“I have plenty of equipment for you both. I can lend it to you for this occasion.”

I shake my head.

“I’m fine with what I have. I don’t know about Emma though.”

Emma shakes her head as well.

“I’m good. I want to get them on my own. So thanks for the offer, Miss Ivonna.”

Ivonna smiles and nods with understanding. Then 4 players are approaching us. All of them are waving at Ivonna. I think they’re Ivonna’s friends. A yellow-haired guy using a huge axe, a black-haired guy using magic staff, an orange-haired woman using a rapier, a light brown-haired guy using a bow.

“So, are these two really going to join us?”

The yellow-haired guy is looking at us. Ivonna nods and then looks at me and Emma.

“Let me introduce you to my friends. This is Michael [My Lewdness]. The guy beside him that’s holding a bow is Hans [Papa Papaya]. The lady over there is Francesca [FrancesK]. The last one is Leonardo [Beegnat].”

We introduced ourselves and they introduced themselves to us as well. After we talked about ourselves, we all left Fjel.

Emma is poking my shoulder. I look at her.

“Trev, we haven’t reported the quest to Hacal. We should go there first.”

I almost forgot about it because of this World Boss. I approach Ivonna.

“Can we stop by to that cabin over there? Emma and I have to report our completion to the NPC.”

Ivonna nods.

“Sure, we will wait over here.”

Ivonna told her friends to wait for us here. Emma and I went to the cabin to meet Hacal hurriedly. Hacal was resting on his chair and closed his eyes. When he heard our footsteps, he opened his eyes and smirked.

“You both were amazing. It was amusing to see you both fighting against those Arachne and Arthropod. As promised, here are the rewards.”

[Congratulation! Exclusive Passive Skill [Zeal] has increased by 1!]

[Congratulation! Exclusive Passive Skill [Zeal] has increased by 1!]

[Congratulation! Exclusive Passive Skill [Zeal] has increased by 1!]

[Congratulation! Exclusive Passive Skill [Zeal] has increased by 1!]

[Congratulation! Exclusive Passive Skill [Zeal] has reached its max potential!]

[Zeal Lv.Max: Reduce the requirements to increase weapon mastery by 50%. Increase skill damage percentage based on weapon mastery level (x*5).]

[Weapon Mastery’s Scroll (U) obtained!]

[Weapon Mastery’s Scroll (U): Increase 1 level of one weapon’s mastery immediately when used!]

[1.250.000 Exp gained!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

Emma’s mouth is wide opened. She leveled up 20 times while I leveled up 11 times.

Hacal is staring at me for quite a while and then a screen appears in front of me, and just me.

[Hacal’s request.]

[Queen Arachne brought chaos and curses upon this land for centuries. Warriors and heroes tried to kill her but they all failed. People used to live here happily, but it changed drastically. Emperors, Empresses, Kings, and Queens blocked this cursed land and surrounded it with mountains and seas. People are suffering, there is no hope for us here. This opportunity won’t come twice, help his and the people’s wishes to come true.]

[Rewards: None]

[Failed: No Penalty]

[Accept this quest? Y/N]

This is the first time I saw this quest. Becker never told me about this one either. No rewards nor penalties. I touch the screen

[Yes.]

Hacal smiles gratefully and closes his eyes while nodding. He turns around and sits back on his chair.

“Let’s go, Trev. They’re waiting for us.”

I nod and we walk away from the cabin. Ivonna and the rest of them are running towards us. Michael is grabbing my shoulders.

“Yo! How the f*ck did you guys levels up so quickly?!”

Ivonna is staring at us with disbelief.

“What kind of quest is that?!”

I’m pointing at the cabin and they all immediately run towards Hacal. But Hacal isn’t giving them the quest since they haven’t proofed themselves to him.

They all come back. Ivonna shakes her head.

“He doesn’t want to give us the quest. Is there any requirements to get that quest?”

I explained to them how we got the quest. Since they are all done with the weapon mastery tutorial, they won’t be able to get the quest from Hacal. They were all disappointed and devastated. Emma cheered them up and I also did the same.

Ivonna sighs.

“Alright, let’s forget about it. We have something more important to do.”

We all nod and go to the Pit of Hell.

Francesca is walking beside Ivonna. She looks around.

“Don’t you think it’s weird?”

Ivonna looks at her.

“About what?”

Francesca is pointing at the sky. We all look up and there’s nothing in the sky. We all then look at Francesca. Hans is squinting his eyes.

“I didn’t see anything. What about it?”

Francesca looks back at us.

“Exactly. They should’ve arrived there hours ago and yet there’s no VoW about killing the mini-bosses.”

