Qiong Qi traversed a special realm that could not be located on any available map of Boundless. The realm was a place of eternal night, with only a fake moon illuminating the dark sky.
There were a few stars here and there in the dotted sky, and the earth was covered with lush grass and endless trees. Many rivers, lakes and water bodies reflected the beautiful moonlight.
No matter where you looked, prey animals roamed abound. Deer, sheep, moose and many more.
It was quite frankly, the dream realm for any predator animal that enjoyed hunting. Qiong Qi walked through this realm without any hint of wonder or excitement on his face.
For a change, the usually shameless Lion looked incredibly serious and solemn at this time. All the prey animals of this bizarre realm fled away when they noticed him, screaming in terror as well as warning their brethren.
Some froze in place as they bowed with their legs trembling, as if they had seen their king… or even their God.
Qiong Qi ignored them all as he headed straight to the center of this realm, passing through a meandering footpath trodden with hooves and paws of various beasts.
Eventually, he reached a small mound surrounded by various predator animals. Most of them belonging to members of the big cat family. All of them were females though, with sleek bodies and shiny fur coats.
In human terms, there were all exceptional beauties with curvy bodies.
Qiong Qi passed through them without wasting a moment glancing upon anyone of them. On the other hand, they were all incomparably stunned and frightened to see him. The look on their faces made it seem as if they had seen a ghost.
Though, no one could be more stunned than the owner of this strange realm who lay at the top of the mound.
A mighty beast... who was a cut and paste version of Qiong Qi. The same mane, same coat, same eyes, same everything.
The traveling Qiong Qi sat on his haunches and crossed his arms, greeting the owner of this World Dungeon that formed its own realm.
"Good to see you're fine, Qiong Qi."
｢Name: Qiong Qi – General Rank monster (World Boss)
Level: 325
HP: 150,000,000,000/150,000,000,000｣
...................
In another corner of the world, a player with a large and sturdy body hacked a monster twice his size into two with his greatsword.
He had bronze skin, a slightly stubby beard but the most notable aspect about him were his red eyes which seemingly pierced right through whoever he looked at. His hair was shoulder length and had the trait of silkiness with its reddish-brown color.
He wore a bronze-colored heavy plate mail with a large and thick cape behind him. Quite frankly, he looked like a handsome hero, especially with his greatsword slung over his shoulder and the carcass of his foe under his feet.
His party members stared at him with adoration and respect, the fellows wishing they could be like him and the gals among them feeling he would make the ideal boyfriend.
This man was Local Lord.
He gladly took in the adorative gazes of his onlookers and smirked. He expected no less from them after showing off his prowess, especially since this was a Lieutenant Rank monster below him.
Was all this a result of Skill?
Local Lord had very little of it, especially at this time. Even in the previous timeline, Local Lord was ranked 35th in terms of skill while Draco and Eva were number 1 and 2.
In terms of raw power though, Draco and Local Lord had been somewhat tied, though after mastering Control the advantage lay with Draco. Local Lord was put as 5th officially, right after Draco and Eva who were 3rd and 4th.
This was solely due to the tyrannical aspects of the Pangu Lineage bloodline, which was famed for physical strength, invulnerability, and unparalleled regeneration.
The Pangu Lineage had three Inheritances, the Primal God Inheritance, the Primogenitor Inheritance, and the Undying King inheritance.
The Primal God inheritance was what the Pangu Lineage was most known for. Members with this inheritance were able to display levels of strength that varied according to their bloodline concentration.
The weakest could be twice as strong as the world's strongest man and the strongest could almost be tied with a certain superhero whose only weakness was a cosmic rock. Along with that came an immunity to elements like cold and heat.
The Primogenitor Inheritance was the part of Pangu that was romanticized in mythology. This inheritance allowed Pangu Lineage members to create avatars and elemental forms to either battle for them or even act autonomously, with higher bloodline concentration.
In theory, it was similar to creating Golems. All could do this with the help of the earth element. Stronger ones could use the water element with only a handful able to create them out of fire.
Only Local Lord himself could make wind Golems from the air itself.
The Undying King Inheritance had no offensive power, but possessed the ultimate defense. Lineage members with this Inheritance were too hard to kill, being even worse than Control masters.
Depending on their bloodline purity, they could go from being resistant to light cuts to being immune to rockets in head-on collisions.
They also possessed unending vitality and regeneration. Even if you managed to beat one of them to an inch of their life, they would still eventually heal back to full heartiness with stronger ones being able to do so right before your eyes.
It was these three inheritances that allowed the Pangu Lineage to stand above the rest, sitting at the top with the Lucifer and Amaterasu Lineages.
Draco and Eva had been blessed with 95% and 80% bloodline purity before their copulation and recovery.
Local Lord had 90% purity in the Pangu Lineage, which put him slightly below Draco and high above Eva. If one cut his body open they would discover something similar to Draco's black mass and Eva's white mass making up his biological body, only that his was bronze in color.
Local Lord had a lot of raw power, abhorrent defense and inhumane regeneration going for him. However, his weakness was that he had great difficulty mastering the respective skills and techniques of any combat form.
