Ch 368: Nethrys, the White Terror.

Noah gritted his teeth as Xi Ling died, her body shattering into particles, and her name and HP/MP bars disappearing from his interface.

Thanks to her Nine Suns Rebirth skill, he would be able to resummon her without Xi Ling having suffered any permanent consequence, but she would be unable to use any offensive ability for one hour.

Still, Noah felt regret that he had let Xi Ling die. He saw this as proof that he still was too weak, and resolved to focus more of his time on Mystic Moon until he could defeat Qi Xing and her followers.

By the time the Lvl 51 Elder Ice-Treading Spider could turn his attention to him, Noah finished the Lvl 39 one.

“*Ding* … … You successfully killed a Fairy-grade “Elder Ice-Treading Spider”, Fame +3 900, Skill points +3 900.”

The second Lvl 51 spider didn't stand a chance. Noah was now familiar with its attack patterns, and the monster lacked the wide area of effect attacks of the giant toad he once fought, trading it for faster movement and attack speed.

It would be a formidable enemy against a full party of players or two, killing them one by one while tanking their attacks with its enormous HP pool.

To Noah, killing this Fairy-grade boss was now like doing surgery, a task that requires one's full attention, but isn't particularly worrying.

After three minutes of fighting, the Elder Ice-Treading Spider finally died.

“*Ding* … … You successfully killed a Fairy-grade “Elder Ice-Treading Spider”, Fame +5 100, Skill points +5 100.”

"DING… You have gained a level."

*Ruff!* barked Little Grey as he trotted to him, his tail wagging slowly.

"Don't worry, Xi Ling will be back once we're out of this cave. There may be more spiders, so let's keep her safe until she can spend an hour without fighting."

Little Grey nodded and started absorbing the corpses.

Before checking on the loot, Noah opened his interface.

Killing the two Fairy-Grade bosses, as well as all the lesser elite ones, had only netted him about one level and a half worth of XP. The grind to gain levels was becoming extreme.

He invested the five attribute points into Strength, and invested the massive amount of SP he just gained into the next levels of Sword Proficiency, Agility Strengthening, and Heaven Wind Technique.

[Sword Proficiency]: Current Level: LV7, Highest Level: LV7. SP to Upgrade to LV4: 2 400. After practice, can greatly increase the ability to control swords. This is the same battle technique that Warriors specializing in swords gain when they evolve their class. Effect: When using any sword-type weapon, damage dealt is increased by 70%. Cannot stack with other weapon proficiency skills.

[Agility Strengthening]: Current Level: LV7, Highest Level, LV7, SP required to upgrade to LV4: 3 500. Powerful battle technique originating from Phantasmal Bladedancer soul force. After practice can greatly increase personal attack strength permanently. Effect: Agility increases by 4 points per player level.  Physical attack strength increased by Agility x 1,5.

[Heaven Wind Technique]: Current Level: LV7, Highest Level: LV10. SP to Upgrade to LV4: 2 400. Ancient battle technique, after practice, can greatly increase the ability to control any weapon. Effect: When using any weapon, damage dealt is increased by 35%. The effect can stack with other weapon proficiency skills.

With those upgrades, his Physical Attack Power climbed to 4 049. For an instant, he wondered what would happen if he were to post a screenshot of his status on the internet. The word 'bullshit' would probably be uttered a lot.

Noah then closed it to look at the loot. Surely the two Fairy-grade spiders would have dropped something worth equipping.

He started with the loot left by Lvl 39 Elder Ice-Treading Spider, and when he saw the first item, his eyebrows shot up.

[Ice-Treading Spider's Mask]. Type: Mask. Grade: Fairy. Requirements: None. A mask forged from the shell of an Ice-Treading Spider. Attributes: HP +500, Defense +50, Physical Attack Power +25, Water resistance +15%, +50% chance to taunt Ice-Treading Spiders with each attack.

The mask was white aside from the light blue skull-like mark he has seen on the back of the Ice-Treading Spiders. Once put on, it would cover the upper half of his face and descend town his cheeks, but would leave the mouth and chin uncovered to allow its wearer to drink potions if they wanted to do it manually.

Potions could also be used from the visual interface in the same way skills could be triggered, as the game developers judged that asking players to free one of their hands, open their inventory, grab a potion, and drink it in the middle of a fight would be too much of a distraction.

Noah put it on immediately.

Next was something that looked like a large bronze coin or medal, slightly larger than his palm.

[Guild-Creation Token]. Type: token. Grade: None. Requirements: None. A token that can be exchanged to the Lord of any of the major cities for the right to create a Guild.

Noah almost whistled to himself. You Meng Xin had mentioned needing one of those one day, but those tokens were excessively rare, and as far as he knew, none of the Guilds officially existed yet.

He opened his interface to contact Yun Meng Xin.

"Meng Xin, Has anyone obtained a Guild Creation Token yet?"

The reply came after within twenty seconds. She probably was inside the auction house rather than hunting monsters somewhere.

"Not as far as I am aware. Why are you asking?"

"I have one in hand. Dropped from a fairy-grade monster."

"Oh. Congratulations are in order. I was really fortunate to have met you, Noah. But I do not think we should use it for ourselves. If this is really the first Guild-creation token, its value is immeasurable. All the largest guilds will compete for the honor of being the first officially established guild. It will likely be a nine figures number."

"That's also what I think. Why don't you make the announcement right away? We need to auction it fast before someone drops another. Let's say in two days?"

Noah didn't want to return south immediately if the cave proved to have an entrance in the north side. He was hoping to find a city or something that would offer him a way to teleport back here, so he wouldn't have to waste all this time traveling back and forth.

"Alright, I will announce it on social medias within ten minutes, and I will mention it was dropped by you, it will give it a little bit more value."

"Great. I still have some good loot to examine, see you soon."

"Later."

Noah chuckled to himself as he contemplated for a second the value of the small object in his hand. At the current time, one gold traded for about 15 dollars USD. The value of gold was steadily decreasing as people increased in level, but to think that this little thing would likely go for at least two billion dollars… All for the bragging rights of being first.

Noah shook his head at the absurdity and put the token in his inventory before checking the next items. A gold-grade Lvl 40 staff for casters, and a gold-grade Lvl 40 dagger shaped like a spider fang with a chance to inflict necrosis.

Noah had no interest in those. He would give them to Yun Meng Xin to redistribute to the other members of her party or sell.

There were also some potions and a pile of gold, but Noah didn't care. He simply put them into his inventory.

*Ruff!* exclaimed Little Grey as he finished digesting the first fairy-grade corpse. The thing he dropped at Noah's feet was an ice-blue orb, and Noah scratched behind his head as he picked it up.

[Crystal of Icy Cruelty]. Type: Energy Orb. Grade: Fairy. Effect: +25 Physical Attack Power, +6% Crit chance, +6% Hit chance.

That was quite a good thing, and Noah slotted it immediately into the Lunar Scourge.

Noah moved to the pile of loot left by the Lvl 51 Elder Ice-Treading Spider, and lifted the first item. It was a white silk belt with silver fastenings.

[Sash of the frozen end]. Type: Belt. Grade: Fairy. Requirements: Lvl 50, 2 000 fame. A belt of woven silk, infused with the essence of Ice-Treading Spiders. Attributes: HP +400, Defense +60, Strength +20, Agility +20, Water resistance +10%, Dark resistance +5%.

Noah wasn't even aware, until now, that belts were a thing in Mystic Moon. The interface didn't have slots to put the players' items in. There was only a visual of one's own body indicating what items were worn, and each of them had a button 'unequip' on the interface, and a button 'equip' in the inventory.

Items could also be equipped manually like in the real world, but players couldn't abuse it by equipping several layers or more than one ring per hand.

Noah grinned as he put the belt in his inventory and equipped it.

Between the stats provided by the mask, the belt, and his upgraded skills, his HP had increased by about a third, and his damage by over fifty percent.

The Elder Ice-Treading Spider had dropped another Fairy-grade thing, but it wasn't a piece of equipment. A large, almost flat, white piece of chitin.

[Ice-Treading Spider Shell]. Type: Material. Grade: Fairy. Requirements: Blacksmithing Lvl 60. A light-weight but durable piece of chitin from an Ice-treading Spider. Can be used to craft a Lvl 50, Fairy-grade shield or piece of armor.

That… could be very useful. The level requirement meant that by the time Noah could use this to craft something, the item would be at least ten levels behind a piece of Gold-grade equipment, but a Fairy-grade piece might still be superior to it for at least a few levels, and considering how difficult is was to gain significant amounts of XP, a few levels might last a while.

