Ch 319: Battle on the edge.

As soon as Noah opened the door, he felt it.

An oppressive aura, warning him that what was on the other side wasn't something he could deal with.

He had felt an aura like this before, when he fought alone against the Skull Reaper in Sword Art Online. Except that this time, the aura was even stronger.

Had Noah been able to retreat, he would have immediately decided to leave and gain a few more levels before returning.

But there was no way out of this.

With a sigh, Noah opened his interface and logged off.

…

Noah opened his eyes and looked around. Erica, Liliana and Shuiruo were still connected, while Rikka and Origami had left the room.

Noah stood, stretched, and left the room.

Karen, Arianna, Origami and Rikka were sitting at the table, in the living room. They smiled as they saw him enter.

"Ah, you're back." grinned Rikka. "Are you done with your quest to kill a thousand wolves? What level are you?"

"Level 9." smiled Noah as he took a seat between her and Origami.

"Nine already?" exclaimed Rikka. "I barely reached level 7, and I worked hard!"

"I don't doubt it." smiled Noah. "Did you get that red fruit, Rikka, Origami?"

"Yes, thank you for the tip." smiled Rikka. "I might have kept the ring if you didn't tell me about it."

"Try to have a group and find the son of the Shopkeeper, if Wang mentioned him to you. If you manage to escort him without him getting injured, you should get some great rewards."

"Noted. So, what did you do to get to level 9 so fast?" asked Rikka.

"Aside from slaughtering wolves left and right? I fought a Lord-grade wolf that very nearly killed me."

"A Lord! And you tried to fight it alone?" gasped Rikka in horror.

"I only managed to win by throwing us both into the Bottomless Pit of Wolf's cliff. I had a necklace that allowed me to cheat death once, the wolf didn't, so I 'won'."

Noah made air quotes at the last word, and Rikka laughed incredulously.

"Then, I found a secret cave complex at the bottom, hidden behind fake stone. The very place my Goddess tipped me about, telling me it would be a place to start to uncover Mystic Moon's hidden secret."

"What did you find, Noah-sama?" asked Origami.

"increasingly difficult trials, requiring different methods to overcome them." sighed Noah. "First, a swarm of a thousand normal monsters. oversized termites. Then, 20 elite scorpions. Then, 10 Elite giant worms. And in the last cave, A spider the size of a big car. A Lord-grade monster."

"Whoa. That explains the levels. And you must have gotten a lot of Skill Points and Loot. But what about the secret?" asked Rikka.

"Yeah, that's the thing." sighed Noah with a somewhat biter smile. "I haven't reached the end yet. And from the aura I felt, the next enemy is a Fairy-grade."

"What the hell! What is a Fairy monster doing in the tutorial zone!"

"This part of the map isn't exactly part of the standard tutorial." shrugged Noah. "I'd say someone went to great pains to hide some secret and put some serious security around it, but the gradual increase in difficulty rather suggests that whoever is behind it is trying to 'raise' a player for their own purpose."

Noah was thinking about the Arifureta world, where the high difficulty of the great dungeons was meant to nurture and prepare a group of heroes to face a fake god. What he had found in the cave complex seemed to follow the same logic, although the difficulty ramped up crazily.

"I am not sure how I am going to deal with a Fairy boss, to be frank. I want to rest a bit before I give it a try."

"Well, I'll be rooting for you." nodded Rikka.

"Thank you." smiled Noah, before he glanced at the clock. "There is another thing we must speak about. It is about time for us to go to the cafeteria for dinner, so I will ask Erica, Shuiruo and Lily to log off."

Noah stood and returned to the gaming room. He crouched beside Erica, and spoke into ear.

"Kitten, it is dinner time."

He did the same with Liliana and Shuiruo, and within a minute, all three of them were stretching as they stood.

"Come with me to the living room, we need to speak about something." said Noah.

Once they were all seated, Noah didn't waste time.

"I was contacted in the game by a well-connected person who wishes to remain anonymous. That person recognized me as the 'Spirit' who appeared in Tengu City recently and begged me to help a certain woman. Her name is Yun Meng Xin, a young lady from a powerful and influential family in China. She is about to be forced into marriage with a young master from another powerful family that she absolutely loathes, one named Long Tian Yun."

