Gabby LeMort: Row… that’s the dumbest thing you’ve said yet. It’s not real testosterone, and Girls have it but just way less on average. It’s part of why ya boys are so sex-crazed in comparison… also why boys like you go rapey-mode on us when ya can’t control yourselves.
A facial tick twitched in his forehead and cheek.
Rowan Black: I haven’t gone rapey-mode on anyone. That was just acting.
Gabby LeMort: What about when we were at the Necro altar? “Once I’m all powerful I’ll fuck your brains out whether you like it or not!”
God. Damn. She remembered.
Rowan Black: I wasn’t myself.
Gabby LeMort: If ya say so! ^_^ Rapey rapey!
Rowan wasn’t ready to explain what Draesear had done to his implants, for her uncle might not appreciate it, so he let it slide for now. Steady breaths caressed his airways while he sauntered toward the campfire. Those grilled veges smelled much better than they should, and as he neared, Gabrielle followed up with another message, the chatbox beeping. However, it wasn’t about his alleged rapey-mode.
Gabby LeMort: Oh right, did the children and teens remember to take their veges? It’s super-expensive magical food that makes them mature super-quickly, mentally and physically.
That explained why they’d randomly started up a barbecue, and Rowan didn’t need any further explanations. Some girl named Elle Catering had a really good thread on the cooking profession in the forums. He’d briefly skimmed over it. And yes, it was safe for adventurers to eat. It had no effect on his or adult characters.
Rowan Black: Yeah, they’re eating now. Viola and Skylar pretty much look like adults.
Gabby LeMort: Yup! Been feedin’ her since ya dueled Not Insane. Guess she must’ve been sharing it with him.
Guess so.
Chapter 37
Confession
Ten minutes later, a blackish, glittering hemisphere enveloped the encampment. Rowan strolled down a river’s pebbly bank, losing himself in its trickling ambiance under the moons’ light—nothing like a lovely night-time stroll outside the area shield to bait their assassins. The swarm glided overhead, protective.
“That’s strange,” Ambiguous said. “Jonathan Bladestrider hasn’t respawned yet. His bonded dragon isn’t there either.”
Not too surprising. “Maybe he logged out and it disappears until he’s back—like it’s part of his character. He seemed stressed out. The game was probably getting too much for him.”
Ambiguous exhaled a long breath. “Yes, we caused a massive uproar. I don’t even want to see what their reaction in the forums is.”
“Neither.” Let the monkeys have their shit-flinging party. They’d simmer down sooner or later.
Rowan’s trusty amulet swung against his chest as they kept walking. More than one fish swam by his boots. They were not of a species he recognized, unique to this world. Red and yellow spots decorated its back, and its fins trailed dusty mana in the water. “These colorful fish look delicious,” he mumbled.
“Don’t try it. They’re poisonous.”
How ever-helpful of her. “How do poisonous fish fit into this ecology? It looks like any regular forest like in the real world.”
“That battle and Ayla’s ritual corrupted the area, at least temporarily. Dark things are spawning.”
Reasonable. It explained why the landscape around Gabrielle’s spire had morphed so dramatically overnight. Rowan nodded. “Any assassins yet?”
Her head twitched leftward. “They’re still waiting on something by their spawnstone. I think we should go for an attack.”
Rowan shook his head. “Let’s stick to the plan. Best to not take unneeded risks.”
She hummed for a moment, then sank back into silence.
Behind the river’s bend laid a Red Dragon corpse, its wing and tail and talons shredded beyond recognition. Blood from a gory wound in its belly bled into tall grass, pooling around it and slowly dying the river downstream. Rust and iron was in the wind.
All these corpses were going to take forever to either raise… or harvest. The meat and other body parts made for a good source of high-tier food and potion ingredients. Its bones and skin were in demand for high-level gear crafting. A decent source of income, assuming a certain Necromancer World Boss doesn’t dumbly flood the market. Rowan could already hear Gabrielle cutely lecturing him on economics and shady market manipulation techniques.
Ambiguous nudged his shoulder. “What are you waiting for? Raise it.”
“I’m out of minion slots. These dragons are squishy mid-range DPS. I don’t want to destabilize my army composition.”
“Then Ayla can have them.”
“She’ll need at least tier nine or ten Raise.”
“Have you forgotten she had a class change? Her points were reset.”
Rowan’s neck muscles lashed up his skull. “I read on the forums that it doesn’t, and that—”
“Hadrian’s beginner tips thread? He hasn’t updated it for a while.”
Sighing, Rowan massaged both pressure points under his eyes. “There should be some official guides.”
“Synaptic said there’ll be some for the official launch when core systems are finalized.”
“There’s still more changes planned?”
Her head tilted. “There could be. I’m hoping for some changes to the skill system.”
“Like what?”
“If it were up to me, skill tiers would be removed, to make it simpler and more understandable, and replaced with—” Her gray eyes jumped rightward, and she turned around in a overly-agile hop. Rowan was ready for assassins, but she calmly said, “Ayla’s coming.”
