4.3: (Un)Worthiness & Golden Ticket – Part 2
Team 383
Magician - Demon - Level 174 Infernal Sorcerer
Anubis - Demon - Level 166 Ruinblade
Total Wins: 5
Total Losses: 0
Total Points: 10
Special Overlord Match
Objective 1: Take the Disruption Beacon to all three ritual circles.
Objective 2: Survive 5 minutes
~Completing either objective will count as a victory. Bonus prizes will be awarded for completing both.~
Optional Bonus Objective: Defeat Overlord Allexus
Hana stood next to me as I sat on my throne, awaiting the next challenger team. Apparently this particular team was one to watch, since they had not only won all their matches, but also completed all the bonus objectives in record times. Hana was giving me some details about them while they made their way towards my throne room.
“They apparently talked a lot of trash to the others… But they certainly have the skills to back up the talk.”
“Hmmm. They're both in the top 10 highest level players too. Taking down Jade and Tifa together is an accomplishment, but to make it past Nialla and Aeryn so easily is no easy feat. Sounds like I might get to go above 30% on my Power Limiter.”
“What is the highest any team has got you to use so far?”
“25%, and that ended up being a tad bit much. No one has dropped me below ¾ health besides Telmont and Chariss. They actually did more damage to me when I was going all out than any other team did when I was using my limiter. They were definitely a good pick.”
Both of us looked down towards the entrance as we heard the sound of armored boots scraping against the stone floor. I gently grabbed Hana's hand and kissed it softly before she disappeared and the lights went out.
My eyes narrowed as the door to my throne room suddenly exploded inwards and was blasted off the frame. Once the cacophonous noise of the doors hitting the floor faded, the pair of challengers stepped through. I had half a mind to just kill them both outright and be done with this, but given the power of their team and them being potentially good recruits, I forced myself to remain calm.
That didn't stop me from digging my claws into the cushioned arm of my throne though…
I waited and watched as the pair of demons swaggered down the length of the walkway, before snapping my fingers to flood the whole room with light. Both of them immediately took up defensive stances and I felt surges of magic from each as I held up my hand to indicate for them to wait. I opened my mouth to begin my typical “end boss monologue” and lead-up to this being a potential for clan recruitment, but was surprised when the shorter of the two, a pale-skinned demon with absurdly cliché dark mage robes stepped forward and spoke in a voice that resonated with power.
“I've heard from a few other teams that the best ones are getting invites into your clan. Is that true?”
I pushed down my anger at this pathetic whelp of a demon interrupting me and spoke in what I hoped was a calm, collected voice.
“There is some truth to that. I have extended the offer to join to several teams that I felt were worthy of it.”
I wanted to leave it at that, I really really did. But we all know how my brain works.
“Being the best isn't necessarily a guarantee of receiving an invite. There are specific things that we look for in potential recruits.”
I was hoping that by saying that this guy would get the hint that their team’s win record, while impressive, was not in-itself something that would determine if we would recruit them or not. I was hoping he would drop the “alpha male” schtick he seemed to have and just play the damn game… but as soon as he opened his mouth I knew I had set my expectations way, way too high.
“My team's win record should speak for itself… but… whatever. When we beat you, would that be a qualifier to get an invite?”
Ice-cold fury flooded my body as I stared down at the person who was going to be my next victim. I felt a smile creep across my face as I imagined exactly how I was going to murder this stupid fuck. I stood up slowly, my steely gaze at this prick never never wavering and my forced smile barely hiding my contained rage. I nodded at him, acknowledging that his words would be the last he spoke before he respawned in the respawn room. Without breaking eye contact, I reached up and pressed the deactivator runes on my limiter. The explosion of pleasure and power washed over me, but my eyes remained locked on his. As the power settled in my body, I let out a long sigh and nodded again as I hovered in place with my wings flapping at a leisurely pace. The grin on my face instantly vanished and I channeled a massive amount of MP as I used [Power of the Spoken Word] to cast my signature World Tier spell.
“[*Overlord of Corruption*]!”
Before the sound of my resonating voice even faded, I decided to put my new massive MP pool to use and activated my other World Tier ability for the second time that day. While it wouldn't be as strong since I was only able to funnel what equated to 50% of my total MP into it, I knew it and my Corrupted would be far more than enough to completely obliterate these insignificant pieces of filth.
“[*Corrupted Damnation*]!”
Just as I finished activating my ability, both of my opponents leapt into motion. The one with mage robes gestured with his hands, and a large volley of black and dark purple bolts of arcane energy filled the air around him. As he produced more and more of the deadly projectiles, the ones hovering above him all flew forward at a blinding speed, their trajectory altering in mid-flight towards me like seeker missiles locked onto a target. As the crimson energy forms of my Corrupted continued to pour out of my body and take solid shape, I held a hand up with my palm outstretched and cast a spell using the combining ability of [Corrupted Damnation]. Using the MP draining effects of [Corrupted Spell-Absorption], I added my [Blessings of Corruption] buff to the spell and let the onslaught of arcane energy my barrier was absorbing super charge it. When there was a momentary pause in the attack, I applied the buff to myself, making my already ludicrous stats reach levels that might even give Gehenna's prodigious stats a run for their money. While the effects would only last the 30 second duration that [Corrupted Damnation] was active, that was more than enough time to take full advantage of what felt like godlike power.
