[Congratulations, NPC! You have been officially recognized as the only Saintess of God Maugus in this world.]

[Activating NPC Saintess System.]

‘What?! The ONLY Saintess!!’

As Nandini blanked out from surprise and blushed with both her cheeks red, a limpid transient screen appeared in front of her.

[I bow down to the Lord who resides in the hearts of all beings.]

Before Nandini could even start praying or show her devoutness, the words on the screen vanished. Along with a cool and clear-cut startup screen, the main U.I of the system appeared.

[ NPC(Non-Player Character): Nandini ] 

[ Class: Saintess ]

[ Level: 60 (Gold) ]

[ Population: 0/0 ]

[ Players: 0 ]

[ Devoutness: 10/100 ]

Nandini looked quickly through the words written on the screen, finally laying her eyes on the value of Devoutness. As she focused on it, a corresponding pop-up screen appeared next to it.

[ Value- Devoutness: 10/100 ]

[ Description: It is the measure of a believer's faith in God Maugus! ]

[ Disclaimer: 10 is the maximum value a believer can reach through sheer faith. To show your dedication to the God Maugus and increase its value: Recruit more players, manage a city in his name and build armies to spread his glory once again! ]

Nandini felt like she was experiencing the weirdest situation she had ever faced in her whole life.

'Wha-what is this!?'

“It is a System, a generous blessing from me. You can understand it as me communicating with you through it whenever I want to.”

God Maugus then answered Nandini in his enigmatic and mysterious voice while he continued. "Any quest you get through the system is like a Divine Prophecy from me. Players are my avatars who I have succeeded in giving a soul. They would be a little weird, but every single one of my Players has a Legendary powerhouse level potential. They are my best warriors. Recruit as many as you can, build a City around The Last Church and we will rebuild the Kalwar Empire from the blood of all my enemies! Now, go back and kill all of our enemies."

______

Asjad accepted the mission happily. After all, playing around with so many MMORPG VR games in his life, if there was one thing that he had learnt was that completing quests was always more rewarding than hunting for monsters unless it was boss monster.

After his party had ascertained the contents of the mission, they quickly sneaked towards the location marked on the map.

Soon, they reached the place, hiding behind a tall ancient tree of the Rakshasa Forest to peek at the situation.

The battle was occurring in a narrow but spacious enough clearing in the dense forest. There were many tall and buff warriors dressed in light leather armor with patterns assembled in a formation at the lead of a Bronze Knight as recognized by system information.

[ Name: ??? ] 

[ Class: Knight ]

[ Level: 20 (Bronze) ]

[ Attributes: ??? ]

On the other hand, at the center, two very beautiful woman were fighting and the target they had to rescue was on the losing end!

“What should we do? Should we help?” Chitwan very quietly asked Asjad, gulping.

Asjad said nothing, just observing the battle. He was licking his lips again and again though; he looked rather eager.

Both Sandy and PandaBubble appeared doubtful like Chitwan. But, Abduleria was filled with blood-lust as well to level up!

Just as they were hesitating to attack, a blinding radiance suddenly shone out of nowhere, instantly taking away everyone’s vision.

“Even the GM is helping us!! If you guys are afraid, let me divert their attention.” Abduleria said eagerly. “I think I could take five of them!”

“They are like ten levels above you.” Chitwan shot back.

“We might face a party wipe, Abdul.” Asjad smirked.

“Don't forget the re-spawn time, peeps.” Sandy added.

"Also, the cost of 100 faiths coins!" PandyBubble added right after Sandy.

“Let us do this, squad.” Abdul grinned.

Chitwan turned towards Asjad with a look that said pretty-please-help-me-out.

Asjad nodded in understanding, and then proceeded to scream ‘ALLAH HU AKBAR!!!’ as he dashed out from behind the tall ancient tree and bounded towards the assassins with his Beginner’s Giant Sword raised above his head.

Everyone in the fight -- Saintess or assassins -- turned at once towards him.

“That idiot!” Chitwan picked up her Wizard Wand and gave chase, unsure if she should laugh or cry. She buffed all of them with her spell; Berserk, which would double all of their base attributes for the next five minutes!

Both Sandy and PandaBubble ambushed their enemies to kill one by one with great teamwork.

Meanwhile, although Abdul was slow to react and did not look the part of a Knight at all, he used his huge frame of 2 metres fully. Each swing of his Beginner’s Giant Sword would send a warrior or a rogue into the air. In fact, whether that particular warrior was charging at him or a rogue sneaking up on him, it made no difference as all of them would be blown away by Abdul in his Berserk mode!

Although the five players were surprisingly formidable, none of them could match Saintess Nandini who had advanced to the Gold level.

She killed both Maria and that peak Bronze Knight in one hit! Any assassin who approached her was killed immediately. 

"Are you players?" She asked Chitwan with folded hands as she observed the battle.

“Yes, Saintess.” Chitwan replied after launching a Fireball at two warriors who were fighting Asjad to a standstill.

Nandini observed these five players with narrowed eyes.

Unusually, the combo of Sandy and PandaBubble even with Berserk buff which would dull your senses in fury, would intelligently ambush their targets and immediately stab them in the vitals to kill with surprising teamwork.

While the huge player Abdul, was even more unusual -- after sending each enemy flying, he would shout "EXP!".

The Knight who looked like the player’s leader was even more superior, although his might was devastating, something was amiss.

'Oh, right! The Wizard!' The Wizard supporting all the players from behind was weird.

Being a Saintess, she had seen and met even Arch Wizards of The Capital of Kalwar Empire and had seen them use their spells up close. However, all of them had to chant or prepare blood before they could unleash their spells. Even if she was only essentially switching between two spells: Fireballs and Berserk! She did not even have to prepare before casting her spells directly.

The Wizard just murmured ‘Fireball’ or 'Berserk' to unleash her spells.

'Did Instant cast become so common that even lowly Bronze level Wizards could do it!?'

'Truly formidable but weird, but just like God Maugus said; they have great potential.' Nandini got even more sure of her impression of players when she saw the huge knight Abduleria dancing at the corpse of the last warrior of the assassin group, shouting "Finally Leveled up peeps!!" on the top of his voice!

These players were very formidable but too weird!

Just like that, a standard stereotype against Players would be formed in the NPC's minds in the future with the influence of the Saintess!

m_augus00

Italic system for NPCs, while Normal system for players! Feel free to leave a comment.