NOVEL NEXT 09 – Fooling Around
*****
"And collect. Man, this thing was weak," Vermouth touched the drops and sent them to her inventory before walking her way deeper into the forest. "Or maybe I was just too strong? Oh well, I'm not complaining."
After Vermouth left the city and entered the depths of the Muryo forest. Her target this time is the Ursa Minor field boss and the Cockatrice field boss. Having dealt with the weaker of the two, Vermouth is now headed for the nest of the cockatrice.
"Hopefully it's not being hunted by some other party. That would be annoying," she spoke to herself.
It didn't take her long before she arrived at the monster's nest, having already visited it once. "I wonder where it is?" she wondered out loud.
Vermouth walked into the opening in front of the monster's cave, wondering if she should just enter or shoot some fireballs into the cave.
'Fireballs it is.' Vermouth decided and raised her staff. "Fire Ball!"
Almost instantly, Vermouth's casting finished and the ball of flame flew into the cave, briefly lighting up the dark area before disappearing after hitting something.
"SKRIIIIIIIEEEEKK!" The cockatrice let out a large screech before feathers flew Vermouth's way from within the cave.
"Ouuh, that's loud," Vermouth uttered, unimpressed. "Safe Haven."
The feathers safely bounced off her barrier before falling to the ground, not making even a single dent. Not only did she do this to prevent her totems from getting hit, but she also did this to disguise her One With Mana spell. This way, even if some players were to walk into her fighting something weak like this field boss, they wouldn't learn about her spell. In this case, she killed two birds with one stone.
The boss monster came running out of the cave and rose up to the sky, glaring down at Vermouth with its slitted eyes before letting out a loud screech once again. On the side of its long neck was a large burn mark. It flapped its wings and sent blades of wind down Vermouth's barrier, coupled with dozens of solid feathers that all bounced off of her barrier.
[FieldBoss - Cockatrice] [Level: 65]
'A level above me, huh? I wonder if I'll level up if I killed it?' Vermouth mused to herself. "Oh well. Living Swords!"
Three swords formed over Vermouth's head, ready to kill anything that enters its attack range.
"Is it ever going to come down here or just shoot all its feathers to me until it either gets tired or my barrier breaks?" Vermouth muttered in slight annoyance. "I'm not that patient, you know? Safe Haven."
After Vermouth recast her barrier spell, the small and barely noticeable cracks forming on its surface reverted and healed.
The cockatrice having sensed the futility of its actions, flapped its wings and rose higher into the skies. As it dove down beak first toward Vermouth's position, it curled its wings and further sped up its descent.
Seeing this, Vermouth could only chuckle. "You just made it much easier to kill you now."
Vermouth waited for the monster's beak to collide with her barrier and inevitably hurt itself before she cast her spell.
As the monster neared, Vermouth was able to take a look at its HP, already down by a fourth of its original amount. "That fire ball did that much damage? Wow."
With a large screech and whistling sound, the monster's beak impacted Vermouth's barrier and made a significantly large crack on its surface. The monster ricocheted away due to the impact and fell to the ground, most likely not expecting its mighty beaks to lose to some small dome.
"There we go, good boy! Persistent Chains!" Vermouth cast, seven chains made of pure mana immediately snaked its way toward the disoriented monster, tightly latching onto its limbs and restraining any movement.
Having realized its grave mistake, the cockatrice started struggling against its bindings, desperate to once again fly into the skies. Vermouth looked at its HP, half of it already missing. "You did more damage to yourself than you did to my barrier. That's funny, but also kind of sad."
Her living swords were quick to act and immediately started slashing away at the monster's remaining HP, bringing it down at a fast pace.
"Welp, I should not stall this any further, bye now," Vermouth whispered before she raised her staff and cast, the poor monster's HP already dropping to red, less than 10%, because of her swords.
But before she could cast her spell, shouts rang out from inside the forest not far from where she and the monster stood. Several players of different classes jumped out of the bushes and ran toward the downed monster.
