MMORPG: The Elementalist

When Dinosaurcerer had used up every last Mana Core, Slayer’s Heart knew regret.

No less than thirty-four Tier 4 Mana Cores had been expended, and the end result was merely three Chameleon Spiders and four Violetwing Venomspiders successfully bound—a success rate of less than 20%. ¹

In comparison, if they had sold those Mana Cores to other players, they could have made enough money to buy six ready-made Soul Stones from the Alchemist Guild. If they had instead used that money to buy magic scrolls, the difference would be even greater!

If not for the fact that the highest-level Sealed Core you could purchase from the Alchemist Guild for a monster at only Level 42, the other nine players would probably also be dying of a heart attack right around now.

This wretched Summoner… his Binding skill was burning a hole through their pockets!

Several thousand gold just to bind some monsters at a supposedly high compatibility rate… and each one could only be summoned for 180 minutes! Three hours of use at the cost of five, maybe six thousand gold—it was too much of a luxury!

The only thing really worth celebrating was that in the loot they received over the next twenty minutes, they replaced all the Mana Cores that had been lost—in fact, there was more than when they started.

A total of forty-one Tier 4 Mana Cores were handed over to Dinosaurcerer. He was beside himself with glee.

***

Dinosaurcerer was happy, and everyone else had their own things to fuss over, but Qin Ruo meanwhile was deep in thought over the featureless black Spirit Orbs in his backpack.

Restless and ill at ease, he stalked through the battlefield completing the tasks that the party leader had assigned to him, muttering all the while, “Are these Spirit Orbs worth nothing? We’ve got almost two hundred already…”

And it was no wonder he felt down: everyone else had been choosing better equipment for themselves, but since Qin Ruo was responsible for managing most of the scrolls, potions, and elixirs for the party, he had precious little carrying capacity left over and as such, it fell to him to carry these kinds of “lightweight items”.

As he sought out more of the Spirit Orbs they would need to gain entrance to the Graveyard of the Gods, he watched the others running around with new equipment and Mana Cores, looking up their market value, making choices about what to keep… Qin Ruo had nothing to appraise in his inventory but a bunch of murky black globes.

Qin Ruo was well aware that the upcoming “Entrance to the Graveyard of the Gods” event was the hottest affair in H&G right now! It was currently at the top of the priority list for millions of players! There was a massive hunt for Spirit Orbs going on everywhere, but this kind of drop rate left Qin Ruo with a feeling of profound disquiet.

Not yet an hour and already they had two hundred, and it was probably worth nothing if sold. Qin Ruo supposed that there were more than enough Spirit Orbs for everyone to partake in the event, but after that the remainder was just a bunch of pointless rocks—except that if you threw one at somebody, it wouldn’t even leave a bruise.

Just then, Slayer’s Heart came over, all smiles.

“This is good stuff. Hang onto it—the drop rate won’t be as good once we’re out of here.”

“… Good stuff.” Qin Ruo was lost for words. The number of Spirit Orbs he had in his backpack was already enough for each member of the party to enter the venue twice.

Slayer’s Heart seemed able to peer right into Qin Ruo’s mind. His smile did not fade in the least. “Trust me, I’m right about this—I know some details about the Graveyard of the Gods that you don’t.”

This, Qin Ruo could believe. Slayer’s Heart had a massive organization of fifty thousand people backing him up. Putting all their heads together, there could not be a thing about the Graveyard of the Gods that could escape their knowledge.

Since they had a moment to spare, Slayer’s Heart shared a few things with Qin Ruo.

Qin Ruo learned some very useful things from Slayer’s Heart. According to him, there were some isolated villages in which resided certain NPCs which appeared completely insignificant, yet knew some very special things about the Graveyard of the Gods—and might even have some quests related to that area.

This meant that the “Entrance to the Graveyard of the Gods” was not merely about slaying high-level Bosses to get rewards, nor would all the event activities take place within the Graveyard alone. One could accept quests from NPCs on the outside, and completing them could bring rewards equivalent to what you could find in the dungeon itself.

For example, Bauhinia League had seen a stroke of luck: the League’s power had been recognized by NPCs, and they had received a collection quest of no small difficulty.

An old crone of an NPC, age unknown, was offering a piece of Divinity in exchange for someone to make an expedition to the fifth level of the Graveyard of the Gods, and find the cave where her husband perished alongside a band of Demigod-tier heroes. The quest was to bring back a memento of the old woman’s late husband, an Ironwood Bracelet, from the Perch of the Mountain Giants.

“The quest reward is Divinity?” Qin Ruo’s eyes lit up.

Slayer’s Heart nodded, then looked at Qin Ruo and laughed. “Forget it! To reach the fifth level, you’ll have to fight your way past at least four incredibly powerful Bosses. As for the fifth level itself, even the least of the monsters there are at the maximum level for Tier 5. And what’s more… do you know how strong those Mountain Giants are?”

