Inside Elizabeth’s workshop in Reinhardt, Grid and Elizabeth were focusing on their work. Grid was currently making Braham’s Robes with the sewing technique he was barely accustomed to while Elizabeth was taking the utmost care to craft Braham’s earrings.
She did her best to reward Grid for handing over the legendary-rated design. Yet even her skills weren’t enough to satisfy Braham.
“You newbie. Even zombies with rotten fingers are better than you.”
“Hiing….” Elizabeth was almost in tears because of Braham, who sat by her side and kept slandering her skills. She couldn’t tolerate this treatment since she was normally treated like a princess as Eat Spicy Jokbal’s relative and the best accessories maker.
Grid wanted make progress on the work, so he shifted Braham’s interest in another direction. “I know that Fenrir is as strong as a great demon. Nevertheless, if you and I join forces and Piaro and the knights work together, shouldn’t we succeed without any sacrifices?”
After the hierarchy determination, Braham greatly admired the power of Grid’s knights. So, Grid thought Braham would have a positive reaction. Surprisingly, Braham was still skeptical. “It is impossible to avoid sacrifices.”
“How strong is Fenrir…”
“It is more of a problem with that guy’s dog.”
“Dog?”
“Rather than using magic, Fenrir honed his body. Moreover, magic doesn’t work at all against him. Unlike our blood, he has no obvious weaknesses. You will have to hunt the dog while I tie up Fenrir’s feet alone… It will be a tough fight.”
“Magic doesn’t work at all? Then how did you fight and win against Fenrir in the old days?”
“I aged the hind legs of a hell dog for 100 days and then roasted them in a secret sauce before throwing the skewer of roasted hell dog meat away from the front line. Damn, if I hadn’t wasted that skewer back then, I could’ve run away a bit more easily.”
“…Eh?”
Grid had heard a lot about this food somewhere.
***
‘High rankers’ was used to refer to the top 1,000 rankers. The top 1,000 among billions of players were respected by the public because they needed talent, money, or good luck. However, evaluations were always relative. Then rankers insisted that a real definition of high rankers should be established.
Top 100…
The top 100 players were the only ones who could claim to be high rankers. That’s why the 36 rankers here were in the top 100. It was the first time in history that a party was composed of such power. Not even the Overgeared Kingdom or Valhalla had dozens of people in the top 100. Some of the players in this party were even healers. The healer class was the most difficult class in Satisfy..
“Did you really have to kill them? Wouldn’t it be enough to capture them?” Light said. His ID was literally ‘Light’. He had long reigned as the number one monk and had risen to number 21 in the unified rankings. Light had many fans due to his beauty and manners. He was complaining about killing the soldiers who guarded the entrance of Fenrir’s city.
“I think it was right to kill them. This is the middle of the desert. It would’ve been more horrific if they were left with their hands and feet tied up.”
“Is there any guarantee that the soldiers won’t be able to solve it just because they are tied up with chains? They could get help from a patrol team. Why do you want to keep witnesses alive?’
A vampire city where the boss still survived had an unusual form. No one could enter the city until the previous party was wiped out or the boss was raided.
Pastel Crayon, 29th on the unified rankings, was the reason why the soldiers of the Overgeared Kingdom were murdered. He judged that witnesses should be destroyed to avoid exposing the identities of those in their party, regardless of whether they succeeded or failed in the Fenrir raid. In fact, it wasn’t easy for the Overgeared Kingdom to identify the ‘suicide commandos’ who invaded the city of Fenrir over the years. Out of the hundreds of foolish people who gave their lives for vampire items or elixirs, less than 10 were identified.
“You talk too much. Are you here to make friends?” Asuka frowned as she moved from the rear of the group. She had consistently maintained her ranking in the top 10 despite her solo performance, and she was also a special presence in the party consisting of top 100 rankers.
At the time when 22nd Great Demon Berith appeared, there had been a public opinion that the American representatives—such as Asuka, Hurent, Zibal, and Kraugel—would’ve succeeded in raiding Berith if they cooperated. However, Asuka hadn’t been able to participate in the Berith raid at the time.
Madness—it was a stat that berserkers should prioritize. She was on a hidden quest to raise it. Asuka knew that she wouldn’t have succeeded even if she had participated in the raid.
‘It is the role of Grid or Kraugel to deal with such a ridiculous monster.’
In fact, it was the same for Fenrir. Asuka confirmed using various literature and testimonies that Fenrir was a powerful boss that was the same or stronger than Berith. Still, Fenrir had clear weaknesses, unlike the great demons. Vampires were vulnerable to the sun and desired to sleep. The group had enough means to exploit Fenrir’s weaknesses.
The sounds of watermelons exploding rang out continuously. It was the sound effect of vampires being slaughtered by the 53rd ranked Asuka and the others in the group. This was still only the beginning, and they were regular vampires. The vampires who lived in Fenrir’s city were over level 400, but they weren’t a match for the rankers.
“Ohh, a vampire ring,” someone whistled excitedly and said, catching everyone’s attention. The 95th ranker KIldes had a transparent red ring on his finger.