The Lvl 51 Elder Ice-treading Spider had also dropped two more Lvl 50, gold-grade items. One was a bow that featured a 25% chance to add an Ice Stake to its normal attack, and Noah had zero interest in it.

The other was pretty good, however.

[Frostweaver Ring]. Type: Ring. Grade: Gold. Requirements: Lvl 48. A ring seemingly made of platinum strands surrounding eight blue gems. It is said that those who stare too long at those gems will experience nightmares featuring giant spiders. Attributes: Strength +10, Spirit +10, Critical rate +5%, Attack speed +10%, Water Resistance +10%.

Noah replaced his worst ring by this one, and waited for Little Grey to be done. This time, what the fluffy puppy produced wasn't an Orb, but another type of Material.

[Ice-Treading Spider's venomous fang]. Type: Material. Grade: Gold. Requirements: Blacksmithing Lvl 50. A fang from an Ice-Treading Spider. Can be used to forge a weapon and imbue it with a chance to inflict poison and necrosis.

"Thanks as always." smiled Noah.

*Ruff* happily replied Little Grey.

As Noah busied himself with gathering the gold coins and potions littering the cave, he reflected on the encounter. He had been quite lucky overall.

Without the Wind Step Technique granting him increased speed, he would not have been able to consistently evade hits from the two Fairy-grade bosses, even if he saw them coming in time. His body simply wouldn't have been able to react fast enough.

Without Little Grey, his skills would have been at a much lower level, making the fight last a lot longer.

Of course, Noah wasn't suicidal. Without that skill and Little Grey, he would have retreated the instant he saw the two bosses appear… But would that have been possible? The spiders probably would have followed him outside, and the three teleportation scrolls he still possessed had a five-second wind-up time that would be interrupted if he moved or was hit.

"Alright, time to explore the rest of that cave." smiled Noah when he was done collecting everything.

*Ruff!*

Noah walked carefully, watching the ceiling even more than the ground, but there were no more spiders or egg sacks. The ground quickly became littered with bones, though, some of them humans, and some who looked mostly human, but with slight differences. He found a half-crushed human skull that had a small antler sprouting from its forehead.

Father down the cave was a pile of rusty stuff. It seemed the spiders had dumped the gear worn by the Spiders' victims in this spot.

Noah started rummaging inside. Wasn't there a saying about one man's garbage being another man's treasure?

Most of it were worthless items of Iron, Copper or even Pale White quality.

However, near the bottom of the pile, he found the remnants of a rucksack, its fibers rotten away. But there was a metal box inside the sack, about thirty centimeters long, and ten centimeters in its other dimensions, and Noah examined it carefully, because the silvery metal if was made of was still in pristine condition.

[Life-Sealed container]. Type: Container. Grade: Fairy. Requirements: None. A sealed box meant to preserve its content in stasis. It is locked with a Life-Seal, preventing anyone from opening is as long as the person having locked it is still alive. Typically used by nobles to safeguard a will or transmit an inheritance.

Noah tried to open the box, and it did with a soft click. Inside were a scroll, and a letter.

Noah opened the letter first.

"If anyone but the Training Hall Master of Forgotten City reads these words, it means that something happened to my envoy. I am known as Oleg Smirnoff, the greatest Forge Master of the Empire of Ursus. My works are sought by many."

"But despite searching for many years, I have not found anyone worthy of becoming my successor, and I do not want for my craft to end up used against the Infected more than it already is. Those brave, unfortunate souls are suffering enough."

"That is why I am following the suggestion of an old friend whose homeland is far south, beyond the great mountain range. He knows a way to cross it. I am sending my inheritance over there, in the hope that it will end up in the hands of a worthy man or woman, and that their own works will be used to protect the innocent."

Noah folded the letter and put it in his inventory, then examined the scroll itself.

[Hidden Profession Scroll: Runesmith]. Type: Profession Scroll. Grade: Mysterious God. Requirements: Lvl 50, Blacksmithing Lvl 50, 10 000 Fame. Effect: Will allow one player to learn the Runesmith profession. After use, one's class will be changed into Runesmith -- Warsmith – Forge Master -- ????. One will be able to create weapons and armor far beyond the capabilities of normal artisans, even rivaling the legendary works of the Dwarves. One will also get greater use of the equipment created by one's own self. Few people on the battlefield are as dangerous as seasoned warriors who know their weapons as if they had made them… because they did.

"Runesmith? Forge Master? I never heard about those professions." said Qi Yue.

"This has Lilith-sama's fingerprints all over it." grinned Noah. "Or what are the odds that I would find a secret profession scroll barely a day after gaining the ability to learn two more?"

"How could she have arranged for something like this to happen? You told me Lilith can't predict the future."

"She can't predict which future is going to happen, but she can still see some of them, and give a little nudge here and then to push things in the desired direction." shrugged Noah. "She once mentioned that if I had died in that gauntlet protecting the Lunar Scourge from unworthy intruders, she would have intervened to make sure I succeeded eventually."

"…I see."

"Do you know anything about this Empire of Ursus?"

"No. I never went to see what was beyond the mountain range. This is Rahu's territory, and if I ever met him there accidentally, he might have grown suspicious."

Noah nodded and broke the wax seal keeping the parchment closed.

"DING*… Free profession slot detected. Do you wish to learn the Runesmith profession?"

Noah clicked yes.

"*DING*… You have become a Runesmith."

"*DING*… As you are already above level 50, your Runesmith class has evolved to Warsmith. +1 to the maximum level of all class skills. Attribute gains are now +15 HP, +15 MP, +1 Strength, +1 Spirit, +5 Attribute Points per level."

"Class bonus stats: Strength +15, Constitution +5, Spirit +10, HP +200, Crit Rate +5%, SP +50."

"Class passive ability: When forging equipment, can invest twenty times the normal amount of non-unique metal ingots to increase by one the grade of the crafted item. When using a weapon created by oneself, Physical Attack Power and Magical Attack Power +15% for that weapon. Defense +5% for each worn equipment created by oneself."

"Class Skills: [Battle-hardened Steel], [Adaptative smithing], [Forge Strike], [Tampered Edge]"

"Ultimate Skill: [Rune Inscription]"

Noah's stat increased significantly, and he had not even started to distribute the 255 Attribute points he suddenly received.

For an instant, he got the crazy idea of putting it all into Agility. And if Movement speed and Attack speed were correlated to that stat, he probably would have. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Agility increased Hit Rate and Evasion Rate, and gave him 1.5 Physical Attack Power per agility thanks to his first class's Agility Strengthening skill.

But Noah didn't care about Hit Rate, and didn't dare entrust his defense to something as random as Evasion Rate. Not when he would eventually face beings above Celestial level. As for increasing Physical Attack Power, Strength did a slightly better job at it.

Before making a decision about his attribute points, he decided to check his new skills.

[Battle-hardened Steel]: Current Level: LV5, Highest Level: LV8. SP to Upgrade to LV2: 800. Endless practice at the forge did not only forge the works the Warsmith created, but also his body. Effect: +10% Strength, +10% Agility, +10% Constitution and +25% Fire resistance.

[Adaptative smithing]: Current Level: LV5, Highest Level: LV8. SP to Upgrade to LV2: 800.

With insights from years of fighting with various weapons, a Warsmith knows the perfect balance, weight and other characteristics an ideal weapon should possess, making the weapons he produces inherently superior to those produced by a mere blacksmith.

Effect: Add a special effect to any weapon or armor piece crafted depending on its type.

Sword: +15% Attack Speed.

Dagger: +10% crit rate.

Axe: +15% Physical Attack Damage.

Hammer: +15% stun chance (one second, reduced chance against Lord-grade and above enemies and players.)

Spear: +20% Attack Speed.

Scythe: +15% bleeding chance (100% weapon damage over 10 seconds, ignore armor).

Shield: +50% defense.

Chest, Helmet, Pants, Bracers, Belt, Mask: +150 defense.

Boots: +15% movement speed.

[Forge Strike]: Current Level: LV5, Highest Level: LV5. SP to Upgrade to LV2: 1600. The Warsmith's mastery of the hammer reached the point of making it into an extension of his own arm. Even when yielding other weapons, a Warsmith can manifest a hammer of illusory flames around them. Effect: 250% damage, 12% stun chance (one second, reduced chance against Lord-grade and above enemies and players).

[Tempered Edge]: Current Level: LV5, Highest Level: LV8. SP to Upgrade to LV2: 2000. Imbue your attacks with the power of the forge. Effect: 140% of Magic Attack Power added to attacks as Fire Damage. Duration: 20 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

[Rune Inscription]: Current Level: LV5, Highest Level: LV5. SP to Upgrade to LV2: 4000. The ultimate ability of rune forging. Effect: User can add to one of his creations an additional property by duplicating an existing one, effectively doubling it. Cooldown: one week.

Noah whistled to himself as the skills' implications registered. With the new skills, he could already, in theory, craft a Lvl 50 Fairy-grade weapon or piece of armor, then slap a nice, useful property on it with Adaptative Smithing, and then again double one of its properties using Rune Inscription.

The resulting item would be OP as hell, even if Celestial-grade equipment would be better still.

After thinking for a few seconds, Noah distributed his attribute points. He started to put 50 points in each of his attributes, as he didn't want to become too unbalanced and risk finding great equipment that he wouldn't be able to use because of some stat requirement. Noah had 55 AP left after that, and he put it into Strength.

With this done, he took a long look at his status screen.

Character: Noah

Level: 51

Class: Ghost Bladedancer | Warsmith

Faction: None

Fame: 31 210          Money: 87 540 Gold          SP: 1 450

Basic Attributes:

Strength: 425          Constitution: 187          Agility: 578          Spirit: 177

Available: 0

Innate Attributes:

Luck: 13          Comprehension: 13

HP: 12 700           MP: 125 008 375

Physical Attack Power: 6 267

Magic Attack Power: 354

Defense: 650

Hit Rate: ???          Dodge rate: 578

Critical Hit Rate: 44%          Pierce Rate: ???

Attack Speed: 160%          Movement Speed: 175%

Elemental resistances:

Water: 38%          Fire: 25%          Wind: 10%          Lightning: 0%

Earth: 5%          Light: 0%          Darkness: 13%

Skills:

Scan lv 1

Heaven Wind Technique Lvl 7

Wind Step Technique Lvl 10

Fire of Rage Lvl 5

Full Power Strike Lvl 5

Little Crescent Slash Lvl 5

Sword Proficiency Lvl 7

Agility Strengthening Lvl 7

Mirage Blade Lvl 4

Peerless Jade Dance Lvl 5

Paragon Lvl 5

Battle-Hardened Steel Lvl 5

Adaptative Smithing Lvl 5

Forge Strike Lvl 5

Tempered Edge Lvl 5

Rune Inscription Lvl 5

Noah nodded to himself and opened the player Ranking. He expected to have moved up the ranking at least once or twice with all the fame he just gained.

Rank 1          Eve                              Fame: 37 720

Rank 2          Noah                           Fame: 31 210

Rank 3          Ruo Ruo                      Fame: 27 427

Rank 4          Ice Heart Demon       Fame: 26 712

Rank 5          CuteZero                      Fame: 24 941

Rank 6          Rosa Cremisi        Fame: 22 153

Rank 7          Silver Sword          Fame: 21 845

Rank 8          _____                          Fame: 21 250

Rank 9          Luo Hao                      Fame: 21 085

Rank 10        Sword Emperor                 Fame: 20748

Noah smiled with satisfaction. This fight with the spiders had propelled him from rank 6 all the way up to Rank 2, and he was catching up to Eve at last.

He next checked the Item ranking.

Rank 1: Scarlet Reaper         Type: Greatsword       Grade: Celestial          Owner: Eve

Rank 2: Sash of the frozen end   Type: Belt       Grade: Fairy              Owner: Noah

Rank 3: Fairy Priestess's regalia   Type: Chest armor       Grade: Fairy          Owner: Ruo Ruo

Rank 4: Door Smashers    Type: Shoes       Grade: Fairy          Owner: Eve

Rank 5: Ice-treading spider's mask   Type: Mask       Grade: Fairy          Owner: Noah

Rank 6: The Butcher's cleaver   Type: Axe       Grade: Fairy          Owner: _____

Rank 7: Soul-Forged Plate   Type: Chest armor       Grade: Fairy          Owner: Eve

Rank 8: Last Rites                  Type: Sword                   Grade: Fairy          Owner: Eve

Rank 9: Soaring Cloud          Type: Spear                    Grade: Fairy          Owner: Long Tian Yun

Noah made a note to himself to congratulate Shuiruo next time he would see her, and opened the Pet Ranking next. And he was a good thing he wasn't drinking anything, or he would have sprayed it in astonishment.

Pet Ranking List

Rank 1: Holy Spirit Beast          Grade: Celestial          Level: 51          Owner: Noah

Rank 2: Crimson Spirit              Grade: Celestial          Level: 51          Owner: Noah

Rank 3: Cai'er                              Grade: Fairy                  Level: 43          Owner: Ruo Ruo

Noah decided to contact her immediately and sent her a message.

"Ruo Ruo, congratulations on being third in the item ranking."

"Third? Wasn't I second? Oh... Thank you, Master. And you got two Fairy-grade items! congratulations to you too. What did you fight?"

"A pair of huge fairy-grade spiders and a bunch of lesser ones."

"Ugh. I hate spiders."

"Sure. And I checked the pet ranking, too."

"Eheh, were you surprised, Master?"

"I sure was. Why the hell is Cai'er your pet?"

"She wanted to see the world and stay with us so badly that it sort of happened. Her big sister Ying Xue joined our group as well, both to protect her little sister, and to protect me. And Cai'er is so strong! Her healing is even better than mine! 20% HP recovery per second!"

"I see. High grade pets are complete cheats, I know a thing or two about it." grinned Noah. "Got to go, see you later."

"Later."

Noah smiled as he collected the handful of blue crystals Little Grey had created from the corpses of the smaller spiders. They mostly gave a boost to MP amount, which was the one thing Noah absolutely didn't need.

He found another tunnel at the back of the cave and followed it as it twisted and turned. After a while, he saw brighter light dimly reflected on the walls and walked faster, wanting to get some fresh air.

Noah emerged on the other side of the mountain range, and he smiled as he took he the view. At the foot of the mountains was a forest, although he could see to his right, about three or four kilometers away, a village surrounded by fields.

Much further away, far to the north, Noah could see… He couldn't really determine what he was seeing due to the distance. Rectangular, mostly flat things.

Noah decided that now was a good time to resummon Xi Ling, and she appeared near him. She looked around for an instant, then changed into her human form.

"I'm sorry, Xi Ling." said Noah with an apologetic smile. "I failed to protect you."

"It is fine." nodded Xi Ling. "I am fine right now. Are we on the other side?"

"We are, and I found a scroll inside for a hidden profession. I am now an upgraded, combat variant of a blacksmith on top of being a Bladedancer."

"It sounds interest…" her words trailed off as Little Grey suddenly barked, staring toward the of the goat path that snaked down the mountain slope.

*Ruff! Ruff!*

Little Grey's hackles were raised.

Noah frowned as he stared down at the edge of the forest, and he saw glimpses of something big and white move between the trees.

"Xi Ling, looks like I'll have to unsummon you, since you can't fight for an hour." sighed Noah.

"…Yes." nodded Xi Ling as she, too, had her eyes on the spider that suddenly emerged from the forest, almost three times as large as the Elder Ice-Treading Spiders.

Noah was too far for Scan to work, but he didn't need it to know that this monster was at least Celestial-grade.

It was walking on six legs, it two forelegs folded under its massive body, supporting the weight of two small figures completely wrapped in silk.

The Spider than seen Noah and his companions, and even recognized the mask he was wearing.

It dropped the two figures on the ground, slowly lifted its thorax up, and let out a long, rumbling hiss, a sound full of malevolence that promised death.

In the distance, flocks of birds suddenly took off with panicked chirps.

Noah quickly looked at his surroundings, trying to find an appropriate place he would reach before the spider. Fighting on a mountain slope would be tricky and would disadvantage him more than it would the spider.

As the spider started going up the slope, Noah unsummoned Xi Ling and ran to an area on his right. There was a spot, around fifty meters long and large, where the slope was less pronounced. The ground was made of dark gray stone with very little snow or ice.

The spider entered Scan range, and Noah examined her. That beast was downright intimidating.

[Nethrys, the White Terror, Queen of the Ice-Treading Spiders]: Type: Beast. Grade: Celestial. Level: 68. HP: 8 726 000. The undisputed ruler of the Ice-Treading Spiders, a feared predator haunting the Dragonspine mountain range. Through centuries of monsters and evolution, she had developed Ice Magic powerful enough to rival Ice elemental spirits. Few who faced her returned alive to spread the word.

"Be careful, Noah. Named monsters tend to be stronger than those without a name. This one is a particularly strong Celestial, at least for its level." said Qi Yue.

