Chapter 229 Situation In Aria
While Shiro was torturing her captive for more information regarding his reincarnation, the party was getting worried as they waited outside.
"Why hasn't she come out yet?" Isaac said with a frown.
"Do you think that she might not be able to come out? She is currently fighting against two bosses, the fourth boss being one that we haven't been able to kill and the completely unknown fifth boss." Alura replied as she too was worried about her safety. While she wasn't close to 'Nytri' by any means, it didn't mean that she wanted her to die.
"Heh, maybe it's because her return stone was faulty." Lox sneered.
"Shut the f*ck up before I cut you apart." Isaac glared at Lox while his silver aura flared.
"Hah?! Do you want to fight me now? You think my family is scared of you." Lox frowned as he held out a talisman.
Seeing this talisman, Isaac narrowed his eyes since he recognised it to be an item that boosts up one's power. In the time that he's powered up, he could easily call for his family to back him up. Even if Isaac had his sword domain, he couldn't fight against elders that were in their level 70's.
He wasn't like Shiro who could bridge such a wide gap.
Taking a deep breath to calm his rage slightly, he started to think about what he could do to help Shiro.
"Why did the fourth boss appear so early though? Didn't the intel say that the fourth boss only appears after you pass the maze?" The healer asked anxiously.
As a commotion rang out, Kier soon arrived with his escorts.
"What happened?" He asked with a serious face.
"We were ambushed by the fourth boss and forced into the lair of the fifth boss. Everyone managed to get out with their return stones but Nytri, Lisa and Inya are still stuck in there." Isaac replied.
"What?! That's a concern. Out of everyone here, there was no doubt that miss Nytri was one of the best adventurer's we've seen. She was indispensable for the fourth boss since she could take care of the mobs and target's all by herself." Kier furrowed his brows.
"We'll set up a small camp here for now and we'll discuss what we've found out." He said as his escorts got to work.
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"So that's it huh? Hmm… rather curious. It seems that a lot of things have changed in Aria after I died." Shiro leaned back on her ice chair and frowned.
Apparently, after she died, the Light Hero had levelled up quite far into the ranks of Tier 6 where no one could touch him. Using this power, he called for a worldwide abandonment of anything that was related to nanotech. Not only that, he halted the progression of technology and stopped humanity from advancing further, all because of his fear that someone like her would show up once more.
Creating anything new became taboo and people were stuck with the things they had. Freedom was robbed as everything was monitored. If anyone was caught experimenting or trying to develop new classes and technology, they would be tortured alive and made an example of those he claimed to be 'heretics'.
Naturally, the hero still wanted a power similar to what Shiro had in her past life so he continued a private research group that conducted experiments on children who had just awakened their class. This experiment was to see if they were able to gain a second class.
Rumours would float around regarding this private lab but no one could do anything about it since the hero was too powerful.
Secretly, groups of people banded together to form a cult of sorts that worshipped 'Nytri Vespira' as the Machine Goddess. Dubbed the Vespira faction, they would search the world for links to their goddess and used that to fight against the 'Light' faction. No one knew each other in the Vespira faction to avoid the government from knowing their identities.
Most of the ordinary people and those who were oppressed during the Light Hero's rule was in this faction. Believing that once they've secured a supposed legacy to fight against the light hero, they created a secret network that would allow them to communicate and research the classes with one another.
While some people were killed, the faction lived on as the hero ruled like a tyrant.
Fear grew in the hero's heart as he started to make EXP packs. These weren't items of any sort. No. They were people who he cultivated from the ground up and once they reached the limit of tier 5 or the start of tier 6, their fate would only be death at the hero's hands.
Not only that, if death was certain, the hero would detonate the bomb that he implanted in them to make sure that he still received the EXP.
This action caused fear to grow in the hearts of the people as the Vespira faction was enraged by his act.
Unlike his secret lab where he researched about the second class, this was done in broad daylight. It was an 'honour' to be part of the hero's power they said. Using it as an excuse to kidnap people from the streets.
Since he was invincible in the world, he may as well drop all formalities and do whatever he wanted.
At this point, even criminals like Kamnar did their best to revolt against the hero.
Before his death, Kamnar was tasked with assassinating one of the higher ups in the Hero's government and stealing their doc.u.ments regarding the second class. While one would be suspicious of the mission, since it could be a trap, the Vespira faction had a system to filter the missions out.
Each mission they gave out were put through a series of tests and confirmations to validate the authenticity of said mission.
But despite all of this, missions had their own risks. It was unfortunate that he had ran into the light hero's royal guards and was killed brutally with his body in pieces. Even if he was a talented assassin, the difference in tiers and equipment was nothing to laugh about.
When he woke up, he was inside a dungeon with a bug body. Desperately killing monsters and levelling up, he worked his way back up to his stage now. Every time he killed the final boss in the dungeon and tried to leave with the teleport shrine, he would be randomly placed in a different dungeon.
But this time, he was placed in a raid as the final boss. In his attempt to leave the dungeon for good, he ran into Shiro and was placed in this awkward position.
"Hmm… that b*stard had really f*cked up the world huh? Last time I heard about him he had already become a Tier 8 God." Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Wait what? Tier 8 god? I thought there were only 7 tiers?" Kamnar tilted his head in confusion. Ironically, having the spear embedded in his body for the entire time of his explanation had allowed him to adapt to the pain. Now it just felt like an out of place bone.
"So did I. But when I ran into the bastard's daughter, who was dubbed the light goddess, she told me that he had already become a god. Hmm… time is quite strange. When I reincarnated, he had just killed me and was in the start of tier 6. In the quest, he was a tier 8 god and when you died, he was in the higher ranks of tier 6." Shiro placed her hand on her chin and closed her eyes.
"Say, your highness, I know that I deserve to die but can you spare me? As a reincarnator, I can't say I'm as experienced as you, but I'm better than some random level 60 you can find right? If we work together, I'm sure we can level up quickly." Kamnar asked as he held on to a tiny sliver of hope.
"Nope. I don't work with r*pey b*stards like you." Shiro shook her head firmly. It didn't matter how good they were, but if they were to break her bottom line, she wouldn't want anything to do with them.
"I expected as much. Can you at least make my death quick?" He pleaded, accepting his fate of death. Who knows, he might get another chance in a world where he doesn't run into Shiro.
"I can but you must tell me everything there is to know about the bosses. This queen wants some equipment." Shiro grinned.