It wasn't just him, but every member of his lineage, spawning right from Pangu himself.
Local Lord hadn't joined any guild yet, as he was relatively new to the game. Right now, he was grinding to reach level 10 and was looking forward to joining that Umbra guild which seemed to be all the rage.
Once he did, he would work his way up to the top, slaughter the current guild leader, take his woman and stand on the peak of Boundless!
Local Lord smiled derisively as he imagined his glorious future and turned to his party members with a genial smile. "I'm sorry for taking all the action my friends, but I'd prefer to be the one to die instead of you all, if anything happens."
They looked moved. This was exactly how Local Lord had behaved so far ever since they formed a party with him. He would always rush into danger and use his body to protect them, acting as the perfect combination of tank and damage dealer.
One of the short, light-skinned cleric girls shook her head and spoke softly. "The fault is not yours, Local Lord. It is us who keep dragging you down and benefiting from your bravery."
One of the other guys also chimed in. "We would have never been able to take down so many monsters without any losses if it wasn't for your help."
Local Lord rubbed the back of his head with a wide grin. "You guys have such sweet tongues dammit. Fine, let's continue clearing some dungeons so we can reach level 10 together!"
His party members cheered loudly. Some felt that Local Lord was a great fellow while others felt he was just a fool working for their own benefit, but they all wore the same cordial smiles.
Still, Local Lord also sneered at the idiots with him inwardly. The moment he reached level 10, he would no longer need those fellows. The guys would be killed and those girls would be played with.
After all, news was already starting to spread that there was no real protection for players by the AI. Everyone who was playing would be taking a risk.
As such, he led them through a few more dungeons over the next couple of hours until they all received a certain announcement.
｢Sturgehaven Kingdom Regional Announcement
Guild Myriad Cards and Lorebinders have acquired the Key to the Abyss! The Abyss Event has been unlocked!｣
｢Cario Continent International Announcement
Guild Myriad Cards and Lorebinders have acquired the Key to the Abyss! The Abyss Event has been unlocked!｣
｢Boundless System-wide Announcement
Guild Myriad Cards and Lorebinders have acquired the Key to the Abyss! The Abyss Event has been unlocked!｣
Local Lord watched this with interest. Whatever this Abyss Event was, he would definitely take part and see what it was all about. If the rewards were good, he could even rise to power quickly.
After Local Lord hit level 10, he turned around to his party members who were around level 5-7 with a big grin on his face. However, they all felt like something was wrong with the way he looked at them, so their hackles rose.
It made no difference though. Local Lord was able to kill them all with the slightest touch. The males were killed in mere moments, leaving only two girls, the short and cute cleric and another tall and lanky thief alive.
They were both captured by Local Lord and dragged to an obscure bush nearby amidst screaming. Soon those screams turned to wails and then crying, before they came to an end.
Local Lord came out of the bushes with a satisfied sigh as he flexed his body. Behind him were two n.a.k.e.d and trembling bodies that looked bruised and battered.
Just as he was about to go check out the city zones, Local Lord saw a new announcement pop-up.
｢Sturgehaven Kingdom Regional Announcement
Guild Umbra has initiated a Guild War against Guilds Myriad Cards and Lorebinders! A new sub-event has been spawned, The First Guild War!｣
｢Cario Continent International Announcement
Guild Umbra has initiated a Guild War against Guilds Myriad Cards and Lorebinders! A new sub-event has been spawned, The First Guild War!｣
｢Boundless System-wide Announcement
Guild Umbra has initiated a Guild War against Guilds Myriad Cards and Lorebinders! A new sub-event has been spawned, The First Guild War!｣
With a smile, Local Lord thought to himself: 'Well, I know what to do next. Let's see what a Guild War has to offer.'
............
Hikari stood in her suave and well-furnished room in the Guild Hall. She gazed through the one-way windows at the outside world, taking in the sight of the intense human traffic and activity right outside the building.
Since Umbra was a hotcake, it was natural that many players were lining up to join. An especially large amount of people stood outside hoping for Umbra to open Combat player and Tradeskill player recruitment once more.
Right now, the only open recruitment was the serf one, and those who had passed weren't even allowed to enter the Guild Hall.
All they could do was take quests meant for serf players and try to level up quickly. Just like with all positions in Umbra, there was always the chance to rise up if one put in the work and rose above the rest.
Umbra had 2500 combat players and 500 Tradeskill members, but possessed almost 1 million serf players. Most of these serf players had no combat or Tradeskill talent, and their usage was for misc. jobs.
Hikari had learned all this and more from Sublime Notion, who had taken a great liking to her. Sublime herself had just left a while ago, allowing Hikari to ruminate on her thoughts alone.
Hikari felt… sad.
She had been freed from her trappings and gained a dragobonded soulmate who was a Black Dragon. She had gained a new goal for her life, which was to rebuild her race and bring them back to splendor.
The current Hikari should be filled with fighting power and motivation, but…
She was weighed down by her own troublesome thoughts, which all circled around Draco. She felt like she was a detriment to her mate, even though she had spent less than two days with him.
