“There’s a fairy on his shoulder. Is this the guy?” he asked another Mage behind him.
“That’s definitely the guy who nearly wiped out our entire party!” the other Mage said. “I could never forget this man and the mask he wore!”
Nearly wiped out their entire party? Adam narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Mage that just finished speaking, which caused the other man to break out in a cold sweat. The frown on Adam’s face increased as he tried to place this guy within his memories.
“You… who the hell are you?” he asked.
“Are you saying you don’t even recognize me?!” the Mage snapped. He looked shocked and angry, his face blistering red. “You almost killed me the other day!”
“Hmph. You say that like I should care,” Adam snorted.
Titania giggled, which caused all the attention to shift to her. Despite the fact that she was barely a foot tall, she was still a gorgeous woman who had the face of an angel and a body that seemed like the embodiment of sin. The men around them became absentminded. Even the Mage who had first stepped over to him flushed bright red. His nostrils flared like a bull seeing red after really getting a glimpse of the beauty sitting on Adam’s shoulder.
“Do you really not remember this man? He was one of the people who tried to steal your kill,” Titania said.
“Ah. Right. That did happen, didn’t it?” Adam nodded. “Yes, I do remember some dickweeds who tried to steal my kill when I was fighting an 1-star monster. So that was you, huh? Don’t tell me you wanted revenge and decided to get reinforcements?”
It was obvious to Adam that was exactly what had happened. He was currently surrounded by nineteen people who were armed to the teeth. What could they possibly want if not to shake him up and kill him to get revenge for killing several members of their group?
“The other day, you killed seven members of my guild,” the Mage said in a cold, slow voice. It seemed he had recovered from Titania’s beauty. “I’m not exactly sure what went down, and honestly, I don’t really care. You killed members of my guild, and I can’t exactly call myself the leader of a guild if I let my people get killed without even getting retribution for them.”
Titania snorted. “You are an idiot.”
“What?!”
The Mage looked shocked that an NPC was insulting him. And it wasn’t just him. The other members of his party also wore flabbergasted expressions as the tiny woman on Adam’s shoulder called their leader an idiot.
“Those men of yours committed the crime of trying to steal another person’s kill. Adam only did what any person would do in that situation and punished them. As the leader of this group, you should be reprimanding those people for acting like reprehensible brigands so they will learn not to make such a grievous error in judgement again, but you are instead trying to punish a man who only did what you yourself would probably do in a similar situation.” Titania was giving the Mage an imperious look as she lectured him, like she was a queen looking her nose down at a disobedient subject. “How can I not call you an idiot when you are acting so stupid?”
The Mage’s face turned so red Adam was surprised steam didn’t begin rising from his head. Not only was his face burning with anger, but his arms were shaking as he clenched his hands into fists. The staff in his right hand made an odd creaking sound as if the wood was being placed under a great amount of duress.
“You… do you know who I am?! I am Daniel Frost of the Rising Phoenix Alliance! My guild is one of the strongest branch guilds of the Pleonexia Alliance! How dare you insult me like that, you worthless NPC!” the man, who Adam now knew was called Daniel, shouted.
“En pee see?” Titania questioned with a tilt of her head. “Adam? What is this en pee see? Is that some kind of otherworlder insult?”
“Oh? So you are members of the Rising Phoenix Alliance, are you?” Adam asked, his tone and eyes growing cold.
“Don’t ignore me!” Titania snapped, but that was exactly what Adam did. It wasn’t like he could answer her when they were surrounded by hostile people.
“That’s right,” Daniel said. “We are from the Rising Phoenix Alliance, and I am their guild master. As their guild master, it is my responsibility to seek retribution from those who would sully our name and kill our members. That is why I’m going to kill—”
-440
Daniel’s rant was cut off after Adam used [slash] to kill him in a single attack. The Mage’s body dropped to the forest floor with a dull thud. This action was so fast that none of the other players could react. All they could do was stare at the corpse of their leader. No one made a move. No one said anything. They had all been stunned by Adam’s swift and decisive action.
Adam grinned as he launched himself at the nearest Warrior, a man who was standing in front of the remaining three Mages. His [slash] once more killed another player in an instant, dealing -440 damage instead of his typical -480 thanks to the armor his enemy was wearing. It was still enough to kill him. As the man’s body dropped to the ground, Titania flew into the air and began singing [Song of Valor] to increase his Physical Defense and Magic Defense as Adam reached the shocked Mages and killed two of them in less time than it took to blink. One of those Mages was the guy who got away last time.
It was only after the third Mage was killed that the other players reacted.
“Holy fucking shit! This dude just insta-killed our leader!”
“What do we do?!”
“What do you mean, what do we do? Don’t ask something so stupid! We obviously need to kill this bastard!”
The Warriors were the first to respond, and they quickly tried to hem him in, but Adam did not fight against them yet. When being attacked in a group with a combination of long and close-range attackers, the most important thing to do was kill those who fought at long-range first, so they couldn’t take shots at him while he was distracted by the other enemies. That meant killing the Mages and the Archers. Since the Mages were all dead, Adam bypassed the Warriors with fleet feet and attacked the two Archers.
