just her identity, but also her power, she was keeping them all under wraps. And then finally, the unmistakable knowledge that I had banged an incredibly old woman, like ancient! I''m never going to live this down should the others hear about it.


    There were a few Injuries, but no deaths. The only time we''ve had people die was during the fight with the goblins, and speaking of which, those damn things were still on our tails. We rushed through the final hall, stomping all over the dust like remains of the Dullahans and their horses. We burst into the next building, the throne room, the place where all the official like things that came with office of queen was carried out. But just like we expected we were not alone.


    There were twelve heavily armored warriors with glowing red eyes and black smoke wafting in and out and hanging around their bodies. They had serrated edges long swords, with skull like designs on their hilts and guards. They had shields that had the depiction of a screaming face, and their armor had gothic looking spikes on it''s shoulders, elbows, hand guards, and on it''s shins. And standing behind them, sitting on an elaborate throne was a silver haired fox-woman dressed in a kimono, her legs hanging off one side of the throne and a ghastly staff held in her hand.


    The staff was actually completely red with hat looked like the skull of a human baby, a baby dragon and wolf placed side by side on top of it. Within the eye sockets of these skulls, green, blue and red flames could be seen burning. She was beautiful, but death usually is for most people, so that''s understandable. Her piercing green eyes moved from one person to another, before coming to a stop on me.


    "You''ve cost the dragon god guild a leader, Locke had deleted his account to start over from scratch, the position for the sin dragon avatar of sloth is now open, since we''ve come this far there''s no need to keep up pretended and call ourselves dragon avatar of virtues. This is so bothersome, why''d I have to be the one that faces off against you, they know I can''t win, however they just want to prove a point." She said all of this whilst looking at me.


    "Who the fuck are you?" I asked her with a shrug of my shoulders, almost as if I couldn''t be worried by whatever she had to say.


    "Ahhh where are my manners, please you can call me, Sorrow..... my friends call me Row if you would prefer that. I''m the sin dragon Avatar of envy, and you Captain Seven, or should I say Guild Master Seven, are or father''s is a thorn that the dragon god guild wants to thoroughly squash, until there''s nothing left but pieces and Memories of your disrespectful and godforsaken......"


    *ZIIIIIN! ZIIIIN!*


    Smoke escaped from the twin handguns i had pointed at her, the look of surprise on her face as she was sent off to respawn was very much worth it. This seemed like as good a time to tests the Acheron Waves. The guns were powerful enough to kill her without having to resort to using their skills, Dinah has really outdid herself this time.


    The armored undead which I''m having an inkling suspicion were death nights collapsed to the ground like string less puppets, and then their armors just like the Dullahans before them turned to dust and there was nothing left behind of them. I looked up to see everyone staring at me with varying degrees of looks. I raised both guns up and said.


    "I''m tired and she was talking way too much, plus I''m not new to schemes or people trying to kill me, especially for defending myself. And I like antagonistic monologues as much as the next person, heck I do it a lot, but I''m just really not in the mood." They all seemed okay with the explanation before Lerrianderlei spoke up.


    "You had those guns on you the entire time and you didn''t feel the need to use it until you got annoyed by someone talking too much?"


    "Well you''re a queen who can move at the speed of light parading as prime minister of with a nice ass, you didn''t feel the need to expose yourself and power until a horse kicked you in the boobs. Don''t think I don''t know why you got angry and flash killed those Dullahans."


    Safe to say none of her guards were happy with the way I was talking to their Queen, but they can go fuck themselves. I refuse to be scared of a woman who''s bed errr limo I''ve shared. It just doesn''t work that way for me, I have a claims over her now and she knew it. She waved her hands telling them to stand down and said.


    "You have a point there."


    "Of course I do, now what next?" I asked as I looked at Martha.


    "The inner throne room is underground, it''s the most defensive place in the city of Prophecies, everyone here would be safe there. Thank you so much for escorting me this far, but you have to get to heart seed now, your guild members are there fighting, and even though they''re putting up a fight, there''s too many enemies for them to deal with. I can expel every unwanted individual or being from the city of Prophecies, but I can''t use it''s attacking systems into the heart seed is secure, so please hurry." She said to me with a very worried tone, which was understandable, there were a lot of lives on the line right now.


    "Alright, Queen Lerrianderlei please keep her safe, Tiamat keep an eye on both of them for me." I said to Tiamat as I holstered both guns and began to make my way outside the throne room.


    "I can take care of myself Seven!"


    Lerrianderlei shouted at me, I just turned with a smile and said to her.


    "I know."

 188 The Final Curtain VIII : Grand Debut: A.I.L

    THE HEART SEED CHAMBER


    \u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c|=|\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e


    Qitar stepped back, evading a spear to the throat before slamming the butt if her sniper rifle on the jaw of her attack. The hit threw him off balance, just in time for Qitar the turn around, balance her gun on her shoulder and pull the trigger. She didn''t even look behind her, as she faded her next opponent, the recoil from the gun pushed her forwards and she slammed a knee into the sternum of an unsuspecting Patmosian. Her bionic arm followed as she lunches her way clean through his chest.


    A bolt of dark grey energy was heading for her, but she waved her right hand towards it, casting (Mana Shield) intercepting the spell. The human mage player who had faster the spell, suddenly found himself enshrouded in darkness as two weirdly and elaborately curve swords came out of it and took his head off. The darkness vanished, but soon enough his comrades standing right besides him had a hole stabbed through his throat, his blood spilling out wildly as it outlined the invisible form of Darke.


    A berserker began to spin around wildly, his massive great sword creating gusts of wind and 2.3 meter in diameter kill zone were no one could get close. He was moving himself towards the Darke, but the elven clone was not even a bit shaken by the display in front of him. He rushed towards the whirling cyclone of a great sword and jumped, turning himself upside down in the air like a professional gymnast, whilst simultaneously swinging both his swords.


    There was barely any sort of Resistance as both specifically tailored and crafted elven blades, sliced the head of the player into three pieces. The middle part was still connected to his, while the right and left slid downwards, leaving a bloody trail behind. Darke landed on his feet, his momentum pulling him back a bit as he held his swords in a reversed grip, stabbing it into the stomach of two undead players, and then dragging it upwards, making sure to give them more than just a simple stab wound. And then he vanished, and just in time too as a bolt of lightning fell on the spot he was previously occupying.


    The girl or woman who had fired the lightning bolt seemed to be a fairy, she was keeping herself afloat, her figure surrounded by pink and purple magic circles that seemed to serve as a sort of shield for her. Due to the sheer amount of enemies they all had to deal with, no one could pay any attention to her, so she was causing quite a bit of problems by being an annoying pest, But Zareth already has his eyes on her.


    His stout dwarven form made it a bit harder for fighters taller than him to cause any sort of significant damage or properly attack him. As a dwarf Zareth had already been trained in the very best way to utilize his height, so the idea of ducking under swings and stabs was almost to easy for him. He shifted his head to the side as a long sword went past it, the he stabbed his Lance forward and then flipped it upwards, catching the warrior he was fighting off guard and slamming the tip of his Lance under his jaw, and then carrying him over his head, smashing him down on the body of an approaching orc.


    Zareth spun around, his Lance leaving behind a trail of fire as he slammed it into the chest of an elven archer, throwing the player backwards into a group of healers where they all went down like a group of bowling pins. There was a moment of reprieve as Zareth crouched down, his eyes steady as flames began to billow of his body, the wooden floor beneath him cracked and began to smolder as thick noxious smoke rose up. There was practically no difference from this display with that of a rocket ship about to take off, and just like a rocket, Zareth shot into the sky.


    He left a trail of flames in his wake, his body be armor balding in an extremely eye catching manner. He flipped his body, his Lance pointed downwards towards the fairy players who has been causing damage whilst being out of there reach. Flames spat out of his Lance, shooting out in small bursts that were akin to bullets. The spell circle shields around her intercepted the flames, negating them and rendering them useless, at least until Zareth crashed into the shields, after falling with the force of a meteor.


    *BAAANG! CRAAAASSHHHHHHHHH! BOOOOOM!*


    There was a shockwave that pushed almost everyone a few steps backwards, noxious smoke and a kind of sparkling dust filled the air obscuring the visions of most of the people there. But those who had better eye sight than most could see Zareth on the ground, with more than half his Lance stabbed through the chest of the fairy. Her resplendent butterfly wings were spread on the ground behind her, completely lifeless and dull, and in almost slow motion it began to face away until there was nothing left of her.


    A bullet whizzed through the air heading straight for Zareth''s unprotected back, however there was a streak of blue and ice and a Nezha showed up behind him, his longsword slicing down at the bullet, and in turn releasing a ridge of ice spikes that shot into a crow of players, rapidly impaling them and raising them a few meters upwards for all to see in a completely grotesque display. He turned around, bending backwards to evade an edged shield that was thrown fro his head, it whizzed over his face just as he raised his hands and pointed it at the Tauren who threw it at him.


    (Ice Bolt!)


    An small ball of cold blue energy shot out of Nezha''s hands and slammed into the chest of the Tauren, it only took the whole of two seconds for the half man, half cow to get turned into a solid sculpture of ice. Nezha ran towards his body as used it as a ramp and he jumped into the air, turning the statue to dust in the process and eliminating any chance of the player being revived into this battle. He spread his wings and his sword made an Intricate dance in the air along with him, a massive spell circle showed, gosling blue and silver and pulsing with each second that passed.


    Skills, bullets, arrows and weapons were all thrown at him to throw off his conversation. Most of them got through, chipping away at his health until it was in the red zone, he was critical at this point and a well placed hit would probably take him out of the fight. However it was in that moment his eyes shot open. He spread his hands outwards towards the still streaming in group of players; his wings were out up brightly, for all intents and purpose he looked very much like a holy angel of light. A Halo showed up on top of his head as his sword began to swirl and fly around his body.