Noah took a deep breath and nodded, his hands tightening around the hilts of his swords. This was going to be a tough fight. One he probably wouldn't stand a chance to win, had he not already found the Sagittarius and Cancer Orbs allowing him to reliably hit even a being 17 levels above him and ignore her natural armor.

When Nethrys stepped within fifty meters of Noah, she paused, and ice crystals appeared on her body like an armor before separating from it and floating in the air.

Noah tensed, wondering if he should already start running to the side, but the crystals weren't launched at him. Instead, they split and multiplied endlessly as they were carried by an unnatural wind.

In seconds, Noah and Nethrys were both standing I the middle of a vortex of winds increasingly loaded with still growing and multiplying ice crystals, and Noah understood that she was cutting off his escape.

A moment later, the ice crystals had grown and linked to each other, forming a giant dome of thick ice, about 150 meters in diameter.

Nethrys made a satisfied, threatening hiss, then created sixteen Ice Stakes, no, Ice Spears above her back. They were launched in a fast sequence, four per second, and Noah managed to evade them all with quick side steps and bending his body.

As soon as he evaded the last spear, Noah closed the distance.

Nethrys swept with both of her forelegs, the left one aiming at shoulder level and the right one at his knees. Noah evaded both by leaning forward while making a small jump and folding his legs, then used Mirage Blade with both hands, aiming at the largest of Nethrys's eyes.

-6267, -3133, -3133, -6267, -6267.

-12534, -3133, -6267, -3133, -3133.

Nethrys flinched in pain and surprise, and Noah used the opportunity to run under her, unleashing more Mirage Blades.

He managed to hit her four more time with the skill before Nethrys jumped away. She had lost just a bit over 160k HP in the exchange, less than 2% of her health.

Noah smiled, thinking that this wasn't a bad result, but he wouldn't go under her again. He had managed to surprise the fifteen meters long spider just now, but it probably wouldn't work so well as second time. She might let herself drop and crush him under her weight.

He also didn't really want to get close to her black, fifty-centimeters long fangs again. Their tips were already coated by a dark blue poison, and Noah had no interest in learning what it could do by experience.

After a second during which just Nethrys stared at him, clearly re-evaluating him as a potential threat, she lifted her two forelegs. Ice gathered around their tips, forming two sharp-looking scythes.

Noah frowned at their sight. With those, Nethrys had just gained one meter more reach with her already long legs, and he didn't doubt that they would hit hard.

Noah closed the distance anyway. If his hunch was correct, Ice-Treading Spiders only used ranged magic attacks if their target was too far to be hit in melee.

Nethrys tried to impale him repeatedly with quick thrusts with her two ice-tipped forelegs, using the other six to move to the side or open or close the distance, And Noah just barely had the speed to evade them all.

"Qi Yue, can I use the Lunar Scourge's skills?" asked Noah.

"As long as we're within that dome of ice. You must not use them where anyone could see, and that spider came with two people wrapped up. There is a chance they might be conscious and able to see through gaps between the silk webbing."

Noah activated Paragon, Tempered Edge, and Moon Shadow.

As Nethrys suddenly froze, Noah moved just outside of her stretched left foreleg and unleashed Mirage Blade after Mirage blade, as quickly as he could.

-7824, -3912, -7824, -7824, -3912.

-15648, -7824, -3912, -3912, -3912.

-7824, -3912, -7824, -7824, -3912.

…

-15648, -3912, -7824, -3912, -7824.

When Nethrys once again began able to move after Noah hit her leg close to twenty times, the sudden movement of the leg still managed to surprise Noah mid-strike and shoved him back, almost breaking his balance.

-4827.

Noah had just lost over a third of his HP, from an attack done with the back of the spider's leg, not even from its claws or icy scythe.

Nethrys was utterly furious now, but Noah was far from done. He activated Moon Flare, blinding the giant spider.

Nethrys hissed and flailed around while Noah kept moving to remain just out of her reach, striking the tips of her legs. The damage he was inflicting on her legs mattered just as much as the one he did to her abdomen.

Still blind, Nethrys suddenly turned in his general direction, mouth wide open, and spat a stream of sticky web. Noah had already moved out of the way, but he frowned. If Nethrys used that attack too often, Noah would eventually run out of safe ground to move around. He instantly decided to keep the Moon Grief skill in reserve and stop Nethrys next time she tried to use this skill.

-15648, -7824, -3912, -3912, -3912.

-15678, -3912, -7824, -3912, -3912.

…

For eight more seconds, Noah kept using Mirage Blade after Mirage Blade, then Moon Flare terminated, and Nethrys became able to see again.  She jumped in Noah's direction, legs spread, venomous fangs ready to sink into Noah's flesh.

Noah evaded with a roll forward and to the side, and stood up in one swift move. He was now between her legs, and he dashed away to get out of Nethrys's reach before she could react.

As he did, he didn't forget to hit her legs with another pair of Mirage Blades.

-7824, -7824, -3912, -3912, -3912.

-7824, -3912, -7824, -3912, -3912.

Nethrys made an angry hiss as she jumped slightly away, turning as she did, with Noah barely six meters away from the reach of her ice blades.

She lowered her abdomen, and from it emerged a large ball of white silk that dropped on the ground with a soft sound.

Noah used Scan on it.

[Ice-Treading Spider Queen's Egg Sack]: Type: Special. Grade: None. HP: 50 000. A large egg sack that will disappear after fifteen seconds unless destroyed first, randomly spawning fifty to a hundred Ice-Treading Spiderlings in the process.

Noah didn't want to waste previous seconds of his Tempered Edge buff, and closed the distance while trying to circle around Nethrys and get at her Egg Sack. A single pair of Mirage Blades should be enough to break it.

Nethrys, however, didn't intend to let him destroy it, and she doggedly moved to remain between Noah and her Egg sack while they exchanged blows.

Tempered Edge ended and would be on cooldown for another 5 minutes 40 seconds. He had twenty more seconds with Paragon, then would have to wait 12 minutes to use it again.

In his impatience to get at the egg sack, Noah made a minor mistake in his positioning, and Nethrys exploited it ruthlessly, getting a clean hit on him at last as an icy scythe cleaved through Noah's chest.

-12699.

The pain was intense, but Noah barely grunted as he jumped away.

Despite his armor reduction and the 40% damage mitigation, the hit still would have been enough to kill him on the spot, and Noah only survived thanks to Little Grey's Holy Spirit Shield preventing his death.

A shield that was now inactive, and would only be back up once his current health was back at 60% or above.

Nethrys didn't resume her attack immediately. She was waiting for her egg sack to hatch. She unknowingly gave Noah time to swallow a Dew of Dawn, and his HP was back to full in less than three seconds.

Noah took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down. So far, he had managed to reduce Nethrys's monstruous HP pool by almost a quarter.

He decided to resume his attack, but this time, he didn't use Mirage Blade. Instead, Noah unleashed Full Power Strikes whenever the opportunity to strike at her quickly moving, extended legs presented itself.

-10462.

-20924.

Using Full Power Strikes instead of Mirage Blades was a great loss of dps. A steep 50% cut.

But there was a method to his madness.

He was banking on the very small dazing chance of Full Power Strike.

2% chance on hit was very small, virtually negligible. But if he managed to land it, Nethrys would be dazed for a whole 23 seconds, unable to attack him or evade his blows.

With his +60% attack speed, Noah could attack 1.6 times per second, with each hand. This translated into 3.2 attacks per second, and when taking into account his 44% critical hits rate, his barrage of Mirage Blades using both hands could reach as far as 85k dps.

An absolutely monstruous damage output, that only Eve might possibly rival among the players.

All of this, Noah calculated in an instant, thanks to expanded intellect and his experience as an accountant.

But that was only if he could unleash such barrage uninterrupted, and currently, Noah was spending more time evading than attacking.

If he could daze Nethrys for 23 seconds, he would be able to shave off nearly a full quarter of her HP before she recovered. And if he couldn't destroy the Egg Sack before it hatched, Noah really hoped Nethrys would be out of the fight while he dealt with the horde of spiderlings.

Nethrys opened her mouth wide, and Noah immediately used Moon Grief. For a second, Nethrys looked like someone had clubbed her on the head while the icy scythes on the ends of her forelegs immediately shattered. Noah didn't know an ugly spider's face could somehow be so expressive, and he almost felt tempted to laugh. But he had better uses for this moment of confusion and landed several more Full Power Strikes.

The Egg sack that had been wriggling for the last few seconds burst apart, disgorging a huge number of thirty-centimeters long spiders with milky, translucent exoskeletons. At a glance, Noah estimated that there were about eighty of them.

Noah scanned one of them as the Spiderlings, obeying some invisible order, all started running toward him as fast as their little legs could carry them. And they were rather fast for their size.

