Insania had no idea where she was, neither did she care. All she did was follow north. Well technically speaking you cannot find which way north is underground no matter how hard you try. But Onille is a man with high levels of awareness and memory. Even if someone abducts him and throws him in the middle of a forest, he'd be able to find his way back just fine with his built in compass. It is literally inside both his mind and body.
Tunnel after tunnel, was pitch black and Insania occasionally stepped on the remains of the fallen. But no matter how greedy she is, it couldn't defeat the fear that is welling inside her chest at the single thought of getting violated like that. By "That" she means, the visions of what will happen to her if she gets captured again by the gnolls which was forcefully embedded deep in her brain by the Curse of Lust mental attacks.
She felt like hours have already passed just running in these tunnels and her internal clock was raucously ringing, warning her that its so close till 16:00. If she doesn't get out soon then she'll be forced to log out by the system!
But more minutes passed by and Insania still couldn't find the way out of this fucking hole. Even just a dimly lit hope was enough instead of being forcefully kicked out of the game and forcing her avatar into sleep state. She heard the sounds of footsteps nearing and two gnolls were carrying pickaxes, she unconsciously used [Concealment] and stalked the two.
They seem to be communicating through growls but Insania doesn't speak gnoll so she didn't bother trying to understand it. Instead she checked the gnolls items. Just like beastkins who are all just oversized cats, gnolls are bipedal spotted hyenas that use various tools and equipments as well. And what she saw was a juicy looking piece of paper.
This is very peculiar because gnolls are underground creatures they mainly use dirt, rocks and sometimes metals. But Paper isn't something they're capable of making. So this piece of parchment can either be two things. One is a treasure map leading to some long lost buried treasure. Or two... Its contents are the layout of these tunnels and its best mining spots and danger spots.
As much as she wanted it to be the first. Her priorities are straight and thus she prayed to whatever gods there are in this game that its the second.
*Ting
Gnoll Miner/ Hyaenidae Species
Rarity: Uncommon
Level: 34
Hitpoints: 6, 000
Damage: 201-205
Magical Armor: 67℅*
*Ting
Gnoll Miner/ Hyaenidae Species
Rarity: Uncommon
Level: 31
Hitpoints: 4, 000
Damage: 340-350
Magical Armor: 67℅*
One has higher, Hitpoints but smaller damage while the other is the opposite. Now Insania just needed to find out whos faster and form a plan that will allow her to swiftly dispatch of these two without allowing them to cry for help. For the people thinking that she can just take the fucking paper and run, well in her current level its pretty impossible. There is only so much [Concealment] can do while you are low levels, add the fact that gnolls have great senses. If they ever catch a small whiff of the air flow changing because of her presence. They'd instantly jump her.
Well enough contemplating. Finally forming a plan, she smirked and checked if there are more gnolls nearby.
She got down on all fours, flexing her left leg straight back and bending the other, like a backward lunged. She built up as much pressure as possible and launched herself with insane speed. Currently wearing the Aruks skull she flew at the low HP gnoll and bashed his face in with a headbutt. -50! The other one was about to cry for help when Insania pointed a finger at it, specifically the middle finger. [Zap]!
The gnoll choked and rolled over the dirt, in a crazy taser dance. If you've never seen someone dance while being taser then thats your problem, not mine.
Alas she merely had 4 seconds to kill the one with low hitpoints and that seems highly implausible with her damage. But she never intended to kill them with-in 5 seconds. Oh no, no, no...
What she did was sliced off a specific part of its throat. Onille learned simple anatomy and he knew just where a hyena like creatures Larynx is. -303! CRITICAL!
With this one slash it wouldn't be able to scream for 3 minutes. She then jumped at the other gnoll. Grabbing it by its lower jaw and then slicing of its throat Insania used [Power-shot] and put more pressure in her left and used the sword to saw off its windpipe. Damages of over 300! kept appearing and after three seconds, she threw away its dismembered head.
She then proceeded on stabbing the other one to death. She didn't make it quick, and her inner sadism flared up making her euphoric watching it writhe, struggle and suffer.
*Ting you have leveled up*
Some people might think that the fights are too boring, they end too fast... or STOP BEING PARANOID AUTHOR!
Well this wouldn't have been possible if there were more than two gnolls and the ones she's killed are indeed strong, but they aren't warriors. If it were the well equipped gnoll bandits, there is no way she'd be able to kill them this quick.
She took the paper from the corpse and as she gazed at the scribbles written on it, she smiled. The piece of paper contained the entire layout of these underground tunnels, her second guess was right but this map isn't made by humans, but by the gnolls themselves. Which is very peculiar. There must be a brawn and brain in the pack. Which can only mean two bosses. That makes this place extremely dangerous. No matter how OP she looks or maybe its just author being paranoid, she could never beat one boss above her level not to mention two.