    (Ice Fantasy: Icy Embrace)


    In very much the same manner as smoke(it whatever it''s called) would escape from a fire extinguisher, frost and cold air escaped from the massive rune above Nezha''s head. It spread through the chamber of the Heart seed, going around the seed itself and obscuring the vision of everyone within the chamber. But it didn''t just stop there; There was only one entrance in and out of the Heart Seed chamber, and the frosty air rushed out through it too, gushing like the billows of an ocean wave, or the perfect stream of a winter breeze. It encompassed every one in sight, player and AI alike, but it paid specific focus to the members of the dragon god guild.


    But it still wasn''t enough, the frost spread, going deeper into the massive tree, heading straights for the roots, at it began to cover hundreds upon hundreds of meters of space. The heart seed chamber was located right at the center of the tree, if you stood on the top of the massive basin like crater the tree was growing out of, you would be able to notice it''s mark. But right now, those outside could see that tree was slowly getting frozen, stretching forth an ominous and chilly fog that was swallowing every member of the dragon god guild, or Patmosian who stood with them, and then once it got to the roots, it stopped.


    Nezha opened his closed eyes, their depths glowing silver with glyphs on them. His silver and golden hair, turning pure white, and the most sinister smile possible for an angel etched on his face. (Ice Fantasy: Icy Rebirth), there was no sound, no fanfare or even loud skill animations. The fog began to recede, slowly going back into the spell circle and back into Nezha''s body as he floated in the air, his wings still flapping. It was a rather weird sight as it seemed as if the skill didn''t even do anything, but once the fog had receded, everywhere it touched or rather everyone it had touched had become nothing more than an ice sculpture.


    The sheer scope of the skill alone was insane, yet this was what was laid out in front of those who were left unharmed by the fog. The sheer power behind the skill, literally left chills in those who saw it, or maybe it would be because of the cold in the air. Whatever the case, Patmos had turned into a kingdom of ice sculptures, each different and uniquely different from the rest, but that much was understandable; after all, they were once people.


    When all of the fog had completed receded, Nezha came down from his perch in the Sky. The others apart from his sister Nuwa were looking at him with no small amount of surprise on their faces. Nezha had to admit that h was liking the attention, safe to say he had made a very good first impression, however the battle was not over yet. Or rather the effects of what this skill could do wasn''t done yet. All of the players and AIs captured by the ice weren''t dead, and if they were left as they were, in no less than 4 hours the would all be successfully thawed out and completely fine. Of course he could just break them all to pieces, but where was the fun in that. This particular skill of the ice Fantasy series can only be used every 5 days, and it would turn every enemy within a 5 to 10 kilometer radius into ice sculptures; Ice sculptures that could be controlled and used to fight in the favor of the spell''s caster, which in this case was Nezha.


    All in all the young man knew he had just gotten himself an army, and he could feel just how many they were. At the moment he had no less than 2000 players and AI''s under his icy control, their precise number happens to be two thousand, three hundred and eleven ice sculptures. Nezha had no idea how many fighters the dragon god guild had come with, but if he had this amount under his control, then it stands to reason that these guys were not taking any chances, there would be half as much as them scattered within the top floors of the city, none of them would be stupid enough to run around the island with the Demon general Sortovat hanging around in his massive snake form.


    But none the less, Nezha happily gave the order for 1500 of those ice sculptures soldiers to March to the top of the tree and begin the gruesome task of eliminating their comrades. Their skills will still work, though it would all be ice element based, and even worse was the fact that they were all conscious of what was happening, and none of them would be able to stop themselves from attacking their friends ad guild members. Nezha felt relieved and sat down with a loud sigh, he didn''t need to lead these soldiers as they streamed to the top of the tree, while the rest defended the roots and the chamber of the heart seed. There was a crazy bloodthirsty Monkey of the stone clan leading the charge, and with King at the forefront, special race and class involved, Nezha almost felt sorry for the remnants of the dragon god guild.


    And it was to a sight of all his guild members, tired and exhausted sitting with their backs to the heart seed, and sharing snacks like they''ve known each other all their lives that Aaron met. Sure he had a million questions as to why there were hundreds of ice men and women attacking members of the dragon god guild, but maybe it could wait. Morrigan joined them a few moments later and they all sat down there, exchanging stories as the crew from the real world, met the crew from the game world.


    This fight might not be over, but for the Acheron Imperium Lords is was, this group of friends, this team, this crew, this Family had made their mark on this world, and from this day, no one would ever forget them, or their names.


    Aaron reckoned that this was like their debut into the game, their foray into a much more larger stage than before, and he had to admit.....it was pretty fucking grand!

 189 The Final Curtain IX : Aftermath

    Since I was still under a bed rest and observation period from the family doctor, I could stay for such longer time within the game. Which was nice as we had to cooperate with what''s left of the Patmosian military to take care of the remnants of the dragon god guild. As soon as Martha was able to able to take control of her city, and we secured the Heart seed, we were able to go on the offensive. And with Nezha''s weird brand of necromancy or kind control, we were able to tip the scales in our favor, even when Io had shifted into her dragon form to cause trouble.


    The city of Prophecies had a specially cultivated arm of it''s own, or rather I should say it had a couple that just had to be awakened by Martha. What no one knew was that there was a massive arm of dryads, treants, wood sprites and Nymphs living or rather sleeping beneath the city. And with Martha taking full control of it, hey were all awakened and brought into the playing field, completely turning the tide in our favor.


    But beyond jus fighting off the dragon god guild and saving a bunch of stuck up delegates, the guild grew a bit. Apart from building a sense of camaraderie between them, every single one of them was pretty much in their mid to late level 40s, with the lowest actually being Houki at level 41, which was also surprising, but by virtue of being both a player and AI, and a special one at that, her rate of advancement was very different from that of anyone else.


    Thanks were given, empty promises were made, not sure Martha even have a crap about those anymore, Patmos can protect itself without relying on the help of people it couldn''t and shouldn''t trust. Then rewards were also given out, and the ensuing result was that the Acheron Imperium Lords were leaving here a very rich guild, plus we were also given a new and much better cargo ship, and with the betrayal of the dragon god guild, there was no need for a blockade.


    None of the major powers were stationed on New Gaia again, but this was the prime planet, their home ground, the place everyone else and their ancestor''s ancestors had lived before migrating to other planets. Their home world; which is why they were so invested in keeping it safe, but with the dragon god guild now a threat that they had to deal with, keeping an eye on a red dome that at the moment was keeping the demons contained did not seem to be at the very top of their list of priorities.


    But none the less that''s not our problem, we''re still rogues though. The coven of Angeles might have retracted the bounty on my head, but the dragon god guild had increased theirs. 2 billion gold was half of the entire funds my guild now had after all of the rewards we were given, and apparently that was just how much my head was now worth.


    There would be people coming for me, the dragon god guild might be public enemy number one, but to those people who still saw this as a game, they were still the most powerful force Within it, and the money they were offering for me as just too damn much. It''s not just wealth within the game, it was also wealth in the real world.


    But like I said, it was not our problem, but maybe it was since I''m the one being hunted, but I couldn''t bring myself to be worried about people who were giving themselves a death sentence, because in case all these guys haven''t noticed, I have a very dangerous squad around me, we would be the squad goals of anyone with half a brain, so it would be wise to not mess with us. But then again lots of people wouldn''t get the message, hence lot''s of asses to kick and faces to humiliate.


    I was standing in my room, looking out the window and into the fog covered morning, the city was silent I''m sure since it''s inception that this was the most silent it has ever been. Normally silence like this would be accompanied with a peace and a calmness of mind, however all I could feel and recurve from this place was death and sorrow.


    The coup had laid claim to 3644 Patmosian lives and another 1677 lives of other races who called the city home, everyone here today was mourning, even Qitar had lost family in this coup. So while we''ve achieved much, it was also within our capacity as a guild and as family to stand besides our comrades and allies during their trying times, especially when we were responsible for about half of the deaths.


    I let out a sigh as I stepped forward, and fell out my open window. The sound of the wind rushing past me felt soothing, at the very least it cleared my head a bit. I spread my wings as I got closer to the ground, the massive roots of the tree of revelations and the houses, doors and windows built into and through it looked in my sight I coasted over their surface, barely scraping by as I startled quite a few residents.


    Patmos as an island was beautiful, the tree and it''s city was beautiful too, it''s souls didn''t even look half as bad as I expected it to be. And I knew from this day henceforth, it would become a million times more beautiful, with Martha now leading her people, I''m sure her vision for the future would be a million times clearer and better than those of her predecessors.


    It wasn''t until I took this that I realized that there were buildings in the walls of the massive basin the tree was located in. Some were just balconies, others doors, windows, stairs, the city was so much more than just the tree itself, it was laid the island too. So much potential nestled within this very land, I smiled as I looked upwards and let my powerful wings beat against themselves to deliver me to a higher altitude.


    And so I sort up high until all of the houses and buildings were nothing but specks in my eyes, and my form was lost within the branches and leaves of the tree of revelations. I guess the most eye catching factor of this tree was it''s leaves, their multicolored crystal like his that held the secrets to power and skills within them. There was no other place like Patmos, and no other existence like the tree of revelations, things like this you won''t ever get to see in the real world, but in here; your wildest fantasies were a reality.


    I went above the tree line and the city of Prophecies was laid out in front of me, white polished walls and houses covered with rust colored red bricks, or maybe it was the soft reddish brown of leaves during Autumn. Which come to think of it, was the current season, at the very least within the game. Perhaps the color of the roofs differed according to the change of the seasons. This particular city was still mostly empty, if I had to be honest about it, it was pretty useless to anyone but Martha herself.


