Hark, the leader of the adventurer raid group, shuddered at the booming sounds of the monsters. He initially thought that the monsters would be charging towards them, so he immediately ordered for the entire raid group to deploy a defensive stance against them.
Little did they know that the monsters were charging… away from them. Quickly Jin and the others’ silhouettes disappeared into the facility ruins. Only then did Hark realise that merely a lone figure was left behind in front of the entrance. At a closer look, he recognised that it was a strange guy in a trench coat, who hid his face behind a weird looking accessory. It was some unfamiliar oriental looking half fox mask. There was no class nor adventurer ever who would wear such an outfit, making him more suspicious about the other one’s identity as a monster sympathiser or possibly some kind of cult member.
“Judging from the rampage and size of the monster horde, that other guy was guiding them inside the ruins. It seems that the rumours of monster sympathisers becoming more rampant and daring are true.” Hark thought to himself before he swallowed his saliva. He could not allow their morale to fall, so with a roar he declared in front of his raid guild: “In the name of our guild, the Hocus Pocus, I, Hark, Leader of Hocus Pocus and a Lord Knight class, demand your immediate surrender. You are to be taken away and face a fair trial to be judged by the goddess of Justice herself!”
“What is your objective by coming to these ruins?” Kraft yawned lazily as he stretched his arms. Nevertheless the adventurers thought that he was doing some sort of magic casting and decided to be on guard. Only when he finished his yawn did they realise that they were being a bit too cautious.
“I wish to ask you the same question, vile fiend. What does your kind wish to do within those ruins? Also consider this your last warning. I order you to stand down at once or else we will show you no mercy!” Hark banged his shield twice. It was enough of a sign for the experienced adventurers to understand that he wanted the fox masked guy to be surrounded, leaving him with no escape route.
“Well, didn’t your mother teach you not to answer a question with another question? How rude!” Kraft stayed where he was, casually observing his would be captors. He distinguished different classes of adventurers that surfaced when they were surrounding him.
“Ooh. Clerics, archers, monks, battle smiths, rogues, assassins! There are even second tier and third tier adventurer classes in this mix match. How wonderful!” Kraft sounded pleased, as if he was a child who was taken to a store to buy a new toy.
“So you still refuse to give up? Are you courting death?!” Hark shouted and ordered the adventurers to close up even further. Some of the wizards, sages and veteran mages were already preparing to cast their spells against him.
“Hey, System. Do you wish to strike a deal?” Kraft asked nonchalantly.
“I know Jin does not wish to utilise them as resources, even though it was recommended by yours truly. And I just know how much you hate to waste precious resources.~ But I think I have an alternate method able to satisfy both positions to get some good stuff. I mean, they are coming at us like willing sheep for slaughter! It would be rude for us to not take advantage of their generosity!” Kraft grinned.
“What is your suggestion?” The System asked in a rather polite manner in Kraft’s head.
“Who are you talking to!” Hark questioned Kraft as the fox mask guy was alone, standing there talking to himself. This person made him worried for some reason. He was clearly surrounded, but he did not panic. It seemed like that fox guy was not taking them seriously at all and for some odd reason, he even started talking to himself.
“Identify the best person of each class in this ragtag group of adventurers, and I will personally have a little session with them. I shall extract their skills and experience, providing you with their info. This should be enough to allow you to make copies of them, turning them into worthy NPCs for Jin to use in dungeons. Besides, I have improved my technique. They will probably only end up suffering from some amnesia after their resurrection. And of course, there is no reason for any of them to leave with their memories of us intact.” Kraft said as he remembered the first time when he forcibly tried to extract the skills and experience from someone. The result was a mess, and instead of a person it would be more correct to call it an empty husk created by the System. They suffered, before they ultimately died a horrible death.
Over the decades, Kraft managed to hone his craft and especially the stint with Ming allowed him to tweak his methods. It was always a pleasure to think back to that encounter. He had to admit those little Royal Zodiac Snakes were truly creative with their techniques. However their resistance towards their own techniques was very lacking in his opinion. And now he was looking forward to have a little bit more fun with those guinea pigs before him.
“The new method proposed has been deemed worthy, and should correspond to the wishes of the current User since it does not violate previous clauses. System accepts the method. Your reward?” The System asked.
