Man Made God 002

by Brandon Varnell

  Item Name: Demon Knight Boots

  Item Type: Armor

  Grade: 1-star

  Use requirements: Can only be equipped by Demon Knight Assassins

  Description: The boots of a Demon Knight Assassin. They offer a solid defense, increase speed, and aid in stealth maneuvers

  Abilities: Physical Defense+20; Magic Defense+20; Speed+50; 20% chance of remaining hidden when using skills like [hide] and [shadow masking]

  Item Name: The Demon Knight’s Sacred Blade

  Item Type: Dagger

  Grade: 2-star

  Use requirements: Can only be equipped by Demon Knight Assassins

  Description: Forged using a long-forgotten ritual of the Demon Knight Clan, this blade grants the wielder incredible attack powers and unique skills

  Abilities: Strength+40; Physical Attack+250; 50% chance of achieving critical hit; allows wielder to use the skill [blade extension]

  Item Name: Demon Knight Clan Map

  Item Type: Map

  Grade: None

  Use requirements: Only a Demon Knight Assassin can read this map

  Description: This is a map listing every hidden Demon Knight compound in the world. However, the map is incomplete. There are six sections missing.

  Abilities: None

  The armor inside was a full set and included a weapon, and all of it was far more powerful than anything she possessed currently. It was definitely more powerful than anything else anyone had in the game—save maybe Adam’s current equipment. Likewise, it appeared the map showed the location of every Demon Knight Compound, but it was incomplete. It looked like this map only showed what was compounds located on the Moon Continent. Sadly, she was on the Sun Continent, so this map was currently useless.

  She quickly equipped all of the new equipment and checked out her stats.

  Name: Lilith

  Class: Demon Knight Assassin

  Lvl: 14

  SP: 0

  AP: 15,020

  Experience: 197,150/614,400

  Reputation: 38,000

  Strength: +105

  Constitution: +60

  Dexterity: +125

  Intelligence: +5

  Speed: +100

  Physical Attack: +1,090

  Health: 220/220

  Hit-Rate: ???

  MP: 75/75

  Movement: +200

  Physical Defense: +405

  Magical Defense: +405

  Dodge-Rate: 5,000%

  Magic Attack: +10

  Skills:

  Skill Name: Hide

  Description: A skill that allows Assassins to hide their presence.

  Current lvl: 5 MAXED

  Ability: Makes Assassin invisible to everyone 10 levels above their own

  Skill breaks if Assassin moves

  Ability lasts indefinitely

  MP Cost: 5

  Cooldown time: 5 seconds

  Skill Name: Throat Slit

  Description: Coming up behind an enemy, the Assassin slits their opponent’s throats.

  Current lvl: 5 MAXED

  Ability: Causes 400% damage

  Has a 25% chance of causing instant death

  X4 critical damage dealt if enemy is unaware of your presence

  MP Cost: 10

  Cooldown time: 10 second

  Skill Name: Slash

  Description: A basic skill where the player swings his or her sword and attacks the enemy!

  Current lvl: 5 MAXED

  Ability: Causes 150% damage to enemy if it hits

  MP Cost: 1

  Cooldown time: 0 seconds

  Skill Name: Counter

  Description: a skill that Lilith learned because she was already naturally predisposed to using it. Allows user to counter enemy attacks.

  Current lvl: 5

  AP required to reach next lvl: 48,000

  Ability: Redirects attack from enemy and strikes with counterattack

  Does 320% damage

  Requirements: Users must have precise timing when countering. If your timing is off, the one who suffers from the critical damage will be the user.

  MP Cost: 5

  Cooldown time: 15

  Skill Name: Shadow Masking

  Description: Uses the shadows to remain unseen even while moving.

  Current lvl: 1

  AP needed to reach next lvl: 4,000

  Ability: Offers complete invisibility against opponents 10 levels higher until MP runs out

  MP Cost: 10 MP per second

  Cooldown time: 60 seconds

  Skill Name: Pinpoint Strike

  Description: Everybody has a weak point. This skill shows you your enemy’s weakest points.

  Current lvl: 1

  AP needed to reach next lvl: 4,000

  Ability: Shows the weak points of your enemy. Deals 400% damage when weak point is struck.

  MP Cost: 30

  Cooldown time: 10 seconds

  Skill Name: Dual-wielding

  Description: This passive skill allows users to wield two weapons at the same time. Demon Knight Assassins can only wield weapons of the dagger class.

  Current lvl: 1

  AP needed to reach next lvl: 5,000

  Ability: Wielder deals 110% damage if the weapons being wielded are the same

  MP Cost: N/A

  Cooldown Time: N/A

  Skill Name: Blade Extension

  Description: Channeling mana into your dagger causes the blade to extend in a surprise attack.

  Current lvl: 1 MAXED

  Ability: Blade can grow up to three yards long

  MP Cost: 60

  Cooldown time: 10

  Lilith was impressed by how much higher her stats were with the new class and better equipment. This sort of boost was like the difference between heaven and earth, like the sun and the moon. With her new skills, abilities, and improved stats, she would be much more useful to Adam.

