"Bwa-hahaha! So the great Demon Princess finally lost a battle! Or should I call you the 'Demon Priestess'?" - Grus

"Neither, because I didn't start any of them! And I didn't lose! I just didn't qualify for an Extra Skill!" - Garami

Today is the final day before the Darkland Fort is back online and ready for the taking. I've fed it anything and everything I've come across over these last weeks, among the stuff I didn't need myself, and we're ready for the grand re-opening. 

As for why I've taken some time off the game until now, blame that blasted scorpion from the prison's Extra Trial. I did defeat that many-legged nightmare, even if my HP had reached the red area, so to say. And I sort of made a mess with the storage room where the fight went on, so that may have deducted some points or whatever the Extra Trial uses to decide the rewards. 

But I did win a T3 skill! But since it's not an Extra, it's as good as a loss since I had to spend an Extra Medal for it...

That surprise mail and offer from the management I got yesterday did lift my mood though. Enough that I grabbed myself by my neck and went to Grus' place for a consultation...and to complain to someone. Grus turns out to be a good listener. Even if it doesn't mean he's the kindest kind...

"Alright, I won't mess with you much more. And what is it that you wanna show me today?" - Grus

"This sword here. It's another Sin Relic." - Garami

I placed the sword that had almost bisected me during my test run of my new Ruinous gear. 

"Oho? You have a knack for obtaining rare materials, missy. And this fellow is called...the 'Broken Blade of Unforgiving Wrath'?" - Grus

"Don't ask how I got it." - Garami

I can imagine how that appeared in the jail. The prisoners aren't the kind who's gladly spending the last of their days there.

"And I'm guessing you'd want it to be outfitted to your scythe?" - Grus

"Yes, please." - Garami

"Sorry to tell you this, but I need some extra materials if you want to upgrade your weapon, lass." - Grus

"For real?" - Garami

"You betcha. I looked a little more into the whole business regarding Sin Relics after my work on your scythe. Adding more 'sins' to the same item requires more materials that can act as catalysts that are used for taming the negative karma each Relic posses. If you don't, the item will tear itself apart during the forging process." - Grus

"That sounds...horrifying... What do you need?" - Garami

"A magic stone from a C-rank monster, or something similar. At least something of that quality and power that can be used as a conduit for that overflowing negative karma stuff." - Grus

"You sure you know what you're talking about?" - Garami

"If it's about making items, of course, I am! Magical mumbo-jumbo? Speak to a specialist about that. Which I, by the way, have arranged an agreement for in case someone like you lass appears with something interesting to my shop." - Grus

Oh, so the enhancement of the Erebus Scythe will be a collaboration between Grus and that person. Now I get it. 

"In that case, I'll return after finding something like that. Anything would work?" - Garami

"Sure, but I'd rec that you stay a little critic about whatever you choose to bring back." - Grus

"What's the harm?" - Garami

"Prolly nothin', but it would suck if you ended up with a flower for a weapon just cause you came back with the magic stone of some flower monster." - Grus

"Didn't you say that the materials were only going to be used for the excessive karma?" - Garami

"Yeah, but listen to this old smith's word of knowledge: anything and everything used for forging a weapon will affect the result. The materials, the smith, the smithing hammer, even the anvil or the temperature of the day when the weapon is forged!" - Grus

"...Fair enough. I'll keep a note of that." - Garami

I was going to say my farewells to Grus and leave his shop when he stopped me on my way out.

"Ah, hold on. If you're thinking about looking for the materials in this region, it's no use. A stranger from the north has gone on a rampage lately in the area and taken all the rare materials. Even from the high-ranked monsters." - Grus

"They took everything?" - Garami

"All of them! The Blastfields are currently in a material drought!" - Grus

---

After I left the shop, I verified what Grus had spoken about. And it's true. A female Ice-using plant person had been going around with a bunch of samurai-like players and hunting down most of the monsters popularly known as "chiefs".

Some players who're into verification have concluded that these chiefs command monsters of the same race in specific areas, and killing a chief will reduce the number of related monsters in that location. Due to the "chief hunting" of the ice plant and her friends, there are a lot fewer monsters in the Blastfields now. The guards outside the town's borders were taking a nap when I passed them. 

...This makes me remember the frog who slipped to its death in the Darklands, but it's prolly just my imagination. The Darkland's frog population didn't decrease after that...I think. But it is an interesting idea...

Other than that, the exploding rocks hidden underneath the ground that gave this field its name have all been dug up. Many man-made holes and scorch marks from failed extractions of the rocks can be seen all over the place from my position on a huge rock I decided to take a break on. 

No monsters, no harvestable materials, no nothing. The Blastfield is as good as dead. The only good deals left are those of too-powerful monsters for me to hunt on my own, even if I asked Bones and the others for assistance. 

So this is the power of "numbers". Scary. Maybe I should start considering recruiting more people. Bones seems like he knows some loners, and Aino probably has some customers she knows who'd not let us down. And Palug would also know a few adventurers or three, thanks to his work as a courier. 

But that's not the point now. The important thing is that there is no hope shortly for finding strong-enough materials here in the Blastfields. The chiefs will probably be replaced at some point, and the harvest-type materials will also respawn. But it will take a while, and I'm honestly not the kind who likes to wait for so long. 