As the last of my Corrupted emerged from my body, I turned towards the swirling crimson energy form of Gehenna and stroked my hand along the approximation of her cheek. I grinned as the figure leaned into my touch, then returned my focus to the fight at hand. I gestured towards the mage with my hand and spoke in a calm, authoritative tone.
“Take him down… But don't kill him.”
As my Corrupted rushed forward to do my bidding, I turned to face my other opponent. He was wearing armor that made him look like an anthropomorphic porcupine made out of pitch black obsidian. My eyes tracked him as rushed at me from below, his ridiculously oversized sword drawn overhead in preparation for a downward slash. As he moved closer towards me it was almost like he was moving in slow motion. This wasn't like when I was using the extreme speed of my demonic abilities. This was like moving around felt… effortless; like gravity's hold over me had sort of just given up.
I casually stepped to the side to avoid a wave of force that blasted out of his sword. Even as he swung his sword to unleash several more of the blast waves, I merely had to step out of the way just before each wave could strike me. He swung his sword downwards at me, but all I had to do to avoid it was push it aside with a light shove on the flat side of the blade. Instead of just deflecting the attack however like I had intended to do, his sword shattered where I had touched it. I moved like water around his flurry of attacks as I drew closer to him, and grabbed his face with one hand like I was palming a basketball. Combining the effects of my three primary attack spells, a super concentrated beam made of coruscating purple, red, and white fiery electric energy erupted out of my palm and completely obliterated his upper body in an explosion of charred bone and gore.
I focused on the beam that showed no signs of diminishing, and reshaped it into the form of a sword by combining the ongoing effect with my [Summon Arcane Weapon] spell. The end result looked like the sword Kyra had made me, but made entirely out of swirling magic. I studied the weapon for only a moment, before dismissing it and spinning on my heel and walking over to where my Corrupted had beaten the other demon into submission. The form of Mellic yanked him roughly off the ground up to his knees as I walked towards them, and I waited until the mage’s solid black eyes locked onto mine to speak.
“So... Not only did you not beat me... but you lost against me without even getting the chance to fight me directly. You are so below me that you aren't even worth the effort of killing you myself.”
I let out an annoyed huff and glanced over at my Corrupted.
“I don't care which one of you does it. Just kill him and let's be done with this. I'm starting to get bored.”
With that, I turned and started walking towards the exit to my throne room.
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Kyra
The Lost and the Damned's resident craftsmith studied each of the weapons laid on the table in front of her, noting every flaw and imperfection. Occasionally she would pick one of the items up off the table and inspect it closely before setting it back down without ever uttering a single word. As the minutes ticked by, she decided she had seen enough to make a proper assessment of each piece.
Since Kyra filled a non-combat role in the clan, she was not expected to be one of the opponents challengers could fight. Instead, she and Ash were responsible for hosting a sort of crafting competition designed to find more smiths the clan could recruit. Ash was the one who did most of the talking, which Kyra was extremely grateful for. It wasn’t that she had trouble talking in public, exactly, she just found it was easier to focus on what she was good at instead of trying to force something she wasn’t. When Kyra did speak, it was to give an overall assessment of each item that she was inspecting. Regardless of what was being crafted, she looked at five distinct categories when assessing each item: durability, balance, style, quality, and innovation. For each category, she would assign a number 1 through 10, and the average of the all the scores combined would be compared to the other items it was competing against.
While it was true that the better an item was crafted, the better its score would be, Kyra had her own metric in her mind that she was looking for when it came to potential recruits. Using the game’s intuitive skill system, anyone could be a relatively competent craftsperson. Given enough time and resources, becoming an expert crafter just came as a natural skill progression. Allexus’s retainer Judas was proof of this, with all of his crafting skills having reached the Expert tier. Those who reached Expert tier could certainly make powerful, well-crafted items, but simply allowing the skill to do the work for them would always produce what amounted to “cookie-cutter” items. Items that were done to the exact specifications of what the skill would allow. It was for this reason that to Kyra, the most important category she was judging when it came to potential recruits was innovation. How someone crafted a sword showed far more about their potential as a crafter than all the other metrics combined.
“Durability: 8, Balance: 7, Style: 7, Quality: 8, Innovation: 2. Total score: 6.4.”
