NOVEL NEXT 05 – You’re in danger, Field Bosses!
*****
"Woah…" Vermouth uttered in amazement. "Let's try it out quickly!"
Vermouth left the alleyway and ran for the gates without a care for the world, headed for the monster den that is the forest.
"Wait!" Vermouth came to a halt and returned to the alleyway. "I'll have to try Assign Totem on my staff too!"
Holding her staff and totem on both hands forward, Vermouth started casting her spell. "Assign Totem!"
Her staff and totem radiated a blue glow before both of them started floating. Vermouth let go of the items, allowing them to float next to each other. The blue glow gathered in between the items, reforming, reshaping. From the glowing blue mana, came out a thick thread. A hole appeared on the right ear of the totem's head, where the rope looped itself before tightly tying itself to the shaft of the staff. It floated mid-air before slowly descending back to Vermouth's hand.
Lips trembling from excitement, Vermouth immediately opened the staff's description interface.
[Lone Wolf's Scepter] [Staff] [Rank 4]
[M.atk 452] [P.atk 120]
[M.atk +25%] [Wis +15%] [Wis +35]
[Aggro -25%]
"Balza's symbol of authority."
[Drop Requirement]
Dropped by Balza with a 2% rate. Balza must be fairly fought solo and not get hit on the head to honor his authority as the wolven chief in order for this scepter to drop.
[Attachments]
[Balza's Mighty Fang] []
[] []
"So that's how the process goes, huh…" Vermouth heaved a satisfied sigh, once again fascinated by the game's exceptional graphics that was rare to find in VR games.
"Alright, time to try this out!" Vermouth left the alleyway, staff in hand, and jogged to the gates.
Having returned to the forest, Vermouth frantically searched the area for a horned rabbit. Upon hearing the familiar rustling of the bushes, Vermouth immediately turned its way, brandishing her staff, the totem flailed around from the sudden movement as it hung from the shaft.
From the bushes came out a horned rabbit, just as expected, and charged at Vermouth upon seeing her.
"Totemist, One with Mana!" She shouted.
The totem glowed blue before the glow separated from it and started floating around the shaft of the staff. Much like earlier, blue symbols appeared on her skin and glowed faintly. With the spell's succession, Vermouth returned her focus to the charging rabbit, already halfway through clearing the distance between them. Vermouth stomped the end of her staff to the ground and held it by her side.
The rabbit pounced at her upon reaching a meter away from her, soaring through the air, only to pass through her body, a part of her torso that the rabbit passed through turning into blue mist before reverting.
Vermouth blinked in disbelief. From her chest came out the rabbit after it pounced at her from behind, her torso once again turning into blue mist before reverting.
"What the heck, that's weird…" Vermouth uttered, contrary to her words, her grin could almost reach her ears.
Once more, the rabbit passed through her torso and stumbled down behind her. Annoyed, Vermouth cast a fireball and shot it, watching in satisfaction as it turned into a cloud of smoke.
Having rid of the annoyance, Vermouth shifted her focus to her staff, at the floating blue totem orbiting her staff, to be more specific.
"How do I turn it off, though?" Vermouth questioned with uncertainty. "Should I just let go of the staff?"
Vermouth briefly let go of the staff and caught it before it tilted over and fell to the ground. Because of that brief separation from her, the floating totem faded into a hue of blue as did the symbols on the surface of her skin.
"Well, that solves that issue. Totemist, One with Mana!" She recast her spell, the blue totem appearing once more along with the symbols. "I got to get used to this because I'll most likely have it up all of the time."
"Should I go buy more spell scrolls or create more totems?" Vermouth wondered out loud. "Hmm. I want to make another totem. This time for my Living Sword spell."
"Let me cast that real quick, actually. Don't want to be disturbed while I craft a new totem." After a moment of thought, Vermouth decided to craft another totem. "Living Sword!"
Two blue ethereal longswords appeared and hovered over her head, alert and ready for whatever may attack her for the next five minutes.
Vermouth sat down on the ground and took out the claws she collected from Balza. Placing the staff on her lap to not lose the spell's effects, Vermouth held both of her hands over the claws.
"Totem Creation!" She shouted, her eyes fixated on the materials. Immediately, layers of magic circles manifested from above and underneath the materials. Much like before, the claws floated off the ground before turning into motes of light and gathered at one point in the center of the magic circles.