    The Patmosians have made their lives within the tree, in and around it''s roots, and even in the walls of the basin. This city on there hand though defensible and much more stronger and valuable, was falling apart. And it would take a good while to restore it, and then a lot of new faces from allover and over a certain amount of years to populate it. Because right now the population of Patmos was at an all to low due to the coup, it would take a while before this city holes any meaning to it''s people apart from being a holy place.


    I flew towards the palace, ignoring the treants and dryads allover the place, I should have put them in my equations too, these guys would happily live here, they were not puppets or creations but actually living beings, of course they were loyal to the city and it''s queen, but it didn''t mean they couldn''t have a life of their own. So maybe the city would have people to call it home after all.


    Finding Martha In this place should have been really hard, but considering she left a window open for me, it wasn''t too hard to find her. Her room was huge, and very green and rustic red, so I guess the Autumn thing Diane the d¨¦cor of the palace also changes. I sat on the windowsill as she told her attendants and guards to leave us.


    "So how''s it going Queen? Was this how you expected being the Sovereign power of Patmos to be?" I asked her as I leaned back resting on the window while one of my legs hung outside of it.


    "Power and responsibility is never meant to be easy or fun, those who seek power and control for he wrong reason don''t understand that, positions such as this; is a privilege and a responsibility. But it''s never meant to be easy or fun, intact every day is a battle, and so it will be till the day I leave this world." I blinked at her and then said.


    "So it''s going good then! Just the normal responsibility of a Queen, gotcha."


    "Hahahaha you''re an enigma, you joke when your serious, and you''re serious when you joke. You''re always bat ease with everything, even when you heart is heavy, only you can smile in the midst of a battle, against odds you can''t beat, and against an enemy you know is stronger than you.


    You fight to kill, you don''t play around in a fight, and every strike is meant to end. Which means even though you''re so damn good at playing politics, you don''t fight like a noble, you fight like a killer, an assassin or maybe just a butcher. But even through all that you''re still smiling, genuinely too. Why are you so strange?"


    I was so caught off guard by that question, how the fuck was I supposed to answer that. I thought I was quite good at observing people, but who knew this Brand New queen has been doing the same to me, every second we''ve been together. It was creepy get at the same time very impressive.


    "Look at me!" she called out to me.


    I did, and I almost fell off my perch on the window, so she was naked, very much so. Every inch of her green skin with silver and gold tattoos spiraling allover it was exposed to me, and I had to admit she had a body to kill for. She was not as curvy and sultry as Kira and Penny, her beauty had an Innocence to it, and it reminded me so much of Sarah.


    "Come here.....please." Safe to say, I made sure to close the window behind me.

 190 The Final Curtain X : Heading For The Stars

    The world was quiet at the moment, some would say peaceful but I knew better than that, this was sort of the calm before the storm. Both the game world and the real world we''re hanging on the precipice, a brink of nothingness and evil that I know will consume everyone, but in the end this is the world we live in, and we all had to make the best of it. I made my way through a polished hallway, the founding members of the A.I.L walking right behind me, I''m pretty sure it made for a terrific sight , but also a comical one if you coughed the fact that we had an elephant following after us.


    I couldn''t help but reminisce about the night I had with Martha, it was nice, bit the best I''ve had, but I was also her first, which made things a bit awkward and slow. But it''s not everyday you get to fuck a queen, even if it''s in a world of programs and AI''s. She left before I woke up, and didn''t want to read too much of a meaning into this, but quite honestly, it won''t be happening again...¡­or maybe it will, but until then, it was time to leave this god forsaken rock. This might be the planet I had spawned in, but quite honestly I hated the place, all it''s done was give me one problem after another, it''s quite annoying to imagine that this planet was actually earth thousands of not millions of years in the future. But then again real life was just as stressful, so it was sort of understanding.


    At the other end of the hallway was an open hanger, it was huge, massive, and a plethora of ship''s were docked within it, one of them was going to be our ride off this rock. I don''t really know much about the specs of the ship we were given, but at the very least it was large enough to carry the Acheron, and also had enough fire power to make it more than just an empty shell. It didn''t take too long for us to find the starship, after all it was the one currently being loaded with supplies and had an A.I.L painted on the side of it, it was actually quite nice to look at.


    It was silver, with it''s edges glossed with a deep shade of red, it was roughly 500+ meters long, if not more, and should be about 250 meters wide. This was a big ship, a very, very big ship. And it was not just a cargo ship, but rather it was a drop ship meant to hold smaller combat ships and equipment, a miniature command center for a fleet that''s responsible for the transportation of resources to the battlefield, and as such it was a bit bulkier than the norm. Zack stepped forwards and opened his mouth to speak.


    "The Silver Moon Z-XXX-27 is a battle cargo plane, it was built for transport and rapid deployment of smaller star ship''s and Mechas to a battle field. It''s equipped with an elven green core rune engine, it runs off a limited supply of world tree Amber, it''s a stable green energy, though it costs a pretty penny.


    Apart from that, the ship won''t be winning any races, it has terrible speed when it comes to long distance flight, however it''s Warp drive, which is significantly much more valuable than a hyper drive can cross at least 18 star systems or galaxies in a second. Which makes it quite good a transport ship, because even though it''s not fast, it can get the required goods and equipment to a battle field on time.


    The ship is affectionately called the Flying Tortoise, and that''s attributed to it''s defense. It has a hard shell, basically duo advance defense nanites that were programed and spelled with the most advanced of elven defense magic. It can take a bit that most battle star ship''s would be reeling from, it''s weapons system are somewhat mediocre with the ship only being equipped with basic laser turrets and an electro beam main cannon.


    It''s not the best ship, or the worst, neither is it average in it''s performance, all that can be said about it; is that''s it''s quite unique. It will get us sure we need to be, wherever that may be, and keep us safe should we find ourselves in a fight. Besides, I''m sure the very first chance Dinah gets, she''s going to modify and upgrade the ship''s systems and capabilities." After he finished speaking, he went on ahead, scaling the ramp of the Airship, probably making his way to the flight deck.


    This ship was bigger than the only other starship I''ve been on, so instead of a cockpit, it had a flight deck, and Darke was our resident pilot. The workers on the ship seems to be done with loading all of the extra supplies, which means it was time to get on with it. The rest of us made our way into the ship with Qitar staying behind a bit to say goodbye to some family members. The first thing we noticed the moment we stepped into the ship, was the Acheron, it was tethered to the ship with massive magnets that glowed blue underneath is and kept it stable, so that whatever complex maneuvers this ship might have to make in the future, the Acheron would not be as affected.


    "You must really have some clout with the elves for them to give you this ship, it''s exclusive to their star fleet." Morrigan said to me as she stepped close.


    She was playing the game as a Vint, a feminine alien race with telepathic abilities, they also had the ability to create drones of sorts from their bodies, kind of like an ant queen with her workers soldiers and the rest. Her skin was scaly and green, she was no less than three meters tall with a long jaw filled to the brim with fangs, on her back were ridged spines that stretched out even under the armor she wore, which was also specifically tailored for her body. She had an ace shaped tail that could actually open up from the middle like a scissor, and her tail was twice her entire size as six freaking meters. According to take more, it was strong enough to squeeze steel like it was a candy bar.


    Her class completely mirrored her abilities in the real world, and that was technomancer, a class that lets her communicate, take control and create technology for a variety of things. Not to mention her racial telepathic abilities that made her more of heavily teched up summoner, Monkey King was a beast person, a monkey man that had an advanced hidden monk class that came with an inheritance he found by luck in the game when he first started playing; Great Sage Monkey.


    "I don''t really have a lot of clout with the elves, I''ve just fucked their Queen before, and odds are, that I would probably do it again in the future." I answered Morrigan as we left the holding area to residential one, and then onwards to the flight deck where Darke was manning one of the four seats within it.


    "We''re ready for take off guild leader." He said to me, and then I gave him a nod to carry on with the sequence.


    "All hands on deck! We''re about to launch, I repeat all hands on deck! We''re heading for the stars."

 191 Space Virus I : Warp

    "Engaging primary engine thrusters, secondary engines active, all coms system green, Warp engine 20% charged. Ascending, we''ve cleared Patmosian air space, engaging secondary engines thrusters." Darke''s bland voice rang out through the ship''s intercom as we ascended into the sky, looking out the window and the tree of revelations left behind I couldn''t help but smile, it didn''t take too long for it to look like a small green weed in my sights.


    "We''ve cleared new Gaia''s atmosphere, approaching planetary blockade, activating interstellar passcode."


    New Gaia is a beautiful place, I mean it was sort of what the creators of this game, Aka my family and a bunch of AIs envisioned the earth to be like in a couple million years into the future. And quite honestly I think they were right in their depiction, this place was filled with so much trouble, so much lies, so much politics...so much humanity. Obviously no matter how many years are given to us, no matter how many world ending scenarios we''ve had to experience, we always fail, we always disappoint. We''re still the disease, and the cure for humanity is something I don''t think will ever be found.


    I already sort of missed it, in one way or another this planet has sort of become my home in this world, I''ve made a connection with it that I''m sure I won''t ever forget, there were still things and people I care about in that planet. But whatever the case this was now in my past, and that was left to do was look forward to the future. I shifted my gaze from the massive ball of green, blue, grey, white, golden brown and multiple colors and face an endless expanse of lights in the inky blackness of space. My next Adventure is somewhere out there, at least until when it''s time to leave for the other dimension.


    There was a fleet of ships with their weapons active pointing at us, the pass code Darke had given them was being verified, and thankfully is panned out. I didn''t want to imagine what would have happened if those politicians on new Gaia decided to double cross us. The ship''s rearranged their formation creating a hole for us in this very ridiculous, very expansive blockade of ship''s that actually encircled the entire planet. However having ships encircle a planet would be ridiculous, because quite frankly it would take as much ship''s as there are people on a planet to cover such a distance.


