In a distant mansion that had over 5 floors and countless players walking around the vicinity lived Lindsey and Laura, the girls who had harassed Melissa 3 days ago.
Inside their room, which was spacious with a single queen bed and one window, Lindsey sat comfortably while staring at her system screen.
「PLAYER STATUS – [P-956 (TreeHart)]」
◆ Level: 21
◆ Race: Human
◆ Class: [Locked] (Lvl. 30 Required)
◆ HP: 290 / 290
◆ MP: 310 / 310
◆ Aestrol Coins: æ150,000
— ATTRIBUTES —
◆ Strength (STR): 43
◆ Endurance (END): 46
◆ Dexterity (DEX): 41
◆ Luck (LUK): [★★☆☆☆] (Doomed Gambler)
— RANKINGS —
◆ Overall Value: #1,560th Place
◆ Location: Pyrros
◆ Allies:
– L3XI
– Genesis
— ABILITIES —
Mantis Stance (Lvl.15)[Active]
— INVENTORY —
4 / 30 Slots Used
Lindsey sighed as she skimmed through her stats.
As a human who never awakened, she was weaker than the average player and only managed to hold her own because of her high-level skill.
Most players were at least awakened, allowing them the strength to not only grow faster but more efficiently.
She had little to no knowledge of the game and only played because Laura, her elder sister, had urged her for the longest time.
That's when she glanced at Laura, who was leaning against the wall as she was also looking at her status screen.
Unlike Lindsey though, Laura was distributing her system points as she was able to receive them relatively easily.
「PLAYER STATUS – [P-295 (L3XI)]」
◆ Level: 27
◆ Race: Cambion (Half-human, Half-demon)
◆ Class: [Locked] (Lvl.30 Required)
◆ HP: 490 / 490
◆ MP: 600 / 600
◆ Aestrol Coins: æ450,000
— ATTRIBUTES —
◆ Strength (STR): 62
◆ Endurance (END): 60
◆ Dexterity (DEX): 53
◆ Luck (LUK): [★★★☆☆] (Average Joe)
— RANKINGS —
◆ Overall Value: #1,456th Place
◆ Location: Pyrros
◆ Allies:
– Genesis
– TreeHart
— ABILITIES —
– Mana Punch (Lvl.25)[Active]
– Mana Recovery (Lvl.10)[Passive]
– Reed's Law (Lvl.5)[Passive]
— INVENTORY —
5 / 30 Slots Used
Laura noticed Lindsey staring and tilted her head with a soft smile on her face.
"What's up?" Laura glanced with a mischievous grin.
"Nothin'," Lindsey shrugged with a soft smile on her face as she stood up and stretched.
"To think Genesis is sending the both of us to hunt down that cyclops," Laura commented.
Lindsey furrowed her brows for a moment. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It doesn't take much to kill a cyclops. You don't need two players. Even you could kill it."
Lindsey clenched her fists in frustration. "In case you haven't realised, I'm also a Twin from Hell. I can take on dangerous enemies."
Was that how Laura, her blood, viewed her? As some sort of weakling who could only kill a cyclops or weaker monsters?
Laura approached Lindsey and hugged her. "I didn't mean it like that, lil sis."
Lindsey pouted. "Whatever. Let's just get this over and done with."
"Do you have this week's quota?"
Lindsey slowly shook her head. Laura sighed and shrugged.
"Guess that's to be expected. I'll cover the rest. How far off are you?"
"...250K..."
"That's a lot of money, Lin. You gotta learn to manage your coins better."
Lindsey crossed her arms and nodded. "You make more than me because you can handle higher-ranked missions. It's not my fault."
"Have you tried killing the players who mess with you?" Laura suggested.
"No one even thinks of messing with me. I'm one of the Twins from Hell, and I'm part of the roots of Genesis," Lindsey responded.
"That's true. Come on, we'll figure out something. For now, let's get to the quest area."
***
「QUEST ARRIVED:
– Keogan, the Cyclops Warlord, has been wreaking havoc in West Pyrros. Find him and put an end to his tyranny
◆ Reward: ???
◆ Penalty: ???」
Nico sat around a pile of centipede corpses and read the quest message, contemplating whether he should proceed with it.
A Cyclops Warlord was not only formidable but also incredibly hard to hit because of their massive hitboxes.