The light dispersed, and Vermouth held her hands under it, catching the newly crafted totem.
"I will never get tired of that animation. So cool!" Vermouth grinned from ear to ear before observing the new totem.
A human skull was held by the top of its head and under its jaw by the two clawed paws of a wolf. It was dirty white in color, like a dried bone.
"And fooollowed up by Assign Totem!" The totem within her hands floated off and emitted a golden glow. The list of her spells appeared along with the instructions.
[Cast the spell of your choosing to assign it to the totem.]
"Living Sword!" Holding her staff once again, Vermouth cast her spell, manifesting a magic circle glowing with a blue hue. The glow of the totem turned the same shade of blue as a line of light connected the magic circle and the totem. The magic circle shattered into pieces and its shards were sucked into the totem. The light dimmed and disappeared before the totem fell to the ground.
Vermouth picked it up and held it in front of her. She activated the game's identify function and read through its description.
[Balza's Hateful Paws] [Totem] [Rank 3]
"A totem created by [Vermouth] using the claws of Balza the lone chief. Holding onto the totem or attaching it to a staff will allow the user to instantly use the spell assigned without the risk of failing."
[Living Sword]
[Increases the number of swords by one.]
"Now to attach it to my Staff!" Vermouth held both of the staff and the new totem in each hand before she cast. "Assign Totem!"
A string of mana formed in between the two items. The string entered the skull's eye and came out the other before tying into a knot around the staff's shaft an inch under the first totem.
[Lone Wolf's Scepter] [Staff] [Rank 4]
[M.atk 452] [P.atk 120]
[M.atk +25%] [Wis +15%] [Wis +35]
[Aggro -25%]
"Balza's symbol of authority."
[Drop Requirement]
Dropped by Balza with a 2% rate. Balza must be fairly fought solo and not get hit on the head to honor his authority as the wolven chief in order for this scepter to drop.
[Attachments]
[Balza's Mighty Fang] [Balza's Hateful Paws]
[] []
Vermouth caught the descending staff and nodded in satisfaction upon looking at the new addition to the weapon's attachments.
"Phew! What a productive first day! How long has it been in real life?" Vermouth opened the main interface and looked at the top left. The real-world time ticking to two in the morning. "Already two, huh? Guess I'll log out. I want to play longer so I can catch up quicker but I don't want to get scolded."
Scrolling down the main interface, Vermouth pressed the log-out button. Her character disappeared into a small cloud of blue smoke, disappearing from the surface of Curleaf.
Milya opened her eyes and was met by the tinted glass of the headset.
"You have closed the program Reality Colission Online." The Familiar female voice of the headset resounded in her mind. "To safely remove the Full Immersion Headset, please hold the power button for ten seconds. A beep will be heard after the initial ten seconds, please wait for an additional three seconds before unmounting the headset."
Milya raised her right hand and felt for the button at the side of the headset and held it for ten seconds just like the instructions had said. After a high-pitched sound rang in her mind as the hum of the fans inside the headset disappeared, Milya waited an additional five seconds before she took the headset off, adding a few more seconds just to be safe.
Milya sat up and placed the headset on her lap, huffing a quick sigh, Milya hopped off her bed and placed the headset on the desk beside her bed, just a feet away from the digital clock ticking at 2:15 AM. Milya plugged in its charger before she laid back on her bed, pulling up the blanket to cover herself.
Milya thoughtlessly stared at the ceiling as she slowly dozed off, yawning for a moment. "I wonder what I should do tomorrow? Maybe I'll go to another town… after buying a few more spells…"
Milya yawned again as she rolled to her side, hugging her cool pillow close to her body as her eyes closed and she peacefully fell asleep.
*****
The sheets rustled along with the curtains being lifted by the soft breeze from outside. Milya slowly rose from her slumber and slammed her hand on the beeping digital clock, annoyed at herself for forgetting to change it back to nine AM. Milya let her legs dangle over the edge of her bed as she rubbed her eyes, still adjusting to the lights coming from the window.
Hopping off of her bed, Milya entered her bathroom and washed her face, the cold water bringing a sense of clarity and waking her up from her trance-like state.
Milya looked in the mirror, and seeing her silver hair and cyan eyes, she was reminded of yesterday's happenings.
"Ah. That's right, I remember." She uttered slightly groggily, taking off her nightgown before stepping into the bathtub.
