Bloodlines Online

”Yeah you know I need a pod.”

”You don’t, you are just a journalist Judy-”

”Stop calling me that, you know I changed my name because of that bastard and you don’t get my old name right anyway.”

”... Pythia.”

”Thank you, now you and I both know that my contract relies on getting the stories that your own writers don’t catch so how am I supposed to do that if you don’t let me play?”

”We want you watching streams not playing the game.”

”And? That’s not going to get any information that others can’t get right? I’ve seen the streams these players do and I could convince them to let me interview them!”

”.... If you play then you can’t get any special treatment you know that right? You’d have to actually earn your levels to reach the same region as the players you are after.”

”Yeah yeah who cares I have played games before, you think I started by watching streamers? HA!”

She hung up the phone and started moving furniture around to make space for the pod.

”Should I get rid of my bed? Those pods make great beds if the players are right... maybe I could get a good futon to relax and use the pod to sleep...”

She was rambling to herself while a little cat stared at her.

~

After defeating the elven assassin Ezekiel headed back to the city square where the gate was located.

When he saw Kira he scowled but approached anyway.

”I will return now, you told my friends how to get to the city right?”

She nodded without a word and tossed a bag of gold into the gate which created the swirling vortex.

He gave her a short nod before entering, as soon as the gate closed he was tackled by Lucretia who had jumped onto him with a smile.

”You took nearly two hours! You better have been successful darling~”

He laughed a bit and felt his face heating up.

”Yeah uh, I got it done. I have a full unique set now so I should be quite successful in this test!”

She laughed at his reaction and motioned for him to follow her to the tent.

”When you unlock the final piece of your set it will do something very special as all unique gear sets do so be careful.”

He was surprised by this but nodded and quickly followed, as they entered the tent he opened his unique reward.

Inside of the chest he obtained a scroll and an amulet, unlike before he could not choose the optional reward and it confused him but the amulet more than made up for it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Voidbeast Fang

A bladed wand that allows the user to create additional projectiles when casting spells or manipulating mana.

Voidbeast Hide

Robes made from the leather of a void beast, allows the user to create barriers of mana.

Voidbeast Treads

Boots made from the claws and the leather of a void beast, allows the user to teleport various distances by consuming mana.

Voidbeast Claws

Gloves made from the claws and the leather of a void beast, protects the users hands from the shadow mana element as well as enhancing the sharpness of shadow mana constructs.

Voidbeast Heart

An amulet made from the crystal core of a void beast, allows the user to consume another stat from a target when the consumed effect occurs.

Alert! Full set detected

Activating additional set [Void Beast] effect.

While wearing the full set the user has natural manipulation of the shadow element and shadow elemental damage or void mana damage is increased by 100%

~~~~~~~~~~

”Holy shit!”

”What is it?”

”The set is... incredibly powerful, sorry I don’t feel comfortable saying it.”

She smiled with a sad look in her eye.

”You don’t trust me yet, I understand. I will not try to force you to disclose your secrets and I will simply be happy for your success my darling.”

She placed her hand on his and smiled before looking at the scroll.

”So is that one as significant as the other reward?”

He frowned and checked the reward.

~~~~~~~~~~

Skill Book (Diamond): Magus

~~~~~~~~~~

”Oh it’s a magus skill book, cool.

He activated the scroll and it turned into a book with a beautiful blue color before turning into particles that entered his mind.

”DIAMOND?! YOU GOT A DIAMOND SKILL BOOK!?”

She sat forward to watch.

~~~~~~~~~~

Skill obtained

Consecutive Striker (SS)

Each strike that occurs within 5 seconds of the previous will add a stacking count of Consecutive Strikes.

For each stack of Consecutive Strikes spell damage is increased by 0.5% for 10 seconds, each stack resets the timer.

~~~~~~~~~~

”Huh... I got some kind of stacking skill? It increases my spell damage for each strike I land but it isn’t very clear on the wording.”

Lucretia smiled broadly and nodded.

”Powerful skills are vague because if they gave you every bit of information about what they could do then you might as well just read the skill book instead of learning it instantly, you would be more proficient that way but it would take longer... it also means the skill book can be reused though.”

”Wait... they can be reused?!”

She nodded and he sat back down in thought.

”Does that mean skill books can be written?”

”Of course they can but you have to be at the pinnacle of what the skill or spell can achieve on it’s own.”

He nods.

”Well now that I have these rewards I guess that whole place is behind me since my friends are on their path to the city eventually...”

She seemed to be surprised by this.

”They still wish to see you? You have surpassed them and they are not opposed to you?”

He looked at her and scoffed.

”No we’re a team so of course any power I gain helps them right? Do you see your nobles as a threat or do you see them as a helpful ally when the country is in danger?”

She has a pleased smirk on her face now and simply nodded.

”So tell me what your little council decided, what torment do I have to go through to keep being around you?”

”Well the council gave the simple task, you must complete the quest they give you and I have looked it over to ensure you would not be given a quest that was impossible for your level... there are other problems however.”

”And those are?”

”A total of three suitors have challenged our courtship.”

”God this is a pain in the neck, who are they from?”

She shook her head and went to grab the teapot from the fireplace as it began to whistle.

”Their families are not important but they will give you challenges, the good thing however is that they must complete these challenges themselves before they can present the challenge to you...”

”What is there to keep them from lying?”

”The system of course. The system has contracts that are under very strict laws so if the quest is given then they will have certainly accomplished the task themselves.”

She sat there and poured them each a cup of tea.

”The more restrictions on the quest the more you can tell how far they went but since these are males from nobility they are unlikely to give significant quests.”

As she said these words he saw four separate notifications come across his screen starting with an alert.

~~~~~~~~~~

Alert! Chain quest has begun!

Failure to complete any of these quests in their individual requirements will mean the courtship of Lucretia Shadow and Belial must end without continuation of any form.

Quests may be completed in any order.

Quest 1:

A nearby kingdom’s leader has joined the church of light in the world event, you are tasked with executing the leader in any way of your choosing.

Belial has one week to accomplish this task.

Quest 2:

Belial must obtain a territory king’s core.

Quest 3:

Belial must slay any infernal wolf with the use of only one spell within one week of the hunt beginning.

Quest 4:

Belial must obtain 1000 platinum dragon coins without the aid of a benefactor, only objects obtained by belials own means and sold will be considered for this quest.

~~~~~~~~~~

As he read through the quests he felt his body grow cold, his hands begin to shake.

”Oh these bastards must really hate me.”

”Whats wrong?”

He began to explain the quests and before he could finish she made him write down the exact wording of each of them.

After he put the pen down she began to look the quests over with a careful eye.

”The first quest is the hardest... the last quest is very difficult but not impossible...”

She then tapped the other two.

”These are worded in a way to make you worry but the wording is so loose that you can get out of it easily, the core has no restrictions on how it can be obtained so I could simply give one to you and they probably hoped you would not catch that detail.”

Then she began to read out the second quest.

”An infernal wolf being killed through the use of only one spell, that doesn’t specify a specific wolf in the pack though and they probably brought him to a wolf pup to kill.”

’At least it’s not as extreme as I thought...’