    Each ship''s were stationed quite a distance from each other and then electrical currents of some sort were connected between all the ship''s, creating a sort of net to prevent any unauthorized ship''s from leaving the planet or entering it. We went through without any problems, and this was when we could well and fully say goodbye to new Gaia.


    "Guild leader where would we be heading to next?" Qitar asked me as she sat on the seat besides Morrigan behind me, while I sat besides Darke as his co-pilot.


    "We''re heading to Orous Darke, Zareth has a date with the dwarven Emperor." I said to Zareth as I looked at the massive Star aka the sun in the distance, the many other twinkle twinkle Little stars all around.


    "Orous is a major planet on the north Easter quadrant of the known space, basically you could say it''s right at the edge of the known universe. The Warp engine is strong enough to make that jump at once, by mine and the ship''s nav system calculations, we''ll need to make five Warp jumps, with each jumps interspaces between each for a duration of 24 hours to give the engine enough time to recharge, we can only do it this way if we want to achieve maximum distance and sorter travel time. If we make shorter jumps it will take us more than five days to get there, probably two weeks if not more." Darke explained as he flipped some switches.


    "Basically after every jump we''ll have to fly through space for a day before to allow the engine to recharge, before making another jump. However we will have to plot our course properly, fuel would be a problem, so we''ll have to set a Warp course for planets that can fuel the ship. We have enough for two jumps, after the second we''ll need to make a stop." Darke explained as the ship moved forward.


    "You should make sure the planets we have to stop at are relatively peaceful, quite frankly I would prefer if we don''t see any more action for a while, we need a break." I said to Darke as I stretched my body.


    "Cant say that I disagree with you there guild leader, every moment we spent on Gaia, was us being roped into one fight or the other, I''m so tired I feel like retiring to a village on some remote planet and buying a farm." Qitar muttered as she leaned back against her chair. Safe to say I actually agreed with her, there''s just been too many drama and fights hovering over us.


    "Its alright Darke, make the jump, after that me and the others would have to log off, we''ll be back in time for the next." I said to him as shifted my gaze to wild expanse of space.


    "Warp engine is charged at a 100%, external shields are functioning at full capacity, fuel is at 98%, all systems green. Engaging Warp drive in 5¡­4¡­3¡­2¡­1¡­Warp drive engaged."


    There was a sharp jerk as we were pushed back into our seats, the whole universe outside of the ship seemed to have warped, twisting in and out of itself, with lights blurring into each other, and making weird shapes as they did so. I felt sick for a moment, like my insides got twisted into pretzels and those pretzels were further smashed into bits with a blender( if that makes sense.) And then the world righted itself, the ship came to a stop in front of a frozen Asteroid belt, there were a bunch of mining ship''s around and within the massive cluster of asteroids. We made the first jump without any problems, however.


    "Thank God that''s over, I almost puked my kidney out." Morrigan complained as she brought her menu and subsequently logged out, her body falling lifeless where she sat.


    "Well that''s just rude...shouldn''t she have said good bye?" Qitar muttered as she looked at me. I gave her a small smile in return and said.


    "I''ll make sure she tells you good bye next time, you guys should be careful and if anything comes up, get Houki to contact me, is that okay?" I asked as I made myself comfortable on the seat.


    "" Yes Guild Master!"" both Darke and Qitar answered at the same time, looks like my title really has changed in front of them ever since the guild was created. It made me wonder if the choice to change the way they address me was made on their own, or if they were prompted by the system that recognized me as a guild master and then as my subordinates. Whatever the answer might be, we''ll figure it out together.


    "Log out."

 192 Space Virus II : Terra

    "Before birth, there''s always a spark, tiny, miniscule inconsequential but quite capable of giving life to the greatest of forces, to the greatest of men, and women. To the greatest of heroes and villains, to the greatest gods and the greatest demons, and to the greatest of worlds.


    But sometimes one spark begets two, being so unique and powerful that it would birth two of greatness, two of the same coin, a hero and a villain, a god and a devil, a living world...¡­and dead world. Gaia is the jewel of the universe, home, the bright place of everything that breathes, sleeps, eats, flies, crawls, swims, moves, lives and die...¡­but not much is know about her sister, her twin in power and might, in magic and grace, a world forgotten and untouched by the ever evolving hands of the chosen ones, of the immortals, of the players!


    But she is unlike her sister Gaia, she''s a world of games and bloodshed, a world of Kings and heroes. Nothing is gained or given in this world without the strength of your swords and thickness of your blood, it is a world that gives its power to the glory of it''s Kings and it''s 100 legendary heroes of unique repute. She''s ready, she''s opening up her gates to you, to the lost descendants, for she is your inheritance. She needs her Kings, she needs her heroes, come and claim your kingdom, come and claim your might! Take and take and take! Until there''s nothing between you and the top, until your name resounds allover the place as Emperor as Legendary Hero!


    Fight for pride, resources, wealth, pleasures and the ultimate throne, need her call, need her please to be remembered as she calls out to you, as Terra! Sings forth her song of battle. Will you be there, on the dawn, or on the dusk, or on the high noon and midnight of her noble self. All are welcome...¡­bring your best!"


    (Tournament Of Terra: Of Kings \u0026 Heroes)


    The narration for the tournaments trailer was amazing, but it went behind just what was being said to what was being shown. Endless strips of stable land, deserts, mountains, tundra and actual floating islands. There were battling platforms placed in the strangest of places, and then civilizations that seemed stuck in a stone age. Their fur clothes clinging heavily to their body, and even though they all had different races to fall back on, they all just looked like the were prehistoric.


    Terra truly was a land untouched by technology, but it had magic and it very much had conflicts. There were werewolves and vampires, demons and what looked like angels. These placed seemed to be a little bit more supernatural than Gaia and the universe she was in, but that''s understandable, when your basing it on the timeline, magic or not, a bunch of things would be attributed to gods and weird voodoo by the people of this era.


    After the trailer, another one for the (A.R.I) Was shown, especially with the pitch that streaming services would be available for players and people who would be more willing to watch the tournament rather than participate. Of course to enjoy the streaming service a monthly subscription was required, but it was affordable for everyone, but of course said service would also be limited as there were three stages to it.


    The basic subscription, the premium subscription and the premium VIP subscription, each one correlating to the amount of popularity and power the individual or guild being streamed had.


    For example an ordinary player looking to make his way in Terra could be watched by others using the basic streaming service, but once said player has a modicum of Fame and is quite popular amongst others, his subscription service would be bumped up to the premium. Also players have to register for the streaming service, they''ll sign a bunch of legal documents, but on e the game starts, they earn a portion of the proceeds from the subscription service and a little bit more from viewers willing to gift said player money for his or her efforts.


    The premium VIP would have really famous guilds and players in it right from the start, a contract has probably been sent to all of them by now, and there''s no way they would disagree as quite a bit of money can and will be earned from it. Also there was also a measure of security, from the premium subscription upwards, players with subscriptions of their own will not be able to stream other players within the tournament. This is so that the secrets of players would be protected, sure people from the real world will see and probably expose it, but that''s an attempt to keep an element of surprise and have every guild and player be at the tip of their toes. All in all it as a well thought out plans, seems like a cash grab scheme to me, but nevertheless the augmented reality interface had more practical applications in real life than to just serve as a portable television.


    I switched of the holographic screen in front of me, only for me to get hit on my thigh. I looked down at Ron, he was just staring at the screens and now I had turned it off, I didn''t even notice he was there, I looked at the time and had to grimace, it was a little past 2am and we both should be asleep. But those eyes of his, they''re impossible to say no to.


    "Five minutes! I don''t care what you say or how cute you look, but after this we''re both going to bed, deal!" he looked at my outstretched hand and then back to my face, then he raised his hands up asking me to carry him up. I couldn''t help but sigh, I knew just as he knew that it didn''t matter what deal I offered, he was going to get what he wanted no matter what. The holographic screen came up again, this time it was showing a simple map. Of Terra that was released to the public and preparations for the guilds hoping to establish their kingdoms, this was so they could plan ahead.


    Of course not all information about the lay of the land was given, but there was enough to understand a basic demographic and make a choice. And then Ron moved his finger, pointing to a spot at the north-western edge of a continent right in the middle of Terra. It was uneven like most continents tend to be, but it was in the shape of a half moon, and the spot Ron was pointing at was right at the beginning of a mountain range, close to the western sea, to the east was a push and expansive forest that actually expanded to the ocean, a little ways south was the beginning of a desert, and North was the mountain range.


    The spot was covered with trees and green, showing that it was also a part of the forest, setting up anything there was akin to being in the middle of nowhere, the only place that there seems to be access to it, was from the desert in the south. This was not a detailed map, so it''s hard to tell if they''re any official roads leading to that spot, but seeing as this world was rather primitive I would say no. It was right in the middle of nowhere, however...¡­


    "Ron my sweet boy you''re a genius!" I said to him as I pulled him close and gave a big fat missing his cheek and hugged him tighter. He giggled, probably a little bit tickled by the small beard that had grown on my face(I need to shave that). Then he turned and said.


    "Go play there?" I raised an eyebrow, lost descendants online since it''s inception has only been open to 18 year olds and above due to it''s very graphic and adult nature, however maybe it time we bent the rules a bit. I quickly typed a message to the virtual reality department with a detailed plan, then I turned to Ron and said.


    "Don''t worry, daddy will go make a playground for you there, and then you can come play." I said to him with a smile as he nodded and continued to stare at the map.


    The spot he had chosen was pretty much isolated from the rest of the world, we might be quite far away from.


    Civilization, but we had access to all of the natural resources we would need to survive. The sea to the west, a mountain to the north, a desert to the South and if all should go well, a forest to the east or rather completely around us. But it was not just the idea of the resources, it was the idea of a place where the dragons could hatch without being discovered too early, where they can grow, and learn and train with everything they would ever need made available to them.....my very own dragon army.

 193 Space Virus III : Infection

    "This can''t be right."