Done with her morning bath, Milya came out of the bathroom feeling refreshed and ready to start her day. She wore her favorite blouse and comfortable skirt that reached above her knees, her thigh-high socks warmly hugging her slender legs.
Milya descended the stairs and walked into the kitchen, expecting to see her mother to be cooking, only to find the room empty.
"Oh right, it's a Sunday," Milya recalled. "Everyone's gonna be sleeping in until ten or eleven. I woke up too early."
Returning to her bedroom and flopping onto the bed, Milya was left with nothing to do but stare at the ceiling, her ears filled with the soft hum of the air conditioner. Looking to the side, Milya stared at her headset with a small smile before picking up her phone.
"Guess I'll do some research for some spells I'll need." Milya decided. "I'll need to search for a suitable guild for me too. A welcoming one that focuses on exploration and material gathering. I'll need the best materials for my totems, after all."
Opening several tabs to different forums and wikis, Milya spent the hour reading through the player discussions and the spell descriptions, absorbing game knowledge. Of course, Milya didn't forget to look up the locations of field bosses near the city of Lorden. This is all in preparation to hunt them all down, after all!
"Alright. I know what I'll need to do now." Milya rose from her seat and picked up the headset, carefully putting it on and making sure that the straps were firmly fastened. She lay down on her bed and pressed the button at the side of the headset.
"Welcome to Full Immersion. Please select any of the installed programs to use." The familiar female voice of the headset greeted her once more.
"Select Reality Collision Online." She responded in her mind.
"Program selected, now entering full immersion."
Milya allowed herself to be pulled into unconsciousness before waking up in the same white space before she started playing, a floating screen, the interface, popped up in front of her.
[Continue Playing?]
[Y/N]
"Yes, of course!" Having received its response, the game transported her to where she logged out, her vision abruptly being engulfed by a bright light before receding.
Opening her eyes, Vermouth found herself back in the game right where she logged out.
"I'll have to choose a better place to log out of in the future." She spoke to herself before walking off.
Not very long, Vermouth found herself walking back to the city as she followed the dirt path. Entering the city gates, Vermouth headed for the Spell Scrolls shop and made her purchases. She spent a total of 54,500 Rof but it was worth it because these new spells were as powerful as her Living Sword spell.
Deciding to use the scrolls later after she had purchased everything she needed, Vermouth made her way toward the Player Shopping Board. It was an interactable board that allowed players to place their items for sale. It is accessible from any Player Shopping Board.
Opening the weapons section, Vermouth placed the Lone Wolf's Saber for sale since she didn't need it.
Done with that, Vermouth opened the materials shop and set the budget to 30,000 Rof. Upon refreshing the board, most items disappeared and were filtered.
Vermouth scrolled for anything interesting before setting her eyes on the common drops of a high-level trent monster, Monotrent. It is a tree monster that has one eye, thus the name. Let it be known that the developers have allowed players to name the monsters upon their discovery. Was it laziness? Most likely. Did the players hate that? The contrary, for they loved claiming credit whenever a new monster was discovered.
Vermouth took 20 pieces of the monster drop, named Monotrent bark, for 25,340 Rof, 1,267 Rof per piece.
Another material she found to be interesting was none other than the heart of a mid-level wyvern monster called Wyvecroc, due to its head reminiscing that of a crocodile's.
It was placed for 15,600 Rof per heart, and Vermouth bought one for that price. all her purchases leaving her with a total of 30,060 Rof.
Done with her purchase, Vermouth headed for the inn to conduct her crafting in private.
"I don't want to buy a set of armor, I want them to come from the boss monsters that I am going to hunt down!" Her loud statement garnered quite the attention as players around her looked at her either dubiously or mockingly. All of which she ignored and continued her way to the inn.
Entering the Inn, Vermouth was greeted by the pleasant smell of meat as customers, NPCs and players alike, enjoyed their meals. Vermouth ignored them all and the few stares she received from the players and made her way to the counter.
"A room please." She said to the kind-looking woman behind the counter. "For a week only."
The woman smiled kindly at her and spoke. "That will be 2,100 Rof. We offer dinner meals for an additional 700 Rof."
"I'll take the dinner meals. Here's 2,800 Rof." Vermouth pulled out 2 gold coins and 8 silver coins, the physical representation of Rof in this world, and placed them on the counter.
