Arc 11 Chapter 255: Reaping the rewards

Akira knew that allowing one of the Cult of Science masterminds to escape would only allow for the partial completion of the main quest, meaning any additional reward was unlikely.

During Tibia’s escape, she had managed to take the completed clear diamond which Akira had no clue what their use was for, only that it must be for something important if they went through such trouble to create it.

Akira’s thoughts were interrupted by a flood of several system message windows.

Ding!

Your companion Fluffball has landed the last blow on the Cult of Science member Bonestringer. Level up! Level up… level… You have reached level 150! New class skills have been unlocked!

Advanced Quadrupedal Running [AQR]: You are now able to use four limbed running to its fullest potential making it far faster than just using two legs. While using [AQR] you will have a lower profile which helps with dodging enemy attacks and increases your evasion. Stamina will be used up faster while using [AQR].

Dark Shockwave [sub skill of Darkness domain]: Depending on how you slash or Stab your sword into the ground you will send powerful shock waves through the ground for a short time. Those at or under your level of strength will be knocked down and any skill being they are channeling will be interrupted. Bosses or targets with higher strength or level then you will not be knocked down but will be stunned for 1 second. Effects of this skill will be stronger when used inside the Darkness domain. The skill’s range and duration will upgrade whenever the Darkness domain reaches a higher tier.

Announcement! Blank was the first to finish Branch 1 stage 4! Blank was the first to finish Branch 3 stage 4 part 3!

Branch 1 stage 4 complete! +40 Honor, +400 gold, +40 fame. Branch 3 stage 4 part 3 Partially complete!  +40 Honor, +400 gold, +40 fame. Additional bonus rewards and title will not be received. Rewards for completing two branches of the main quest will be given to the top ten contributors [Plus 30 lvls]: Akira, Fluffball, Mileena, Klyn, Zundar, Varbu, Vilkas, Dolph, Prince Gobbers, Pii’per. The remaining Branch 3 stage 4 participants will receive 15 levels.

You have leveled up to lvl 180! Fluffball has leveled up to lvl 150! Nox 1 and 2 have leveled up!

Fluffball’s Compression skill has been updated. Advanced Compress: allow the user to fight with their full strength and skills while in their compressed form if they choose to.

With such a jump in levels, Akira felt unsteady on his feet. The heavy mental strain and deep aches that had been plaguing his mind and body were washed away with the large jump in levels also contributing to his unsteadiness.

The serious armpit wound as well as many other cuts and bruises were completely healed. With all this unsteadiness he was still trying to process all the messages and what it meant for him, Kodria, and the Werewolf clans.

Akira shook his head to try and clear it. He decided to push the messages to the side and see how Fluffball and Klyn were doing.

Fluffball who had suffered several wounds and was just as tired if not more than Akira was now fully healed and brimming with energy from leveling up as well. But like Akira, the sudden increase of levels had also made it so he was slightly unsteady on his feet.

Seeing Akira staring at him, Fluffball wobbled over to Akira on his unsteady feet. He looked like he was a newborn pup that was just learning to walk.

Fluffball spat out the Crystal clear gem letting it land on the ground near Akira’s feet. With the battle finished he shrank down to his compressed form but still kept Holy Ice armor covering his body just in case.

A quick inspection of the Holy Ice armor let Akira know that it was just as durable as the Holy ice armor Fluffball used while he was fully transformed. In the future, he would definitely be a little nightmare to anyone that met him and underestimated him due to his size.

“Yap!” said Fluffball, full of energy.

“Alright, I’ll look at it and see what you managed to snatch away from those guys,” said Akira, rubbing the icy covered head of Fluffball.

As he picked up the Crystal Diamond, he could feel an immense power had been crammed into the diamond. There was so much energy that it buzzed with enough force to make his hand numb.

Ding!

Crystal energy core received! This crystal was created by gathering and compressing the Molten Onyx Plague energy clouds as well as the energy from all monsters, demon races, and humans that were Infected in Foradverold. It contains an almost unlimited amount of energy. Even if the energy inside is used up this special energy core is able to slowly gather energy over time.

New quest has been received! Kodria’s new strength: Return to Kodria and place the Crystal energy core in the empty slot of the statue atop Kodria’s castle. Reward will be received upon completion.

Akira continued to look at the diamond with an odd expression.

“What is it?” Asked Klyn as he walked over to Akira and Fluffball.

“The compressed and refined energy gathered from the Molten Onyx Plague,” said Akira.

Klyn looked at the diamond in shock.

Akira placed the diamond in his bag as he said, “We need to get out of here and see if we can join back up with the others. But first…”

Akira walked up to the platform and jumped up onto it landing in front of a Black stone chest that stood next to a swirling white exit portal that had appeared.