"Long Tian Yun!" exclaimed Erica, standing in shock.

"You know him?" asked Origami

"Erica, I mean Kitten and I met him two or three times, during galas." nodded Liliana with a sour expression. "He is one of the most powerful people in China, but there is something about him that makes my skin crawl."

"A womanizer, through and through. He looked at us with lewd eyes, but he doesn't like women who could easily beat him in a fight." nodded Erica as she sat down. "But he also leads the Yan Huang Alliance, the biggest and most powerful organization in the last three virtual worlds. He commands millions upon millions of people. Getting on his bad side isn't a good idea."

"I probably will either way." shrugged Noah. "Anyway, Yun Meng Xin managed to negotiate something with her family. A terrible bet. She has two years, starting last month, to gather power and influence exceeding the rest of her own Yun family, who accumulated power for over a century. The person who recognized me asked me to join her guild, currently having three members, and help her win that bet. If she somehow succeed, her family won't pressure her anymore about marrying Long Tian Yun."

"You'd be a fool to accept… My lord." snorted Erica.

"If Yun Meng Xin is beautiful enough to make Long Tian Yun want to marry her, and smart and principled enough to not want to have anything to do with him, I would be a fool not to help her." countered Noah. "Anyway, I'm meeting her and her friends tomorrow at a restaurant in Beijing, and we'll see how it goes. Who wants to come with me? I got permission to bring a few friends, within limits."

"I wish to meet them." nodded Shuiruo.

"…I'd like to help them if possible, but only inside Mystic Moon, where I will be able to wear a mask." said Erica. "This man might target my family or my Order in retaliation."

"Yes, that's a good point." nodded Noah. Liliana nodded as well, sharing Erica's constraints.

"I'll go with you." said Origami. "My parents are out of his reach, assuming he even learns they are alive, and he won't dare target the AST... If he does, you will take action, right?"

"Yes. If he dares touch the AST, Yun Meng Xin's bet will become a moot point. You can't marry the dead after all. And I will rescue or revive any of your companions if necessary."

Origami nodded, satisfied.

"I sympathize with that girl, and I am willing to help her within the game as well." said Rikka. "But I would rather avoid open conflict with the Yan Huang alliance for now."

"Okay. I'll go meet them with Origami and Shuiruo, then." replied Noah.

He smiled to himself as a thought stuck him. It was too bad he couldn't deploy the Sisters in this world. They would instantly have formed the strongest faction within the game. Just imagining the faces of the other players witnessing 20 000 identical, expert-level girls crushing every monster on their path…

"Now that this is decided, let's go eat. After that, I'll take a quick nap in my Sanctuary, and I'll go face this Fairy-grade boss."

"What Fairy-grade boss?" exclaimed Erica and Liliana in sync.

…

Noah reappeared in the exact place he had been when he had logged off, at the entrance of the crude tunnel, and the pressure assaulted his senses again.

With a sigh, he drank three of Wang Ji's special potions, increasing his physical attack power by 20, his movement speed by 20%, and his health by 200. He decided against increasing his Hit rate by 20 for now, as he didn't know if it would be useful. And increasing his Magical attack power certainly wasn't.

He walked toward the next room, a circular one with a diameter of about 60 meters. Like the previous times, the enemy was waiting in the center.

A toad.

A green toad with a black pattern on its skin.

A toad bigger than most tanks.

"[Greedy Giant Toad]: Type: Beast, Level: 10, Grade: Fairy, HP: 80 000, Further information cannot be obtained."

Noah groaned mentally at the sheer amount of HP he would have to chew through. 80 000!

The toad, that had been facing the right wall, fixed one eye on him and pivoted in his direction.

*Croak…*

*Croak…*

Just from its shape, Noah could already guess a few attack patterns. If the toad jumped, Noah would need to run as far as he could from the landing spot until he could estimate the range of the AoE that would surely follow its landing.

He also needed to defend against thrusts from its likely prehensile tongue and get a feel of its range and speed.

