Chapter 66 – Hidden Challenge Part 3, Kidnapping a Healer

Standing over the corpse of the player, I made sure to dig my hand in again to soak up blood, edging forward the progress bar of dimension ripper’s [Blood Drinker] quest just a little. Now that the mage was dead, I could see his information. He was a level 85 red mage, which was very respectable both class and level wise. I must have looked like easy prey to him with my tattered robes on, which was why he targeted me. Little did he know, I was a level 84 dimension thief. 

Well, now I was in possession of two tickets, at the cost of getting marked as a [Wolf]. I needed to work on finding more tickets while learning the lay of the land. 

I was currently in a hilly open field area, with several players keeping their distance from me after seeing that I came out on top during that fight. In the distance, the fully grown dragon continued to rain hell on the starting area. Its rampage seemed to be restricted to that region, and so all the players including myself that successfully escaped the starting area were now in the clear.

With my uncannily keen sense of vision from my demi-human status, I squinted my eyes and scanned the players closest to me on the field. 

Level 81 warrior. Level 86 melee class of some sort. Level 76 priest. Level 79 mage class of some kind. A few others that I couldn’t identify. It seemed to me that the average level for the competition ranged from mid 70s to 80s, with a few particularly strong rankers in the 90s. 

From the news, I saw that there was only one player who hit level 100 so far, a ranker named [Cold Hands]. Level still mattered a lot right now because the player base did not collectively hit level 100 yet, which was when classes maxed out the brunt of their stat growths and received drastically diminished stat growths from level ups afterwards. 

I’d have a lot of trouble against someone in the high 90s. But a level 76 priest? That was easy prey. Wait. On second thought, maybe there was another way to approach this. I had no way of healing myself. My last health potion was used after the spinosaurus fight, and I never got the opportunity to restock at a town. And plus, I didn’t need potions because Rosalia was probably the best field medic I could ever ask for, and her shortcomings could be covered by [Luxuria’s Hot Spring Bath]’s healing properties. 

Right now, without access to Rosalia or healing potions, maybe it was more prudent to strike a deal with the priest. I began running towards his direction. Upon seeing that I was chasing him, the priest began to bolt. 

“Hey, you! I just want to talk!” I shouted at him, but he didn’t pay me any mind. The young man in white priest robes continued to run across the hill as I chased him.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks. I started to catch up, and then realized why he stopped. 

In front of him was a team of five players, two of which already had wolf icons above their heads. They were all wearing the same skull cosmetic cap and armband, which I immediately recognized. It was Skull Guild, a notorious elite guild that operated out of a western city. It was actually smart of them to accessorize their members in easily identifiable clothes, so even with communications blocked during the hidden challenge, they could locate a few other members easily. 

All of them were in the mid 80s or low 90s, which was very high even by hidden challenge standards. Not a group I wanted to directly confront. 

One of the Skull guild members shot an arrow at the priest I was chasing, snagging him in the foot. The priest yelped in pain, but his body began to transform, shrinking into a small black bat. What an interesting unique ability. I didn’t remember the last time I saw one in action that was actually useful. Most of the unique abilities the system gave out were either flat out trash or only moderately useful. 

Flapping its wings as best as it could, the priest-bat nearly got hit by a precise shot from the Skull guild archer. One of the other skull guild members, a shapeshifting druid, transformed into a half bear and began galloping towards it. 

I decided to pull off something interesting. 

Summoning love whip, I targeted the flailing bat with [Restrain] and pulled it towards me. Once I caught the flailing bat tied up in a knot by love whip, I casted [Shadow] and darted to safety in mist form.

The sequence of events was confusing enough that the Skull Guild members lost sight of me after entering [Shadow]. After running for a bit longer and making sure the coast was clear, I let the squeaking bat out of [Restrain], dumping him on the ground.

The bat transformed back into human priest form immediately after I let it loose. 

“S-stay back!” the priest shouted with a quivering voice, brandishing his staff while getting back on his feet and taking steps backwards. 

“I just want to talk,” I said. 

“Lower your weapon first!” demanded the priest. 

I decided to comply, unsummoning both love whip and adamantite poleaxe. “There, better?”

The priest lowered his staff slightly, but kept a vigilant look on my movements. “Not really, but I’ll hear you out. What the hell kind of class are you, and what do you want from me?

I began to explain. “I’m a special thief class. Long story. Anyway, I was think maybe we can strike a deal of some sorts. I purchase your healing services for tickets and silver, and we work together to collect tickets.” 

The priest, whose name was [June], looked up at the wolf icon above my head and back down at me. “I-I don’t trust you, man. You’re a [Wolf] just like those others that attacked me. You’re going to kill me when my back is turned.” 