We all humming with understanding. Ivonna is looking at the sky.

“You’re right. It is weird. No matter how hard the mini-bosses are, with that many high level players, they should’ve killed one of them by now.”

Michael is looking at the muds on the ground.

“Do you think they failed miserably? I mean, the raid teams were made so suddenly. I think, they failed because of lack of communication and coordination with each other.”

Francesca is chuckling mischievously.

“Good for them so they can stop acting so arrogantly. Kingstar is an as*hole and Queenstar is a b*tch. Have you seen their clips when they were bad-mouthing us on their stream? These kinds of people love to make drama for views.”

Emma is listening to their conversation with excitement. I look at her and chuckle. Emma is the kind of person who loves drama and would do anything to be in the front row to watch it.

“I hear you, Francesca. I still have no idea why are they so salty about us in the first place. We didn’t do anything to them or bad-mouthing them. Ivonna, you were the first person who gets dissed by them, right? Do you still have no idea what it was all about?”

Ivonna shakes her head.

“I have no idea. Some of my viewers thought that it was because I took his first place in the leaderboard back then. But I’m not sure if it’s because of that or not.”

Emma nods.

“Wow, just because of that? Does he have no life in real life? Being a jerk for something so simple like that is so childish.”

Francesca raises her hand and wiggling her index finger while nodding with an agreement.

“Yes, I had the same thought as Emma.”

They all continued to talk about Kingstar and Queenstar then they all went silent when they saw something unbelievable. Thousands of players are dead and waiting to be resurrected or respawned on the spot. We all watched them from the woods.

Ivonna chuckles with disbelief.

“This is why we haven’t heard the VoW…”

Queen Arachne and her servants are still in full health, but almost half the raid teams are dead. Kingstar and Queenstar are still instructing the raid teams from behind. They both are watching the players getting massacred by Queen Arachne.

“Goddammit! I told you to hold your position! Look what you’ve done! Because of you, the other teams are dead.”

Kingstar is furious at some players. Queenstar is shaking her head in disappointments.

They both had enough about it and go to the front line. Kingstar unsheathed his golden sword. He slashed one of the mini-bosses. He dealt two thousand damage to the mini-boss. I squinted my eyes to get a clearer view of his sword. At first, I thought I was mistaken, but I didn’t. The sword that he was using is one grade below godly items. A legendary weapon that shouldn’t be available in this game yet. I looked at Queenstar, and she also has a legendary weapon on her. The only thought I had in my head was that someone gave them those weapons, someone who ruined the surprise and gave it to someone like them.

“Trev? Why are you looking at them like that?”

Everyone is looking at me. I shake my head.

“No, I was observing the bosses.”

I wasn’t lying. I did observe the bosses. They have been fighting for an hour or so. In less than an hour, Queen Arachne will use her ultimate skill. A skill that meant to wipe the entire players around her, [Screaming Scythes]. Every boss in this game has the ultimate skill that is meant to wipe the players when they’re in a stalemate situation. Neither the monster the players can finish the other off.

Kingstar and Queenstar are about to kill Succor Arachne, but then Amelio Arachne heals Succor Arachne almost back to full health. Both of them are furious and immediately charge towards Amelio Arachne. But what they didn’t know is when Amelio Arachne is being targeted by the players, Queen Arachne will be enraged. Her stats value are doubled and immediately targeting those players.

Swing! The sound of steel getting cut by something extremely sharp.

A scythe-like leg slashed both of them into halves. But both of them immediately resurrected because of an item called [Betelgeuse’s Dust Particles]. Resurrected the player immediately with full health, but the cooldown time is one-day in-game time. Both of them backed off and retreated to the backline. Then they targeted Hecatomb Arachnes, but it was a waste of time. There were four of them and they didn’t bother to do anything since they have zero damage.

Kingstar and Queenstar wasted their time trying to kill one of the Hecatomb Arachnes and it’s about time for Queen Arachne to use her ultimate skill. Succor Arachne then buffs Queen Arachne and Garrison Arachne is protecting Queen Arachne.

“Let’s get away from here for a minute.”

Ivonna and the others are looking at me. I smile and raise my eyebrows.

“Just trust me on this one.”

They all looking at each other and nod. We all run away from the field. Then Queen Arachne lifts four of her legs and spreading them wide open. A supersonic slash breaks the air, creating high-pitched explosion sounds that flattening her surroundings.

The impact made us fall to the ground. Ivonna and the others’ mouths are wide opened. Ivonna stood up.

“What just happened to them?”

I stand up and look at the players’ dead bodies.

“Supremacist raid teams? They all just got annihilated.”