True to her word, a shard of ice was cutting through the swarm’s mist. A figure rode on it, like a surfer, garbed in a regal black cloak trimmed with silver linings. Ayla touched down with a graceful leap, still in gold sandals, her face much more relaxed than before but gave away a sign of embarrassment and her typical bitchiness. An ornate greatsword of bluish-white metal engraved with runic symbols clung to her back.
So she finally regained some sanity after boinking the NPC.
“That was quick.” Ambiguous quipped, sarcastic. “And only ten minutes? I hope you didn’t leave Skylar unsatisfied.”
“And nice cloak,” Rowan added smugly. “By the way, Gabby says to learn some self-control.”
Ambiguous lightly snickered. “It would do you and everyone else some good, especially after that display.”
Ayla’s nose creased. She swallowed a quick breath and met Rowan’s gaze with semi-tense eyes. “I guess I can appreciate that you’re not being too judgmental. The dark mana overwhelmed me. It’s giving me an insatiable lust to bed any guy I see. I feel like I can ensnare them all—and conquer the world in the process, almost that I need to. Is this how you men really feel all the time?”
Her description was not too unfamiliar. But what did she exactly mean by ensnare? “Not all the time, and it differs a lot from guy to guy. You’ll get used to it.” He glanced at Ambiguous. “You seem to be completely fine.”
“It was a bit intense at first, but I’d say I’m pretty strong-willed. And I always was a tomboy since elementary school before…” She trailed off weirdly.
What’s with her?
“Good to know,” Rowan said with a tad too much disinterest. His inner troll waking, he asked Ayla, “So did Skylar really manage to overpower you or did you have to deactivate your Strength points? I didn’t think you’d actually be into rougher play after all the crap you gave me for being a creep.” A little payback for her past bitchiness.
Ambiguous flinched. Her eyebrows shot up.
He smirked. “What? It’s just a question. She doesn’t have to answer.”
“Wow. I didn’t think you’re this dense.”
This was about something serious? “I not dense.” His chin lifted. “I’m just brain-damaged. I’m still recovering. Don’t forget.”
Ambiguous chuckled. “Okay. You
can have a free pass for now.”
“So what am I not understanding? That she was secretly a slut the whole time?”
Ayla’s arms crossed, her weight swapping to her right leg. She looked at Ambiguous. “Do you think he can handle the truth? It might break him forever.”
Ambiguous eyed him carefully. “Maybe, and maybe he actually needs to know given that he’s the Dark Humans’ lord and savior.”
Rowan said, “What? I can handle it.”
Ayla’s jaw hardened, shifting left then right. “Are you sure? Last chance to preserve your innocence.”
“Just tell me.”
“Fine. Though it varies from—”
“Calvary’s arrived. They’re coming,” Ambiguous interrupted. “Dozens of second-tier class players ported in, and the Dusk Elf queen from the western continent is here. Tier seven.”
Rowan waved her off, nodding. “Gotcha, but what’s the big secret?” Curiosity got the better of him.
Ambiguous’ head shook. She stepped back, looked away.
Ayla wryly smiled. “The intensity varies a lot, but in general, darkie girls have some of the most violent rape and domination fantasies and desires, and dark mana only exasperates it. Gabby says that kind of twisted psychological makeup happens to align with what the AI measures to sort us into dark mana characters. I used to hate myself for liking it, but very recently, I’ve come to accept that’s the way it is, the way I am. I had skylar roleplay rape with me just then. If you had followed us, you would’ve heard I was begging at the top of my lungs for him to stop.”
Holy fuck! Her words appealed to a deep, primal urge which Rowan couldn’t deny.
She added, “Do you remember when you had me pinned to the tree in the swamp?”
He had to find his voice. It came out as a wispy stutter: “Yeah, why?”
Her eyes slightly narrowed, and she licked her lips lustfully. “That twisted side of me was hoping you were going to roughly violate me right there no matter how much I was going to beg and scream for you to stop. I now know I wasn’t going to log out no matter how much I tell myself I would have. Same goes for when I was in the collar. I didn’t want to just act.” She sighed. “Just then, I was hoping my lingerie glamour would push you beyond your restraint, but unfortunately, I had to settle for something consensual with the kid…” No wonder she’d accepted his advance the way she had. “It’s too bad that Gabby is satiating your inner-monster so well.”
Rowan had to clench his teeth to not grin. Little did she know he hadn’t taken Gabrielle once. He maintained eye contact and did best to not let any lewd thoughts take hold of his lusts—a test of his self control.
Eventually, the heavy pulse behind his eyes dispersed. He released a hot breath he didn’t know he had been holding. And he didn’t have anything to say in response to something so fucked-up; what did this mean? It was too fucked-up to consider. But the answer was clear: the light players were going to despise the upcoming dark continent with every righteous bone in their bodies.
And Gabrielle was a darkie just like Ayla. Rowan swallowed as the most terrible yet thrilling fantasies involving him and her and copious amounts of screaming assaulted his imagination.