If the Greedy Giant Toad had other methods of attacks, and that was probably the case, Noah would have to trust his luck and capabilities, and hope he survived them long enough to chug a HP potion.

The Fairy monster didn't intend to let Noah ponder and further and jumped high in the air, on a trajectory that would make it land right on Noah.

Noah immediately dashed to the side, looking over his shoulder as he ran.

The toad landed in a grand booming noise, and Noah saw a visible shockwave spread about 5 meters around it.

Noah stopped 10 meters from it, on guard. When the toad opened his mouth, he was already starting to evade to the right.

He moved just in time, as a barbed tongue shot out, traveling the distance separating them in the blink of an eye.

By reflex, Noah slashed downward with a Full Power Strike, hitting the tongue that was as thicker than one of his thighs, and was rewarded with a red number.

-197.

Noah nodded to himself, noting that the tongue didn't seem to have any damage reduction due to the beast's defense.

Before he could slash a second time, the Greedy Giant Toad had already retracted is tongue and jumped toward him.

Noah dashed to the left, stopping six meters away, then charged the toad before it could finish reorienting itself. He used Full Power Strike again, targeting one of the toad's hind legs.

-1.

"Crap." cursed Noah out loud as the toad made a sudden, and shorter jump upward. Noah didn't have time to get far enough away this time and was hit by the shock-wave.

-224.

That was almost 80% of Noah's normal Hit Points, gone, just like that.

He dashed away and to the side to get some range before the probably tongue spearing he didn't doubt would ensue, and hurriedly drank an orange HP potion, recovering most of his HP.

Noah evaded another tongue strike, and its tip hit the nearby wall with an impact sound so great that Noah had the sinking feeling he wouldn't survive any hit from it, HP potion or not.

The tongue was back in the boss's mouth before he could attack it.

The Greedy Giant Toad jumped again.

Noah gritted his teeth as he evaded, then dashed in again. He had to test something, even if it meant being hit again by that short range AoE.

He targeted one of the toad's large eyes with a Full Power Strike this time.

-1.

"Crap crap." cursed Noah as the toad jumped again.

Noah timed it, and jumped as well, ensuing his feet weren't in contact with the ground when the shockwave passed… And it didn't matter.

-224.

The toad was already turning toward him, and Noah dashed again, trying to stay behind it while he opened the distance between them. He drank another Orange potion, bringing his HP back to 442/490.

So far, the Toad had done more than two times more damage to him than he did to the Toad, and his stock of potions wasn't infinite.

And things would grow worse when mental fatigue accumulated, and his attribute-boosting potions would eventually run out.

*Croak…*

The Toad seemed to be able to read his mind, as Noah thought he heard a gloating undertone in the Toad's croaking.

The Fairy-grade monster adopted a strange posture, lifting its body slightly while lowering its head, and Noah heard a sound coming from above. He lifted his head only to see motes of earth or stone floating high above the Greedy Giant Toad, growing, their shape elongating, hardening into meter-long stone spikes.

The Toad wasn't just a near invulnerable tank with dangerous 360° attacks and high mobility. It could also use magic!

Noah twitched as the first of the stone spikes was launched in his general direction. As long as Noah paid attention to their trajectories and didn't miss any, they weren't so fast that evading them was impossible.

The bombardment lasted five seconds, Noah weaving through the incoming spikes, seeing them shatter and disappear almost as soon as they impacted the ground. He turned his attention back to the toad just in time to see it open its mouth.

The pink, barbed tongue shot again, and Noah hit it with a Full Power Strike.

-197.

So far, Noah caused the Greedy Giant Toad to lose a bit less than 0.5% of its massive HP pool.

…This was going to be a long fight.

…

For the sixth time, Noah drank potions to boost his Physical Attack Power, Movement speed, and max HP.

Over five hours. That was how Noah measured time, since he had started fighting the Greedy Giant Toad. He certainly didn't have time to open his interface to check.

And his focus was starting to slip.

From time to time, he heard Shuiruo's or Origami's voices, encouraging him, telling him to hang on.

