HC:Pacifist | Ch. 159 - The Vault (Patreon)

Blue Caterpillar Ring (Rare)

Description: A piece of jewelry crafted from the pieces of a Blue Butterfly’s shell.

Item effects:

+8 subterfuge;

+5 intelligence;

Slightly strengthens disguises and illusions.

Restrictions: Lvl. 30.

Blue Caterpillar Earring (Rare)

Description: A piece of jewelry crafted from the pieces of a Blue Butterfly’s shell.

Item effects:

+5 subterfuge;

+10 wisdom;

Slightly strengthens disguises and illusions.

Restrictions: lvl. 30.

These accessories were incredible! The stat line was much better than what he was currently wearing. He went to the forums to check what was considered an illusion and grinned. Fear debuffs were on the list. That meant wearing these shiny babies would make his [Screeching Terror] even more powerful.

He so wished he could put them on right now! With these, not even Xerxes could see through his [Witness Protection Mask]. Unfortunately, he was still a couple of levels away from being able to equip them. He stored them away. He would equip them as soon as he got the chance.

After ensuring he hadn’t missed anything, he nodded contentedly. It was time to head into the tunnel leading to Antioch's deepest chamber and see what this vault and vault tickets were.

*

A couple of hours after the event began, it was clear the aliens were winning. The majority of the player base had an evil alignment, to begin with, and the coordinated attacks on the slums had started a chain reaction that had engulfed the slums and crafting districts of the ten cities where it began. Even though the magisters and the citadel of soldiers weren’t allowing any contaminated players to enter the other half of the city, they couldn’t stop the galloping wave that had started to spread to surrounding villages and hunting grounds.

Julio had held off on deciding which side to join until it was clearer how the event worked. But after being forwarded, multiple times, pictures of Pegasus players wearing the [Alien Invasion Set] and all the other cool rewards they got, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Even though Hilsford wasn’t the event's epicenter, there was already talk of a few players wanting to start trouble in the local slums. Whenever that happened, players who joined the human side instantly quenched the outbreak, but it was only a matter of time before it stuck.

A few minutes after Julio decided to join the aliens, a series of announcements rocked the city of Hilsford.

Ogres Join the Humans

#event #hiveking #greencountry #rockcanyon #skyislands #ogres #guild

Poster: OgresCyclops

Post: The Ogres have decided to support the human side.

The main reason for the Ogre’s decision is that after a contaminated NPC dies, it no longer respawns and the NPCs’ quests disappear. This means that the aliens' side will gain rewards at the expense of the inconvenience of the common player base.

The Ogres’ policy is to be a force for good. We can’t, in good conscience, allow thoughtless players to ruin the countless hours of work that millions of players have put into their quests. For those wondering which side to join, our guild also has some more information we’re sharing with everyone for free.

We have reasons to believe that the hive king is hidden somewhere in the Dark Abyss;

Contaminated NPCs and players who join the alien side drop an item that is the key to unlocking light affinity;

We have strong suspicions that Pegasus was the guild that triggered this event;

Finally, the Ogres have formed a coalition with the Krakens, Gorgons, Basilisks, and Hydras. We’re declaring Hilsford and Saphira as our bases of operations and a safe zone for players defending the humans.

If you plan to start trouble in these two cities or the surrounding villages and hunting grounds, don’t.

Comments

JimmyCricket9198: Oooh. The top 10 are finally making a move.

BigBag213809: You of the top 10 are so full of it! You can’t tell us what to do or not to do. All in Saphira who want to start trouble, meet me in the Gemstone Inn.

Re: BigBag213809: Never mind. Don’t come. After making the post, a squad of Basilisks appeared and one-shot me. Yikes!

Portia120378: What? The quests are gone for good? No! No! I was this close to finishing a rare quest. I put 20 hours into it! The game has to offer compensation.

Re: Portia120378: OgresNavyRed: Our guild believes that since players are rewarded for joining the aliens if they mess with other players’ quests, players who lose quests and join the human side will be rewarded equivalently. We aren’t 100% sure, but based on other events, it seems likely.

Re:Re: Portia120378: I’m joining the human side. Let me know how I can help you guys.

Re:Re:Re: OgresNavyRed: All help is welcome. I pm'd you the info of one of our squad captains.

Maroon1230: What? Did Pegasus start it? That’s why they were so quick to act!

Re: PegasusInias: These accusations are false. Pegasus did not trigger the event.

Re: OgresNavyRed: How were you the first to get there? Did you just happen to have battalions stationed in each of the ten cities affected? Why weren’t they off dungeoning in the Dark Abyss or questing in the capital instead?

Re: Re: Re: PegasusInias: All you have is conjecture and conspiracy theories. Just because you have a slow response time and were afraid to join the fray from the start doesn’t mean that other guilds must be like you. Grow a spine!

Re: Re: Re: Re: GorgonsBalistic: Our guild’s intelligence agrees. It was you who started it, Pegasus! Grow a spine? You grow a conscience! What about the thousands of quests that you interfered with?

Each of the guilds in the alliance started posting left and right, and there was a full-blown war of words between Pegasus and the coalition. Julio wished he had known this sooner! After the announcement, Hilsford had turned into a city with no room for hivies.

