Guild Wars

r>The Lion burst into tears as he wailed and rolled on the ground.

”NOOOO!! MY FREEDOM!! MY RIGHT TO PLAY OTHERS TO DEATH!! MY QUEST TO BECOME KING OF ALL THE LIONESSES!! ”

Draco ignored Qiong Qi and summoned Roma.

A form coalesced from greenish energy that soon revealed itself to be Roma.
She was still as beautiful and charming as ever, but there was an air of melancholy that surrounded her.

To expect her to be normal after her brother just died hours ago was impossible.
However, she would not show it to her master, as that was not what a servant was supposed to do.

Still, Draco saw this and felt sympathy.

”Did you spend time with your mother? ”

Roma nodded lightly and forced a smile.
”I did.
We helped each other deal with our grief and I feel much better now.
Do not worry about me, Draco. ”

Draco could only sigh in the face of her obvious lie.
He could suck out her grief but that would go against his own bottom line, so it wasn ’t happening.
He could only allow time to heal her wounds.

”Let ’s go then. ”

Draco held Rila to his chest with his left arm while he grabbed Qiong Qi ’s tail with his right arm and dragged the crying fellow along.
Roma walked along beside him in silence, not even able to muster an interest in what was going on currently.

The moment Draco exited the gates of the mansion, a screen popped up before him.

｢Congratulations on completing: Flora and Fauna Unique Quest

Time elapsed: 170:12:23

Hidden Quests completed: 4

Objectives complete: All

Assessment: A+

Reward:

200 reputation with Sturgehaven Kingdom

2000 reputation with the human race

100,000 platinum

2x Legendary Treasure Chest｣

The world shuddered a bit as he left the Unique Quest ’s instance.

At this moment, Dorian Purple was about to contact his handler to relay information to the Royal family when the world shuddered.
His face went blank for second, and when he regained clarity, he seemed confused.

”What was I doing just now…? ”

No matter how much he jogged his memory, nothing came to him.
He frowned and walked out of his study, planning to have a cup of tea as he pondered the invasion plans for this decade ’s Great War.

Since he forgot whatever he was doing before and couldn ’t remember it no matter how hard he tried, he wouldn ’t waste time on it.

…………

The moment Draco finished the quest, the Four Point Valley drastically changed.

When the world shuddered, Vadoma, Flora, the Elf King, Lokthar, Roknar, Snorkelia, Omar, the Wood Elf girls, Aisha, the Dryads, The Gypsies and all the Green Orcs suddenly became dazed as their bodies deconstructed themselves into pixels an faded away.

The Four Point Valley was turned to what it once was, a level 30-50 field zone with only monsters, rich resources and no sapient races.

…………..

Roma and Qiong Qi froze when Draco brought them out.
Their eyes became unfocused as they adapted to the real world and certain information was provided them.
The same information every NPC of the main world had from birth.

When they came out of it, both had different reactions.

Roma fell to her knees with a look of utter anguish and pain, realizing that her world was simply an illusion and she only survived because she followed the only ’real ’ person.
Everyone she knew and loved was not real and had been extinguished the moment Draco left the Four Point Valley.

Qiong Qi became silent as he stared at Draco with complex emotions.
Being turned into a mount was the ultimate betrayal to him, but finding out that it as what saved him from being turned to dust made him extremely conflicted.

Rila still sat in Draco ’s arms, whatever effect of the Unique Quest ’s cancellation not seeming to affect her.
Though, Draco noticed a change in her status.

｢Name: Rila – Rank 1 Origin God

Level: 1 (Unable to increase)

HP: 1/1 (Unable to decrease)｣

She was still invulnerable, but all her power had been drained away.
Naturally, the AI was not going to allow a game-breaking thing like an Origin God into the world without checks and balances.

Rila was now no different from any toddler except she was completely invincible to any harm.
Draco sighed, as he had expected something like this.

She looked no different too, like she hadn ’t noticed anything.
Draco was thankful for her nerfing in a way, because if she were left as-is, it was likely the Origin Gods would suss her out and snatch her away.

As it were, she was unable to produce even a wisp of Origin Energy, so she was a mortal in a way.

But that wasn ’t all the AI did.