  Before leaving, Lilith used the remaining +15,000 ability points to upgrade her new abilities. She chose to upgrade [Shadow Masking], [Pinpoint Strike], and [Dual-Wielding].

  Lilith only had +2,000 ability points left after upgrading her skills. Since she no longer had a reason to remain there, Lilith turned around and marched back the way she came. She hoped Adam would be impressed by her increased power.

  Re-Pledge of Loyalty

  Adam’s internal clock told him that he and the others had been waiting for Lilith to finish her trial for at least three hours now.

  They had begun this session at 8am this morning, and it had taken maybe two hours to reach the cave, which meant they had been playing for at least five hours, give or take. Of course, three of those hours had been spent standing around in this cave.

  Susan kept glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes. She looked like she wanted to ask him something, but he could just be imagining things. It was possible she was only curious about him because of their shared association with Fayte. But even if that was the case, she was too shy to come over and satisfy her curiosity.

  Fayte was talking to Titania, asking her questions about the Forgotten Realm. She was mostly asking about things like the infrastructure of human cities and what kind of races existed in this world. While Titania did not know anything about human cities (she had been sealed away for five thousand years), she could at least tell Fayte about the races.

  “There are four Races of Light: Humans, fairies, beastmen, and dwarves. Humans are the most populous of the four. They aren’t very strong, but they are the most balanced. My Fairy Clan has the lowest birth rates and therefore the least amount of people. To make up for that, fairies have near eternal life. Our magic is incredibly powerful, but we are physically weaker than the other races and most of our magic is geared toward healing and buffing spells. The beastmen are the strongest of the five physically speaking. However, they are also the most varied. There are many different types of beastmen like wolves, lions, cats, panthers, oxes, elephants, and so on. Among the beastmen, I would
say the ones with the strongest attack power are the lions, and the ones who have the strongest defense are the rhinos.”

  Fayte stared at Titania in fascination as the woman spoke of the Races of Light. Her eyes were sparkling. Adam listened to the conversation with only half an ear. It was interesting and could prove potentially useful later on if he ever met one of these races. Now that he was thinking about it, he had not seen a beastman yet since Kureha didn’t count on a technicality.

  “What about the dwarves?” asked Fayte.

  “The dwarves make their homes in the mountains. They aren’t exactly what I would call peaceful, but they are great craftsmen. Many of the best weapons in the Forgotten Realm were created by the dwarves. However…”

  “However?”

  Fayte stared at Titania, whose frown had only grown prominent.

  “However, nobody knows where the dwarves are right now,” Titania admitted with a shrug. “About five thousand and five hundred years ago, the dwarves suddenly disappeared. Nobody knows why. Some of my clansmen believe the dwarves went into hiding because of the other races’ greed. I do remember that humans and beastmen were engaged in a fierce war at the time, and both sides had enslaved and forced the dwarves to make weapons for them. I cannot say much more about that, though. My Fairy Clan was in the process of sealing itself off, so my knowledge on what happened to the dwarves is limited to heresay.”

  This time, Adam finally paid more attention to Fayte and Titania’s conversation. He turned around with Kureha in his arms and stared at the woman.

  “What do you mean you ‘sealed yourselves off?’” Fayte asked.

  “I mean just what I said.” Titania crossed her arms, long hair swaying as she fluttered her wings. “About… I want to say six thousand years ago. Yes, six thousand years ago, the four Races of Light lived in harmony, but something happened that caused the humans and beastmen to begin fighting. They tried pulling both my Fairy Clan and the dwarves to their side. When we told them we would not take sides, they tried to force us. The Fairy Clan made the decision to seal ourselves off from the world. We no longer trusted the humans or the beastmen, who treated our kinsmen like slaves and murdered each other with little regard for the bonds of friendship we had all forged centuries prior.”

  Adam crossed his arms. Yet more in-game lore. It seemed like a lot had happened during the twenty or fifteen thousand year history of this world. Ten thousand years ago, the continent was split into five after the Four Goddesses who currently ruled the Forgotten Realm betrayed their older sister and sealed her away, according to the soul fragment he met. In between that moment and now, the Forgotten Realm had been plagued with demon lords, monsters, and in-fighting between the Races of Light.

  What really got to Adam was not how much history this world had, but the fact that someone had gone through all the trouble of creating so much lore. Age of Gods was a video game. At the end of the day, this was all just virtual reality. The creator could have gotten away with simply making this the most realistic game ever. Yet they had spent so much time creating a world with at least ten thousand years’ worth of history.

  It was absolutely ridiculous.

  “Are there any other races?” asked Fayte.

  “Well... I wouldn’t call them races, but there are divine guardians,” Titania said.

  “What are those?” asked Susan. She had been paying attention ever since Titania began speaking, but she’d not had the courage to talk until now.

  “The Four Divine Guardians are the four most powerful divine beasts in the entire world,” Titania lectured. “They are the Azure Dragon, the Vermillion Bird, the White Tiger, and the Black Tortoise. Each one was charged with guarding a specific continent.” Titania crossed her arms for a moment, lips pursing in thought. “The one who guards the Sun Continent is the Vermillion Bird. It’s the representative of flames, a creature said to have been born from the sun itself, so it only makes sense for it to be located here.”

  “Where are the others located?” asked Fayte.

  Titania opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say another word—

  Ding!

  [Attention all players! We have an international announcement to make! As of 1:35pm, a fifth person has received a hidden class. Because five people now have hidden classes, the class rankings have been made available to anyone who wants to view them. The class rankings are ranked from most to least powerful. Each person who has earned a hidden class will also be given +5,000 Reputation as a reward. We hope this knowledge will inspire others to reach new heights.]

  Adam understood the moment the announcement went off that Lilith had succeeded in completing the trials and acquired a hidden class. He hoped that meant she’d come back soon. While they were waiting, Adam decided to check the class rankings.

  Class Rankings:

  #1 Adam (Seven Forms Spearman)

  #2 Lin Akamine (Sword Flash)

  #3 Spear God (Spear Dancer)

  #4 Lilith (Demon Knight Assassin)

  # Little_Su (Fairy Archer)

  So aside from Lilith and Susan, the other two who received a hidden class were Lin Akamine and the Spear God. He should have guessed. Both were ranked first and second respectively on the International Power Rankings. If anyone aside from his party was going to get a hidden class, it would be them.

  At that moment, just as Adam closed the window showing the class rankings, the door that Lilith had walked through lit up. The brightly glowing glyphs preceded the door opening. As rock ground against rock in a grating sound that made Kureha whimper, a figure walked through the now open entrance.

  Lilith was dressed in different clothes than when she had gone in to face her trial. The black pants she now wore were skintight and showed off her magnificent hips and long legs. Lilith was a woman whose sexy legs appeared to go on forever. Her small feet were encased in tabi boots. They were black boots where the big toe was separated from the little toes. Her arms were covered in long sleeves, and a sleek chestplate made from something that looked like obsidian leather covered her torso. Drawn over her head, hiding everything except her eyes from view, was a hood and face mask. A single dagger was strapped to her right thigh.

  “It looks like you successfully completed the trial,” Adam said.

  “Congratulations, Lilith,” Fayte said with a kind smile.

  “Y-yes! Congratulashums—ack! My tongue!” Susan placed a hand to her mouth, tears in her eyes as she bit her tongue.

  Adam was unable to resist the urge this time and placed a hand on Susan’s head. The girl stilled. He jerked his hand back and raised it to the back of his hand.

  “Sorry,” he apologized.

  “N-no. It’s okay,” Susan said in a soft whisper, cheeks flushed.

  “Thank you,” Lilith said as she stopped in front of them. “Now that I have this new hidden class, I should be able to help you a lot more.”

  While anyone else would have assumed Lilith was talking to Fayte, with whom she had been partying alongside since she began playing Age of Gods, Adam understood that she was really talking to him. Although she faced Fayte, her eyes were locked with his.

  The unwavering intensity in her eyes made him feel like he’d been struck by lightning. There was something new in her gaze. He couldn’t quite place it, but it was like she’d suddenly come to a decision, or like she’d had some kind of epiphany.

  Adam tried to shake her gaze off and addressed everyone. “It’s pretty late. I think we should all stop here for the day. I’m sure some of you have things you need to get done in the real world as well.”

  “I know Susan has an appointment she can’t afford to miss,” Fayte said.

  At those words, Susan seemed to withdraw into herself, like she wanted to become as small as possible. Adam noticed, but he said nothing. Whatever was happening in her life was not something he had any business getting involved in.

  “Then we’ll stop here. What time should we meet tomorrow?” Adam looked at Fayte.


  “Hmm…” Tilting her head, Fayte pondered the question for a moment before coming to a decision. “I believe we can meet up the same time we did today. Eight in the morning sounds good.”

  Adam nodded and looked at Susan and Lilith to see if they agreed. Neither of them said anything.

  “So you four are leaving for your world once again?” asked Titania with an impressive frown. “I have not said anything thus far, but do you really intend to leave us here in this cave?”

  “Ah?” Fayte made a confused noise like she didn’t understand, but Adam recalled a conversation he’d had with Titania a few days ago.

  Whenever Adam logged off, she and Kureha were left alone at the spot where he logged off, which meant if he logged off right here, they would be stuck right here until he logged back on.

  “Are you unable to move when I log off?” asked Adam.

  “It is not that we are unable to move,” Titania corrected. “It is more a question of where we should go. You realize where we are, correct? The Suncrest Mountain and its surroundings are littered with monsters who are level 40 and above. How can you expect us to make it back to Solum under such conditions? What’s more, say we do leave after you return to your world. What do you think would happen to us if we ran into one of those monsters?”

  Adam and Fayte glanced at each other. Neither of them had any idea how to answer that question. Age of Gods was just a game, so they had never once questioned what happened after they logged off. When a person logged out of a game, what usually happened was the game shut down. There was no need to worry about the NPCs because nothing happened until the player logged back on.

  But Age of Gods was different. Time didn’t stand still. If they logged off and Titania and Kureha were attacked in a place like this, they could easily be killed.