"She'll take some time to cast! Take the last hit now!" The heavily armored man in front of the group shouted, raising his sword as he led his party members.
'Dumb*ss,' Vermouth thought in amusement. "Bursting Lance."
Before the new visitors could even run halfway the distance between their original hiding spot and the weakened monster, Vermouth's spell took away the rest of the monster's HP and killed it, turning it into a red cloud of smoke before dispersing.
Vermouth ran toward the drops and touched them, transferring them all to her inventory. Done with the monster, Vermouth turned her focus on the dumbfounded group of players, standing a dozen meters away from where she stood.
'Now what to do with these idiots? Should I just leave or teach them a lesson?' Vermouth mused.
"Mission failed, now run!" the heavily armored man shouted as he and his party retreated into the forest.
"Hmm. Teach them a lesson, then. Persistent Chains." Vermouth calmly cast, several chains slithered across the ground before latching onto the ankles of the players, tripping them as the chains wrapped around their bodies.
The four players squirmed around over the ground as Vermouth silently watched, waiting for their next course of action.
"Cleric, do your thing!" The heavily armored man shouted.
"I can't, my staff fell to the ground!" The man with the white cloak replied, kicking his staff as he tried to reach for it.
"Damn! Mage, how about a fireball!? Or any spell! Break these chains!" The heavily armored man shouted once again, now to a different party member.
"Idiot! My spells will lose! I need to have a higher M.atk than her if I want to break her magical constructs!" The robed man replied, using his staff to prevent the chains from strangling his neck. "As you saw earlier, that clearly ain't possible!"
'Is that so? Good to know, good to know.' Vermouth took note of the mage's statement.
"How useless! You, rogue! Can you use your blink skill!? Anything!?" The heavily armored man shouted once again toward another party member, annoyance heavily hinted in his voice.
"I need to be on my feet for that, smart*ss," the black hooded man calmly said, not bothering to struggle against the chains and surrendering to his fate.
"F**k! Now what!?" Shouted the heavily armored man, agitated beyond belief.
The three of them continued to struggle against their restraints, squirming around all funnily like helpless worms.
"How long do these things last!? Surely these should have disappeared by now!?" The heavily armored man shouted.
"Depends on your STR stat. The lower it is the longer they take to break," Vermouth calmly replied.
"Damn!" The heavily armored man replied, not realizing he wasn't talking to his party members.
'This is kinda funny. I'll record it and share it with bro and sis later, maybe ma and pa too, I'm sure they'll find this funny,' Vermouth thought with amusement before turning on the headset's built-in recording function.
Vermouth's eyes glowed as multiple circles hovered in front of her eyes, recording whatever she was seeing. She just sat there and silently watched the idiots struggle against their bindings.
The first to notice her actions was the rogue, having paid attention to her the most.
"Uwaah, we're being recorded. How miserable. Is this our bad karma for trying to steal? I bet it is.~" He calmly said while staring at the blue skies, his voice devoid of any emotions.
"What!?" Was the collective reaction of the rest of the idiots, before they looked at the mage they tried stealing from, the girl was looking at them with a wide grin on her annoyingly smug face, barely able to hold back her laughter.
"Hey, stop that!"
"I won't take this kind of humiliation!"
"If only I had my staff! Unnghh!"
The three idiots continued to struggle with intense vigor as Vermouth sat silently, enjoying their misery.
"Hehehe…" Vermouth failed to hold back and chuckled. "I can't… this is too funny, hehehe…"
"Kuhh… I can't take this anymore!" The heavily armored man said before he started to roll away, leaving his sword on the ground.
"Hey! Don't leave us here!" The mage said before rolling after him, joining him in his pursuit for the cover the bushes would provide.
"Argh, forget it! That staff ain't worth shit anyway! I'm leaving too!" The cleric of their party said before rolling with the rest of his friends.
Vermouth focused the camera on them as she giggled uncontrollably.