She set the dagger she had been holding back on the table and picked up the final item. At first glance, it seemed far inferior to all of the others that had been laid before it. But as Kyra studied it closely, her eyes went wide as she noticed the spectral steel that had been meticulously layered in amongst the regular steel. While the layering was crude at best, using the spectral steel like that would greatly enhance the durability and balance of the weapon while drastically reducing the weight. The edge would take a bit more effort to maintain, but the end result would be a dagger that was absolutely perfect for throwing. Kyra found herself smiling as she continued to inspect the item. While the overall condition of the dagger wouldn’t necessarily win any contests… this… this was what she was looking for.
“Durability: 5, Balance: 5, Style: 2, Quality: 2, Innovation: 10. Total score: 4.8.”
Ash moved closer to her girlfriend and spoke in a cheery excited tone.
“Alrighty guys! Well done! With that we have our winner! Could I please see the person who crafted item J113?”
Before anyone could speak, Kyra lifted her head and spoke in a loud clear voice.
“Also the person who crafted this. Uh… item J121.”
Ash gave her girlfriend a momentarily look of confusion, but it passed quickly as she immediately recognized the look in her eye.
“Right! We need to see the crafters who made items J113 and J121! The rest of you can collect your items if you want to keep them, and receive your free gifts from our clan from one of the three girls at the end of the tables.”
The majority of the crowd started to shuffle either towards the table to retrieve the items they had crafted or towards Cassie, Abby, and Bri at the other end of the long narrow tables. After a moment, the only two who remained were a petite Angelspawn woman with wavy white hair and a bald, very tall, very broad chested Demonspawn man who looked like his muscles had muscles. The pair of them staired awkwardly at each other for a moment before stepping forward. Ash glanced over at her girlfriend who motioned with her head at the dagger that was on the table. She nodded in understanding and picked it up.
“Alrighty! Which one of you crafted this beaut?”
The Angelspawn woman stepped forward and raised a single hand.
“I did. Wait… did I win?! Seriously?! That’s awesome!”
“You did! With a total score of 7.8 you are our winner for this round! Congratulations!”
The girl beamed at Ash and Kyra as she accepted a wrapped box from Ash. Kyra forced a smile on her face and spoke in as genuine a tone as she could manage.
“Thank you so much for competing! It was an honor to see such beautiful crafting! Keep working on improving and I have no doubt you’ll be one of the best some day!”
The smaller woman accepted the praise with a huge grin and then ran off to join the small group of people who were most likely her clan. The tall Demonspawn man looked awkwardly from the cheering group back to Kyra and Ash. Kyra, still holding his dagger in her hands, motioned with her hand for the man to come around the other side of the table. He walked around and stood next to her, still looking unsure about what was happening. After looking at his dagger again for a moment, Kyra looked up at the very tall man with a curious expression.
“Why did you choose to layer spectral steel in amongst the regular steel? Normally that would make the smithing process significantly more difficult and drastically increases the margin for error. That choice was most undoubtedly what led to the overall quality being so poor.”
The man studied the object in her hands before looking at her with a somewhat bashful expression.
“Honestly? Spectral steel is both much sturdier and far lighter than normal steel. While that same sturdiness makes it far harder to work with and an absolute pain in the ass to sharpen, I was hoping that the end result would be something with more utility than just a simple dagger.”
Kyra listened to his explanation without conveying any emotion, simply nodding as he finished speaking.
“Have you ever worked with spectral steel before?”
“No. I’ve seen it used by other smiths, but never had the opportunity to tinker with it myself until today.”
Kyra tried schooling her expression, but couldn’t stop her eyebrows from raising slightly in surprise.
“You mean you came up with this idea on the spot?”
He nodded, unsure where exactly this conversation was leading. When a wide grin spread across her face, the extremely tall muscular man seemed to visibly relax.
“While your overall technique is sloppy and imprecise, the ingenuity of your design cannot be overlooked. Since you chose to compete in a tournament, I’m going to assume you are serious about your craft… unless I’m mistaken.”
“You aren’t mistaken. I may not be any good, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying it. I find smithing… or crafting in general to be something that relaxes me and helps me focus my mind.”
Kyra’s smile widened even further as she nodded enthusiastically.
“I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way. How would you feel about being my apprentice?”
The man’s eyes widened and his mouth hung open for a moment before he blinked several times and cocked his head to the side.
“You want me as your apprentice? But… I’ve seen your work, Ms. Kyra. You’re on a level I could never hope to achieve, even if I played this game for years on end. Why would you want me as your apprentice?”
“Expert level crafters are commonplace. What you have can’t be taught or learned with some game skill. Your ingenuity and innovativeness are what will make you the kind of crafter that can design the type of gear fit for an empress. That’s why I want you as my apprentice. I want to help you take what you already have and build on it so you don’t just become someone who is satisfied with ‘good enough.’”
With that, Kyra opened her inventory and pulled out her golden ticket. She pushed it into the big man’s hand as she gave him an inquisitive look.
“I apologize… I totally forgot to ask… what’s your name?”
“Gregor.”
“Welcome to The Lost and the Damned, Gregor.”