The kind-looking woman gladly slid them off the counter and tucked them underneath before retrieving a key from the hanger behind her and placing it on the table. "Here's your key, little miss. Your room is on the third floor at the end of the hallway."
"Thanks." Vermouth gave the woman a short word of appreciation and took off with the key in hand.
Vermouth ascended the wooden stairs and climbed her way to the third floor. Upon arrival, she quickly located the room at the end of the hallway and unlocked it before entering. Locking the door behind her, Vermouth pulled the desk to the bed and sat on its edge, finding the mattress decent for the game's medieval setting.
Vermouth took out her newly acquired materials and placed them on the small round table. She placed the staff beside herself and arranged the materials on the table neatly.
She separated the barks into two stacks of ten pieces and placed the heart in between.
"Before I craft these into totems, I first have to use these! Come on out!" Vermouth pulled out five scrolls from her inventory and neatly stacked them on the table.
Unrolling the five scrolls and placing them on top of each other, Vermouth tore them all apart at the same time. She waited for all the thick flames produced by using five scrolls at once to enter her chest.
Upon completion, Vermouth opened her skills interface and scrolled down to the Spells section, where she found her new spells sitting nicely under all her other spells.1Oh boy… spells, here we go again…
Magic Spells
[Magic Arrow] ……
[Bursting Lance]2Fire off a lance made of pure mana, piercing through all enemies in a straight line. Ignores 35% of the targets' m.def and deals 700% of the caster's m.atk. Casting time: 13 seconds. Mana cost: 1,500 [Persistent Chains]3Conjure seven ghastly chains that will violently latch onto your targets' bodies. Each chain successfully making continuous contact will hold down the targets and deal 20% of the caster's m.atk every half a second. Casting time: 7 seconds. Mana Cost: 900 [Safe Haven]4Create a dome made of pure mana that will protect the caster within their 2-meter radius. Damage absorption rate equivalent to 1500% of the user's m.atk, barrier weakens by 1% every 0.5 seconds. Duration of 8 minutes. Casting time: 7 seconds. Mana cost: 7500 [Healing Radiance]5Emit a light of mana and heal the caster and their allies by 20% of the caster's combined MP and HP. Duration of five seconds. Effects halved for not having the Healer class. Casting time: 15 seconds. Mana Cost: 2,700 [Burgeon]6Hurl a dozen seeds toward the targets' location. Upon landing, the roots of the seeds will latch on the nearest target and wrap around them. The plants' roots will absorb 0.1% of the targets' HP every 0.3 seconds. For every 10 hp sapped from the target, the rate of absorption will increase by another 0.1%. Casting Time: 23 seconds. Mana Cost: 4,500
"Alright! Now, onto the totems!" Vermouth lightly giggled as she held a stack of ten Monotrent barks in both of her hands and cast. "Totem Creation!"
Layers of magic circles manifested from underneath and above the materials. The barks floated off Vermouth's hands and crumbled before turning into motes of light and gathering at one point in the middle of the magic circles. As the circles faded and the light dimmed and dispersed, a small rotting log fell into Vermouth's hands. Carved on it was a grinning face with a single eye.
Putting the newly crafted totem aside, Vermouth placed the wyvern heart in the middle of the table and surrounded it with the Monotrent barks. "Now, to see if this will work! Totem Creation!"
In all six directions, layers of magic circles manifested and surrounded the materials. The items floated off the table, and the barks surrounding the heart started to orbit it.
Slowly, the items turned into motes of light before gathering at one point in the middle of the enclosure produced by the magic circles.
The glow became brighter and overwhelmed the illumination from the lamp hanging from the ceiling. Vermouth had to cover her eyes because of the uncomfortably bright glow that the process radiated.
As the light slowly dimmed, the newly made totem slowly descended onto the table. Upon touching the solid surface, all light dispersed and came out the new totem.
Vermouth picked up the new totem and gave its appearance a thorough observation. It was an apple carved in wood and had a tough texture. On its long stem was a pair of bat wings that wrapped around the apple protectively. Upon closer look, the end of the stem was carved into the head of a wyvern, sleeping peacefully.
Grinning at the success, Vermouth held the two totems in both hands and chuckled.
"Now, which spells should I assign to you two?" Vermouth pleasantly purred.
*****