Out of nowhere, Ambiguous loudly clapped twice and blew a dog-whistle. She whacked Rowan’s funny-bone. Numb vibrations tore up and down his arm. “Alright. We have to get moving.”
Rowan sniffed and adjusted his robes. He tore his eyes away from the flustered redhead. “Yeah, we do. Is Dorian with them? What about Jonathan and his whelp?” Though the roleplayer didn’t add much to their forces, every battle he stood in increased his World Boss progression. He was going to be a major nuisance soon.
“Jonathan’s still out. Dorian’s with a group of assassins for some reason. They’re flying ahead.”
“Can we handle them?”
“Hmmm.” Her head swayed left then back. “With Ayla I think you can stay alive.”
His left eyebrow rose. “You have Life Link?”
A short dialogue appeared by her ear. “Something better. Found it and Raise in a cabinet in the altar room.”
Life Tethers
Targeted character(s) is given invisible tethers evenly distributing damage received across your minions within a maximum range. Tethers can be dispelled.
“That’s amazing,” he breathed.
She frowned. “But I don’t have any minions. Do you have a spare scroll for you create-a-minion skill?”
“That’s actually a rare three-piece granted by my World Boss bonuses. I can’t transfer minion ownership either, and my Icy Undead can’t be re-raised. You’ll have to make do with these dragons.” Her Life Tethers only worked with minions she specifically raised.
She looked at the bloody corpse downstream. “It’s too high level.”
“Use your skill-tier points.”
“I’m saving them for—”
Ambiguous’ fingers waved. “Just do it. Raise is your bread-and-butter. I don’t buy this whole save-your-points-for-ults strategy. I put all mine into the scimitar and defensive passive.”
Ayla wordlessly mulled it over, her mouth warped into a squirrelly knot. “Fine.” She remounted onto her Ice Shard and air-surfed to the corpse. Her skinny arms and petite fingers handled that greatsword with a kind of comical yet dazzling grace, the blade glowing with dark-ice mana and cutting a downed strike. The corpse healed in the usual dark vortex, its ruby scales desaturating.
The chatbox beeped.
Gabby LeMort (To Rowan Black): So ya can talk about your rapey-mode with Ayla but not me, huh?
Rowan mentally face-palmed. Girls. Of course, they were going to talk.
Rowan Black: It wasn’t about my rapey-mode. She was just explaining how darkie girls are. I was still ‘innocent’. We’ll talk about it later. Got a battle on my hands right now.
Gabby LeMort: Kay… but Ambiguous is watching you more closely from now on! ^_^
Rowan sheepishly sighed and followed Ayla downstream, prepared for an assassin to stab him through the heart any moment.
Chapter 38
De Ja Vu
On a field of yellow and purple flowers, the area shield had cleanly sliced off a corpse’s wing. Fortunately, its integrity was high enough, at a bare minimum, for Ayla to raise. She did so—a one-handed flourish of her greatsword swung with ease. Rowan had long gotten used to her slender body handling the large weapon with such finesse many corpses earlier.
Before the Undead dragon fully healed, Ayla was already flying to the next by a tree stump at blitz speed. Her cloak rode up her legs in the wind, and he caught a peek of her gold lingerie from behind. Nice butt, though not as nice as Gabrielle’s cute bubble butt. Ayla had to be doing that on purpose to bait him, standing at just the right angle. Didn’t she know he’d long given himself to someone else? How impolite. What a naughty squirrel.
Now that the rapey floodgates were open, Rowan had to bite his tongue as his mind conjured images of him pulling her from that flimsy piece of ice, holding her down, and ripping off that tiny thong. Oh, she’d love that. All the darkie girls would. Especially his beautiful Gabrielle most of all. He breathed through the guilt of thinking about anyone other than her. How clear it was that she’d advocated for self-control. It’d be total chaos without; nothing would be done all day.
“You should slap her,” Ambiguous said, her staff at the ready to drop her high-gravity zone.
Maybe I should. Or maybe I should put her in the collar again and give her to Not Insa—
Rowan stowed his thoughts and followed Ayla with a Rime Blink.
In his personal space, Ambiguous followed. “Strange. They’ve paused a mile away.”
“Probably because they detected Ayla. They don’t know what she can do. What’s their classes?”
“Over twenty Radiant Duelists. I think they’re all Sun and Dusk Elf players. One Fire Lord too.” One Dorian.
“Radiant Duelist?” Rowan asked.
“Second tier Rogue.
I think it only has one ascension path. Pure light mana.”
“How are there so many?”
“Well, vet players are coming back by the hour, and I read earlier that Sun Elves recently put up a functional shrine building that makes it easier to complete Rogue’s ascensions. It was a Builder functional designed dropped by a raid. The Dracos are building one for Paladin right now, though I think it’s on hold after what happened at the Water Mages’ spire.”
Rowan took note of both points in his Social interface—there had to be one for Necromancer as well or something similar at least. And that Paladin shrine couldn’t be allowed to go up. “Do you think they could take us three?”
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