“Nothing much. I simply wish for you to give me back one of those three problem children. Make it the youngest one… that should be just about right.” Kraft answered, after a bit of consideration, as he continued to ignore Hark’s petty orders once again.
“F.u.c.k it! He isn’t listening at all.” Hark was losing his patience. He drew his sword, which in turn signalled the others to do the same too.
“Maybe he is pretending to be insane so that we will not take him seriously?” A knight class adventurer close to Hark gave him his opinion.
“Attack him now! Make sure not to kill him! Our reward will be higher if we capture him alive. Especially seeing that he is a monster sympathiser of such a large group. The Judges will have their way to interrogate him!” Hark shouted as he raised his sword up to the sky. His sword turned glowing white before the heavens howled and brought upon the swords of imprisonments to pierce Kraft onto the ground.
“Affirmative. Do note that it might not listen to you even after these many years.” The System readily agreed, and Kraft laughed when the swords of imprisonment rained down towards him.
“It’s fine. I will unleash it for Jin to handle.” Kraft’s laughter got even sicker as the swords of imprisonments stabbed through his body and his other extremities. “Deerrppyy!!! Can you and your fishes be competent enough to kidnap those people?” Kraft shouted while still laughing hysterically.
“This guy is mad!!” A wizard exclaimed as he released a curse. The debuff should reduce Kraft’s vitality and mana pool, but it seemed that there was no effect. Even the ‘unshakeable’ swords of imprisonments seemed to simply go through him.
“Who do you think we are?!?!?! How dare you compare us to some lowly creatures. Let me show you the true power of this Shadow Dagen, mortal!!!” Mr Derpy bellowed as his colossal figure overshadowed the sun. Yet the raid guild mistook it for some thunder magic, being cast by the fox masked prisoner. However they saw no magical presence coming from him nor any magic circles displaying the activation of the thunder magic.
“Must be the weather in this area.” A barbarian class adventurer snorted, but the astrologist, a class that used the weather and stars to summon her magic, disagreed:
“No, this is definitely some sort of sorcery or forbidden witchery! I never felt such stifling magical presence!” Even her weapon globe became fuzzy.
Thunder crackled despite the sparse clouds and the entire area instantly received a gradual but heavy pouring of rain…
Rain of blood.
It was no normal blood, but a highly corrosive blood. Many quickly used their shields to cover themselves the moment they got burned by it. Some of the magic users hastily placed barriers, but the bloody rain was eating through the defensive barrier causing the mages to burn their mana like paper to a kindled flame just to protect their guildmates.
“Let the real downpour begin.” Derpy smiled as he showed his face to the adventurers and opened his mouth wide. It was vast enough for Deep Ones hiding inside him to once again plunge themselves towards the adventurers on the ground.
However, unlike last time, where it was such a mess that Jin scolded them for wasting his money, Derpy and the Deep Ones had been training this move for quite some time. The Skyfall strikes were like coordinated dives against the horrified adventurers. Those adventurers had seen all manner of monsters but Derpy…as he bellowed his almighty presence by declaring himself as the Bloodied Elder God of the Deep Seas Lord Dagen, was of a different sort of horror.
Plenty panicked as the Deep Ones killed many in the first wave of attack, yet they also made use of this shock and awe tactic to injure and kidnap those adventurers that had been identified by the System. Kraft did not dally any longer. His figure disappeared from the swords of imprisonment and he reappeared behind the adventurers, where he shot the first bullet out of his revolver. It was none other than Evon, the druggy fox at full offensive.
Hark had no idea about what was happening, as the pink champagne coloured fox bit his neck before jumping to another target that was identified by the System. Hark’s eyes rolled up as he foamed from his mouth and wet his pants. The mighty Lord Knight just went down to his knees, shaking and trembling at the mercy of the drugs induced by the bite. Kraft grabbed him by his hair, not allowing him to fall down. The next moment, black chains appeared from within his trenchcoat.
The chains subsequently wrapped around Hark and swallowed him whole, making the fierce leader disappear to nothingness. The other adventurers were too absorbed with struggling against the Deep Ones, who continued raining down on them, that they did not notice how their strongest man vanished in the midst of chaos.
Kraft licked his lips as he slowly walked towards his next victim.
