RD 2 Ch 12 (Patreon)

Chapter 12

I sat on a rock slightly away from the group. They had all been giving me looks since we finished up fighting. By the end of that big group of monsters, everyone had markedly improved. I was fairly sure they hated me though.

More than a few of them picked up weapon proficiencies after a few pointers.

Nyx found me on my perch. “You know, I don’t understand you.”

“What’s to understand?” I ate some tuna sandwiches that I had stored in my ring. Premade sandwiches, what a freaking luxury.

The rest of the group was quickly devouring Zane’s food. Their bodies had all just transformed and they were starving.

Nyx joined me on my rock. “You go ahead like you don’t care about them at all and then sit over here like a loner. Yet when I was down, you reached out to me. When they were an absolute mess in the fight, you went around beating them into shape.” She laughed. “If I didn’t know better I’d think you are some aged veteran.”

“I know a thing or two about fighting.” Washing down the sandwich, I hopped back to my feet. “What about you?”

“All I had to do was sit back and shoot at available targets, prioritizing those that were giving someone trouble.” Nyx shrugged. “I’m not throwing exploding balls of fire or anything so disruptive.”

“Liking the bow? That’s good, because I think you’re stuck with it.” Medusaic Archer kind of felt like she was going to be using one for a very long time.

“We were talking about you pretending to be a loner.” Nyx pulled the conversation back on the topic she wanted. “Zane is over there trying to get them all to gather back up and get going, yet every single one of them keeps looking your way time to time to see what you’re going to do.”

“Pretty sure they are waiting to see if I’m coming over so they can run away.” I half joked. Now that she said it, I realized that I’d stuck out a little too much.

Nyx rolled her eyes. “Go take the reins.”

“Zane needs to figure this out.” I disagreed. “If I get too involved, it’s only going to mess things up that much more when I fuck off to Odyssey and go gallivanting around the globe in the name of the Heros Clan. Zane’s the one they need to follow. I don’t want to step on his toes.”

Nyx gave me a look. “I think it’s a little too late after you barked orders at Zane for half an hour, making him work on his ‘battlefield awareness’. How the fuck are you even aware of that? Because you actually gave Zane really good advice.”

“Bored. Read a lot of internet tutorials. Too many video games.” I lied through my teeth. “Anyway, maybe we should get going again. At this point, it’s a competition between us and Galen as for who can farm the most here.”

I had already gained four levels. Sadly, S rank level twos gave just about as much experience as F rank level twos. At level five, everything was already starting to slow down.

Thankfully, the other participants were quickly racking up skills upgrades.

I slid off the rock.

“There you go off on your own again. Oh look, they are all hurrying to finish up.” Nyx slid off. “When you’re ready to tell me the truth, please feel free.” She glanced to the side and pulled back to the group.

I sighed, glad to be back on my own before Zane got up and came over to me. “Man, you have some serious experience.” He reassessed me. “What do you think about leading this group? Actually, I was going to talk to you about Olympus too.”

“Can’t. Circe already swooped in and picked me up before the initiation.” At least she made a good excuse.

“Damn shame. She has good eyes.” Zane spat. “Oh well. Still, lead the group? There’s much I could learn.” He was a good kid.

“Nope.” I laughed. “It’s all on you. I’ll just help train people. I have no interest in leading a group here when I’m just going to wander the globe with Odyssey after this is done. Besides I’m a terrible leader who has too much wanderlust.” I didn’t want to take too many away from the Heros Clan. Instead, it would be fine to be respected for when I needed their help.

After all, last go around, I was the Wandering King for good reason.

“Are you sure?” Zane pushed.

“How about you tell us about this instance?” I spoke a little louder for the group that had gotten up and were almost behind us. “I don’t have any information about its structure or what to expect.”

Zane perked up when I brought us onto a topic that he knew plenty about. “The reason that Galen’s team and our team went different directions is because the place is symmetrical. There are six minibosses, three on each side of the island and then at the far end there’s a cyclops city with the boss at the very tip.”

“We have to kill the boss to get out of here, right?” I asked for the others.

“Yeah. They are all low level. Seeing level twos already is actually a surprise. We’re all doing very well.” Zane noticed the others and praised them. “We’ll hunt this forest for one of the mini bosses and then move further along the island.”

“What’s the boss we’ll expect here?” I continued to encourage him to speak on what he knew for the rest of the group. “Also, I thought there was just one boss in an instance.”

“S rank ones are different. They are also huge.” Zane explained, flashing a knowing smile at me. “We’ll be in here for two weeks, probably. There’s a lion and a boar, you never know which one is on which side though.”

“That’s not bad. Nyx will just shoot it down for us.”

“Both of them are extremely tough. We’ll have to be very careful. We only have one healer among us so we can’t take much damage.” Zane explained.

“Just have Bran kill it.” Someone shouted from behind us.

I turned. “Who was the lazy one that just spoke? I think it’ll be better training for you to face it head on.”

One of the guys paled. Others around him snickered and poked at him.

“It might not be that bad of an idea.” Zane offered.