[Ice-treading Spiderling]: Type: Beast. Grade: normal. Level: Lvl 1, HP: 2 000. A newly-born spiderling from the Ice-treading race. Its violent, icy venom will cause necrosis.

As soon as the first few of them came within five meters, Noah switched to Little Crescent Slashes.

-8582, -8582, -17164, -17164, -8582.

-8582, -17164, -8582, -17164, -8582.

The ten closest spiderlings died, and the ones behind them climbed over their bodies without slowing. He killed ten of them with each attack while he ran away from Nethrys, who chased him relentlessly.

Noah managed to avoid all of Nethrys's attacks as he ran around, until Moon Shadow ended its cooldown, and he immediately used it again.

He could almost feel Nethrys's rage buffeting him as he started with a last pair of Little Crescent Slashes to finish off the last Spiderlings, then landed Full Power Strike after Full Power strike on Nethrys.

-20924.

-10462.

-10462.

-20924.

…

-10462.

And he finally got lucky as he heard a sound effect similar to broken glass, and Nethrys collapsed as soon as Moon Shadow ended.

Noah went to town on the giant spider, instantly switching to Mirage Blades and counting down the seconds.

For the next 22 seconds, the HP bar of the Ice-Treading Spider Queen shrunk at a speed visible to the naked eye, and when she became once again aware of her surroundings, she only had a sliver over 50% HP left.

Nethrys opened her mouth, and Noah dove to the side, evading another stream of sticky silk. Noah stepped back, being careful to evade her attacks, and punishing the flailing limbs with Full Power strikes whenever he could afford it without risking an instant counterattack.

When Nethrys's HP reached the 50% threshold, something happened.

A white fog suddenly oozed from her enormous abdomen, and Noah jumped back, wanting to put as much distance as possible between himself and the spider.

But he wasn't actually expecting for this to be enough. This was a Celestial-grade monster after all. Surely any AoE it would produce would reach every part of the ice dome. He prepared himself to consume another Dew of Down the instant he was hit.

As it turned out, Noah was wrong to expect some kind of gigantic explosion or shockwave, but right about the range. Within a minute, the white for covered the ground in its entirety, stopping at knee level.

And it clearly wasn't a normal gas as it completely ignored the fact that the ground was a slope, and there was this notification appearing each second.

-222

"*DING*… You are affected by Nethrys's Freezing Mist ability. -1% Attack speed, Cast speed and Movement speed per 10% missing HP."

-222

"*DING*… You are affected by Nethrys's Freezing Mist ability. -1% Attack speed, Cast speed and Movement speed per 10% missing HP."

-222

"*DING*… You are affected by Nethrys's Freezing Mist. -1% Attack speed, Cast speed and Movement speed per 10% missing HP."

…

Noah suspected that this skill did 300 base damage, but that it was reduced to 222 due to his 38% Water Resistance.

This ability was the most dangerous one Nethrys had used yet. That wide Area of Effect dot would decimate an entire army of regular players in seconds.

But Noah wasn't a regular player, and he had Little Grey by his side, granting him a permanent 5% HP regeneration per second.

Nethrys reformed the ice scythes on its forelegs and attacked him again, confident that he would gradually slow down and become unable to evade.

Noah evaded and struck back with another Full Power Strike.

-20924.

This went on for almost fifteen seconds until Nethrys suddenly retreated toward the edge of the ice dome and started climbing it.

Noah was puzzled for an instant, then frowned when he understood. Nethrys had realized that the next 5 seconds of paralysis was coming, and decided to be out of his reach.

Nothing was more dangerous that a monster that could learn and adapt.

When Nethrys was about forty meters high, she stopped, and Noah took more distance, knowing he was about to be pelted with ice spears.

And that was exactly what Nethrys did.

Her tactic, however, proved fruitless. With Noah standing about 75 meters from her, he had a comfortable distance to see the ice spears coming, and evading them was easy.

Noah didn't possess any ability making him able to strike ranged target. That was something he wanted to correct by taking a magic-focused class for his third profession. After all, since he had a monstruous mana pool and equally monstruous mana regeneration, a great use for it would be to spam offensive spells while also fighting in melee.

But that was for a future day. Right now, Noah had another way to fight back.

He put both of his Imperial Warblades back in his inventory, and took from it a Lvl 45 silver-grade bow and a Lvl 38 silver-ranked quiver, loots that he acquired recently and kept just in case he would end up fighting birds or other flying beasts.

As Noah kept most of his focus on evading the Ice Spears, he drew the bowstring, and an arrow materialized, already nocked. In Mystic Moon, archers didn't take arrows from their quivers. The latter was only there to provide bonus stats.

Noah let the arrow fly, and it hit the giant spider's abdomen, still oozing white mist.

-8594.

The 50% damage boost provided by the Sagittarius orb to all 'arrow-type' attacks allowed even a basic attack like what he just did to inflict as much damage as a Full Power strike.

Nethrys hissed as she tried to evade his arrows by crawling on the wall, with disappointing results. She could evade some of the arrows when Noah wasn't taking the time to aim properly, but she was a huge target, unlike Noah, and the arrows flew faster than her Ice Spears.

Nethrys tried to close the distance a bit by crawling on the dome's ceiling.

Noah saw the danger in that, as having to crawl his neck upward constantly would reduce his ability to dodge.

He hurriedly relocated toward the upper ground, forcing the spider to come within 51 meters if she wanted to be above him, and hit her with another Moon Shadow.

Noah loosed arrow after arrow at her, and Nethrys, realizing that being on the ceiling didn't stop him from hurting her while severely reducing her own ability to retaliate, let herself drop from the ceiling, rotating mid-air to land on her legs.

By the time she advanced on Noah again, he already had switched weapons.

Nethrys stopped before reaching him, however, and let another large Egg Sack on the ground.

Noah winced as he noticed the danger. With the white mist covering the ground up to knee level, some of the hatchling might manage to sneak up on him undetected.

As Lvl 1 normal creatures, their bite probably wouldn't do much, probably 1 damage. But they might inflict him with poisoned and necrosis status.

Noah didn't know what those would do to him, and he didn't want to find out.

He used Moon Flare to blind Nethrys for 10 seconds and circled around her to reach the EggSsack.

Nethrys attempted to turn with him to block his way, but deprived of her sight, she was too low to react when Noah suddenly dashed under her.

Noah hit the Egg Sack twice with Mirage Blades.

-7824, -3912, -7824, -7824, -3912.

-15648, -3912, -7824, -3912, -7824.

The Egg Sack was destroyed, and Noah turned back to Nethrys just in time to duck under a wet, thick strand of silk.

Nethrys was using her hind legs and spinnerets to try to pin him down.

Noah retaliated by hitting the legs with Full Power Strikes as he quickly retreated out of range, cutting some of the silk strands and thanking the Cancer Orb's absolute defense penetration property for somehow making sure that the cut silk didn't stick to his blades. That would have been catastrophic if Nethrys could disarm him like this.

Noah kept hitting with Full Power Strikes, and the Dazing condition occurred again, making Nethrys suddenly go limp.

…

“*Ding* … … You successfully killed the Celestial-grade unique monster “Nethrys, the White Terror, Queen of the Ice-Treading Spiders”, Fame +20 400, Skill points +20 400.”

"DING… You have gained a level."

"DING… You have gained a level."

"DING… You have gained a level."

"DING… You have gained a level."

Noah lifted his head toward the top of the ice dome when he heard the cracks, wondering if it was going to fall on him, but its fragments just floated. They shattered again and again until they became a mist carried away by the wind.

It took over ten minutes of intense fighting for Noah to go through Nethrys's massive HP pool, despite his own extreme offensive capabilities and the Lunar Scourge's cheats. After dazing her a second time, the only other surprise she had for him was when she reached the 25% HP threshold, and her freezing mist doubled in potency.

A normal player would have, presumably, taken 600 Ice damage per second, and up to 20% reduction in Attack Speed, Cast Speed, and Movement speed. A well-organized army made of thousands of players would have died in minutes at most, its healers overwhelmed and the players quickly running out of healing potions to keep up.

In Noah's opinion, Nethrys absolutely deserved her status as a Celestial monster.

“*Ding*… Congratulations. You are the first player to have slain a unique monster by yourself. The matter has been recorded into the World Hall of Fame and the Hall of Slayers has been unlocked. You have gained Fame +2 000, SP +2 000. The System will release a global announcement. Do you wish to hide your personal information?”

Noah didn't see a need to. Anyone taking a glance at the player ranking would know instantly anyway, with the absolutely massive amount of fame he had just gained. He was now back to the first position, with a comfortable lead over Eve.