Hark, the leader of the adventurer raid group, shuddered at the booming sounds of the monsters. He initially thought that the monsters would be charging towards them, so he immediately ordered for the entire raid group to deploy a defensive stance against them.
Little did they know that the monsters were charging… away from them. Quickly Jin and the others’ silhouettes disappeared into the facility ruins. Only then did Hark realise that merely a lone figure was left behind in front of the entrance. At a closer look, he recognised that it was a strange guy in a trench coat, who hid his face behind a weird looking accessory. It was some unfamiliar oriental looking half fox mask. There was no class nor adventurer ever who would wear such an outfit, making him more suspicious about the other one’s identity as a monster sympathiser or possibly some kind of cult member.
“Judging from the rampage and size of the monster horde, that other guy was guiding them inside the ruins. It seems that the rumours of monster sympathisers becoming more rampant and daring are true.” Hark thought to himself before he swallowed his saliva. He could not allow their morale to fall, so with a roar he declared in front of his raid guild: “In the name of our guild, the Hocus Pocus, I, Hark, Leader of Hocus Pocus and a Lord Knight class, demand your immediate surrender. You are to be taken away and face a fair trial to be judged by the goddess of Justice herself!”
“What is your objective by coming to these ruins?” Kraft yawned lazily as he stretched his arms. Nevertheless the adventurers thought that he was doing some sort of magic casting and decided to be on guard. Only when he finished his yawn did they realise that they were being a bit too cautious.
“I wish to ask you the same question, vile fiend. What does your kind wish to do within those ruins? Also consider this your last warning. I order you to stand down at once or else we will show you no mercy!” Hark banged his shield twice. It was enough of a sign for the experienced adventurers to understand that he wanted the fox masked guy to be surrounded, leaving him with no escape route.
“Well, didn’t your mother teach you not to answer a question with another question? How rude!” Kraft stayed where he was, casually observing his would be captors. He distinguished different classes of adventurers that surfaced when they were surrounding him.
“Ooh. Clerics, archers, monks, battle smiths, rogues, assassins! There are even second tier and third tier adventurer classes in this mix match. How wonderful!” Kraft sounded pleased, as if he was a child who was taken to a store to buy a new toy.
“So you still refuse to give up? Are you courting death?!” Hark shouted and ordered the adventurers to close up even further. Some of the wizards, sages and veteran mages were already preparing to cast their spells against him.
“Hey, System. Do you wish to strike a deal?” Kraft asked nonchalantly.
“I know Jin does not wish to utilise them as resources, even though it was recommended by yours truly. And I just know how much you hate to waste precious resources.~ But I think I have an alternate method able to satisfy both positions to get some good stuff. I mean, they are coming at us like willing sheep for slaughter! It would be rude for us to not take advantage of their generosity!” Kraft grinned.
“What is your suggestion?” The System asked in a rather polite manner in Kraft’s head.
“Who are you talking to!” Hark questioned Kraft as the fox mask guy was alone, standing there talking to himself. This person made him worried for some reason. He was clearly surrounded, but he did not panic. It seemed like that fox guy was not taking them seriously at all and for some odd reason, he even started talking to himself.
“Identify the best person of each class in this ragtag group of adventurers, and I will personally have a little session with them. I shall extract their skills and experience, providing you with their info. This should be enough to allow you to make copies of them, turning them into worthy NPCs for Jin to use in dungeons. Besides, I have improved my technique. They will probably only end up suffering from some amnesia after their resurrection. And of course, there is no reason for any of them to leave with their memories of us intact.” Kraft said as he remembered the first time when he forcibly tried to extract the skills and experience from someone. The result was a mess, and instead of a person it would be more correct to call it an empty husk created by the System. They suffered, before they ultimately died a horrible death.
Over the decades, Kraft managed to hone his craft and especially the stint with Ming allowed him to tweak his methods. It was always a pleasure to think back to that encounter. He had to admit those little Royal Zodiac Snakes were truly creative with their techniques. However their resistance towards their own techniques was very lacking in his opinion. And now he was looking forward to have a little bit more fun with those guinea pigs before him.
“The new method proposed has been deemed worthy, and should correspond to the wishes of the current User since it does not violate previous clauses. System accepts the method. Your reward?” The System asked.