"Don't they realize they're just making themselves look dumber by rolling away? Even I find it funny," said the rogue, still unmoving and unbothered. "Hey, can you please remove these? It's getting kind of uncomfortable."
Vermouth stopped the recording before approaching the rogue. She stared at him for a moment before she decided.
'I had my fun, so I guess I might as well.'
"Sure, hold still," Vermouth stated, not like he could move more than squirming. With the rogue's compliance, Vermouth tapped the tip of her staff on the chains and they obediently disappeared into small fragments of light.
"Huh. It was that easy. Thanks for that," he responded while patting the dust off himself.
"Am I free to go or should I leave something too?" He asked, pointing at the things on the ground.
Vermouth thought about it for a moment but decided against it as these guys didn't look like they had anything valuable. After all, if they did then surely they wouldn't be trying to steal someone else's kill, right? So Vermouth decided to be the mature one and left them off the hook.
"You don't have to, you take those stuff on the ground too, I don't have any actual use for them," she replied. Their quality is just rank 2, the mass-produced stuff that is sold cheaply by any novice smith or crafter. Not anything she would need at all.
"I see, thanks for that. Guess I'll just take these with me and go catch up with those idiots," he said as he bent down and collected the abandoned equipment.
"Yeah, you take care," Vermouth replied with not much thought, her reply coming out as more automatic than actual affirmation.
"Right, mind telling me your name? Just to make sure we don't mess with you again. Mine's RUDGE. All capital letters," he asked while sorting out his inventory.
"Heeh? So you plan to steal from other players even after this experience? Wow, how bold of you four," Vermouth teased with a grin.
"Well…" The rogue scratched the back of his head as he chuckled helplessly. "My friends are like that, they enjoy stealing more than actually grinding, for some reason. I don't really get it, but I just roll with them."
"What? You should find better friends, that's bad manners, you know?" Vermouth replied with mock disbelief. "That aside, my name's Vermouth. You know, that wine."
"What?" The rogue stiffened as he looked at Vermouth in shock.
"Hm?" Vermouth hummed in confusion. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Eh? Ah, no," he collected himself before waving his hand at her and walking away. "A-anyway, I'll be on my way now, miss."
"Okay?" Vermouth waved back with slight confusion as his figure stepped into the bushes before disappearing behind the rows of trees. "What was that about?"
Vermouth thought about his reaction as she walked toward the opposite direction of the rogue, headed for the nest of the cockatrice in the hopes of finding some more stuff.
"Oh, well. Not that it matters," Vermouth dismissed the thought before focusing ahead. "This is more important, I hope your nest doesn't disappoint, cockatrice."
"Magic Missile," Vermouth cast her spell and controlled the blue projectiles to float overhead, they were bright enough to light up the cave so why not use them as lighting? She could even play with them, which is quite fun.
As she walked deeper into the cave, the more frequent the bones littered on the ground became. They really went hard on the details of this game, almost like it's another world.
'Which isn't that farfetched, considering the game's future. Even the experts were debating about it, I heard.' Vermouth mused.
In the deepest part of the cave, where she expected to be met with a nest made of bones and skulls, was a worn down wooden chest.
"Eeh? Is that really all there is?" Vermouth mumbled in disappointment, expecting much more from the field boss' nest.
"Well, I guess this boss was a dud, maybe the drops and the exp were the highlights of this boss?" Vermouth contemplated out loud as she approached the not-so-impressive chest. "I can't really tell though, I only got a single level and a bunch of materials."
Vermouth kneeled in front of the chest and wiped the dust off it while continuing to broadcast her thoughts out loud. "Or maybe it has a rare drop like my Lone Wolf's Scepter? Maybe I'll look at bro's file when he sends it to me."
Vermouth easily smashed the rusty lock that kept the chest closed using the end of her staff, proving just how weak it was considering her low STR stat.
"Welp here goes, not that I'm expecting anything good to come out of this thing," Vermouth stepped away to the side and used the end of her staff to open the chest in case of a trap.