    The ship was dark and completely powered down, I was in a room not unlike the Captain''s cabin on the Acheron, but just a bit smaller, however there was absolutely no power to the cargo ship, and more than that Sky was nowhere to be found or felt. The connection I had from her was gone, or rather it felt as if I was pushing against some sort of barrier, but I couldn''t reach her. I raised my communicator and decided to send a message to everyone.


    "Hey guys where are you, and what happened to the ship? Everything seems a bit off."


    At first there was static, and then the replies I got were moans and unintelligible mumbling, it didn''t make any sort of sense to me. I made my way out of the cabin, coming up into and dark hallway, the in Elven/draconic night vision and I didn''t have too much of a problem finding my way through it. An that''s when I heard Houki call out for me.


    "Captain! You have to get to the Acheron, and fast! Before the find you! Hurry!" I was completely taken aback by her frantic voice, what the hell happened during the time I was gone, but I guess the answer came to me just in time.


    (SYSTEM ALERT: QUEST: During your time away a conscious and deadly space Virus that was smuggled onto your ship had broken loose and infected most of your crew! It has taken over the ship and spawned minions to help it find the rest of your crew for assimilation. Task 1: evade all the minions and find your way to your ship/ Task 2: synthesize a cure for the virus/ Task 3: fight the minions and your infected crew members and administer the anti-virus to their defeated forms/ Task 4: Locate the virus/ Task 5: Eliminate the virus) (There are no rewards)


    "Oh fuck me!"


    I couldn''t help but curse at the madness of it all, can''t there just be some peace an quiet for a very long time, why the heck do we always have to deal with one shit or the other, and as it stands it seems as if someone else was plotting behind our backs.....and right now it was not a question of why, but rather a question of who. I made my way out of the room I woke up in, just in time to get a face full of green slime.


    I stepped back, in shock and raised my head just in time to see a floating jelly fish with green tentacles and ahead filled with eyes, each one leaking the green fluid that was sticking to my face. The smile didn''t cause any damage, but what came next sucked a lot, the jelly fish shot out it''s tentacles at me, slamming them into my chest, and releasing a large voltage of electricity that shouldn''t be possible for a creature the size of soccer ball. I was thrown backwards with a paralyzed status effect showing up over my head, but even worse was the fact that the electricity seemed to have triggered some sort of chain reaction causing the slime on my face to be akin to acid, burning the ever loving shit out of my face.


    "Arghhhhhh!"


    Whether it was pain, frustration or anger they were all held within that scream, my eyes were burned through, which was why i was probably unable to see the blind status effect, but then again none of that mattered as I held the Kusanagi and pulled it out, slashing in the direction of the jelly fish and his cohorts, lined up behind him like some army squad.


    (DIVINE WIND DRAW)


    I could see a wave of silver and gold energy rush forwards to slash into a group of black boobs that were floating in the air. Technically I was blind, but I remember now that I''ve got a new class, and one of it''s skills was affectionately named energy sight, and from the looks of things, and don''t need my eyes to be able to use it''s passive effect. Everything was dark around me, but as long as something gave off energy, it wouldn''t be too hard for me to locate and take care of them. I held the Kusanagi in one hand, and pulled out one of my handguns, then I unrushed forwards moving past the hallway to come up to the elevator that would lead me up to the cockpit, and down to the holding area where the Acheron was being kept.


    It wouldn''t be an easy take getting to the ship, especially with my eyes out of commission, and with the ship''s engine completely cut off, I couldn''t use it''s energy to move around, basically I had to really on myself to move, but I had an idea. I opened the elevator and had to duck backwards as an arrow flew past my face. There was someone standing in front of me, and from his posture, the way he held his bow and the energy coming from his body, and bright silvery green mixed in with stomach churning patches of black, and I would say that''s Zack in front of me.


    "Zack is that you?" I asked him as I took a step back, sheathing my katana and holstering my gun, I rather not risk injuring him.


    "Arrrrhhhiieieieeeeyyyyeyeyeyeyeeettttttstsssssssss!"


    "oh! Well nice to meet you too infected Zack" not that I understood one bit of what he just said, but it felt good trying to piss of an infected version of my friend while blind, what could possibly go wrong with that.


    "Rooooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr!" well that could go wrong.


    Two rapid shots both heavily saturated with energy came after me, I barely moved out of the way as the arrows flew past me as I turned my focus to Zack, (WARP) I appeared behind him, with my back to his own, a flaw of the low level (Warp) skill, you can only teleport in a straight line, basically your body is moved forward from one direction to the other, without variations during the teleportation. Luckily Infected Zack was caught off guard enough for me to turn around and grab him in a full nelson, with my arms under his armpit and my hands behind his neck keeping him bound. From then it was just a matter of applying a little pressure as I lifted him up and over my head to bring his head smashing down to the steel interior of the elevator in a dragon suplex move.


    *Bang!*


    This was a game, so the idea of people getting knocked out is actually a novelty, what they could actually experienced was a shirt period of being dazed and disoriented, giving me enough time to throw Zack out the elevator as his energy form bumbled about the hallway, moving like a drunk man with no destination in sight. The elevator doors closed but after a three seconds of no movement I remembered there was no power, which begged the question of how the doors were opened in the first place, and funny enough they weren''t opening up again...I was fucking trapped. Maybe if this blindness status effect which will last for another ten minutes wasn''t hindering me, I was would probably have noticed it there was something wrong with the elevator.


    But now here I was, a fish in a barrel of something of the sort. (Clang!) There was a dull groaning sound as the elevator began to move up, heading upwards to the cockpit rather than down to the holding area where the Acheron was being held and Houki and the others were hopefully safe aboard. I held my breath until finally the elevator came to a stop and opened up to four faces, or rather four energy signatures that is could recognize.


    Qitar, Dinah, Jack, and Darke, and hovering over them were what looked like hundreds of those jelly fishes, for the offspring of a space Virus, they''re surprisingly huge, I mean after all weren''t viruses supposed to be really tiny. There was no movement, as everyone just seemed to pause, like a veritable calm before the storm. I looked past them and saw a bigger and much more complex form of energy, and the infection here was worse, rather than it being black it was a deep red, growing and slowly corrupting a conflagration of golden and silver Energy that immediately recognized as Sky...¡­that virus is in my fucking battle beast! Shit!

 194 Space Virus IV : Escape

    Escaping from this infected would not be too hard for me, after all I had anfdw secret cards up my sleeve, however I just had to know what was going on. I still had a few minutes left before my sight returned, so all I could keep doing was look at them through the use of energy sight, they dragged me until I was right in front of Sky, I had no idea what she looked like now that she was infected, but what I could see with the energy sight was just...ugly.


    It was really worse without the ability to see, so as they dragged in front of the infected sky, it was just the sight of thick cloying energy that left me unnerved, whatever it is she looked like now, at least I couldn''t see it, because honestly it will piss me the fuck off. I could run, but I just needed to see where this goes, an infecting n like this was it unlike the havoc my sister was wreaking every where she went, but at the same time this was different. I bowed my head not wanting to look at Any like that again, but the energy sight skill didn''t need my eyes, it was as if I would always be able to see and sense the flow of energy whether or not I looked in that direction.


    I felt sky place her trunk of my head, it was bigger and colder than usual, I shivered at the touch as she began to make coming and chittering sounds, sounds that Qiatr and the others were more than happy to replicate. This was basically the virus''s way of communicating, but I really had no idea what the fuck it was saying, and honestly it was all a bit upsetting, and then Sky placed her trunk/nose on my forehead while the others held me down, barbs that shouldn''t exist on such an appendage stabbed into my head as I felt the injection of liquid into my head.


    (Purify has leveled up! Purify has leveled up!/ energy sight has leveled up to basic level 2)


    I was being infected just like the others, but I''ll be damned if I''ll stay here and get turned into a mindless zombie, even as a player such a character is not cool and would only be played by idiots not exactly right in the head. So rather than sit down being held here while my own hate beast infects me with a virus placed on this ship to sabotage us, I''mma skedaddle.


    (Air Form)


    Their hands and Sky''s trunk sunk through my now vaporous form, there was also no eyes in this form, but I didn''t need those right now to know I had to get out of here. I twisted myself, spinning as hard as I could to make a small cyclone that pushed everyone n back before I let myself move like the wind that I am, seeping into the cracks of a vent at my feet and into the ship''s ventilation system. I had no idea where I was going to be honest, but I just let my instinct lead me to where I''m spoosed to be as I contemplated about the current state of things.


    Whoever had done this, had done so with the intention of not leaving an evidence behind, basically we were meant to kill ourselves without leaving any sort of traces behind but the sign of an exposure to a deadly mind altering virus that made us turn on each other. It''s a really good plan, but there''s no way I''m going to let them succeed, and even more so when we''redone with this crisis, I''m going to find who did this, and rip them apart into as many pieces as I can muster.


    Finding my way through the vents weren''t as hard as I thought it''ll be, eventually I came out into the holding area, looking like nothing more than an imperceptible gust of wind. The Acheron was surrounded by spawns of the viruses, and even more startling was the fact that Zareth was amongst the infected, standing guard as he watched over the ship that seemed to be tightly sealed with no way in or out. I guess I can say that the infected versions of my crews were not too conversant with the skills of their uninfected version, but that was a gamble I didn''t want to take as a fight with Safety would tear this ship apart and send us out into the vastness of space, to be frozen to death.


    Now for the players it''s not exactly a problem, but for the AI''s that would simple be a death sentence, so I would rather avoid causing or doing anything that would cost me the life of my friends. I ignored Zareth and floated towards the ship, all of it''s turrets and guns were retracted, with only the ion poise cannon at the front being the only way into the ship, but I knew just as well as those Infected that using that cannon to move was a one way ticket to death, it wasn''t active or in use now, but there was a constant flux of energy within that cannon, according to Dinah there were residual energy explosions, very tiny ones left behind from every time the cannon was used. Basically it''s filled with radiation that would kill even a being made of molecules and cells in seconds.