“Careful or I’ll make you do it.” I chuckled. “Even if they are level three, you should have a pretty big advantage with your bloodline.” 

“It should only be level two.” Zane said confidently. “The final boss might be level three.”

I frowned at that. It should be higher than the crappy early mobs we were fighting.

Then again, this was a weird instance with its level suppressed. It might not follow the same rules.

“Sounds like we have a lot of ground to cover regardless?”

“Yeah. Lots.” Zane took up the cue and started forward. He had a little momentum and started explaining facts about the instance and players to everyone. Most of them already had a primer from their parents before coming, but they listened attentively enough that I was able to fall back as we walked.

He was pretty charismatic, just needed a dusting off.

Nyx found me as soon as I faded back far enough. “Smooth.”

“I thought I did a fairly good job. Thanks.”

She rolled her eyes. “You really don’t like responsibility do you?”

“I don’t like having to lead around a bunch of complete noobs. Especially when they’ve been given a leader already. Let him take the job.” I wrinkled my nose. “So. How’s the hair?”

She pulled at her raven locked trying to stare at the color. “I think it's greener. Does it look thinner? Do you think it all falls out only for the snakes to grow?”

“Probably. Or it just starts hissing one day.” I shrugged.

Nyx rolled her eyes. Now that she wasn’t so depressed she was kind of cute. “So, do you really need blood?”

I decided to continue with the fib. “My ability makes it sound like I’ll get weak if I don’t have any blood for a prolonged period. Not sure how much or how often. Who knows what will happen if I get hungry too?”

“Maybe you’ll grow big fangs and start lashing out at everyone. Or maybe you could just take a nibble.” She pulled her hair away from her neck. “Those fangs will probably work.”

“I think the neck sounds dangerous.” While I talked, I touched my canines, suddenly wondering if they were longer than before or if all the talk of vampires had just messed with my head.

Simone would have a field day.

“Come on. I really don’t want to see what happens if you get hungry and go on a rampage. This whole group would probably fold if you attacked us.” She looked away.

Why was I hesitating? This was a prime chance to obtain another powerful bloodline for my collection.

Holding Nyx, I leaned down and used Blood Siphon from my mouth as I bit her.

“Fuck. I thought it was going to feel sexy.” Nyx grunted.

I stopped after a moment. Two deep holes bled and I used Blood Transfusion to heal the small patches. My bloodline collection hit and I could feel the swell of stats, thankfully it wasn’t enough to stop me from walking.

“Oh, you have a heal.” Nyx put her hair back. “That’s convenient. Don’t even feel woozy like after donating.”

“Well we do have a bunch of stats now. That vitality stat doesn’t appear to be for nothing.” I wiped at my mouth. “Gods you taste great.” That’s what every woman who loved vampire novels wanted to hear, right?

At least that was what Simone wanted the one time she made me pretend to be a vampire in bed. Well, she wanted me to say she was irresistible.

“Really?” Nyx blushed and played with her hair. “That’s good. We can have you feed occasionally so that you don’t lose it.”

There was a commotion up ahead and a group of cyclops were quickly overwhelmed by a dozen players.

However, I quickly frowned at a new problem. Several of these monsters were level three.

“Zane said that only the final boss was level three, right?” I asked her.

She scanned the fight. “Huh. That’s strange. Hey, there’s a level four too.”

Something was wrong.

“We should help them.” I drew my sword and rushed forward.

“I don’t like that look. That look says we are in danger.” Nyx hurried after me, getting her bow ready.

“This is the kind of danger that happens over days, not minutes.” I clarified. “The instance’s level has been suppressed. That’s how you get a low level S rank instance. Yet, we are seeing the levels climb.”

Nyx wasn’t stupid. “Wait. That means the suppression might be failing? How high would they go?”

“Don’t know. This is a little outside my experience. It could be a partial failure, a complete failure or something else. The point is if the levels are going to keep going up, we need to finish this as fast as possible.” With the femur back out, I started to smash through the cyclops.

I needed to start working on my own skill levels if this was going to get harder. Stepping up to the level four cyclops, I smacked it hard enough to get its attention and pulled it away from the group, letting the monster strike me hard.

“Bran!” Zane shouted.

“It’s fine! I’m training my skill.” I answered and put my back to a tree so I didn’t go flying.

“What are you doing?” Zane reached out towards me but the cyclops blocked my view and started to smash me into the tree.

Its big meaty fists broke bones while its nails that desperately needed a trim cut small gashes.

As it shifted, I could see the rest of the group, many of them were starting to cover their mouths in horror.

Yet, this was nothing.

I groaned in frustration. “Really? That’s all you got? Let’s crank it up a notch. Anyone that can, please buff this thing.”

Blood Boil worked on myself, but while weaker than berserk, it could be used on other targets. I used it on the cyclops and its muscles bulged as it started hitting harder and the few cuts it had bled faster.

Its swings became wider, more wild as it tried to break me against the tree. The others looked on with horror, but I just smiled through the pain. It was time to level up.