“Damn it! He’s too close for me to fire at him! Ahhh!”
“Shit! He just killed Mendez—Aaack!”
-480; -460!
Two [slash] attacks removed two of the five the Archers, who could have potentially threatened Titania. The other Archers were located on the opposite side of the battlefield. They had split up so he couldn’t attack all of them, which was admittedly a good tactic. He praised Daniel for his sense of tactics if not his sense of diplomacy.
-0; -0; -0!
Adam felt the sting of three blades slashing into his back because he wasn’t fast enough to dodge, but even though he could feel the attacks, no damage was done thanks to Titania’s [Song of Valor] doubling his Physical Defense. Once the three Warriors finished attacking, it was his turn.
He used [slash] on one of them, swinging his spear so fast it appeared to be nothing more than a blur. His attack went from the Warrior’s left hip to his right shoulder. Had this been in real life, he would have been sliced apart, his entrails spilling to the floor as he died instantly. This was not real life, however, so all that happened was he lost -364 of his health. Of course, he only had about +200 HP, so Adam’s attack killed him instantly.
Spinning around on the balls of his feet, Adam thrust his spear forward and impaled another warrior through the throat. [Thrust] was activated. The man choked as the attack penetrated his flesh. No blood came out, but a big -374 appeared over his head. When Adam removed the spear tip from his throat, the Warrior fell backward.
“Damn it! What kind of monster is this?! Could he really be at level 9 like Axel said?!”
“This isn’t the infamous Spear God, is it? Shit! We picked the wrong guy to mess with!”
Adam almost smiled. Because of how quickly he had struck, the Mages did not have time to use [scan] on him, which meant they knew nothing of his level or his abilities. What’s more, because he had placed almost all of his status points on his Strength stat, his
Physical Attack power was high enough to kill all these people in a single hit. He didn’t even need to activate [Blood Sacrifice].
Now there were only three Archers, two Assassins, and three Warriors.
Speaking of the Assassins…
Adam felt his instincts warn him of danger and leapt backward as something struck the ground he had been standing on. It was one of the Assassins. As masters of quick killing, they had the highest Physical Attack stat in any game, but their true ability lied in their stealth attacks. If they could catch their opponent by surprise, they could do critical damage, which could double or even triple the damage done.
Since his attack failed, the Assassin tried to disappear into the trees, but he was caught by Adam’s [slash], which killed him in a single stroke. Adam didn’t pay attention to the man as he fell to the ground and instead turned on his heel and charged through the remaining three Warriors. He swung at two of them with [slash], killing them both before they had time to put up a defense, and then broke through their line and attacked the remaining three Archers.
Ever since this battle had begun, Adam noticed that all of his attacks were hitting their targets, which surprised him at first. It was only after thinking about it that he realized his attacks were hitting because these people were players. Their Dodge-Rate was low like his Hit-Rate, which made it easier to hit them.
Titania had not once stopped singing the entire time. The [Song of Valor] continued to echo across the battlefield, granting him increased defense. It was odd, but he actually felt empowered when she sang, like her singing did more than just raise his stats but made him feel physically sturdier than normal.
He wondered if it was all in his head.
The Archers had been trying to shoot her down, but while Titania’s greatest ability lay in her high Intelligence stat, her second greatest talent was in her Speed stat. She was far faster than the Archers. Dodging their attacks was easy even if her Dodge-Rate was low. All Dodge-Rate did was determine how often attacks missed rather than whether or not someone could dodge. She flitted through the air faster than they could knock arrows back and fire them. They were so busy trying to shoot her down that they never noticed Adam until it was too late.
-480; -480; -470!
The three last Archers died, the Mages had already been killed, one Assassin was gone, and five of the six Warriors lay dead on the ground. That meant there were only two people left. One Warrior and one Assassin. While Adam could not see the Assassin, who was no doubt hiding and waiting for the perfect moment to strike, the Warrior was in front of Adam and shaking in his boots.
“I-I’m sorry.” The man dropped his weapon to the ground and raised his hands in surrender. “I’m really sorry! I didn’t want to attack you! Honest! I was forced to by my guild master! He said if we didn’t attack you, he would kick us out of the guild!”
Adam kept a wary eye out for the Assassin as he walked over to the man who had surrendered. He was certain this was an attempt at distracting him. At the same time, he gave the man what he hoped was an understanding smile and nodded several times.
“Hm. Hm. I understand completely. It is very hard to go against your guild master. After all, he controls the guild you belong to, so he has the power to command you to do whatever he wants,” Adam said.
“T-that’s right! That’s totally right!” The Warrior could not nod fast enough. “He’s always working us like horses to grind levels, but then he steals the kill and gains the most experience points. That’s how he was able to level up so fast! If not for that, I would already be at level 7 instead of level 6.”
“Don’t worry. I understand how you feel.” Adam’s words made the man’s eyes brighten with hope. That hope disappeared moments later after Adam’s next words. “But, you know, even if I understand how you feel, that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you off. After all, would you let off the bastards who ambushed and tried to kill you?”
“Wait—“
-480!