    But in the end I still needed to find a way into the ship, and even if there seems to be no entrance into it, I''ll have no choice but to make my own way in. I floated around the Acheron, my eyes peeled until I found what I was looking for, a small window that was open and led into the residential cabins. It was at dey and still fully capable of stopping anything and anyone from getting in, but the thing is I now had access to the ship, or basically I could see inside a lot more easier than normal, which means I could go in.


    (WARP)


    Using this skill means I could only teleport in a linear direction, but basically I have to be able to see where I''m going, if not I should have been able to find my way into the ship based on memory alone, and even more amazing was the fact that I suddenly realized I had used the skill in my air form, it was incredible to say the least, it left a lot of options open for me when it comes to combat in the future.


    It didn''t take long to find the rest of the few in the control room, huddle around a magically crafted display of the cargo ship. I cancelled my skill, and reformed right in their middle, only to have a legendary sniper rifle pointed at my face, and a containment field of some sort raised up by Houki, which surprised me. I looked around and couldn''t help but smile sheepishly as I waved at them.


    "Hey guys...I''m back?" but even then they didn''t seem all too keen and happy about my appearance, after all; Tiamat still has a gun pointed to my face.

 195 Space Virus V : Anti-virus

    Believe what you will, but having a gun pointed at your face didn''t feel nice, of course this wasn''t the first time this has happened to me, and it definitely won''t be the last, but when it''s a dragon pointing said gun at your age, then the story become very different, because Tiamat just and this look in her eyes that said on word and I''ll shoot you. Simple, concise and straight to the point.


    "I''m not infected if that''s what you''re worried about." I said to them as I took a deep breath and moved my head from left to right with a grin on my face as Tiamat followed my gesture with the rifle. She pulled back, looked at Houki and said.


    "It''s him, no one else would be so nonchalant with their life on the line, not even if the option of resurrection is offered to them." My grin grew wider as Houki slammed into my chest and gave me a hug that was a whole lot warmer than I expected she must have been waiting for me to get back.


    "Alright give me the details, how can we set our friends free and get rid of the virus." I asked as I turned to Houki, she was probably the only one that would be able to come with a cure for this virus.


    "I''ve synthesized an antivirus, I didn''t have enough time to study the virus, so I don''t know if it''s affecting them magically or if it''s a biological reaction. So this treatment is not really full proof, I''m banking on it being more biological, but even if it''s not, one shot from the antivirus would put them out of commission, long enough for us to find a proper cure." Houki said to me as she hand me a tray with clips filled to the brim with bullets.


    The clips themselves had glass like tips with a blue glowing liquid in it, and there was a lot of them. A single clip had twelve bullets in them, and then we''re right of them. I don''t know how much time she had on her hand, but coming up with an antivirus this fast was surprising even to me. None the less it was time to take action.


    "Where''s Mark?" I asked as I couldn''t find him the moment I got onto the ship, it was just Tiamat and Houki.


    "He''s in the infirmary, he''s also infected. It was through his help I was able to come up with the anti-virus, though I''m pretty sure he didn''t want to give that help. I''ve tested it on him, it knocked him out; so I''ve out him under observation. Whatever happens, I should be able to know if the antivirus is working in at least two hours." Houki said as I placed the clip into my handgun, and then watched as Tiamat loaded longer but similar bullets into the sniper rifle. Even if the bullets were not lethal, a shot from that gun can still kill someone.


    "Don''t worry Master, I''ll be careful and make sure not to kill our friends, though I can''t promise they''ll be in fighting shape by the time I''m done with them." Looks like this entire situation pissed her off, either way it looks like I''ll be going back out just as quickly as it returned.


    Raven Song we not here, which would only mean one thing, and the was the fact that he wasn''t online. If he was here the situation would have been a little bit more different, we were the only two players within our guild, but we should be able to fix it up as soon as we deliver Zareth to his home...granted we can disinfect him that is.


    "We only have one shot at this guild master, please don''t miss, and don''t shoot anybody in the head of the heart. Basically avoid any vitals, the bullets will hit with the force of a normal bullet and can actually penetrate, but not too deep, just enough that the glass head will shatter and administer the anti-virus.


    The design is Dinah''s from when she made your arrows. I just borrowed from it, I didn''t have time to outfit them for a how, so you would have to use a gun. Nevertheless just do try to be safe, the both of you, and get our friends back." She said with tears in her eyes, I get the feeling she was probably missing Jack.


    I turned to Tiamat and nodded my head at her, the dragon gave a bow as we both made it back to the deck of the Acheron. Zareth''s infected form was lumbering around like someone who was drunk, the incomprehensible language if the virus was being spewed out of his mouth like some sort of mindless zombie.


    He hadn''t noticed us yet as he had his back turned to us, Tiamat wasted no time as she focused her Legendary gun at his back, and squeezed the trigger just after a second of hesitation. If it was just a second then I doubt it was even hesitation but just her settling her aim.


    *Spooof!*


    *Bang!*


    I had no idea when she had gotten a silencer for the gun, but it kept them from being discovered as the bullet slammed into Zareth''s back. It was just our luck that the virus didn''t feel the need to have it''s infected wear armor. Zareth was carried forward until his stout frame smashed into a wall, leaving behind the indent of a dwarf as he slid to the ground unconscious. I turned to Tiamat and asked.


    "Seriously?"


    "He''s still alive master, no harm done."


    I don''t know why, but this entire situation seemed extremely personal to her, we would have to have a talk later, but for now it was onwards. I jumped down, looking around to look for those floating blobs, but for some reason they were all gone from the cargo area. I quickly checked on Zareth to confirm that truly Tiamat hadn''t just killed him, then I turned to her.


    "He''s okay, we''ll come back for him later, let''s go get the rest of our friends!"

 196 Space Virus VI : Viral Comrades

    The ship was slowly getting cold, that much I can understand seeing as we were dead in space, but we don''t get the engine working soon we''re probably going to freeze to death. But that''s was neither here nor there, I don''t think it would be happening anytime soon, all that matters at the moment is kicking the ads of a bunch of virus infected comrades and sending them to dream land.


    Tiamat and I moved to the elevator, obviously the fact that it was still working was weird, but it was probably running on an auxiliary power sources, never the less, the elevator moving would alert the virus to our presence, which means it would be ready and waiting for us. There was really no way around this if I had to be honest, we could only go head to head with our friends, the only vestige of planned have in here was that I would go directly for Sky.


    The main virus was in her body and she''s the bigger threat, taking her out of the equation should be able to out a pause on the others. We don''t know how effective Houki''s antivirus is, but I''m hoping it does more than just knock them out. If it affects the virus in any negative way, it would drive I out and we should be able to deal with it, it might die without a host.


    As the elevator moved up, I stretched my hands up and opened up the hatch above my head, just Tiamat coming to attack them should be enough of a surprise, I would make a move when the virus''s guard was down. I took a deep breath and then gave Tiamat a warning look, she knew exactly what I was trying to tell her, but she was looking back at me with an innocent blank look.


    "Take it easy on them Tiamat, and be careful so you don''t tear the ship apart."


    As soon as I finished the elevator slid open and Tiamat turned and pulled the trigger, Zack was blasted backwards blood blossoming from his chest as the sniper rifle made it''s presence known. Tiamat cocked the gun, keeping calm as she placed another bullet in the chamber and fired it, point blank into Qitar''s stomach. She really was pissed, but what did they do to her!


    She ducked under a sword strike from Darke and used the butt of the gun to smash into his jaw, before pushing her head forward and smashing it into the forehead of Dinah, blasting the poor Maenad mechanic backwards. Another bullet was in the gun as she placed her feet on Darke''s chest and pulled the trigger. His body bounced from the impact as he released a restrained but pained scream before passing out.


    Dinah was back, this time with Jack in tow as they swept into Tiamat''s space and smashed the gun out of Tiamat''s hands with a well timed blow. Jack moved his sword fluently as if to shave off a piece of skin off Tiamat''s body. But suddenly her entire form grew scales as Sparks rose up from the area Jack''s sword had touched. She grabbed him and placed him in front of herself as Dinah gave a powerful blow from her gloved hands.


    Jack didn''t act like he was in any sort of pain from Dinah''s strike as he moved his neck forward in an attempt to bit Tiamat''s neck. But the dragon pulled back and pulled out another bullet that she held in between her knuckles like the claws of one Legendary mutant hero that will not be named. She punched him so hard in the stomach that his entire body seemed to fold into her hands, the glass top of the bullet broke administering the antivirus as Jack passed out folded on her fist.


    She threw his body to the side like it was nothing more than a ragdoll, but that was just in time for a beam of light to get fired out of Sky''s trunk and slamming into Tiamat''s chest, with a force so hard it smashed her backwards and tore the back end of the elevator, filling the steel into pieces, and leaving a terrible indent in the metal wall behind. A trace of blood leaked out from the side of her mouth as Dinah pushed forward to take the advantage the virus had bought for her.


    (Storm Dance)


    A gust of wind filled the cramped elevator as I came down and held up Dinah''s outstretched fist, and then I squeezed the trigger in my hand shooting her once in the stomach, and watching as she slowly slide to the ground. I didn''t even give the virus any time to come up with a counter attack as my body faded into nothing. (Stealth)and with the (Storm Dance) skill still active, it was only a matter of time before I was out of the elevator and almost in front of the virus.


    But it was prepared, I''ve never seen Sky attack in her animal form, and while it''s surprising it doesn''t seem to be something she can do all the time. My eyes were a lot better now, which means they could see the sheer amounts of those blobs, coming out of the ventilation system, which more than explained a few things for me. This thing didn''t want me escaping or coming back to attack it by using the ventilation shaft like I previously did when I escaped., It''s funny, but I understand.