On the ground in front of the chest was a Black key which Akira picked up and used to unlock the chest.

Swoosh!

A white orb shot out of the black chest and flew past Akira and Fluffball. It kept flying until it slammed into Klyn’s forehead disappearing just as fast as it had appeared.

“Crap! Klyn are you ok?” asked Akira as he and Fluffball rushed over to Klyn who was standing completely still with blank eyes.

“Yap!” said Fluffball as he paced back and forth in front of Klyn.

Akira didn’t want to touch him lest he interrupted whatever was happening and caused further harm. As he inspected Klyn, he saw that he was still breathing in a calm manner and did not show any signs of pain. Whatever was going on it didn’t seem like it would kill him… Yet.

Akira and Fluffball tried to get Klyn’s attention for the next ten minutes by just using their voices.

“I’m fine… I just have a headache… It was just a lot of information to take in…” said Klyn as he came out of his stupor and started rubbing his temples.

“What was that?” asked Akira.

“It seems to have been some ancient will that left behind Knowledge on Holy chants. With this I now have a far deeper understanding of how to use the skills. And I think I have found a way to create a potion to cure those infected and protect others from any future plague the cult of science might come up with,” said Klyn. He held his hand out and a white orb of Holy light appeared on his palm.

“Really?” asked Akira.

“It is only a guess. I have to go back to Kodria and test it out with my grandfather and the other researchers.”

“Let’s gather all the loot and the rest of the stuff in the chest, then we can leave,” said Akira as he started gathering the weapons, gold coins, and different potions that lay on the ground where the demigod chimeras had died.

Akira returned to black box and found a White gem inside along with 2000 gold and a blue ring.

Ding!

Gained White gem belonging to the super ordinary bracelet. Gained Blue ring(Unique)[1 time use consumable]: Usage requirements not met. [Tip: Wear the ring at all times in order to be sure you will receive the [secret] if it activates. Even when you are taking a bath!].

Akira looked at the weird description of the Blue ring with doubt but still decided to do what it said to do and placed it on one of his fingers. Of course not his ring finger… that could lead to a bad end for him…

When the Ritual room was scraped clean of anything that they could take with them, they touched the swirling white portal and were immediately teleported to the front entrance of the dungeon.

To Akira’s great relief, Mileena, Dolph, Vilkas, and one other cavalryman were also waiting there for them.

***

“Tibia, you have greatly disappointed us,” said Number 1 in his calm husky voice.

Each of the head numbers of the Cult of Science had gathered to talk about their results.

“You have only managed to gain one Energy core when there was at the very least enough for two,” said Number 6 angrily.

“Don’t blame me for the failure caused by that man. We originally could have created three but I was forced to use a large amount of energy to fight the intruders and protect the ritual as it was in progress. If it was not for me there would be no energy cores coming from Foradverold,” said Tibia coldly.

Several more bickering statements from the other Numbers were flung back and forth before Number 1 stood up and slammed his fist on the table.

“Enough bickering. We can not squabble over what has been done,” he turned to Tibia and asked. “Is there a way for you to retrieve the crystal that was taken?”

“No, even with the full might of the infected swarm army they were able to defend their city. The only way we could try would be if all the demigods fought under our command. But that is impossible with them being so fractured into what they call guilds. They are constantly fighting between each other and refuse to cooperate.”

“Fine… we will have to go ahead with the plan and hope that the three energy cores that we were able to create are enough. The ships are waiting for you and will quickly bring you back. We need that energy core to start the next phase.”

***

“We gained nothing from this main quest!” said Nuth, a low-level demigod grunt in the Frozenblood guild.

“Don’t be too angry, the other guilds were just as unlucky. That damned Blank stole all the rewards!” said his friend.

“I heard that the other major guilds are all now starting to gather up what is left of their money to buy the best equipment they can!”

“It looks like now that the threat of the plague is mostly gone they will start making their moves.”

“Should we try to get some benefits as well or should we just join a faction in the guild?”

“We’re too small to grab such benefits for ourselves. We’ll just have to see who offers the best rewards for joining them.”

***

With the disappearance of the main army of Molten Onyx Infected, Rodger was able to lead an elite team of knights to the last hidden royal hideout that was located at one of the farthest southern points in Beorin.

He was hoping that he would be able to find his wife and her guards who had disappeared from the north in haste. They had reached the rocky coastline that was several days’ travel away from the nearest abandoned town.

As he neared the hideout, he held up his hand pointing to himself, his two guards, and the captain of the elite guards.

The four of them walked forward passing through the stone entrance alert for any trap, ambush, or stray infected that managed to survive.

Immediately they heard the sound of pots and pans clanging as something was being stirred and scarped.

After a few more steps they had reached an open thick stone door that led into a large cave.

A large fire pit was burning inside of the cave and was being tended to by several servants and guards. Above the fire was a large pot that had a red liquid being stirred as the fire underneath slowly warmed the liquid.

In a large pan next to the pot, were several fresh fish crackling in grease as they cooked on the hot metal.

“Be sure to add more spices to the wine this time,” said a familiar female voice.

“Yes queen,” said the guard stirring the red wine.

“Ruth?” asked Rodger surprised but happy to see her.

Ruth was lazing about on a plush couch wearing thick fluffy clothes. She was sipping on warmed red wine using a straw that disappeared under a veil she was wearing covering her lower face blocking out most of the smoke.

“Oh, husband you’re here! Has the kingdom’s problem been solved? Or have you come here because you could not bear staying away from me any longer and needed to see me?” asked Ruth, not bothering to get up from the couch.

“Saying something like that… you are starting to remind me more and more of your mother when we were younger. She always tried to embarrass us by saying such things to your father in front of us.”

Ruth didn’t say anything and only raised her eyebrow at that statement.

“What happened to you that you had to escape the northern fort without leaving a message? I have been so worried and we have been looking for you for many weeks now,” said Rodger.

“Sorry, we were unable to leave a message as those Infected were on the move. If we had stayed a second longer we would have been trapped and overrun. I guess the messengers I sent out never reached you?”

Rodger shook his head no.

The two were extremely happy to be reunited once again and ate a simple lunch together as they talked over the events that they had both experienced while away from each other.

***

Akira, Fluffball, and Mileena were standing on the roof of Kodria’s castle in front of the large stone statue that looked like Akira.

Ding!

Branch 2 stage 4 has been cleared by Blank. +40 Honor, +400 gold, +40 fame The main quest event has been completed! Final results: 1st Blank 2nd Demon hunters 3rd Forbidden Title received: Thickheaded determination! +5 fame.

Akira nodded his head. He had been confident that Klyn would be able to create a potion to cure all those that were still infected.

The method that he had chosen was to use the holy light to ferment the material allowing it to combine. Now that they had found a complete recipe, all that was left was to start mass-producing it.

Once the infected received the first batches, they could start giving it to the other residents of Kodria. Kodria would then be able to sell it to other towns and cities at a low price to cover the cost of the materials.

With the ritual sucking up all the energy from the molten onyx infected and the black smog, the only Infected that now roamed the land were those that had not been fully infected during the ritual.

Akira guessed that more than 95% of the infected had been destroyed and sucked up by the ritual. All that was left was to clean up the rest and cure those that they could.

With all that had been going on he had been unable to check both his and Fluffball’s new stats. So he took a quick look.

Fluffball: Level: 150 Race: Double Mutated Snow Wolf young adult Title: Yap! Personality: Inquisitive Hunger: 10% Skills: Tear Charge Lacerate Compress+ Holy Ice shard Holy Ice Armor Due to mutation more XP is needed for each level.

Seeing such a large uptick in his vitality and strength and stamina it was no surprise why he had been feeling odd. By completing the main event quest his Fame and Honor had also skyrocketed because the Molten Onyx Plague had affected the entire continent, not just a small group of people.

Akira turned his attention back to the statue in front of him. His eyes found the empty socket that he now knew was meant for the Energy core diamond.

Without a word he reached up and placed the Energy Core inside the socket.

Ding!

Mission complete! [Wall of Protection] has been fully activated! With the current energy [Wall of Protection] can be activated once a week and can last a maximum of one day.

As Akira finished reading the message, a blue light started to shine from the tip of the statue’s sword.

The light started to slowly spread out like water to form a dome arching down towards the outer walls of Kodria’s inner city where the many stone statues stood against the wall.

A gasp escaped Mileena’s mouth as she saw the statues slowly extend their stone shields out in front of them.

Seconds later their other arm which held a sword that was shoved into the ground slowly pulled the sword out and pointed them into the sky receiving the water like a light dome that flowed down and covered each of the statues firmly anchoring itself all around the inner city.

Ding!

Kodria has Reached 1st tier city. New buildings’ blueprints have been unlocked. The requirements to reach 3rd tier Capital have been updated!

Mileena turned her gaze to Akira who she was hugging tightly and asked, “What are you thinking?”

Akira looked away from the blue watery light dome at a smiling Mileena.

“I’m thinking about you,” said Akira.

“I’m thinking about how many kids we should have,” said Mileena.

“What…?” Akira’s question was halted as Mileena’s head shot up and latched onto his lips pulling him into a deep kiss.