"I won't hide it." shrugged Noah as he summoned Xi Ling.

"*Ding*… Global announcement, the player 'Noah' is the first to have slain a unique monster by himself. The Hall of Slayers is now unlocked."

Hall of Slayers

Kill: Nethrys, the White Terror, Queen of the Ice-Treading Spiders

Level: 68     Grade: Celestial          Slayer: Noah

"Big Brother! You really defeated this big monster!" happily exclaimed Xi Ling.

"Yes. But it was a tiring fight." nodded Noah. "Let's see what we're getting from it."

Instead of a pile of gold coins, there were twelve gold ingots. When Noah used Scan on them, he read that each was worth ten thousand gold coins. Forty HP and MP potions, all of a higher quality than Noah had ever encountered so far, yet inferior to the Dew of Dawn and Dew of Dusk. And then came the items.

The first was a longsword with a straight, double edged, black blade and a white-gold guard shaped like the skull mark on the backs of Ice-Treading Spiders. A light blue cobweb pattern ran along the flat of the blade on each side. It seemed to gleam with a cold light under the sun.

[Nethrys's touch]: Type: Sword. Grade: Celestial. Requirements: Lvl 65. A black sword infused with the essence of Nethrys. Attributes: Physical Attack Power +1500, Strength +100, Constitution +25, Agility +70, Attack speed +20%, Pierce chance +5%, Critical Chance +25%.

Unique ability: Chilling Aura Lvl 3. When attacking an enemy at close range, that enemy will be affected by a cold aura causing 10% weapon damage per second and slowing their movement speed, attack speed and cast speed by 9%.

Item skills:

Nethrys's frozen fangs: Releases a volley of eight Ice Spears. Each spear inflicts 300% weapon damage and has a 20% chance to freeze the target. Cooldown time: 300 seconds.

Nethrys's reach: Gives the wielder the ability to walk on vertical surfaces. Duration: 60 seconds. Cooldown time: 15 minutes.

Noah almost drooled when he saw the stats. And to think that this was a one-handed weapon. What kind of stats would a similar Greatsword possess? Unfortunately, it would take ten more levels for him to be able to use this word, so, not for a while.

Noah placed the sword in his inventory, not bothering to check the Item ranking again to see it appear in the first spot.

He glanced down the slope at the two human sized figures, still wrapped in silk. One of them was moving slightly. He would go check on them after he was done with the loot.

Next was a blue energy orb.

[Eye of the frostweaver]: Type: Energy Orb. Grade: Celestial. Requirements: none. Attributes: Magic Attack Power with ice spells +25%.

Noah slotted it in his Lunar Scourge, wondering if he would have a use for it before being able to equip Nethrys's Touch.

[Chilling Crystal Battle Armor]: Type: Chest armor. Grade: Fairy. Requirements: Lvl 65, Warrior or Shield Bearer class. Attributes: Defense +650, HP +600, Strength +35, Constitution +45, Spirit +30.

Item skill:

Chilling Crystal Hell: Releases the boundless energy of the Chilling Crystal Battle Armor to send the surrounding enemies into a cold, icy hell. Effect: All targets within 10 meters have a 60% chance to be Frozen for 5 seconds, losing 1 000 HP per second while Frozen. Cost 150 MP. Cooldown time: 30 minutes.

Another great piece of equipment, but Noah wouldn't be able to use it immediately.

[Ice-Treading Boots]: Type: Boots. Grade: Fairy. Requirements: Lvl 60. Armored boots infused with the essence of Ice-Treading Spiders, giving their wearers unequaled stability on slipping grounds. Attributes: Defense +500, HP + 200, Strength +30, Agility +50, Constitution +30, Spirit +20. Water Resistance +20%.

Item skills:

Ice Treading: The wearer will never slip on ice, blood, or any slippery surface.

Ice invasion: The wearer can cause a patch of slippery ice to spread from his feet. Radius: twenty meters. Duration: 60 seconds. Cooldown Time: 15 minutes.

[Piercing Ice]: Type: Bow. Grade: Fairy. Requirements: Lvl 65. A bow seemingly made of pure ice. Attributes: Magical Attack Power +600, Strength +20, Agility +60, Constitution +20, Spirit +60, Critical Rate +10%, Hit Rate +15%, Pierce rate +5%, MP+200, 20% water resistance penetration.

Item Skill:

Piercing Ice: All arrows fired by Piercing Ice become Ice Arrows, using Magical Attack Power instead of Physical Attack Power.

Heavy Ice: Ice Arrows become Ice Javelins, increasing their damage to 300% of weapon damage. MP Cost: 15. Cooldown: 2 seconds.

Noah looked at the bow with regret. It was an excellent weapon for a caster or someone with balanced stats. But in his case, with his Physical Attack Power being about eighteen times that of his Magical Attack Power, this bow would likely do less damage then the silver-grade one he had just used.

Even if he got a third class focused on magic and reduced that gap, using that bow would require the use of both hands. That would be wasting the potential of his current classes.

Noah put the bow and boots away, deciding that the bow would go to one of the girls. Likely Su'er, since she had chosen Archer as a class. If she started putting away some gear with an emphasis on Spirit, he could see her do well with that bow.

And the last item almost made him cackle as an evil idea came to his mind.

[Guild-Creation Token]. Type: token. Grade: None. Requirements: None. A token that can be exchanged to the Lord of any of the major cities for the right to create a Guild.

A second Guild-Creation Token.

Noah nodded to Little Grey, and the Holy Spirit started absorbing Nethrys's body.

Seconds later, he opened his mouth, and in Noah's open hand fell a large blue gem, shining with an azure glow.

[Nethrys's monster core]: Type: Material. Grade: Celestial. Requirements: Lvl 65. powerful beasts sometimes develop a core, acting as the main node of their magic power. Monster cores can be used to craft a weapon or piece of armor of a quality corresponding to their grades, although finding a blacksmith able to work with materials above the Fairy-Grade might prove impossible.

"Oh, I am so going to craft a Greatsword with this, one day." grinned Noah.

"A good thing your goddess just gave you a secret profession that could use something like this." said Qi Yue with a dry tone. "Does she coddle you like this often?"

"No." replied Noah. "She is usually pretty hands-off about me. Or if she isn't, she is more subtle about it. I assume she is just nudging things around a bit more than usual today because a very strong opponent will appear soon after I reach the level to use those things, and she wants me to have the equipment to defeat them. Or maybe this is her way of giving me a reward for overcoming a powerful foe."

Noah's chat icon had been blinking for a minute now, with many people offering their congratulations for the kill and the Celestial-grade sword. Noah replied with short sentences as he walked down the slope toward the two wrapped figures.

The one who had been struggling for a minute now seemed to calm down as he came closer, and Noah glimpsed a red eye staring at him from a small gap in the webbing. And there was a slightly glowing, fuzzy, yellow circle above that person's head. It looked like a… a halo?

"Mphiphoo? Mpha foo mpeph phii oompht?"

The person was a woman from her voice, and Noah, easily understanding after all his experience hearing gag-speak, nodded as he removed his mask and took from his inventory a dagger.

"Please do not move, I am going to cut the webbing."

The girl nodded once as Noah crouched behind her, grabbing some of the thick silky strands, and carefully cut them with the tip of the dagger. In seconds, he freed the girl's head from the webbing, revealing an attractive face and a crop of chin-length red hair, then started freeing her body and blinked in surprise.

The girl wasn't wearing an outfit looking like it came from medieval fantasy Europe or ancient China. She had on a zippered jacket with a white body, but a black collar and black sleeves with a red strip on each side. She even had what looked like a white, red-trimmed employee card with her picture pinned above her left breast.

"Hey, are you staring at my chest?" frowned the girl.

"Sorry, I am only surprised at your clothes." said Noah as he shook his head to clear it and resumed his work. "Where I come from, people wear, well, very different clothes."

"Yeah, I can see that." nodded the girl as she looked at him decked out in gleaming metal armor, then XI Ling in her red Chinese dress.

He knew her. She was one of the iconic characters of a relatively famous gacha game. And her presence here could only be Lilith's doing.

Moreover, if this girl was here, then the huge black crystal he spotted far in the distance suddenly made sense, in an ominous sort of way. And so was the mention of the 'infected' and the hints of ongoing persecution in the Oleg Smirnoff's letter.

"Your name is Noah, right? I saw the announcement. You must be super strong to have defeated Nethrys. Around these lands, folks keep their kids in line by telling them the scary giant spider will grab them if they leave their home at night."