    This was the reason why we''ve not seen any of them so far, it was just so that they could set an ambush for me. Which if you think about it was incredibly stupid because I would have been in my air form and would be untouchable. Never the less, this was what I had to deal with, I''m ready for it, if I have to cut through them all to get to Sky, then I''ll do so.


    (Lightning Blade!)


    "Come on then! Let''s dance!"

 197 Space Virus VII : Neutralizing The Virus

    The blobs rushed at me with a fervor and fury I didn''t expect, but whatever the case may be, they weren''t stopping me or slowing me down. I sliced the first six in half when they got close enough to me, and then I used (Divine wind draw) splitting almost a dozen in half as I fully waded into their midst. (Storm dance) was still active, and it was doing its job at keeping the monsters away from me and even causing damage to those I couldn''t pay attention to.


    (Warp)


    There wasn''t that much of a distance between me and Sky, using the warp skill had me in front of her in a split second, however before I could make a move, her trunk seemed to elongate and enlarge, smashing into my chest and pushing back towards the elevator, and on a sure fire Collison course with the blobs. No matter what, I didn''t want those things touching me.


    *BANG! *


    Tiamat was insane, the dragon had actually shot at me, the impact of the bullet had blasted me backwards, but the feeling of bullet hitting your back, even if it''s a blank was not a good one. And this time my speed was a lot faster, I wasn''t able to stop in time as I smashed into Sky, our forms getting tangled in the process.


    But this fight wasn''t over just like that, I quickly scrambled to my feet, prepared to empty the clip of antiviral bullets into her body, but with the virus in control, her combat awareness was sharper than before and she seemed ready for this move. Her trunk wrapped around the hand that held the gun and squeezed.


    But no matter how much pain she wanted to put me in, I had no intention of letting go of the only thing that could give me an edge. And since she saw I was unwilling to let go, even at the cost of having my wrists crushed, she added a little incentive into the mix.


    *BAM! *


    I saw starts as she smashed her massive head into mine; it was akin to having an elephant dropped on me, and in this case it was literally. The pain was so blinding I could feel my wingers loosening their grip and unconsciousness threatening to drag me down into an oblivion of darkness. but I had to hold on, there was no other choice, if not we would be telling a very different story later on, I should¡­


    *BAM! *


    The second head-butt almost took my head off, I could feel blood trickling down the middle of my forehead and my ears ringing so loud I couldn''t hear anything else. I was already on my knees with my vision blurry and my mind totally and completely blank. The gun fell out of my grip to the ground as I knelt there, my right hand held up above my head while the virus infected Sky prepared to smash my brains out of my head, that was a rapid turn of the tables if I do say so myself, but who am I? I''m Aaron wade, I always have another plan.


    *bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! *


    *CLICK! *


    * EEEEEIIIIIIIIFWEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYIIIYIYIYUUUYUUUYUUU*


    The most annoying screech every heard in the history of man was heard, in fact that screech was even more effective I n knocking me out than all the head banging from earlier. Well maybe the head banging did have a greater effect than I thought, but as she screeched to thy kingdom come, I fell to the ground, my vision gradually going dark.


    The was not how I expected this fight to go, I thought perhaps there would be an epic fight and stuff, not, me getting my ass handed to me by my battle beast. It was embarrassing, but none the less this was it. I saw Sky collapsing right beside me as a mercury like substance poured out of her body and onto the ground. It reminded me so much of a certain legendary symbiote, but never the less I was helpless and could only watch as it latched onto my face, turning my world completely dark.


    "Well shit!"


    \u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c\u003c||\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e\u003e


    This was beyond annoying, but then again I guess going up against members of your own crew was different from going up against enemies. I held back a lot, that much could be inferred from this fight, but never the less, I knew we had achieved what we needed to achieved and isolated the virus. But with me being logged out of the game, I hope this fucking virus wasn''t busy going around causing all sorts of havoc with my body.


    Because frankly speaking, my body was unlike anything else in the game, I didn''t want to brag, but my in game character was literal treasure trove, the sheer amount of trouble Aaren could possible cause would be enough to change the entire ruling structure of a planet. He or rather I, wasn''t all powerful yet, but I could cause a significant amount of problems no doubt.


    Either way. As soon as were done dealing with the virus, were going to be heading for Zareth''s home planet to deliver what he was tasked to obtain. After that''s done, they would probably set roots on that planet, or go to another major planet and start recruiting procedures from there for both new players and Npcs, and once that''s done, he would start making preparation for the tournament of kings.


    Once that''s done, he would be able to go into a new world and build a kingdom from the ground up. A kingdom that could foster peace within all of the other races within the game. The sheer amount of power he would be wielding, would probably be unlike anything any other player had experienced in the game, but regardless, Aaron was prepared to accept it. Because whether it was in the game or pout of it. Power was his destiny,

 198 Space Virus VIII : The Only Choice

    After the forced log out there wasn''t really anything left to do, by the time I could log back in it was well into the morning, and I just decided to spend it with Ron, and it was fun for the most part. We had pancakes and I read through a few reports, and then filled in Morrigan, Nezha, Nuwa and King about what they had missed when logged out. So they logged in ahead of me to go check things out.


    Finally, I could log in, and the first thing I noticed was the fact that I was in an airlock, it was a bit confusing because I knew the cargo ship didn''t have an airlock. Only frigates, freighters, motherships, colonies, space ports and space stations had docking areas that required airlocks. Most other starships just utilized bay doors and could not be boarded in space, which means they had to dock at either space ports, colonies or stations to carry out any sort of transactions or in most cases; repairs.


    "Well this isn''t my room, so would you guys tell me what''s¡­. urgh!" I had barely said two words when my head pounding and my ears ringing. My blood seemed to pump faster and all of my muscles were strained.


    my already sour mood got even more got even more ugly at that, worse was the fact that the system didn''t even tell me how I should get rid of the virus. I looked up see everyone gathered through the glass panel of the airlock, there were a few faces I didn''t recognize, but the stout forms of dwarves, and the way they seemed to gather around Zareth made it obvious they were friends of his. I was in pain. But I didn''t let that slow me down as I gritted my teeth and turned to Houki and Dinah.


    "Seeing as the others I okay I take it your antivirus worked Houki, so the both of you please tell me, how do I get this fucking virus! Out of my body¡­. yargh! you''re never getting rid of me! You hear me! Hahhahhahaha nothing you folks can do! You take me out of him and ill jump to the next and the next! AND THE NEXT! Mwahahahahahaha! shut the fuck up! You guys have got to get this shitty thing out of me!"


    I was well and pretty scared by now, because honestly speaking this was a very weird and scary feeling, having something g crawling about in your head and using your own voice to talk was beyond insane. So far I''ve tried and done my best in fighting and living my life, but never have I felt so helpless and so out of control.


    "Yo boss! They said there''s only one way to get rid of that virus, but we''re not so sure it would work considering¡­"


    "Considering what King! Goddammit kid get to the point would you, I don''t feel so good." I moaned to King as another bout of headache forced me to my knees.


    "We can''t have you in contact with any other sentient organism as that virus would be able to latch on faster than we can say stop. Not to mention the antivirus makes the host unconducive for the virus, it doesn''t kill it, which means the only other way to truly get rid of the virus is to kill the host, completely destroy the body so as not to give the virus any chance to come back,


    There''s an incinerator, but it''s too exposed and the virus might escape, which leaves us with only one other option of deep space. You would die from the lack of oxygen and you would freeze rapidly. The only problem is that we know you''ll resurrect back on the Acheron; we just don''t know if¡­."


    "The virus will resurrect with me." I said, completing Dinah''s analysis, but it wasn''t as if I had a choice, I had to do this, even if the virus will resurrect with me, I''ll keep committing suicide until they get this damn thing out of me, because honestly this was the only option, anything other than that means my account will be crippled, and everything I''ve done so far would be for nothing.


    "Open the bay doors, it doesn''t matter how many times I have to die before we figure this all out, but matters now are that if I don''t do this, then I''ll never be able to return. So do it, now!" I ordered as I moved closer to the main doors, their transparency seemingly beckoning me to the vastness and darkness ahead.


    "No! don''t listen to him! If you do this, we''re both not returning! But then again why am I worried, even if he comes back, I''ll be there with him too, mwahahahaha!" I hated my voice so much right now, normally I thought I sounded cool and handsome, but now I know I''ve got that natural villain''s baritone voice, but when you give that voice a crazy virus personality, then I become not just scary, I''m pretty much annoying.


    I looked up to see Houki placing her hands on the airlock doors. And then a virtual screen lit up, and I quickly received a prompt through the guild chat. It was confusing enough that she couldn''t just tell me what she wanted right now and had to use the guild chat interface, but I suspected it''s because of the virus. The only thing infected was my mind and body, the system belonged to the game as a whole, and there was a possibility, no matter how little that the virus couldn''t see the message.


    "You have to hang on guild master, for as long as you can and make sure the virus tries escaping your body. I don''t know if this would help, but this is the theory I have."


    I didn''t know if it would work either, but it was a chance I was also willing to take. I nodded my head at them, and soon enough I felt the rush of air as my body was pulled into the vastness of space. Using my control of air, I dragged a little bit of it with me and kept it close by as my body rapidly froze.


    "you can''t stop me. I''ll be with you forever, I¡­. it''s so cold¡­. die! die! Die!"


    A rapid change of expression and a frantic fervor for me to die and carry on with the resurrection process. If it was acting this way, then it definitely didn''t see the message from Houki, but this was beside the point as the virus increasing the pressure in my head. Blood slowly trickled out of my nose and eyes, becoming frozen crystals across my skin as everything became brittle and cold.


    "No! it''s cold! Argh! Argh! Die! Dieeeeee! Please die! I promise not to cause any problems! Please! Aiiiii! Please just FUCKING DIE!" by this point I felt all the blood in my body had frozen, id even lost control of the air I had dragged out. And then I felt a sense of warmth truckling out my ear and nose.


