Some time later.

After returning to the real world, Ruri washed her face in the bathroom and drank a glass of water. Then she immediately entered the game. The whole process does not take much time.

Moments later, Hecate reappears in the unnamed ruins.

She still had blood and dust on her body, with full MP and all equipment skills fully charged. Usually if this happened, she would continue her grind and use up all her skills. But now, she didn't dare to do that.

Because she saw that every door leading to the outside of this room gave off a red mist.

Hecate knew that this fog was not real fog, because the Game UI (User Interface) had told her that this was the effect of one of her new Skills.

It was a skill created from fusing two skills, Sense Crisis and Sense Fortune.

Both of these skills are useful to Hecate. Though, each of them has a moderate effect on their own and is quite hard to master. But now that they are fused together, their effects become more perceivable. Now the "warning" was so distinctive that it was hard to miss.

"I see... If I entered any of those doors right now, there is a high chance that this Arachnia will notice me."

She already understood the situation. Because this Safety Area was located deep inside the ruins, she can't leave without passing the corridor filled with monsters. Most likely, Arachnia has some detection skills that have been spread inside the ruins. Thus, triggered the warning skill.

"If the Crisis aspect is improved, then maybe the Fortune aspect is also improved."

But this confirmation can wait for later.

Without much thought, Hecate opened her storage and took out two items.

A cheap Holy Water that can be created by any Cleric. It has many uses in the game.

If this water is applied to weapons like swords or arrows, when it hits dark attribute monsters, the damage output will be increased. If Players drank it, their dark resistance would increase and at the same time weaken curse type debuffs.

There are 2 stronger versions of the item, Mid-Grade and High-Grade Holy Water which can only be made by Priests and High Priests. Of course, such versions are more expensive, but in exchange, the effects multiplied by folds.

One hundred bottles of Low-Grade Holy Water only priced at 1, so Hecate stocked a lot of them. She used this water for her daily necessities in the real world, from drinking water to bathwater. It has no taste like plain water does. But at the same time, it was far more reassuring than using the tap water from the water company.

- Since you never know if the water is free from contamination like rust or other nasty things.

Hecate opened the bottle and poured all of the contents over her own head. The dirt and blood sticking to her body was quickly washed away as the water flew down her clothes. Her blue colored robe become wet, although it was not completely clean, it definitely did not look dirty anymore.

She shook her head and the water droplets adhering to her hair splattered everywhere.

"Oh well, it's only a little water, this will dry by itself in 5 minutes anyway."

And sure enough, five minutes later the water quickly evaporated, or more precisely, disappeared after its durability was gone.

Then, she used the second item.

The scroll started to glow as she poured her MP into it.

Soon after, she disappeared from the ruins and appeared in the Teleportation Gate of Rosenweil City.

♠♠♠

 

[Ascension: Rosenweil Capital City]

As soon as she appeared, Hecate was greeted by the bustling city life.

The capital city of Rosenweil Kingdom.

A fantasy city with Mid-European ambiance feelings, like how many fantasy novels depicted.

In front of her was a marketplace with stall after stall whose vendors were shouting their advertisements loudly. Not only that, there were also adventurers hanging around, and city guards patrolling with their watchful eyes.

• • "Hunter Lv26 looking for a party!"
  • "Looking for a Priest between Lv20 and 40, we have 2 Tanker and 1 Assassin!"
  • "Potions, Poison Bottles, Holy Waters, Quivers... All you need is here at a cheap price!
    Come here Adventurers, you can't hunt without proper preparation!"
  • "Let's clear the Spiders on the Karkahal Forests! Seeking strong people to join!"
  • "Anti-poison charm! This baby can increase your resistance to poison by 40% for 1 hour!
    Cheap sale just for today! Only 1 per charm and the spider venom is no longer a threat to you."

From this place, she could see a castle to the north of the city.

She passed through the busy market, ignoring the crowds and heading north. However, her destination wasn't the castle, but one of the buildings along the way.

♠♠♠

 

There are two types of people in Ascension.

One of them was called Native, or better known as NPC. They have various races, such as Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Beastkin, etc. They were basically the natives of the Rodinia continent.

Nearly 90% of the population on the continent is of Indigenous origin.

The other was called Player, existences that came from another world. They take the same form as the Natives and have a similar racial classification. Even though their numbers only represent about 10% of the mass, their influence was undoubtedly enormous.

In the eyes of the Natives, Players were immortals. If a Native died, their body would stop moving forever and become a corpse. That will be the end of them. Corpses must be burned or buried because they will eventually rot and become a source of plague, or become a mindless living corpse if exposed to demonic powers.

Whereas if a Player dies, their body will only turn into light particles, and respawn the next day.