Before the man could plead with him more, Adam claimed his life. His spear tore through the man’s body, causing it to spin like a top before he fell to the ground with a heavy thud and didn’t move.
Immediately after he killed the last Warrior, the Assassin swooped down from above and tried to attack him by plunging his dagger deep into Adam’s head, but he only took a single step back and used [thrust] as the Assassin landed on the ground. The man was so surprised he missed that he could do nothing as the spear plunged into his head.
-1,440!
“Oh? It seems hitting the head of a player can cause a critical hit,” Adam said as he pulled his spear from the corpse. The body fell to the ground. A few seconds later, the assassin he had just killed and all the other players vanished into particles of light.
“Hmph. These otherworlders were truly foolish,” Titania said as she landed on his shoulder. He felt her small hand as she placed it against his cheek and leaned on it like she was leaning against a wall. It felt… odd. He’d never had such a tiny hand touch him before. It made him sort of think of a barbie doll, but Titania’s hand was soft and warm and certainly not made of plastic.
Adam shrugged, mindful of Titania’s presence. “Not every player can be smart, though I feel like the master of a guild should have more intelligence than this. Perhaps I am giving guild masters too much credit.”
“You most certainly are. By the way, have you checked out the stats on your spear? It should have leveled up quite a bit by now.”
“Er… no, actually. I have not. Let me do that now.”
Adam opened his equipment screen and selected the [Rusted Spear] to display its stats.
Name: Rusted Spear
Lvl: 4
Experience points needed to level up: 1,700/40,000
Item Type: Weapon
Grade: ????
Use requirements: Can only be equipped by Adam. Cannot be thrown away, cannot be given away, and cannot be unequipped.
Description: This unknown weapon was found by Adam. It has recognized him as its master and cannot be used by anyone else.
Abilities: Physical Attack+40; Strength+40
Special ability: Sentient Growth
It looked like his spear really had leveled up a little; his Strength and Physical Attack both had a +40 added to them. That explained why his attacks were doing more damage than before. He’d thought that was odd but hadn’t paid much attention because he’d been busy.
The weapon he had been using before this had +100 for just Physical Attack, which was good but not great. Now that he was thinking about it, being able to add both points to both his Strength and Physical Attack was more beneficial than the other weapon he had been using. His Physical attack rose by +2 for every +1 point added to his Strength. At +40 Strength, his Physical Attack gained an additional +80, meaning the [Rusted Spear] was currently boosting his Physical Attack by +120.
“It hasn’t leveled up much yet,” Adam said, sighing when he saw how many experience points it needed to reach level 5. “I don’t know who invented this level system, but that is just ridiculous. +40,000 experience points to reach level 5? That’s hardly fair.”
Titania shrugged and sat herself back on his shoulder. As they began walking again, she started speaking, telling him more about the world he was in.
“There is a story passed down in the Fairy Clan that speaks of the creation of this world. Our world was created by the four goddess. Gaia, Goddess of the Earth; Aqua, Goddess of Water; Stella, Goddess of the Sun; and Luna, Goddess of the Moon. The one who created the leveling system was Luna. If you have any complaints about the difficulty leveling up, you should take them to her.” Titania gave him a smug look. “Not that it would do you any good.”
“Hmmm…”
He’d already heard this story from the mayor, though he hadn’t known everything Titania was telling him, like how the Moon Goddess created the level system. That was a new one to him.
Adam went back to the Village of Beginning
s and sold his pelts, furs, and everything else he didn’t need at the item shop. The shop owner was an older woman named Ms. Romelda. She looked like she might have been a beauty in her youth, but now her hair was gray, wrinkles lined her face, she had a stooped back, and her breasts were sagging in her shirt, making him wonder if the woman knew what a bra was. Still, she was a nice old lady. Adam sold all of his spoils and received 1,200 gold coins.
With the additional coins he received from the lady, he now had a hefty sum of 26,500 gold coins, which wasn’t a small amount. Most of the money he earned came from his kills. Level 10 monsters usually dropped around two to five hundred gold coins depending on what type of monster it was. [Brown bears] usually offered the most money from their drops.
He wondered what the exchange rate between in-game currency and real world currency would be when the Money Exchange System finally came out.
“By the way, Ms. Romelda, you wouldn’t happen to have any tasks you need help with, would you?” Adam asked. A quest would be so much better than simply grinding away. He hated level grinding, especially in this game where it would take him who knew how many hours just to reach level 10.
“Now that you mention it, I do have something I could use some help with, if you’d be willing,” Ms. Romelda said, her eyes lighting up as if she’d been hoping he would ask this question. “A few days ago, my wedding band went missing. I don’t know what happened to it. I checked my entire house and couldn’t find out. However, about one day ago, the lumberjack, Cabal, said he saw some goblins heading south and one of them was wearing a ring that looked just like mine.”
Adam had only ever headed north, which was where the forest lay. He didn’t know what was to the south.
“What’s south of here?”
“If you keep traveling south, you will eventually reach the ocean,” Ms. Romelda replied. “There are several beaches south of here. Us villagers don’t go down that way because of the monsters, but I hear there are a lot of caves located near the cliffs down south.”
Man Made God 001 Page 21