"I can imagine." nodded Noah as he carefully worked on releasing the girl's legs, clad in black, thigh leggings.

"See that cave up there?" asked Noah as he pointed with his dagger, and she nodded. "There's a large cavern in that mountain, and it was where those Ice-Treading Spiders made their lair. There were several dozens of them. Nethrys was likely bringing you two in there to feed you to her children. I killed them all, so the nearby villages should be a bit safer for a while."

Noah cut away the last threads, freeing a pair of black sneakers with red soles, and the girl stood. A cluster of triangular shapes appeared from her back and floated to her sides, looking like shattered wings.

Noah already knew her name, but still used Scan on her.

[Exusiai]: Type: Sankta. Grade: Lord. Class: Marksman. Level:47. HP: 225 000. A member of the Sankta race. Optimistic and cheerful, her naughty and playful attitude often gets her into trouble. Her pranks are sometimes extreme.

"Thank you very much, Benefactor." nodded the girl. "I guess I should introduce myself properly. My name is Exusiai, and I'm a Messenger working for Penguin Logistics. We owe you one!"

As she talked, she poked with her feet her companion, still completely wrapped in silk, and heard a muffled grunt in response. The relief on her face was obvious.

"Nice to meet you, Exusiai." smiled Noah as he moved to the side of the second person. He already had a hunch about who he would find under the webbing, if Exusiai was here. "Like you know, I'm Noah. This is Xi Ling."

"Nice to meet you, Big Sister Exusiai." smiled Xi Ling.

"Big Sister? It sounds nice. I don't mind you calling me that. Happy to meet you too." grinned Exusiai.

"And this adorable ball of fluff is Little Grey." nodded Noah.

"He's so cute! Can I pet him?"

*Ruff!* replied Little Grey as he walked to her, his tail wagging, and Noah nodded.

"Little Grey is very smart. He seems to like you, so pat away!" chuckled Noah.

Exusiai grinned as she crouched and started running her hand through Little Grey's soft fur and making baby talk at him.

Noah had now freed the head of the second person, and as expected, it was Texas. A beautiful girl with amber eyes, long, straight black hair, and wolf ears.

"Hello. I'm Noah. How are you feeling?"

"…wrapped up." replied the girl with a deadpan expression, and Noah snorted for an instant as he kept working in freeing her, separating strands and tugging on them before cutting them without risking nicking her skin.

She was dressed in an outfit almost identical to the one Exusiai wore. Black finger-less gloves, a white and black, modern jacket, short black shorts stopping barely past crotch level, black, thigh leggings, and black sneakers with white soles.

[Cellinia Texas]: Type: Lupo. Grade: Lord. Class: Pioneer. Level: 45. HP: 218 500. A member of the Lupo race. Her taciturn personality makes it difficult for her to develop new friendships.

"Thank you." nodded Texas when he was done freeing her, and she stood, looking unsteady.

"That dagger seems quite sharp." smiled Exusiai as she came closer, ready to support Texas.

Noah nodded as he put it back in his inventory, and Texas introduced herself to Xi Ling.

"So, what were two Messengers from Penguin Logistics doing around this desolate area? That giant Spider probably took you not too far from here, I assume."

"Our company doesn't just deliver packages." shrugged Exusiai. "We also do escort or monster suppression whenever needed. We were hired to deal with a bunch of man-eating spiders that were getting too brazen lately, and we found and killed a few, but then, Nethrys herself came, and she wrecked our car and bit us."

Exusiai turned and pointed at a pair of holes on the back of her jacket, near her right shoulder.

"Her venom made my body numb, and before I lost consciousness, I saw her catch Texas and bit her as well… When I woke up next, we were there, and I saw the spider lock you up inside that dome. I thought you were a goner. How did you manage to survive?"

"It was a really tough fight." shrugged Noah. "I was just barely fast enough to evade her blows, while she couldn't evade my own attacks, and it became a grind."

"Are you an Infected as well?" asked Texas.

"I am not?" shrugged Noah.

"What?" exclaimed Exusiai. "How is that possible? Only the Infected can fight monsters stronger than Lvl 30 or so, and this one was a Named Monster!"

"I am not even sure about what you mean about 'Infected'." frowned Noah, pretending to be unaware. "Are you speaking about some kind of disease? Is it contagious?"

"We're speaking about Oripathy, of course." blinked Exusiai. "You know, the disease that turns humans into Beastkin and grants them classes?"

"Qi Yue, what are they talking about? You told me classes are for us players from Earth to compensate for the natives' ability to improve their grade."

"I have no idea." replied Qi Yue with a tone of confusion. "This territory is under Rahu's and the Mad Scientist's management, and I never took a good look at what they were doing with it. I guess they wanted to test various things."

Noah cleared his throat.

"I came for the lands south of the mountain range." said Noah, making them gasp in astonishment. More accurately, making Exusiai gasp in astonishment. Texas barely blinked. "That cave up there has another entrance on the other side. And south of the Dragonspine mountain range, there is no Oripathy, as far as I am aware, and no Beastkin."

"Really?" blinked Exusiai. "But how are you guys dealing with strong monsters, then?"

"The locals humans are rather strong, and the five major cities are protected by five very strong beings, all Mysterious God-grade or above. I only visited Azure Dragon City so far, but there are hundreds, maybe thousands of soldiers that are Lvl 50 3-star elites and above. They do not have classes or profession, however."

"Ah?" exclaimed Exusiai.

"I guess it makes sense." frowned Texas.

"What makes sense, Texas?" asked Exusiai.

"The civilians in our cities are weak, so they have to rely on us Infected to fight the dangerous monsters for them." mused Texas. "But that also means they remain weak and won't evolve. Their dependence on us is self-inflicted."

"Ah, you're right, it does make sense if they had no choice but to fight." nodded Exusiai. "But you're one of those so-called players, right? People from another world. Some of the Infected with the Oracle class told everyone that visitors from another world were coming to hunt monsters."

"I am one of them, yes." nodded Noah. "Although Xi Ling and Little Grey were born in your world. How about we continue this conversation while walking away from this desolate spot? I'm hoping to find a place where I can buy some teleportation scrolls, so I could travel south and north of the mountain range without having to spend days traveling."

Exusiai and Texas exchanged a glance, then nodded at each other.

"Sure. You'll find teleportation scrolls in any large city, although they're expensive." said Exusiai. "We don't know exactly where we are now, but we'll try to make our way back to our car and see if it’s a lost cause or not. If we can start it, we'll drive you to Lungmen, it isn't too far, and that's where our main office is."

"About that, Little Grey, do you think you would be able to follow Nethrys's trail through the forest?"

*Ruff!* barked Little Grey, his tail wagging before he started walking toward the north-east.

Noah walked a few meters behind him, followed by Xi Ling.

Exusiai and Texas walked beside her, and they started asking her about the Forgotten Continent.

After a few hundred meters, Little Grey suddenly stopped, sniffed the air, and switched direction, going right.

*Ruff, Ruff!* barked Little Grey, his tail wagging. Noah and the others followed him, and Little Grey stopped, then started digging.

"Is little Grey digging after a mouse?" asked Exusiai.

"No." replied Noah. "Little Grey had a great nose for treasures. I think he may just have found something."

*Ruff, Ruff* seemed to confirm Little Grey as he kept digging, and soon unearthed something.

Noah picked it up and used his fingers to rub the earth away.

It was a golden brown, crystalline material that shone like metal, about four centimeters in its largest dimension. Noah used Scan on it, hoping for some rare crafting material.

[High-purity Originium fragment]: Type: Material. Grade: Celestial. A dangerous material. Upon prolonged exposure or ingestion, causes a disease named Oripathy, a condition granting power in return for a premature death. Effect: Upon consumption, will cause a race and profession change.

"Ah! It really is valuable stuff!" exclaimed Exusiai.

"Is it the source of Oripathy?" asked Noah. "Is it safe to hold, then?"

"Fairly safe, as long as you don't hold it in hand for too long or swallow it." nodded Exusiai. "If it was just normal Originium, I'd tell you to put it away and drop in in a specialized container once we reach Lungmen. Originium tends to grow if left alone, and it's considered both a pollutant and an energy source for the cities' power plants. Some people also use it to gain the strength to fight the monsters."

"Are you saying that some of you deliberately became Infected?" blinked Noah.

"Someone has to step up to protect others from the monsters." shrugged Texas. "If no one does, we will all die in the end."

"…I see." nodded Noah. "I can appreciate their sense of duty and willingness to sacrifice for others. But this isn't a normal chunk of Originium, right?"

"Yeah." nodded Exusiai. "This one has a high purity, which means any human that consumes it has a high chance to obtain a powerful class with multiple evolutions paths. So this is worth a lot."

"Also your Goddess's will, I assume?" snorted Qi Yue. "This isn't just giving a few nudges anymore."

"I guess." shrugged Noah.

He could take a hint when said hint was almost waved right in front of his face.

Noah shrugged and put the Originium fragment in his inventory, then crouched to pat Little Grey.

"Great job as always, Little Grey. I don't know what I would do without you."

*Ruff!* happily replied Little Grey before returning to Nethrys's track.

"Hey, hey, would you consider joining Penguin Logistics?" asked Exusiai with a grin. "If your cute pet often finds treasures like this, we'd only take a small commission, and..."

"I am flattered by your interest, Exusiai." smiled Noah. "But I already agreed to join a guild south of the mountains."

"Ah, too bad. I think things would be exciting with you around, and it would have given me opportunities to play with Little Grey!" replied Exusiai, easily confessing her true motive.

"Well, you said that your company can do escort missions, right? How about I hire you as guides? I know almost nothing about the lands around here or the customs, and I could use some local experts."

"Yes, that would be a good idea." nodded Exusiai. "Boss will be happy if we find another customer. But can you afford us? We're god at our job, but our service doesn't come cheap. That would be around a thousand LMDs per hour if you hire the two of us."

"LMDs?" asked Noah.

"LungMen Dollars." answered Texas.

"The currency in the forgotten continent is gold, silver and copper coins." shrugged Noah. "There will probably be a bank or pawnshop in Lungmen that will accept them."

"I know a pawnshop." nodded Exusiai. "Or maybe we could have you pay in a different manner."

"Pay in a different manner?" asked Noah. He suddenly stepped away, trying to imitate the expression of a blushing maiden as he hugged himself. "I'm not ready for this, my body…"

Exusiai looked dumbfounded for a second, then burst into laughter.

"Ahah, I meant pay by helping us kill dangerous monsters! If you managed to kill Nethrys, maybe we can party together and have you help us deal with a fairy-grade beast or two, for example, and we might gain a few levels."

"Sounds like a plan." smiled Noah.

"Great. What do you think, Texas, Xi Ling?" asked Exusiai.

"Any opportunity to gain levels is worth taking, as long as we don't act recklessly." nodded Texas.

"I will follow Big Brother Noah wherever he goes." smiled XI Ling. "But I would like to spend time with Big Sister Exusiai and Big Sister Texas too. I want to learn more about the people here."

…

After walking another few minutes, Noah spotted something white between the trees.

"That's our car!" exclaimed Exusiai.

Noah nodded as they came closer.

The car, a four-wheeler obviously meant for rough terrain, had been flipped to its right side by a huge impact, judging by the dent on its bodywork, and some webbing bound it to the tree that had stopped the car from rolling further.  The windshield was broken, and Noah thought Texas and Exusiai had gone out of the car this way. He could see a trail of cartridge shells going from there to a spot a few dozen meters away, where a sub-machine gun and a thin, straight, single-edged sword with an orange blade and no guard had been dropped on the ground.

"Do you think that we could flip it back on its wheels, with the four of us?" asked Exusiai after recovering her weapon and handing Texas her sword.

"Only one way to know." said Noah as he took his dagger and cut the webbing away.

Noah, Exusiai, Texas and Xi Ling placed themselves beside the car, putting their hands on the roof and hood.

"We push at three. One, two, threeeee!"

They managed it, and with a loud noise, the car was back on its wheels. Texas opened the driver's door and climbed on the seat.

"It looks okay so far…" nodded Texas.

Seconds later, the engine started. It was a noise Noah couldn't recognize as one made by a combustion engine, but an electrical engine wouldn't make any noise when the car wasn't moving either.

"Alright, everyone in! We should reach Lungmen in about twenty minutes!" grinned Exusiai as she took the shotgun seat.

…

"What is the name of all that is holy are those… things?" asked Noah, completely floored as the car drove out of the forest.

"Ahah, if you could see your face!" laughed Exusiai. Even Texas, looking at him for a second before focusing back on driving, chuckled softly.

Noah acknowledged with a nod, his eyes fixated on… those steel behemoths.

Noah had thought that the Finality would be the largest artificial vehicle he would ever see.

He had just been humbled.

Lungmen was a nomadic city.

As in, a city that moved.

It was basically a bunch of gigantic, rectangular plates with buildings and hydroponic farms and green spaces on top, moving on stupendously huge tank tracks.

As they approached, Noah counted five sections large enough for each of them to serve as landing pads for two or three starships the size of Finality, as well as about twenty much smaller ones. The smallest still looked large enough to build a stadium on top.

Noah had played Arknights a little back when he was just an accountant, and he had considered Rhode Island, the mobile base serving as the Doctor's base, the names for the player's avatar, to be pushing the limits of what could be feasible, being about a two hundred meters wide and over five hundred meters long. He had not realized then that some cities in the game could move.

Rhode Island was a minnow compared to some of those things.

"Lungmen is made of those Sections." explained Exusiai. "Each of them can be autonomous for weeks or months, but when the city administrators decide to stop for a time, the sections park close to each other and use connection tubes and bridges to link together."

"Yes, I can see that." nodded Noah. "Now I'm wondering where you even got the materials to build those enormous sections."

"With a lot of mining. Some of those sections took over fifty years to build." shrugged Texas as she drove toward a large elevator, one meant to allow transport of wheeled vehicles.

There was a cabin near its top, and a woman, seeing them coming, sent the platform down.

When it reached the ground, Texas parked their battered vehicle on it, and they started climbing.

"*Ding*… Global announcement, the player 'Noah' is the first to set foot in one of the Northern Continent's nomadic cities, unlocking for players in the Forgotten Continent access to the Northern Continent, a region meant for players from different Continents to meet, and if they wish to, battle each other. Fame +1 000, SP +1 000.

Players can consume a material found in the northern lands, Originium, to change their race to one of the Beastkin sub-species and replace their current profession with one of those used in the Northern continent.

Available sub-species: Sankta, Lung, Cautus, Sarkaz, Feline, Ursus, Vouivre, Kuranta, Aegir, Liberi, Lupo, Vulpa.

Available Professions: Caster, Defender, Guard, Medic, Sniper, Specialist, Supporter, Vanguard.

A new category of weapons, firearms, had been unlocked. The crafting recipes for them can be found in the nomadic cities."

"Seriously?" asked Exusiai as she read the announcement. "Players fighting each other? Here? I don't like the sound of that."

"I don't, either." nodded Noah, understanding that Rahu and the Mad Scientist had set up the Northern Continent to host massive Guild vs Guild battles, and used those sub-species and new Professions as incentives and resources to be fought over. "Can you please tell me about the sub-species that were just mentioned?" asked Noah.

"Sure." nodded Exusiai. "If I skip a lot of details, Sankta are people like me with a halo, and for most of them, some kind of immaterial wings. Lung are dragon people. They have horns and a scaly tail. Cautus are rabbit people. Sarkaz have sharp horns and pointed ears. Feline are cat people or dog people. Ursus are bear people, Vouivre are much like Sarkaz, but tend to be taller and stronger. Kuranta are horse people, Aegir are sea people, and Liberi are people with bird features, like feathers. Texas is a Lupo with wolf-like ears and tail, and Vulpa are fox people."

"Thank you." replied Noah. "That's good to know. And, Texas, what is it like to have two pairs of ears, one human and one not?"

"It took me some time to get used to it." shrugged Texas. "It is better to hear more clearly and isolate sounds in a noisy environment, but when it rains, getting water in those ears is unpleasant."

Noah nodded and watched some of the gigantic machinery that filled the intermediate layers of the colossal vehicle.

"Noah, at the first opportunity, you should craft for yourself a pair of one-handed swords and stop using your greatswords, at least for a few weeks." said Qi Yue in another mental message.

"So that I would appear more like a normal player?"

"Yes. Especially now with those announcements, Rahu and the Mad Scientist might grow curious enough to check on you. I suspect they didn't plan for players to be able to reach this area for months yet. I can stop them from noticing the Lunar Scourge, but not if you start displaying some of its abilities."

"Understood." nodded Noah. "Should I also remove the Sagittarius and Cancer Orbs, then?"

"You can't remove those Orbs once they have joined the Lunar Scourge, at least not with your current level of power. We can only hope that they won't observe you in the middle of a fight. I will be able to sense them if they come close. You will have a few seconds of warning."

The platform reached the top level, and the inner door opened. If Noah didn't know better, he would have thought a normal, modern city from Earth with hundreds of high-rise buildings stood before him.