“Nothing much. I simply wish for you to give me back one of those three problem children. Make it the youngest one… that should be just about right.” Kraft answered, after a bit of consideration, as he continued to ignore Hark’s petty orders once again.
“F.u.c.k it! He isn’t listening at all.” Hark was losing his patience. He drew his sword, which in turn signalled the others to do the same too.
“Maybe he is pretending to be insane so that we will not take him seriously?” A knight class adventurer close to Hark gave him his opinion.
“Attack him now! Make sure not to kill him! Our reward will be higher if we capture him alive. Especially seeing that he is a monster sympathiser of such a large group. The Judges will have their way to interrogate him!” Hark shouted as he raised his sword up to the sky. His sword turned glowing white before the heavens howled and brought upon the swords of imprisonments to pierce Kraft onto the ground.
“Affirmative. Do note that it might not listen to you even after these many years.” The System readily agreed, and Kraft laughed when the swords of imprisonment rained down towards him.
“It’s fine. I will unleash it for Jin to handle.” Kraft’s laughter got even sicker as the swords of imprisonments stabbed through his body and his other extremities. “Deerrppyy!!! Can you and your fishes be competent enough to kidnap those people?” Kraft shouted while still laughing hysterically.
“This guy is mad!!” A wizard exclaimed as he released a curse. The debuff should reduce Kraft’s vitality and mana pool, but it seemed that there was no effect. Even the ‘unshakeable’ swords of imprisonments seemed to simply go through him.
“Who do you think we are?!?!?! How dare you compare us to some lowly creatures. Let me show you the true power of this Shadow Dagen, mortal!!!” Mr Derpy bellowed as his colossal figure overshadowed the sun. Yet the raid guild mistook it for some thunder magic, being cast by the fox masked prisoner. However they saw no magical presence coming from him nor any magic circles displaying the activation of the thunder magic.
“Must be the weather in this area.” A barbarian class adventurer snorted, but the astrologist, a class that used the weather and stars to summon her magic, disagreed:
“No, this is definitely some sort of sorcery or forbidden witchery! I never felt such stifling magical presence!” Even her weapon globe became fuzzy.
Thunder crackled despite the sparse clouds and the entire area instantly received a gradual but heavy pouring of rain…
Rain of blood.
It was no normal blood, but a highly corrosive blood. Many quickly used their shields to cover themselves the moment they got burned by it. Some of the magic users hastily placed barriers, but the bloody rain was eating through the defensive barrier causing the mages to burn their mana like paper to a kindled flame just to protect their guildmates.
“Let the real downpour begin.” Derpy smiled as he showed his face to the adventurers and opened his mouth wide. It was vast enough for Deep Ones hiding inside him to once again plunge themselves towards the adventurers on the ground.
However, unlike last time, where it was such a mess that Jin scolded them for wasting his money, Derpy and the Deep Ones had been training this move for quite some time. The Skyfall strikes were like coordinated dives against the horrified adventurers. Those adventurers had seen all manner of monsters but Derpy…as he bellowed his almighty presence by declaring himself as the Bloodied Elder God of the Deep Seas Lord Dagen, was of a different sort of horror.
Plenty panicked as the Deep Ones killed many in the first wave of attack, yet they also made use of this shock and awe tactic to injure and kidnap those adventurers that had been identified by the System. Kraft did not dally any longer. His figure disappeared from the swords of imprisonment and he reappeared behind the adventurers, where he shot the first bullet out of his revolver. It was none other than Evon, the druggy fox at full offensive.
Hark had no idea about what was happening, as the pink champagne coloured fox bit his neck before jumping to another target that was identified by the System. Hark’s eyes rolled up as he foamed from his mouth and wet his pants. The mighty Lord Knight just went down to his knees, shaking and trembling at the mercy of the drugs induced by the bite. Kraft grabbed him by his hair, not allowing him to fall down. The next moment, black chains appeared from within his trenchcoat.
The chains subsequently wrapped around Hark and swallowed him whole, making the fierce leader disappear to nothingness. The other adventurers were too absorbed with struggling against the Deep Ones, who continued raining down on them, that they did not notice how their strongest man vanished in the midst of chaos.
Kraft licked his lips as he slowly walked towards his next victim.