｢System to Player Announcement

Certain items and skills in your repertoire have been changed to balance the game ’s mechanics as well as general utility.
Here is the list of changed skills;

– Black Dragon ’s Roar

– Heart of the Woods

– Dragon Soul｣

｢Black Dragon ’s Roar – Active skill

Effect: Send out a soundwave containing elements of destruction that boosts damage dealt by the user by a factor of 30 over a distance of 1 mile.

Note: Due to inherent destruction elements, this attack has a 10% chance to disintegrate targets and negate drops.
Cannot be used on players.

Cooldown: 30 minutes｣

｢Dragon Soul – Fusion item

Rank: Legendary

Passive 1 – Bloodline Resonance: Draconic skills and techniques are magnified by a factor of 5.

Passive 2 – Dragon Legacy: Possessing a small part of the soul of a Divine Dragon, the user ’s combat stats are magnified permanently by a factor of 10.

Active 1 – Dragon ’s Force: Activating this skill gives the user a boost of power by a factor of 700% for 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 12 hours.

Further abilities can only be unlocked by attaining a higher class tier.｣

｢Heart of the Woods – Fusion item

Rank: Epic

Effects:

Passive 1 – Nature ’s Resonance: All attributes are boosted by 30% when in a forested area.
Health regeneration is allowed during combat, and is boosted by 100%.

Active 1 – Nature ’s Call: Activating this skill allows the user to summon an army of Wood-type monsters that are of the same Rank as the user for 3 hours.
Cooldown: 21 days.

Further abilities can only be unlocked by attaining a higher class tier.｣

Draco passed his eyes over the changes and nodded.
Black Dragon ’s Roar hadn ’t been nerfed in the truest sense.
The skill had just become a lot more specific to prevent loopholes, which was what the Eyes of Caelo caused.
What made Draco pleased was that the AI had lowered the chances of disintegration from 60% to 10%.

Its cooldown had also been lowered from an hour to thirty minutes, which was even better.

The Dragon Soul hadn ’t been nerfed in anyway.
In fact, one could say it was buffed.

This was because the former passive ’Sacred Force ’ conflicted with ’Subservience ’ from the Divine Eyes of Caelo.
As such, it was replaced with an a skill of equal value, but was much more useful to Draco in particular.

The Heart of the Woods… had been nerfed and buffed at the same time.
The monsters that would be summoned were no longer limited to the three races of Ents, Shamblers and Dryads, but every type of Wood Monster.
The duration had been increased to three hours from one hour but the cooldown was increased to 21 days from 7 days.

All in all, fairness was the theme of these changes.

Draco walked over to Roma and placed a hand on her shoulder.

”I can ’t offer you words that can solve or alleviate your grief, but I can offer you a hand that will bring you back on your feet.
Follow on my path, and I shall give you a reason to live, if you have none. ”

Draco stretched out his free hand towards Roma, his words entering her ears like the whispers of the devil.

Draco did not do it intentionally, but the devilish nature of his bloodline erupted fully.
Devils existed to tempt and corrupt, they would pull down righteous people to the abyss when they were at their lowest point.

Roma had just found out that everything she knew as false and her family was gone.
Her friends were gone.
Her birth home, the pool she bathed in all her life, the very same place she lost her virginity to her destined man, was gone.

She had lost everything.

Except two things.

She had her life and she had the hand that was outstretched towards her, from her destined man and soul bonded partner.
Her life had no meaning to her on its own, but when that hand was added to the equation…

Roma saw a pathway forward.
It was a road that formed before her, in her mindscape.
She could see her future with Draco, as they had children and she allowed her race to continue through her bloodline.

She saw how powerful she would become if she continued down this path.

But she could also see the evil.
She would lose all that made her ’good ’ and become an evil entity with morals that suited her when she pleased and a nature that was callous to all those who meant nothing to her.

Roma hesitated, because she didn ’t want to become such a person.
She had her own beliefs and values, which were ingrained into her from birth.

But the allure of Draco ’s voice, the allure of his outstretched hand… it was the same as when she had deliberated whether to give her virginity to Draco in the lake.

It was too potent.

It could be resisted, but the timing in which it came was too perfect.

The stories always told of noble heroes who resisted temptation in order to vanquish evil, but those were stories.
Some people didn ’t even need to be in a rough spot to fall into darkness, they would enter it willingly.

As such…

Roma took Draco ’s hand.