From a Native's point of view, there was almost no difference in appearance between a Player and a Native. However, Players can recognize other Players. If they focus their attention on a person, a small popup name will be displayed above that person's head, along with symbols unique to Player and Native.

♠♠♠

 

Hecate went to the Adventurer's Guild first.

This was a place that has taken care of her and most of the Players who started in this City.

When Players start out in the game, they can register their name in the Adventurer's Guild. And after they registered their name, they can take a series of quests from the Quest Board according to their rank, from F-rank up to S-rank. Then, the Guild will pay the quest taker with rewards for the completed quests.

The Adventurer's Guild was maintained by the Natives, so it was a separate system from the Player Guild.

The inside of the building was clean, with many potted decorative plants. It was more like a formal institute, not a pub with noisy drunkards shouting nonsense. There is a separate pub restaurant and it was completely unrelated to the Adventurer's Guild.

Hecate entered the building and walked to the female receptionist.

"Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild, what can I do for you."

"I'd like to withdraw my Gold coins."

Other than as a quest giver, the Adventurer's Guild also served as a bank for both Natives and the Players. Though, unlike banks in the real world, the bank in this game did not accept loans or credits.

"Please touch this plate."

The receptionist took out an artifact with the shape of the metal plate and placed it onto the table.

Hecate poured her MP into the plate and a system window appeared almost instantly.

Surprisingly, her Gold balance in her bank account was very high. She obtained this abundant wealth after ransacking the Stellar Wing Guild and emptying their treasury clean. This Gold was the wealth of a big-sized guild on par with her Genesis Guild.

Robbing is truly the fastest way to become rich!

With a press of a button, a confirmation sound was beeped, signaling the withdraw was a success. The Gold in her inventory suddenly increased by 30 million.

"Thank you for your patronage."

Her business here was done. Hecate closed the window and left the building.

Then, she entered the Auction Hall that was in front of the Adventurer Guild and talked to its receptionist.

"I want to auction a few items."

"Please wait a moment."

The receptionist took out another plate artifact and Hecate touched it immediately.

Many auctioned items from all over the Rosenweil Kingdom appeared on this list.

When someone bids on an item, they need to deposit as much of their Gold Coins as their bid, which will be returned if the bid fails. When the time limit expires, the highest bidder is the item winner.

But, if they want to get their hands on the item right away, there is an option to pay the buyout price to win the item on the spot.

Items and Gold Coins from successful transactions can be obtained after the Auction is over. And for the former item owner, the Auction Hall will take 10% of the Gold Coins as payment.

Players and Natives can bid from any Auction Hall in Rodinia continent. Of course, every Kingdom or Country has a different Auction Hall system, so items from other Kingdoms won't appear on the list.

Hecate typed the name of a specific item in the search query and pressed the OK button.

"Let's see... Where is the Slot Enchant Core?"

A few seconds later, the list was filtered.

Every item on the list disappeared, except for 10 Slot Enchant Core entries.

Hecate smiled as she looked at the 10 entries.

They have varying bid prices and their purchases are between 2~3 million Gold.

While these items can only be obtained by exchanging them for Glory Points, the game wasn't short of Players who are short on Gold Coins and will use anything as their commodity, including their Glory Points.

Perhaps, this was the reason why the Skill Assimilation Orb's existence was not well known.

'Haha... It's the same as me spending 1000 GP. The difference is, I use Gold instead of GP.
Those idiots, they don't realize that every GP is precious...'

She quickly hit the buyout button and got all 10 on the spot.

After she finished buying all of the Slot Enchant Cores, Hecate pressed the [➕] button, and a new window popped up.

She quickly placed the equipment she got from betraying her guild onto the list.

Of course, she didn't add all the looted equipment to the Auction Window. Only equipment that are worth selling are added to the list. As for the trash equipment, she planned to melt them into her furnace.

It took her about 10 minutes to finish.

"Well, this is about it. Time to do the finishing touch."

Before she clicked the confirmation button, her other hand pressed a hotkey to activate a certain item.

At that moment, her name disappeared once again. If other Players were to examine Hecate right now, the name popup won't show up above her head. Though, even if they did, not many Players knew of the effects of the Crime Scroll, as it was rarely used.

They would most likely think it was just a lag.

Nearly at the same time after the notification window showed up, she clicked the confirmation button.

Soon after, the items that she had put on the auction showed up on the list. However, when the items were clicked to view its detailed information, it will show as ??? in the owner's column.

These data entries will remain as it is until the end of the time limit, even after the effect of the Crime Scroll ended.

Satisfied with the result, Hecate let out a gratified smile. She closed the window and thanked the receptionist.

"Thank you as usual."

"I'm glad to be your help, dear customer."

Hecate nodded, responding to the receptionist. She walked to the toilet and stayed inside for 10 minutes, waiting for the effect of the scroll to end.

Then, she left the building and walked to her workshop.