She memorized the scribbles with her astute map reading skills and used it to expertly maneuver her way out of the intertwining tunnels. It only took several minutes for her to finally get out and see the sunlight. She breathed in the fresh air and decided to climb a giant tree, climbing up the spruce tree that was as thick as an elephants entire body and as high as the skyscrapers of cities 'twas indeed challenging, the trees still feels like a part of the level 300 grindspot which spans more than 800 miles(Author has no idea how large that is)
She got up the treetops and saw the beautiful wide blue sky, estimating the time with the position of the sun made her smile. It was still 15:30 plus.
'Maybe I should hit the hay early' She made room on a thick trunk and laid down the sleeping gear and logged out after feeling comfortable.
Onille woke up, still in his old rundown apartment. Onille has lived here for 10 years now but this is the first day ever that he got bothered so much by the foul stench. It's as if something died inside his room, no maybe inside the whole building! he knew this day would come, he gazed at the giant backpack filled to the brim with all of his belongings.
"I need a new place." he stood up and carried his backpack out of the house, he went to visit the old man who's the owner of this building he payed his due and bade farewell to the old coot, he's gonna miss him.
After a couple of minutes jogging uphill, Onille was refreshed! he felt so much better after that jog, sweat dripped down his shirt, He looked up at the high-rise building with who knows how many floors and went towards the front entrance, Onille entered the very fancy door.
Inside the spacious intricately tiled floor Onille passed through another automatic door and walked straight to the high counter. Onille saw a female receptionist. "How can I help you sir?" she asked unperturbed by Onille's appearance, in her line of work she meets all sorts of people, apparently homeless vagabonds are quite frequent.
"I need to buy a new penthouse, also can you please show me the rooms personally? " Onille asked, not expecting that the receptionist would agree. "Ok please follow me" she nodded, and stood up, she walked towards the elevator on the side, lightly tapping a button, then with a DING the door opened.
"Mister what is your penthouse price-range?" she asked with a smile.
"100, 000 dollars." Onille answered. After this Onille thought of job hunting, he quit his last one after all, and he knew that the money from the game will soon disappear. He can't rely on it forever.
"Oh did you win a lottery or something?" she covered her mouth. She truly didn't expect Onille to have that much money.
They passed quite a lot of floors and with a DING they got off the elevator in the 32th floor. Following the woman Onille patiently waited for her to finish talking with one of the buildings staff.
After a couple of seconds the two went on different directions, Onille continued walking in the spacious corridor. It can probably fit five grown man from shoulder to shoulder, while potted plants could be seen near every door.
They stopped infront of what looks like a really well made door, its design is obviously different from the other rooms and its got a beautiful potted plant! Which is really strange... The same staff that talked with the receptionist came and handed a key and a piece of paper to the woman.
Unlocking the door Onille finally found out whats inside the room. Enumerating whats inside Onille saw a bed, two drawers and a closed metal door that looks like the bathroom.
"Is this satisfactory enough?"
"Yeah, give me this room" Onille wasn't picky he knew that this is already enough for him... After the paperwork are done this will be his new home he payed 30, 000 dollars upfront to the kind woman. Onille is a very trustworthy man but that doesn't mean he's gullible, if someone tries to exploit his kindness they'd better prepare getting sued.
Onille had nothing to do so he went to a cyber cafe nearby and saw the latest updates of Epic of the Gods being shown up the lobby flatscreen. It was dubbed The Chaotic Invasion! It's a Kingdom sized event! and the kingdom is ... Atoru Kingdom? its actually her next stop.
A live video was being broadcasted through the ETG news channel gathering all the players attention, the one who took the video seems to be a human player.
The contents of the video is a siege on a city. In a first person point of view the walls could be seen and a huge army of thousands of Chaotic beings slowly marched upon the horizon, with a loud screech echoing in the cameramans ears then like a tidal wave the undead crashed towards the city walls. Level is irrelevant in Epic of The Gods after all quantity is quality! Even if your a level 100 jumping in the middle of this massive army would be short of suicide.
The cameraman seems to be an Assassin cause the soldiers on top of the walls aren't even bothering about him. They ran around, flee and deserted their posts but none could escape from the coordinated actions of the zombies and ghouls. The video kept going until no life in the city could be seen, everything is hazed with blood and carnage, whats worse on the streets a Lich appeared and pointed his fingers towards the cameraman a small fireball materilized and sped straight towards the Assassin, killing him instantly.