No matter how much Julio regretted it, there was no turning back now. He had to see the event through to the end. He decided to travel to a lumber town he had been to on a quest before. It was a small town in the middle of the forest, one hour away from Hilsford, and he didn’t recall seeing many players there. If he was lucky, he might be able to contaminate the NPCs there and get himself an [Alien Invasion Set].

As he followed the trail up to the pin he had marked on his map, he found the picturesque collection of houses inhabited by NPCs who harvested timber from the local forest. He ran down the road until he reached the shack where one of the NPCs he had quested for lived.

The door was unlocked. In it, there was a grizzled, bearded man with a wooden leg. He wore a torn plaid flannel shirt and faded denim overalls. The old man peered out from beneath his bushy brows as Julio entered the shack. This was one of the weakest NPCs in the village.

Horace, the Lumberjack.

Lvl. 30

10,000/10,000

“It’s you again. I have no more work for you. Leave me be. Some of my friends are coming over to play some cards.”

Horace’s story was that he lost his leg in an accident and now just lived out in the woods, surviving on a pension he got from the local sawmill. He spent his days gambling and causing trouble. Julio had read in the forums that [Contaminate] worked particularly well on evil NPCs. Since this NPC spent his days gambling and treated everyone so poorly, he thought he was the best target.

Julio was level 19. Even though the old man looked fragile, there was no way that he could have dealt with this NPC if he were at full strength. As he approached him, though, the miasma cloud surrounding Julio touched the NPC. The old man fell to the ground, coughing.

Horace, the Lumberjack

Lvl 30

4000/10,000

Julio grinned. The combination of his and the old man's bad alignments instantly dropped Horace's hp to 40%. All he had to do was to shave off a few more points. He drank a potion that boosted his stats by 10% for 10 minutes and started attacking the NPC. Despite the level difference, thanks to the effects of miasma, the old man soon came down to 10%. Julio seized the moment and activated his skill.

Contaminate!

Julio’s lungs inflated, and he blew a thick cloud of miasma that enveloped Horace. He coughed and waved his arms frantically, but it was no use. As the miasma dissipated, the man was subdued and had yellow irises and black veins on his hands. He was marked as a servant of the hive.

Congratulations! You’ve brought one more servant to the hive.

+20,000XP;

+1 unrighteousness.

Julio was incredibly excited! Not only was he getting points that would grant him access to growth equipment and generous XP, but he also was building his evil alignment! It was time to convert a few more NPCs. He wanted to reach ten contaminations before he logged out.

*

To go down into the vault, Roth had to pass through more turtle ant blockades than ever before. It looked like this really was the ultimate treasure trove of the super colony and their most secure location.

After almost an hour of going through blockades, Roth was finally allowed into the vault.

Congratulations! You’re the first player to discover the Treeant’s Vault.

3,000,000XP(+1,500,000XP).

[Level Up!]

Roth hadn’t expected to be awarded more XP just by entering this location. He checked his map and found that the exploration rate of Antioch was sitting at 30%. Who knew how many more secrets this city hid? He would love to complete the exploration of this map, but he had more pressing matters to attend to.

Even if he wasn’t going to complete the full exploration of Antioch anytime soon, with this, he had broken through to level 29! He would have to look at his character’s page soon and invest all his new stat points and skill points. More importantly, he was just one level away from being able to equip his new accessories. But that would come later. For now, his curiosity was all directed at what the vault did.

The vault was the smallest chamber he'd seen in Antioch. The walls dug in the rock were covered in the giant tree's roots above. He was sure these were just the very endings or terminations of the roots. To his normal size, they would have certainly looked hair-thin. But to his current size, they looked thick and robust.

The vault reminded Roth of a pantry with different layers of shelves. He approached the racks to determine what the treeants were protecting down here. There were bundles formed of transparent leaves. Inside them were eggs of different colors, shapes, and sizes, all neatly wrapped. What was this? He approached one of the items and inspected it.

Yellow Crazy Ant Queen Egg

Description: Yellow crazy ants have extraordinary vitality and can quickly reproduce and cover vast areas—the ideal species for quick development.

Cost: 3 vault tickets.

Eggs? Was he being offered queen’s eggs?

“What do you think, human?”

Roth was startled by the sudden intervention of the Lord of the Woods. “Lord, you’re here too?”

“What are you talking about, human? I’m everywhere.”

Roth gulped. He had associated conversing with the Lord with the Queen’s Chambers. He hadn’t expected to hear the voice down here.

“What is this? Are all of these queen eggs?”

“Yes. This is the greatest treasure of our race.”

Roth looked at the many different types of eggs available. “I only counted ten different queens in the queen's chambers. There are many more types of eggs here.”

“Supercolonies are a fragile thing. The instinct to fight other ants is etched deep into our being. Not all combinations produce a peaceful outcome.”

Roth gulped. That meant there was a limit to the number of species that could coexist.

“And I’m supposed to take some of these eggs with me?”

“Yes and no.”

“What do you mean? Yes and no?”

“I want you to look at those eggs over there.” A basket was at the center of the vault, between the racks. He leaned in and saw it was filled to the brim with eggs. Unlike the other shiny, colorful eggs, these were dull and gray. He inspected one of them.

Blank Ant Queen Egg (Pet)

Description: An ant breed obtained from crossing different species of ants. Part of its genome is blank and needs to be filled with genetic information from other ants.

Ch. 158 - Increased Discount

INDEX 

Ch. 160 - Tickets