“Wow, shit. Getting a profit as soon as you entered…”
“Aren’t you lucky?”
Even the jealous voices sounded like cheers for the current Kildes.
“…!?” The smiling Kildes was startled. A red beam shot toward his chest, and he flew backward. It was blood magic—magic that belonged to a true blood vampire.
“Kuek…!” Kildes suffered burns to his chest and hurriedly tried to take a potion, but he was disturbed by hundreds of bats flying through the darkness. Still, Kildes was the second-ranked assassin and wouldn’t go down easily. He quickly swung his dagger and shook off the bats.
In the process, the swarm of bats took the image of a beautiful woman. She reached out for Kildes’ neck, but it was actually a self-destruction doll that resembled Kildes. The number one assassin Faker overcame his enemies with speed while Kildes used various tools to play with the opponent.
“…!” The true blood vampire was swept away by the explosion.
In the meantime, the rankers who killed the other vampires surrounded the woman along with Kildes.
“Huhut. How pathetic.” The true blood vampire was relaxed. Her unique vampiric ability meant she recovered from her wounds quickly. Every bat that poured out of her body ingested human blood, and the wounds on her body disappeared. “Prey has arrived after a long time.”
All the humans the true blood vampire had dealt with so far were easy prey. She thought it would be the same again. However, this time was different. No, it was very different.
“Kuek…! Kuaaack!”
The abilities of the humans were remarkable. Many people worked together so that those vampires created by Fenrir himself found it hard to fight back. In particular, the dancing teddy bears with an unknown consciousness restrained the innate ability of the vampire bat. The true blood vampire, who should’ve led the battle by dispersing her bats and using blood magic, quickly lost momentum and collapsed.
“You guys…! Only humans at most…!”
“Quiet,” someone interrupted the true blood vampire’s words. It was Asuka who had been watching from the rear of the battle. She was a berserker and the owner of Weapons Mastery. Asuka opened her inventory and pulled out a sword. It was a long sword that burned hot and bright like the sun. The light melted the skin of the true blood vampire.
“Kuaaack!”
Asuka smiled when she saw the vampire scream and struggle. “Yes, this is real.”
Before Grid became a full-fledged celebrity, Asuka fought Grid along with her servant Black Teddy and got beaten up. She regarded that event as the luckiest experience of her life. It was because she got the opportunity to understand things better and develop strength faster than others.
Over the years, she became obsessed with becoming a force beyond what others could imagine. She wasn’t satisfied no matter how strong she became. Asuka’s status as a third-generation chaebol helped fulfill her desires. Her resources, talent, and commitment allowed her to stay in the rankings.
The strength that was above her level came from her items. The reason why Asuka challenged the Fenrir raid was due to her confidence in her 45th legendary item collected, the Sun Sword. It had properties like the ability to deal additional damage to vampires, a probability of nullifying the vampires’ blood magic, nullifying the vampires’ regeneration and blood-sucking abilities, ignoring a certain amount of the vampires’ defense, and so on.
The Sun Sword was a conditional weapon that was a perfect counter to vampires.
“Here.”
After slaughtering hundreds of vampires and defeating five true blood vampires, the group arrived before a tightly closed door and checked their skill cooldown time, resources, passive status, item durability, and potion cooldown time. The condition of the group was perfect.
“Shall we go?” Suddenly, Asuka became the leader of the party. Everyone in the group waited for Asuka’s command with a determined expression.
‘It is annoying.’ The frowning Asuka nodded. “Open the door.”
“Yes!”
“Okay!”
The party responded vigorously before opening the door. A thick darkness was waiting for them. It was such a perfect darkness that it was hard to see. However, Asuka’s group were high rankers and quickly adapted to the darkness. They found a coffin in the center of the room. It was the biggest and most colorful coffin they had ever seen. Surely Fenrir would be sleeping in there…
Black Teddy gulped and glanced at Light. One of the decisive reasons for Asuka’s participation in the raid was Light’s ability. He had once been one of Rebecca’s priests, but he got baptized by an indigenous god and changed classes to a monk.
Light could use magic to temporarily strengthen the ‘curse’ on a target. Asuka planned to use the Sun Sword to suppress the regeneration while Light would strengthen the curse to prevent Fenrir from waking up. Then they would slaughter Fenrir as a group.
Light’s magic enveloped the sleeping Fenrir in the tightly closed coffin, and he cried out with a cheerful face, “It’s a success!”
“Good.”
Convinced of the raid’s success, the group drew closer to the coffin. Simultaneously, the chandelier hanging from the ceiling was tilted subtly.
“Cough…!”
Something huge fell, and the 39th ranked Pastel Crayon died.
“…!” The faces of the group members were pale.
Grrrung. Grrrr.
A wolf that ate gods…
A giant beast reminiscent of the Fenrir from Norse mythology stood confronting the group like it was guarding Fenrir’s coffin. Every time it let out a rough breath, Asuka’s skin got goosebumps.
“…This is interesting.” Asuka opened her inventory, put away the Sun Sword, and pulled out a hunter’s bow and trap. Her item swap rate was reminiscent of the Overgeared King’s. “We must kill that damned dog even if we die.”