But, unlike some monsters, they were bosses with a rare spawn rate.
Spawn rates were as follows:
Common, Rare, Legendary, Mythic and Godly.
From what he was able to gather so far, bosses commonly spawned with a rate of Rare, meaning they existed but one had to have extreme luck to find one.
Nico's Luck was still stuck on a depressing single star, so there was no chance that he stumbled upon this mission through that.
'This belongs to someone else, and I just happened to snag it thanks to my recent grinding,' he noted as he rubbed his chin.
He glanced to his other system window–his quest was completed, rewarding him with æ9,000 coins, 6 stat increase points and a new skill.
「Nyx's Shroud – Cannot be sensed through basic detection magic. -20 Mana Per Minute」
"A Passive skill? Interesting... Despite the peanuts I made here, I'd say this was pretty successful," Nico concluded as he closed his system screen.
"I completed this quest quicker than I thought. Although it isn't a good idea to tread on someone else's quest, I've got some time to kill. Might as well check it out. It is close by after all."
Nico then began walking through the streets of Pyrros, each street he turned dented from massive footprints.
He narrowed his eyes as he examined one particular footprint, then knelt to feel it.
There was a faint trace of red mana, particularly from a demon.
Nico closed his eyes and took a deep breath, visualizing a possible scenario that could've played out.
'3 mana traces... One demon, one human, and one monster...'
He snapped his eyes open as soon as he heard a roar from the distance, instinctively running and hiding.
And it's good that he did.
A building came crashing down and a towering monster followed, destroying the landform and throwing random swings in the air.
The monster was at least 50 metres tall with green skin, sharp tusks, fangs and a single rag to cover its shame.
Then, its face had a distinct feature; a single baby blue eye that if the monster cried, it could cause a massive waterfall.
「Keogan, the Cyclops Warlord:
HP: 8,300/10,000」
Nico raised an eyebrow as he looked at the monster.
Its health bar was red, but it was getting low, meaning that other players were already battling it.
'I was right. Guess I should take my leave...'
"Lindsey!" a woman shouted through the carnage of the battle.
Nico glanced back and noticed a familiar young woman with long black hair and red eyes being surrounded by 4 ogres, who had wide grins on their faces.
They each chuckled and scratched the meat beneath their pant sacks, grinning with a disgusting glint of lust in their eyes.
Lindsey clenched her fists and managed to strike one of the ogres, who was sent flying and collapsing onto the ground with a loud thud.
She may have lost her weapon, but she wasn't completely out of options.
Unfortunately, one ogre distracted her while another slipped past her and slammed her head against the wall, drawing blood.
The ogres cackled as they surrounded Lindsey, who struggled beneath the weight of the ogre pinning her to the wall.
Tears filled her eyes while her heart beat faster and faster.
Laura screamed through the chaos and tried reaching her sister, only for Keogan to step in between her and blow a gust of wind, sending her flying back.
'I'm scared... I can't do this... I can't...' Lindsey said as the ogre rubbed her thigh, licking its lips and growling as it did.
Her body shook as the monster ran its rough hands all over her body.
She pondered what would happen to her, what would become of her sister?
Her heart broke at the assumption of dying to a gang of ogres...
SPLURT!
Suddenly, the ogre froze and its head fell to the ground, blood spewing from the neck as the entire body collapsed.
Lindsey's breath hitched as all the ogres fell to the ground, bleeding from deep wounds from their necks, torsos and so forth.
"How pathetic. These ogres were only level 7 and you were struggling with them," Nico commented as he balanced his longsword on his shoulder, looking at Lindsey with disinterest.
Lindsey lifted her eyes and looked at Nico with admiration and gratefulness.
Nico sighed and stretched his neck as he looked at the fight between the cyclops and Laura.
Each attack she threw at Keogan bounced off or was deflected by the monster. She was desperate, and her fatigue was working against her.
Nico then smirked like a tyrant, his lips parting with insanity as he focused on Keogan.
'But then again, I should thank her...'
「Keogan, the Cyclops Warlord:
HP: 8,000/10,000」
'Thanks to her, I get a free kill!' Nico exclaimed as he ran towards Keogan, picked up the 3 section nunchaku on the ground and stashed his sword in his inventory.
'Time for a hunt!'