Being reminded of this by Slayer’s Heart, Qin Ruo clapped a hand to his forehead, feeling his heart sinking as the light in his eyes faded away as quickly as it had appeared.

A cave where a group of Demigod-tier heroes died. If there were Mountain Giants watching over those bodies, there was no way they’d be push-overs. At the very least, they’d be considered Bosses in the early levels of Tier 6—and to think, he’d been just about to ask Slayer’s Heart for the location of this old woman…

“Don’t let it get you down. You think this quest is something anyone can do? I’ll be honest with you: in all of H&G, there are no more than thirty people who could possibly attempt it. Within our Angel Faction, only thirteen people are eligible for this quest.”

What Slayer’s Heart said sent a jolt through Qin Ruo.

“Tier 5?”

The former nodded, leaving Qin Ruo at a loss for words.

Such an unthinkable trial, no wonder Slayer’s Heart did not appear the least bit concerned about it. You would only be able to use Divinity at Tier 5, anyway; reaching the fifth level of the Graveyard of the Gods did not sound like the sort of thing Tier 4 adventurers could achieve.

Just forget about it.

“Have you considered that the Graveyard of the Gods is like a Continent unto itself? Passing through the entrance, you won’t always come out in the same spot—each player will be randomly sent to a different corner of the Graveyard, and there might not be another player within a mile’s radius… or you might pop up right next to a player from the enemy Faction.”

“Ugh!”

Qin Ruo found himself startled by these words. He was finally starting to see why Slayer’s Heart wanted him to collect so many Spirit Orbs—the random nature of entry meant that many players could be dead on arrival!

An entire Continent, with players from opposing Factions engaging in mortal combat at any moment… the risk of death was even higher than he’d realized!

‘Seems like it would be best to begin outside the dungeon, so I can put up my spell defenses before going in…’  As Qin Ruo was thinking this, Slayer’s Heart threw him yet another curveball.

“Kid, you’d best remember to be careful in there. Radiant Priests can’t perform a Resurrection within the Graveyard of the Gods. Any player who dies within the Graveyard will drop a level straight-away, and then respawn at a Resurrection Point in the nearest town from where they entered.”

Qin Ruo raised his eyebrows. “This is actually good news.”

“Good news for you, anyway.” Slayer’s Heart nodded his head. “You have the skills of Aquamorph and Elemental Perception, which are great when running around solo. What’s more, with the help of Compressed Frost Bullet and Mana Drain, you can get into all kinds of action in there and still keep going.

“It’s the rest of us who have it worse. We can’t even be sure if we’ll be able to find our own people in there, and even if we do, well… in a place like that, anything could happen. Certainly we know that on the Mythical Battlefield, the Demon Faction has always been stronger.”

Slayer’s Heart sighed deeply, the frustration easily heard in his voice.

“Oh, that’s right!” Slayer’s Heart suddenly remembered why he’d come over to find Qin Ruo, and presented him with two Pet Eggs. “You take these.”

Qin Ruo accepted them without surprise. Over nearly half an hour’s worth of monster-killing, they must have slain thousands of spiders by now. In a place like this, with such a high drop rate, the strange thing would have been if they had not gotten a Pet Egg or two.

He looked them over: one was for a Chameleon Spider, the other for a Violetwing Venomspider, Level 46. Although not quite the equal of a Miniboss for a Pet, compared to the usual wares one could find at the Pet Shop, these were on another tier entirely.

“Doesn’t anyone want these?” Qin Ruo asked.

Slayer’s Heart shrugged and gave a wry smile, leaning in to mutter, “… We’ve discovered that they’re pretty disgusting.”

Qin Ruo could not help laughing at this, while nodding with thorough understanding.

Malevolent Archdemons and Deathvenom Spiders… no one took a fancy to such things. It was a good thing that Dinosaurcerer, what with his regular Beastform Fusions with his Death Toad, seemed to have gotten used to this sort of thing and no longer minded.

However, they had lost a Pet Egg for a Malevolent Archdemon this way. Taking on a new Pet Egg meant discarding the previous one, which would then be lost—forever.

One might expect that the party would not exactly be clamoring to own these two baby spiders.

Handing the Pet Eggs over to him, Slayer’s Heart remarked, “This little trifle is now yours to handle.”

“Mine to handle?”

Qin Ruo gazed up at the ceiling. Slayer’s Heart was being a bit too callous with the loot—these “trifles” were worth thousands of gold apiece on the market.

Maybe it was just as well. Pet Eggs were a rare commodity this season, which made them particularly valuable as gifts. There were still some people in the company who had not found themselves a Pet yet.