The Greedy Giant Toad had revealed other tricks. It could only use Earth magic, it seemed, but its repertoire also included spikes erupting from the ground, as well as trying to lock Noah inside a cage of stone. It also had a special Croak that it used once in a while, one that made system notifications appear in Noah's view, telling him that he had resisted the 'Confused' status.

The tongue shot out again, and Noah evaded by the narrowest of margins. He slashed at it, again, with a normal attack this time as he was low on MP.

-131.

Once again, Noah considered using the Hell Spider's saliva to put an end to this endurance fight. The Greedy Giant Toad was down to 11 500 HP or so by now, and using it would kill it at once.

But he wasn’t certain it was the right move to do. Being able to shave off 30% of any boss's HP was incredibly valuable, and who knew if there wouldn't be an even more dangerous boss appearing in the next room?

And the more Noah persisted, the greater his unwillingness to use it. It would be throwing away the efforts he had made for the last hour or so.

Noah once again ran to avoid being squished by the jumping toad. Once again, evaded the series of spikes erupting from the ground. Once again, evaded the tongue, and used Full Power Strike.

And luck smiled upon him, as the 2% chance to daze the target was triggered for the second time since the fight began.

The frog stopped moving, its extended tongue falling limply on the ground.

With a roar, Noah used the last of his MP to activate Fire of Rage and went to town on the tongue.

-141, -141, -141, -282, -141…

By the time the Greedy Giant Toad recovered and retracted its tongue, it was down to 2610 HP.

It started its earth spike shower again, and Noah ran farther away, increasing the distance the spikes would have to cross and giving him more time to dodge.

…

The Greedy Giant Toad died at last.

Noah almost collapsed to the ground as he received several notifications.

The first was to inform him that he had leveled up and was now Lvl 10.

Then, another told him that he couldn't level up to Lvl 11 until he left the tutorial area.

But that wasn't all.

“*DING*… You have successfully killed ‘Greedy Giant Toad’, Fame+1000, SP+1000.”

“*DING*… You have successfully exterminated “Greedy Giant Toad”, the door towards the sixth area of 'The Forgotten Cave' has been opened.”

"Not again." groaned Noah.

"*Global Announcement*... A player has earned over 1000 Fame. The Heaven Ranking Chart is now Open."

Rank 1          Noah                         Fame: 1505

Rank 2          Eve                             Fame: 428

Rank 3          _____                         Fame: 145

Rank 4          Luo Hao                     Fame: 142

Rank 5          Ruo Ruo                      Fame: 135

Rank 6          Ice Heart Demon       Fame: 135

Rank 7          Sword God Doni        Fame: 112

Rank 8          Sword Emperor          Fame: 104

Rank 9          Chu Zihang                  Fame: 100

Rank 10        Caesar                          Fame: 96

“*DING*… You have gained [Consonance Insignia].”

[Consonance Insignia]: Type: Insignia, Grade: None, Equipment Requirements: Exclusive to [Noah], Cannot be traded or looted. A mysterious insignia with an unknown origin that will only be rewarded to the first player to solo a Fairy Beast. The item itself does not possess any attributes. But legends says that it has been passed down from ancient times, and can open a certain ancient ruin.

Noah stared at the list for an instant before discarding it. He would think about it later.

He tiredly started sorting the shiny pile of items the giant Toad had left behind. First were 112 Gold coins. Noah promised himself he would use at least 10 gold at the first opportunity to buy a crap ton of HP potions. Next were the potions.

[Green Potion]: Intermediate HP recovery potion, after use HP immediately recovers 800 points, Cooldown Time: 5 secs.

[Dark Blue Potion]: Intermediate MP recovery potion, after use MP immediately recovers 200 points, Cooldown Time: 5 secs.

There were ten Green and ten Dark Blue Potions. Noah was especially satisfied with the Dark Blue ones, as they were the first way for Noah to refill his MP, and he had seen how valuable it could be during a hard boss fight.

Then came the actual equipment, and there was plenty of it.

[Silver Helmet]: Type: Head Equipment, Grade: Silver, Equipment Requirements: Any class LV10 or above. Helmet forged from silver, flickers a mysterious silver radiance, Attributes: Defense+13, Strength+5, Constitution+5, Water Elemental Resistance+3%.