The thing was, a Black Dragon did not necessarily need a White Dragon, but a White Dragon needed a Black Dragon more often than not.
The world was a bit flawed, in that the fastest way to grow stronger was to kill others, which made things hard for races/classes like White Dragons or Holymancers to progress without help from others.
Hikari was even worse off, in that she knew very few techniques and skills of her own species. For most of her life, she had been protected by her family, so the things she had been taught amounted to a few defensive and healing skills, but her total number of skills did not surpass 10.
The doting of her parents and siblings who all didn't want to involve her in the reality of this cruel world, thought there would be some time in the future to teach the young girl, a sentiment which now dearly cost her.
However, Hikari was far too naive to understand the true implications of being a White Dragon, one of the top Draconic races, in a world without dragons.
Draco had been able to barter 23 of the Dragon's Blessing potion, which allowed anyone who consumed it to gain 50% source origin of a low-rank Dragon, for a Divine Treasure Chest.
The Dragons Egg Draco currently tried to hatch had been the spawn of a low-rank fire Dragon and a Rank 7 Sea Serpent. The people in the Divine Auction, however, had assumed that it was the egg of a Wyvern and a Rank 7 Sea Serpent with a 10% chance to become a low-rank Dragon.
Nevertheless, that egg had reached a price of 500,000 platinum back then. Were it not for Draco using his status as a mysterious VIP to suppress the bidding, only God knew what level it would have reached.
The simple conclusion was that in the current Boundless world, anything related to Dragons - as long as it was just a trinket able to give one even the slightest aspect of Dragons - was extremely and insanely valuable.
Forget about Ultima Sunt stuff. Draco was on probation with the Gods, and only his child with Roma could benefit from the Ultima Sunt genes because she had some herself.
If every child of his was part Ultima Sunt, wouldn't the Gods just send down a bolt of lightning to strike him to death? For this reason, he would have to be careful about having another child with Roma in the future. The Gods may allow him to have one, but more than that was just playing Russian Roulette.
Hikari did not understand her true value as a person nor as a Dragon. She was extremely ignorant of such things and this was what led to her worry and negativity.
She sighed as she looked outside observing a part of her humanoid body transformed as she allowed her tail to flow out from behind her. Her wings also unfurled from her back, making her look like a Dragonwoman.
Hikari swished her tail idly and flapped her wings lightly with utter boredom. She did not know what to do except wait.
Wait for either Sublime to come back, or preferably for Draco to find the time to take her out, since he didn't want anyone besides him, Eva and Roma to find out she was a Dragon for some reason.
Once again, Hikari sighed.
.........…
Draco brought Rila to his room and cooed her gently. Rila became a lot more amiable after Draco used every trick in the book to make her laugh, and then continued to indulge her.
Draco played with Rila for more than 3 hours, until the little munchkin became tired. Her eyes began to droop as she felt sleepy, allowing Draco to put her to rest on a bed nearby.
Draco smiled and created a sound barrier around her, so that no sound he made could disturb her peaceful rest.
After doing so, Draco took out Mjolnir and created a mini-blacksmithing area within his super mini small world room. A forge, smelter, anvil and a large workbench were present.
Draco took a deep breath and removed some iron ingots from his inventory. He then refined them into perfect iron ingots after merely 5 minutes. It took a single ore less than 2 seconds to turn into an ingot.
When the perfect iron ingots came out, he then moved on to the action phase, as perfect quality materials needed no further preparation.
Draco placed the ingots in the forge to melt and then put enough of it together to make a shortsword. When that was done, he raised Mjolnir over the ingot and kept it up there for a few seconds.
Draco hesitated. This would be his first time using Mjolnir, and unlike Pair Dadeni where he could control the process somewhat with the transformation happening in the cauldron, the ingots would be forcefully upgraded the moment the hammer met the metal.
If the ingots transformed into some overpowered Epic reagent and smashed him to bits, tears wouldn't be able to save him. Death in this game felt real, just like anything else.
Just because Draco could grit his teeth and resist the pain of death didn't mean he enjoyed it. After being killed 9 times when idiotically imbuing everything at once, he had regained a suitable fear of death like any normal human.
He hesitated for a while before gritting his teeth and bringing the hammer down with full force.
Whatever will be, will be!
Come! If you want to kill Daddy Draco, Daddy Draco will kill you too!
When Mjolnir collided with the metal, Draco froze. He was unable to bring the hammer back up as a white light illuminated the space in-between the hammer's head and the ingot's embryonic shape.
Worldly Energy rushed into that connecting link between the two items, which could blind the eye. The Eye of Caelo could see through everything, so this light was not able to obstruct his view.
When the phenomenon died down, Draco noticed that he could lift the hammer once again. When he did, he took a gander at the material the iron had upgraded into, and his mouth dropped when he looked upon it.
The new metal gleamed with the greyish color of typical iron, along with a shiny gleam of a creamy coat all over its form. It looked strong and menacing even in the ingot form, and Draco felt intimidated by it.
No matter how much he wanted to bring the hammer down, Draco felt like the ingot would retaliate if he dared.
｢High Iron – Material
Rank: Epic
Use: Blacksmithing｣