I was thinking about the prison or areas such as the now-destroyed vampire mansion, but I decided to ignore those possibilities. Areas such as the mansion are equally vulnerable to the ice plant's rampage as the field, and the prison feels less of an area where you farm materials and experience and more like a place to show off the result of one's training. At least, that is what my gamer instinct says. 

Therefore...it is safer to start looking for new hunting grounds. Besides, this fiery area is incompatible with my playing style anyway. It's time to move on. 

After nodding to myself satisfied with my decision, I started to look at my stats. After all, tomorrow is when the big "surprise" is getting released on the player base. I need to be in tip-top shape for that. 

Right now, my AP is at an incredible 16.6. Some of them came from my recent level-ups, but another 3 came from when Demon Caller reached Lv.50. As for the other 10..., they came from my agreement with the management. About the "event" that's going to start from tomorrow on. Hmm, maybe I could check for materials for my scythe there?

Anyway, this gives me enough AP to finally upgrade my Main Class, Demonic Rogue. To recall, Rogue-type classes are part of the Teachings of Killing that makes up one-third of the Scout-line classes. Among them, there are classes focused on inflicting critical hits, inflicting status ailments, and inflicting high damage through surprise attacks. Rogue is part of the third category. My Sub Class, Arachnid Assailant, is of the critical hit type. 

As for the upgrade options for Demonic Rogue, I got two choices. One is called "Demonic Assassin", which, as its name suggests, focuses even heavier on the whole surprise attack gig that Demonic Rogue has.  

The other option is a little different. Instead of Demonic Rogue, it takes the Arachnid Assailant class as its core and merges it with Demonic Rogue to create this:

Ga-hahaha! It's the Grim Reaper coming to get you! And it fits my usage of scythes! Kinda strange that [Scythe Proficiency] is not included as part of the requirements, but I can live with that. 

Now we're cooking with gas! What does the new skill do? 

Hmm, what should I say..., it's sorta plain? But it is a T2 skill, so maybe the damage is outta this world. At least my world. I waaaaant a finisher...

Let's see what it can do. I jumped off the "rock" I'd been taking a break on and created a [Poison Ball] in my hand. It's a purple sphere that's sorta like jelly that fits in my hand. And without further ado, *toss*.

*Splatt*

The ball of semi-liquid poison was splattered all over the "rock"...which caused the huge tortoise-type monster to wake up with a gruntled expression on its face. Hmm, the damage doesn't seem to be that much... It needs some more levels. 

The tortoise-type monster seems to be the kind that mimics the surroundings to escape the eyes of predators...such as us players. Its defensive abilities seem tough, but it's slow. A fine target for my new abilities.

In an act to vent its anger, the tortoise spat a fireball at me, which I dodged. I saw it coming a mile away. I even had the time to test out the [Poison Slide] skill. Small amounts of poison appeared underneath my feet that I could slide away on..., but not enough! The fireball singed me! Hot, HOT!

Okay, this one is also semi-sealed until it gets some more skill levels! It's gonna be fun when it does though!

The tortoise seems to be an E-rank monster, but a wrong step and I'd be sent back to my Player Room. Lesson learned. Even a weak monster chosen to experiment new skills with can be dangerous. So let's get this job over with.

Releasing some demonic webbing on the tortoise, I initiated [Trap Expertise] to form a web on top of the giant, yet non-flammable reptile..., and got a surprising result. On top of the webbing, many black, wicked-looking chains appeared and held down the tortoise.

I see. It's the second power move I've obtained recently. I dissed it as something useless because it's not an Extra, but it seems I was speaking too soon.

Anyway, the tortoise is struggling to get out, so I brought out my scythe from my inventory and tried out the skill. A black, death-like effect emerged from the scythe's blade as I designated in my mind that the "attack" was going to be used with the skill. 

Without delay, I slashed at the tortoise's exposed head and got a good result. "Like cutting through butter" would be an overstatement, but the scythe dug deep into the tortoise's skull, ending its virtual life without any mercy or suffering. 

Hmm, not bad. I wouldn't normally be able to defeat a defense-orientated E-rank with just one slash like that. Ignoring the [Poison Ball] from the start, I hadn't been weakening the beast that much...actively, that is. The new skill #2 is prolly equally responsible for this easy win, if not more. 

This is the T3 skill I obtained from the Extra Trial inside the prison. I could also choose between other variants of it called [Fluid Hell Prison] and [Toxic Hell Prison], prolly related to how Darkness is a Gloom-type element and Poison is a Toxic/Fluid-type, but that was all I could take, so I decided back then it must have been the lowest-rank price for that trial. 

Now, I see that it's far from something to go sulking about. Its traits as a passive skill mean I don't have to worry about some big costs to activate it, as opposed to the Reaper's Strike which consumes around 60 MP with a single use (despite attack skills being designed to be used several times in a fight).

Not to forget that trapping and disrupting is a good part of my fighting style, so I was lucky in my selection of the Trial, even if the result isn't as excellent as I'd hoped. Also, the description is vague, but I am getting the feeling that status ailments such as Paralyze and Poison may also be considered "disruptions"...

This needs to be verified. Good thing there are more of those tortoises hiding around, disguised as rocks. Hehehe~. You can hide from Ice plant girl, but not from my (blindfolded) sight!

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Skill List:

Title List: