-----
The vessel of the Unending Crimson shattered into pieces as his presence was fully exorcized from the entire duhe moment the being they were using as an avatar of sorts finally died.
The battle was intense, and the two of them were about to die many times, yet through their teamwork, they were able to prevail.
However, deep down, Paul couldn’t help but think that if the vessel had charged at them when they were fighting the skeletons, the oute could have been much different.
He quickly realized that whatever this Outer Oy was, it probably had some sort of code; he didn’t know if it was truly a code of honor or something, but it followed something.
Perhaps this time it was a test, and they weren’t even serious; maybe they just wao have fun, but he couldn’t help but feel a sense of uneasiness.
Why would a being as destructive as that want an honorable battle?
The only thing he could think about was that it robably testing them and having fun without taking anything seriously at all.
But... did that even matter right now?
The two of them won, and that was all of it!
Ding!
[gratutions! You have successfully defeated the possessed Dungeon Boss and stopped the Raid of {The Unending Crimson} from happening on Elderbridge!]
[The Special World Event: {Invasion of the Outer Ones} has progressed to its stage.]
[For defeating the Vessel of {The Unending Crimson}, you will receive the following rewards: [Refi Elixir (S Grade)] x10 [Skill Book: Dual Bzing Bde Arts (S Grade)] x1 [Random Skill Book (A Grade)] x1 [High Ara Potion (A Grade)] x20 [High Health Potion (A Grade)] x20 [Antidote Potion (A Grade)] x10 [Unending Crimson Raid-Themed Equipment Treasure Chest (S Grade)] x1]
[All Rewards have been automatically stored inside your Iory.]
“Damn…”
Paul g the rewards and couldn’t help but feel surprised; they were very generous! What they had defeated might have truly escated into a national crisis altogether.
And the best part was that he didn’t even have to rely on his Heavenly Demon transformation; he and Chris defeated him fair and square with no cheat-like traits.
Well, as long as their ridiculous equipment couldn’t be called “unfair” because it was certainly to for yers at their levels usually wore.
Even then, Paul felt his armor’s Durability rather weak; small cracks could be seen spreading through his e; the Durability had gone below 5.000.
Definitely, without this amazing armor, he would have already died; he had to quickly get bae and repair its Durability back to full.
Thankfully, he had read he could easily learn a Repair Skill after learning Crafting, so he just had to try, and he could obtain it.
Yet, setting aside all of that,
“WE DID IT!”
Chris rushed down towards Vd, hugging him tightly as the two jumped, celebrating.
Paul couldn’t help but feel slightly shocked that he did this; the cute incubus, who was already so adorable and sexy, suddenly hugged him!
His tender face was rubbing itself on his chest as he cried happily.
“Holy shit! I thought I would die! Are you okay?! You still look shocked about everything, haha!” Chris quickly ughed at Paul’s face, which had only bee redder. It was much more noticeable when he ale-skinned vampire.
“A-Ahhh, well, yeah.” Vd sighed.
He was trying to keep himself from hugging him back, which was something he really wao do. Chris was almost irresistible at this point; his charm stat was already too high, and Incubus were very androgynous, looking like short-haired and ft-chested girls most of the time.
However, he still had the slender and slightly wide body shape of a male; quite clearly, his wider shoulders and his hips, which were not as wide as females, were still very noticeable, and as his strength stat increased, Vd noticed that the exposed belly of Chris’ avatar was being slightly more toned.
Somehow, he didn’t want to admit it, but the more he started to like Chris, the more his own ay would trigger whe too close.
“What’s gotten to you? Rex dude!” Chris ughed, spping Paul’s bad ughing. “e on, we have a lot of stuff to loot! Paul?”
Chris looked at Paul, who was still a bit frozen.
“Ahem, y-yeah… Alright, let’s get to it! D-Did you receive the rewards?” He stuttered a bit as he tried to get himself together.
“Oh! Wait, we got stuff for free? No way!” Chris checked his iory and saw all the rewards. “Nice! Maybe we should start hunting these horrors beyond our prehension from now on.”
“Don’t talk nonsehis er rare event. I bme our bad luck, but it could also be sidered good luck.” Paul ughed, st all the skeletons.
He was also able to store the red crystals everywhere, and he went out of his way to mihose stuck to the ceiling as well.
They were all called [Pyrocrystals] and were of varying levels of quality; those as low as C Grade had only a faint red color, while the most intense reds were as high as S Grade.
Based on this, Paul inquired that the more fire they harbored, the higher their quality, and also the more dangerous they would be to handle.
“This material is fmmable and explosive,” said Chris. “Maybe we use it to make bombs, or maybe fire swords and spears?”
“Not bad, but if it's really gunpowder-like...” Paul smiled. “Don’t you think there’s something eveer we could make with it?”
“Wait, guns?!” Chris asked. “Are they even in the game?”
“Guns, ons, missiles—their level of explosiveness is enough to nuke half a city if I craft it into something petent,” said Paul. “But I’ll o iigate how to even make that to begin with... Blueprints and everything—that'll take a lot of days. I have little idea about guns and other things.”
“Fair,” said Chris. “Maybe we could bring a whole revolution of ons.”
“We? I think I’ll be the only one crafting stuff here." Paul ughed.
“Eh?! Hey, I am your partner in crime, right? So I get some of the credit for... Err, helping you get the materials, no?” ughed Chris. "Also, I’ll help you upload the video and livestream it, so you better reize my efforts.”
“Fine, okay…” Paul finished mining the Pyrocrystals as he walked back to Chris.
He was drinking several elixirs oer another, and his cute belly bulged a bit after getting it full of that weird silver-colored elixir they obtained.
“Phew~” he sighed in relief.
“What did you even drink now?” Paul wondered.
“’t you tell? It’s the elixir we got! Yeah, I filled me up with it, but it’s worth it, look!” Chris said.
FLUOSH!
A powerful demonic aura surged from him as Paul noticed his Lust Stigma Ranked Up, and even his Heavenly Core all at once!
“Woah, did that elixir do that…?”
“Yep! The Refi Elixir refines your cores, so it gives you a boost to yrowth, kind of like an EXP Potion in other MMO games.”
“No way!”
Paul quickly took the ten silver-colored Refi Elixirs and drank them oer another in a simir fashion to Chris.
At the tenth Elixir, he already felt slightly sickly, and his stomach was swirling stantly. It was shog how realistic even drinking aing were in-game.
“Ugh… I-I think I’m done- Ah!”
FLASH!
And the same effect happeo him, but it was regarding his own Soul and his Blood Core, both of them erupted with prowing stronger as a silver essence refihem.
Ding!
[You have ed the [Refi Elixir (S Grade)] x10!]
[Your body has absorbed the Refining Silver Essence! Your Blood Core, Psyche, and Bloodline have absorbed its energies and strengthehemselves.]
[Your [Blood Core]: [Blood Refi Realm (Tier 2: Rank 2)] has Ranked Up to Tier 3: Rank 1!]
[You have reached the Blood Strengthening Realm!]
[Your Blood Power has increased by +2250.]
[Your Strength, Vitality, aerity have increased by +1800.]
[Your Ara has increased by +900.]
[You learhe Racial Skill: [Bat Transformation (C): Lv1]!]
[Bat Transformation (C): Lv1]: [Spend 1000 Ara to turn into a small Bat creature for 1 Hour. In this state, your Defensive and Offeats decrease by 70%, but your Movement Speed, Flight Speed, and Senses increase by 50%. be turned on and off at will. Oime runs out, you will immediately turn back to a Vampire, and you must activate the Skill again to transform once more.]
[Your Racial Skill Slot has increased by +1]
[The Skill has been automatically equipped.]
“Bat Transformation?” Paul wondered.
It had its weaknesses, but it also had quite a few advantages; its stealth usage was superb, for example. And he could fly indefinitely for an hour anywhere he wanted, which was another plus. Though he would have to test first if his Body Paralysis would affect his flight or not.
[The Racial Skills: [False Immortality (S): Lv1] and [Blood Bending (A): Lv1] have Leveled Up!]
[Your [Bloodline]: [Strong-Blooded Dhampir Bloodliier 1: Rank 5)] has Ranked Up to Tier 2: Rank 1!]
[You gained +600 Blood Power.]
[You gained +300 Ara.]
[The Racial Skill: [Bloodline Absorption (S): Lv1] has Leveled Up!]
[Your [Soul]: [Spiritual Golden Sea Psyche (Tier 2: Rank 3)] has Ranked Up to Tier 3: Rank 1!]
[Your Psyche has evolved into Spiritual Golden Red Sea Psyche!]
[You gained +1200 Soul Aether.]
[You Css Skill Slot has increased by +1]
[You ow choose a Subcss in the Church of the Gods.]
[Your Css will now be able to Rank Up once yer the necessary Css ge Quest.]
“Right, Css Rank Up, also a Subcss…” Vd nodded, looking at the notifications. “But how do I even trigger that quest?”
Css Rank Up Quests were part of the natural gamepy of Fantasy Story Online and would usually be reted to the background of the avatar character themselves.
Overing their fears, being closer with a fotten family member, or even avenging someoo your character—all these things could work as a Css Rank Up Quest.
In FSO, every Css and Subcss had ranks to them, cataloged by the number of stars they possessed, when a pyer reached a certain level of strength, they could Rank it up to a higher star level, giving them greater bes, a boost to their stats, and sometimes even new Skills.
Vd g his own status.
-----
[Pyer Name]: [Vd Von Sange VII]
[Titles]: [Iron Blood Empire’s Seventh Prince]
[Blood Core]: [Blood Strengthening Realm (Tier 3: Rank 1)] (Blood Energy: 1.850/6.500)
[Bloodline]: [Strong-Blooded Dhampir Bloodliier 2: Rank 1)]
[Soul]: [Spiritual Golden Red Sea Psyche (Tier 3: Rank 1)]
[Race]: [Dhampir (Weak Bloodline)]
[Css]: [Seventh Vampire Prince: ★]
[Subcss]: [None]
[Blood Power]: [8.750]
[Soul Ether]: [6.450]
[Strength]: [3.300]
[Ara]: [1.500]
[Vitality]: [3.100]
[Dexterity]: [3.250]
[Character Background Traits]: [Insatiable Gluttony (Legendary Grade)] [Heavenly Demon’s Soul (Legendary Grade)]
[Character Background Fws]: [Triple Shattered Meridian Physique (Legendary Grade)] [The Lonely Demon’s Last Wish (Legendary Grade)]
[Racial Skills (5/6)]
[False Immortality (S): Lv2] [Blood Bending (A): Lv2] [Bloodline Absorption (S): Lv1] [Moonlight Boost (C): Lv2] [Ogre’s Muscles (C): Lv2] [Bat Transformation (C): Lv1]
[Css Skills (4/6)]
[Soul-Eating Fist Teique (S): Lv2] [Treacherous (D): Lv2] [Beast Hunter (D): Lv1] [Shadow Spear (C): Lv1]
[Subcss Skills (5/5)]
[Alchemy (C): Lv6] [Crafting (D): Lv4] [Runigravement (B): Lv4] [Echolocation (D): Lv1] [Sewing (D): Lv4]
-----
He had really grown much strohan before. But at the same time, his debuff that decreased everything to -90% made these stats much lower than they looked.
“Hah, what’s the point of increasing my stats so much?” he sighed. “Well, my Soul Aether does not decrease, at least.”
To make up for this weakness, he would have to either increase his stats to a ridiculous number or… find a way to temporarily cel all debuffs at the very least.
But seeing how even the Heavenly Demon found that rather impossible, he had given up on his hopes for now.
“Anyways, shall we get going?” wondered Paul. “I o go repair my armor already.”
“Sure!” Chris nodded. “Let’s go.”
As the two teleported back to Elderbridge with rexed smiles on their faces.
FLASH!
The first thing that greeted their eyes was a system message, followed by the screams of people and crimson fmes c the nearby houses as red crystals grew around the pza.
[The Defense against {The Unending Crimson} Raid of the [Wild Dog Pins (Tier 1)] Dungeon has failed!]
[The Defense against {The Unending Crimson} Raid of the [Blood Bat King’s Cave (Tier 1~2)] Dungeon has failed!]
[The World Event: {Invasion of the Outer Ones} progresses…]
[The First of Many, {The Unending Crimson} has released his fmes upon the Realm of Obscuritas.]
[The Vilge of Elderbridge is under a Dungeon Raid!]
And then Paul finally realized why {The Unending Crimson} was so rexed.
The Raid happened simultaneously to the three Dungeons at once.
And only one of them triumphed; the other teams were pletely massacred.
-----
Pach