Thankfully, the chest wasn't booby-trapped nor was it dangerous in any way. Inside the chest were a few thousand silver coins, which she immediately tucked away into her inventory, summing up to 210,000 Rof. Quite a decent amount of Rof, probably meant for a party to share.
Now, under that pile of coins were a few interesting items. One was a weird-looking stone, and the other was an oddly shaped knife.
Not thinking much of the stone, Vermouth picked up the knife. It had a wavy zigzagged shape, a foot long, and was brown in color. Not at all practical for close combat.
'Maybe the stats are good? Or at least decent? Either way, I won't be able to use it so why care?' Vermouth dismissed before looking at the item's description.
[Assiflem's Dagger] [Dagger] [Rank 3]
[P.atk 312] [M.atk 34]
[Agi + 20] [P.atk +15%]
"The lost ceremonial dagger of a certain lady."
"Wasn't that much, as expected. That flavor text might relate to something though, so I guess I'll keep it. Inventory isn't a problem anyway, it literally has thousands of slots." Vermouth muttered before letting the dagger disappear into her inventory.
"Next, this weird-looking stone, what's this for?" Vermouth held up the stone. It was cold to the touch, like a pebble out in the snow. It was oddly shaped as well, like a cone but with its tip caved into itself, but it was also smooth like a pebble found in a riverbed.
'Now what's this thing? Identify.'
[Magic Core] [Material]
"The crystallized form of mana, usually found from the carcasses of magical beings."
"And here I was wondering if they will never drop." She said to herself. "Do these things have some kind of drop condition?"
Not giving it much more thought, Vermouth threw the material into her inventory before leaving the cave. There was nothing else worth of note in there unless you count the unnecessarily detailed bones littered across the ground.
Vermouth stretched for a bit, as the sunlight started to set down the horizon. "Hmm, I think this is the first time I'll be seeing the nighttime in this game."
Pushing that thought aside, Vermouth faced northwest and raised her staff triumphantly. She grinned. "Onwards! Vermouth is going mountain hiking!"
Vermouth left the opening in front of the cave and dived into the forest once more, headed for the mountain range visible from gaps between the trees. Her steps carried a joyful bounce, reflecting her good mood.
As Vermouth strolled in between the trees, she came up with a good idea to pass the time. What better to do than try out her new skills when bored?
Vermouth brought up her skill interface and took note of the name of her two new active skills.
"First, the more interesting of the two! Invisibility!" Vermouth casts.
Slowly, her figure faded and turned transparent, with the exception of her glowing pieces of equipment as well as runes. Her Bangle of Muryo and Ragar's Golden Heart was still glowing gold and didn't turn transparent, unlike her armor and staff. The same was true for the runes etched across the surface of her skin and the floating glowing totem, caused by her One With Mana spell.
"What? Wouldn't this make it easier to know that it's me?" Vermouth muttered as she looked at the results the skill gave.
Vermouth shook her head and moved on, slightly disappointed at the skill's effects. "Next is, Pulse Radar!"
A golden wave of light burst forth from Vermouth's staff, passing through all obstacles as it marked all living beings within Vermouth's vicinity, the silhouette of several monsters was highlighted and glowed through the bushes and tree trunks.
"Woah, that's cool," Vermouth uttered in amazement, ignoring the small monsters and focusing more on the golden light that the skill released.
What she took notice of though, was the familiar huge figure of the field boss Ragar and several players surrounding it, moving about frantically.
"They're hunting him, huh? Good luck to them, I guess," Vermouth dismissively commented before returning to her tracks, ignoring the monster silhouettes that were revealed by her skill.
After a few minutes of silently walking, without any monster encounter, Vermouth's invisibility skill wore off just the same moment when the terrain started to become rockier while the trees and bushes became thinner.
"This is new territory now!" Vermouth exclaimed as she jumped onto a decently sized boulder. "I'll get a feel for the monsters here before I start hunting them bosses, this is going to be fun!"
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