“Yes,” I said. “I could do that. But I won’t, because I need you just as you need me.”

I summoned one of the tickets that I got from beating the red mage, and tossed it on the ground in front of [June]. “Here. I’ll pay you more tickets and silver in the future, and you can keep your innocent status so it won’t even be worth it to kill you.”

June’s eyes darted down to the ticket, although he still looked a bit hesitant. 

I decided to give him a bit more of a push. “Just take it, and let’s work together. We can make a lot more tickets this way than just operating alone.” 

He didn’t look too convinced. 

“Actually,” I began, summoning adamantite poleaxe again. “Let’s put it this way. If you don’t accept, I will kill you right now.” 

The young man groaned and bent down to pick up the ticket. “Fine, I accept. Not like I have much choice.” 

-------

Over the next half hour or so, I got slightly more acquainted with June. It was mutually beneficial to form a party in this kind of challenge, because the fighting power of a party of two was significantly higher than that of just a single individual. June begrudgingly accepted this fact, although he didn’t look too happy about it. We were in a working relationship at best, although an independent third party might see this as a hostage situation. 

As the bright mid-noon sun hung over the hills and valleys, we ran into increasingly more fantastical creatures as the landscape transformed into a more foggy region. 

In the horizon was an area roamed by trolls and cyclops, visible even in the far distance because of just how big they were. The horde of players traveling across the landscape made sure not to venture through that area. 

“We’re not going through there, right?” June said while looking at me apprehensively. 

I shook my head. “There’s just no reason to right now. What we need is tickets, and the best way to get them is to find hidden tasks or quests, or pick off a few stragglers here and there.”

“Spoken like a true wolf…” June said in a low voice. 

I glared at him.

“What?” he looked back at me. “It’s true, isn’t it? You killed someone for their tickets, and you’ll do it again.”

I sighed. “Yeah, because that asshole attacked me first. And yes I’ll do it again, because this is a competition and I’m not planning to get eliminated in the preliminary round because I decided to feel empathy for people who are more than willing to kill me. You signed up for this competition too, so shut your trap.”

June looked like he was about to respond, but he stopped as we both heard the sound of fighting up ahead. It seemed like a few players were embroiled in combat with a beast of some kind. 

“You’ve played battle royale games before, right?” I asked inconspicuously. 

June nodded. “Of course, I’m a guy.”

“So you know what third partying means?” 

Third partying was a battle royale term that meant preying upon two parties who were currently in a fight with each other, and were weakened by the fight. The third party had the advantage of the element of surprise as well as full health, stamina, and resources such as ammunition, cooldowns, and mana in this case. It was an easy way to get good loot and gear with minimal risk. 

Actually, that was wrong. Third partying carried significant risk. After all, it was kind of like sharks smelling blood in the water. The sound of gunfire was like blood that attracted more and more sharks, which created more gunfire and bodies. The cycle would continue to bring in sharks until the area was swarming with killers and only a few of the top sharks were left standing. 

But what if one of the sharks had access to an ability that guaranteed escape, called [Shadow]? Suddenly the risk was no longer as high. And that was why I thought this would be a good opportunity for us. 

June nodded. “Yeah, I third party all the time.”

“Pfft,” I almost spit out. “I thought you had morals.”

“Well it’s a little bit different when you’re just shooting people with a mouse and keyboard!” June argued back. “Killing people in Eclipse feels so much more realistic that you really have to get used to it first.”

He wasn’t wrong. Maybe I got accustomed to the killing because that’s how I was introduced to the game. After all, my very first minute of Eclipse Online had me fighting bare handed against Steel Slice and his thug, which resulted in me taking an axe to the face. 

A savage beast cry brought us back to alert. 

“Let’s go, before it’s too late,” I told June. 

We ran towards the commotion, which was happening on the grounds of an old castle surrounded by an eerie moat. 

“What the hell is that?” June said, looking down at the brawl in the castle below. 

Four players were in combat with a fog demon, which climbed on the castle walls like a spider and swept downwards with its claws. Its face was shrouded in fog, but seemed to be a twisted old man. 

[New task: Slay the Evelon Demon]

Reward: 10 tickets

Judging purely by the size of the reward, it seemed like this fight was manageable for the party of four. At least, that theory held if difficulty scaled proportionally with tickets, and I had no idea if that was true or not. At least I could confidently say that the 30,000 ticket reward dragon slayer task was much harder than this 10 ticket demon slayer task.  

The four players were breathing heavily and stressed from the fight. Level 76 male sword and shieldbearer. Level 79 female halberdier. Level 72 male mage. And a level 75 female whose class I couldn’t identify.

I smirked. Level 70s were on the lower end of the spectrum in this competition, and were easy prey for us when distracted by that fog demon. “Let’s go.”