[Silver Bracers]: Type: Handguard, Grade: Silver, Equipment Requirements: Any class LV10 or above. Bracers forged from silver, flickers a mysterious silver radiance, Attributes: Defense+10, Attack+8, Hit Rate+6, Critical Hit Rate+2%.

[Sand Blade]: Type: Two Hand Sword: Grade: Gold, Equipment Requirements: Any warrior profession LV10 or above including apprentices, Color like yellow sand, a mysterious sword that bears a heavy earth elemental strength. Attributes: Attack+35, Strength+10, Agility+5, 3% chance to add 5 secs of “Petrification”.

[Sand Blade]: Type: Two Hand Sword: Grade: Gold, Equipment Requirements: Any warrior profession LV10 or above including apprentices, Color like yellow sand, a mysterious sword that bears a heavy earth elemental strength. Attributes: Attack+35, Strength+10, Agility+5, 3% chance to add 5 secs of “Petrification”.

[Gold Vein Chain]: Type: Moon God Bracelet, Grade: Gold. Equipment Requirements: None. High grade moon god bracelet made from golden beads, can be socketed with energy crystals of any grade, cannot be socketed with energy orbs, Sockets: 4.

Two Silver-grade pieces of armor, the same Gold-ranked Two-handed sword dropped twice, and a Gold-ranked Moon God Bracelet with 4 slots.

Noah smiled as he equipped those items. They significantly boosted both his offense and defense.

And then, there were the other items, out of the ordinary. A scroll, a cloak, and finally, the two Fairy-grade items that were this insane fight's biggest prizes.

[Power Scroll — Avarice Sound Wave]: CC type scroll, after use will release dangerous infrasound waves to disrupt the target’s’ mind, causing all targets within a 50-meter radius to fall into 10 sec. of confusion. Scroll will disappear after use.

[Dark Cloak of Concealment]: Special item, wearing it will cause the body to enter a “Stealth” state, unable to be discovered by beings of Faerie or below power. It also has a certain chance of escaping from the senses of beings with strength above Faerie level. Cannot attack when in stealth. Stealth condition will automatically release when cloak is removed, can be used for a total of 300 seconds. Remaining Time: 300 secs.

[Heartless Orb]: Type: Energy Orb, Grade: Faerie. Attribute: Fire, Effect: Critical Hit Rate+15%.

[Soaring Cloud]: Type: Spear, Grade: Faerie, Equipment Requirements: Warrior professions including apprentices LV10 or above, Strength>=50. A Faerie Spear as light as a feather, when using it, will bring up a series of silver lights that dazzle the opponent. Attributes: Attack+70, Strength+15, Agility+15, Pierce Rate+3%, 3% chance to induce “Blindness” for 5 seconds.

Item skill: Parry Judgement. While wielding Soaring Cloud, small chance to automatically parry an enemy's melee attack and redirect its damage to that enemy.

Item skill: Shooting Soaring Cloud: Throw out Soaring Cloud with an attack that can pierce through multiple opponents. 300% attack damage, enemy cannot evade, 1% chance of triggering instant death. HP-50, MP-50. Cooldown time, 100 seconds. If thrown, Soaring Cloud does not automatically return to its owner's hands and can be seized by another player.

Noah didn't know which item he was the happiest about, the Orb or the Spear. The difference in quality between Gold-Grade and Fairy grade was simply huge.

As soon as Noah grabbed the spear, a notification appeared.

"*Global Announcement*... A fairy-grade item has been found. The Equipment Ranking Chart is now Open"

Rank 1: Soaring Cloud          Type: Spear          Grade: Fairy          Owner: Noah

"I really need a mask now, everyone and their dogs will be gunning for me." chuckled Noah.

In Mystic Moon, whenever a player was killed by another, there was a 20% chance that one of his equipped items would drop. Countless powerful players and alliance leaders would now try to get their hands on Soaring Cloud, by any means necessary. Some would even try to find him in the real world, to convince him to join their faction, or steal his stuff.

He equipped Soaring Cloud, and opened the door that had appeared when the toad died.

And an incomparably more violent aura assaulted him.