    And then I saw it, a shadowy mass of greyish liquid. But it had a face, mine, but given how terrified its visage was, I hope I never get to see myself like that. But even afraid, even with the rapid freeze, it looked like it was waiting for something, and that''s when it dawned on me. It was waiting for me to die, a tiny piece of itself was still latched on to me.


    (Storm Dance)


    How you could create a blast and covering of storm winds and lightening in space could only be attributed to the wonders of magic. But it was enough to blast the annoying virus ten meters away, there was a loud screech that even I could hear as it flew towards me at speeds that would make even the flash jealous, but I was prepared for that, we were still a beat close to the colony we were just shot out of.


    And it looked like a mining colony, so I was easily staring at hundreds of vents where excess heat and flames serves to provide the colony with electricity. So I gave it a smile and used (Warp), the ensuing flames that rapidly turned my frozen form into ash becoming the last thing, my frozen and melting eyeballs saw as death came calling.


    "Yeah no shit Sherlock!"

 199 Space Virus IX : Aftermath

    My resurrection was instant, which was surprising but quite welcomed. But I wasn''t exactly sure if respawning in my captain''s quarters on the Acheron was a good idea. But ultimately I couldn''t feel it, there was absolutely no trace of the virus in me, and it felt really good to be free of that thing, or rather I seriously hope that I''m free of it.


    If I could let out a wild whoop of joy I would, but I was the captain, I had an imaged to protect. I oved my legs over the bed as the door to my room banged open and Sky barged in, her massive body quickly enveloping me as it seemed like the little elephant was crying. While her ability to change her shape was intriguing, it was obvious the young battle beast has been through a lot this past few days.


    But then it begs the question, who was the person who betrayed us? The list at the moment could be endless or really short, but the real curve to a short list is the fact that all the people on it are supposed to be on our side. Or at the very least a little bit on our side as they''ll be bound by gratitude on the account of us saving their lives.


    But I guess I''ll never know the answer to that, there was just as much intrigue and secrets in the game world as there was in the real one. Never the less whoever is responsible for this would show themselves sooner rather than later, and then we can have a proper talk about the hazards of putting a mind controlling parasitic virus on my ship. But beyond that I had to pay attention to what was right in front of me, chief amongst them being the question of where the fuck are we.


    The door to my quarters opened up, and practically everyone, who was everyone walked in, but they were easily keeping their distance from me as opposed to Sky that was still nestled in my arms like a baby. There would probably be a round of questions and whatnot, but I really didn''t have time to deal with that, it would be extremely uncomfortable. So I just asked questions like nothing ever happened.


    "Zareth given that I saw a bunch of dwarves outside; I take it we''ve gotten a bit closer to our destination? But then again we''re on a colony, not a planet. So what''s up?" I asked him as I got back up to my feet and equipped, my armor and weapon.


    "Ummm, well were still within the asteroid field where the virus started its attack, its rich in rare space elements so about three dozen races have mining colonies here, this is just the dwarf''s colony. But we''re not on it anymore, you were thrown out of the airlock five hours ago.


    The head of the colony got a little panicked due to the entire scenario with the virus, even my identity couldn''t convince him to let us stay, so were back on the move. However, Dinah has fully swept the entire ship from top to bottom, there''s absolutely no trace of any sort of virus, trap, poison or bomb. We''re in the clear, but just to be save, we''ll be make consecutive jumps to my home planet, we were able to get a star gate generator from the head of the colony. So we should be about two galaxies away from Orous. So we should be there in let''s say¡­. two or three jumps, so 24 hours at most."


    That was a smart idea if I do say so myself, there wasn''t much of a chance for stability and refuges in space, so getting our feet on solid ground would be best. Plus, we plan to start official guild recruitment from Orous, which was a planet mostly populated by dwarves, gnomes, pygmies and lifestyle players. As far as combat goes, there might not be much that they can offer, but they would go a long way in building the foundation for a city, so it would be nice.


    "first of all Zareth, what''s a space gate, and can you tell me what to expect on Orous, I''m pretty sure the customs there are very different from what we know off, in the meantime I think we should all meet on the bridge for a discussion and put more plans in place. Houki, Dinah just so that we don''t find ourselves facing a situation like this, please see if you can come up with a stronger antivirus, or a serum that can prevent someone''s mind from being taken over by a parasite, symbiote or virus or bacteria. We have an enemy with a similar ability out there somewhere, we should be prepared." I said as I placed Sky on the ground.


    "Well that''s easier said than done boss, making something like that would need a lot of resources, and a lot money and materials to go with it. Plus, we will need a proper lab to be able to take care of that, so maybe we should get a permanent base first, before considering making such a jump in pharmaceutical and alchemical science, well also need help from a bunch of experts! Don''t just spout ideas like that." Dinah replied as she shook her head in annoyance, all Houki could do was look on innocently like she had no idea what was going on.


    "If its experts you need, then you''ll get it. Once the second dimension has been set up, we should have an easier connection to earth, we should be able to get people from my world to correspond with you and get things done. And they don''t require much money as they all work for me. Plus, they''ll need your input Dinah in the design of weapons, we''re about to go to war.


    But that''s not a matter to worry about for the moment, Zareth! I need you to tell me what we''re flying into, and what exactly we need to do to take advantage of Orous. We''re going there grow, and we need all the help we can get."

 200 Space Virus X : Zareths Truth

    "Orous is the dwarf''s race''s home world, but dwarves are more like a collective name for all of them. There is a variation of the species, like pygmies, gnomes, goblins, and leprechauns. The main race, which is my race have three distinct branches and a bunch of tribes. I''m a member of the mountain dwarves, and our leader; my uncle is an emperor with a battle beast. Then there''s the iron dwarves, the dark dwarves and the cavern dwarves of the underworld.


    There are a couple thousand tribes, but the tribes are more accurately large families. So even the royal family is considered a part of a single tribe. There''s a cold war going on between the four main dwarves'' factions, with the other races either being bystanders or allies in the bid for supremacy. My uncle is the emperor, but royal law forbids him from using his battle beast against people of dwarven heritage as at the time of the rules inception, all of the races were united under one king.


    But now everyone is working for their own gain and their own agenda. There has not been an open war in a very long time, but at the moment that stalemate has come to an end, and the cavern, dark and iron dwarves have already assembled their armies. But therein lies the problem, over the years the mountain dwarves have relied on the knowledge of us having a battle beast to keep the other races at bay, we grew complacent and didn''t see any reason to foster improvements in our tools of warfare, so we made sure we had a better living environment, better vehicles, land and luxury.


    But the other factions were intimidated by the sole fact that we had a battle beast, and even if there was royal law forbidding the current emperor from using against dwarves, they reckoned it was only a matter of time before he stopped caring about laws and decided to take matters into his own hands. But even if that was not the case, the idea of someone having a weapon of mass destruction gave them the feeling of being inferior, and all dwarves, whether they''re not a part of the main factions were very prideful and competitive.


    So while we lavished in the peace and security the battle beast afforded us, the other factions grew and evolved from the pressure of being helpless against an entity of such magnitude. The iron dwarves built great machines of war, golems, mechas, legendary guns, swords, spears and armor. The dark dwarves mastered magic and forged what we now call the Hell-sworn. Undead demonic creatures of metal and death. And the cavern dwarves built underground cities and an elite force of soldiers that are completely immune to the power of skills and magic. And we the mountain dwarves had nothing, at least not until I was sent to retrieve what would help us tip the scale of the war in our favor.


    And this was only discovered when I became an avatar for the fire dragon. With this card in hand, it stands to reason that we would be able to put up a fight and defense ourselves, we would be safe and we could end the war before it starts and save a lot of lives, and also reestablish the supremacy of the mountain dwarves and usher in another prosperous era of peace and tranquility."


    So this was a civil war of sorts, it didn''t seem like the kind of place to be to go find players who would join our guild but I guess we don''t have that much of a choice. Besides its only on the battlefield you would be able to see the greatest of heroes, so there might be a bright side to this. But it still begs the question though, what was so important that Zareth had to leave home to go find, what was this great tool or weapon that could help him turn the tides of war, I was about to ask that question but Qitar beat me to it.


    "This thing that you had to go retrieve, the tool that would help you win this war; what is it? And where is it? Since I''ve not seen you carrying anything of value on you."


    Zareth looked down a bit, before raising his head up, his beard waving in the drafts of an invisible and unfelt wind; as he turned towards my direction and raised his fingers to point it squarely at my chest. "I went looking for him, another Avatar of the elemental dragons." I raised an eyebrow at that, completely surprised and caught off guard.


    "Why?" Jack asked as he slowly inched his hand towards the elven sword by his hip, the elf was loyal to a fault that he didn''t hesitate to see Zareth as an enemy the moment he got a hint of deception. After all, nobody knew that I was what he was after, not until now. And usually when someone goes through all this trouble to get you to his home world, and as a weapon that can turn the tides of a civil war, then you know the outcome can''t be that good.


    "I became the Avatar of an elemental dragon by chance. But unlike other civilization and races, the dwarves still had records of the power and technological advancement of the elemental dragons, and of their fall. One was already powerful enough to make a difference, but two or more would be completely overkill and that''s exactly what the mountain dwarves'' emperor wanted. So I was sent, along with a bunch of people to watch over to go find the rest of the avatars and bring them back, willingly or unwillingly.


    The mountain dwarves do not intend to ask for your help guild master, they intend to enslave you and use you as a tool. The moment we get on Orous I will betray you and turn you over to them, all of you will undergo conditioning and be turned into agents of the Mountain dwarf empire. You will help them win the war, and in exchange they will keep you captive for the rest of your days¡­. this is the truth of the Mountain dwarf empire; we''re monsters."