"What the hell?!" protested Noah out loud, closing the door in a hurry. "Lilith-sama, this isn't funny!"

"But it is! I do find your reaction quite humorous." grinned Lilith, appearing beside him, wearing a blue dress with gold trims. The fact that this was a VR environment was a trivial thing for her.

"I'm grateful for the loot, Lilith-sama, but the difficulty is just unreasonable!"

"Do not complain, my Champion. I actually decreased that toad's power. In the fiction I inspired myself from, its area of effect attacks reached farther, it periodically summoned elite minions, and the toad had special moves when its Hit Points reached several thresholds. Still, I am quite satisfied with the outcome, Noah. Your refusal to use the spider's poison made me win another bet. I am going to have two weeks of quality time with Athena, thanks to you."

"Ugh…" sighed Noah, trying to chase away the lewd images sprouting in his mind, including those of his own training sessions with the local Athena from the DxD world. He wondered what kind of utter monster the protagonist of the original fiction must have been to defeat the original toad. And whatever was in the next chamber.

"There's one thing I do not understand, Lilith-sama. Me reaching the end of this gauntlet is clearly important to kickstart whatever sequence of events you have in mind, but what if I had been killed by that Toad? Nerfed or not, this fight was the hardest in my life yet, and it's not like I could just go grind twenty levels in the main continent and return to the tutorial island."

"Had you failed to pass this trial, you would have found yourself back at the bottom of the Chasm, minus one level, but I would have downgraded the Toad to a Lord-grade monster, and it wouldn't have recovered any of its health. Of course, the rewards would have decreased as well. Now, I have said enough. Keep going, my Champion. You're almost there." winked Lilith before disappearing.

Noah nodded and examined the Heaven ranking list again. He recognized most of the names.

_____ may just be the legendary 'Blank', aka Sora and Shiro, the sibling protagonists of the No Game No Life fiction. Both were prodigies with all kinds of games. Noah remembered a particular scene where Shiro controlled two characters simultaneously by using a second keyboard and mouse with her feet, of all things.

Luo Hao was likely from the Campione fiction. According to what Toba had said, she wasn't a Campione in this world, but she should still be an apex martial artist. She was more or less the local equivalent of Scathach.

Noah was happy that Shuiruo and her new friend were ranked 5 and 6. They likely had the same Fame from doing everything as a team, and they were doing well for themselves.

Sword God Doni had to be the Campione Salvatore Doni, that arrogant ass.

Sword Emperor was Long Tian Yun's bodyguard Yun Feng had mentioned, so it was no surprise that he would have a high ranking. As for Caesar and Chu Zihang, Noah wasn't surprised to find them here.

With four current students and at least one alumnus present in the top 10, Cassell College was well represented. The Principal would be happy about it.

As for the second ranked player, Eve… Noah didn't have a clue about her, but she clearly was not ordinary.

Noah decided to address the blinking icon in the corner of his eyes. An incoming message from Yun Feng.

"I was right to ask for your help! I admire you so much! I feel proud just being in your contact list!"

"Yes, thank you." write Noah with a wry smile. "I'll have to wear a mask now. What can you tell me about Eve, the second rank player?"

"She was acknowledged by everyone as the strongest player in the previous VR world. Her identity isn't known, and she never joined a guild. But no one has ever defeated her. There was one time when a guild of a thousand players tried to ambush her. Not only did she easily slaughter them all, but she returned to kill the enemy leaders over and over until they left that game forever. She's like a Goddess of War, and that even became her nickname."

"I see. What does she look like?"

"She wears a mask and no one ever saw her face. All that is known is that she is tall and has long bright red hair. She also has the figure of a goddess."

"Okay. Got to go, another horrifyingly strong boss stands between me and the exit."

Noah closed the conversation before Yun Feng could inquire further, thinking about Nono. She had long bright red hair and a great body, and was obviously skilled. Could she be Eve?

He slowly opened the door, experiencing that terrible aura again.

He waited for his MP to be back to full, then slowly walked inside the tunnel. Noah closed the door by himself, not wanting for it to close with a loud noise, and quietly walked deeper, Soaring Cloud in hand.