At the same time as Zypher met the first witch, outside the dungeon.
Blood and flesh, as well as some teeth are on the ground.
Several others are tied up, and some were almost beaten to death.
The most cruel and gruesome is a woman's body, on a stake, with almost a hundred lashes. Her naked body is filled with blood, and all her privates are carved out.
What's more is that her belly is gouged out, and an infant is hanging down from it.
Trakiz, the leader of the garrison, is kneeling beneath it, as if it was a deity, and is crying.
As he carefully lowers the infant towards his hand, he carefully carried it to avoid the blade that was plunged from his back and went through his chest.
"What a touching sight."
A woman walked forwards as her heels clack through the ice floor that was made for her to walk on.
Trakiz looked at her, his breathing ragged, eyes bloodshot.
"Face of a fairy but is an ogre."
PLAK!
A slap resounded as soon as he finished his sentence.
"PHUE!" Tooth and blood was puked out as he again looked at the lady with anger in his eyes.
"Boring." She said as she pulled the baby out of Trakiz's hand.
"So, can you tell my master who entered this dungeon?"
Behind the lady, a small, lean person appeared.
Immaturity is still in his face, but the eyes says otherwise.
His golden hair is combed into the right, bringing his elegance into top-notch levels.
"Aren't you powerful? Why ask?"
PLAK!
Another slap was sent to the other side of his face.
"I don't have anything to lose. But you, losers, have already lost much."
As he said that, a sword came flying that cut off his arm.
"ggrrrrh!"
With a low grunt, he pulled the unborn infant, but the cut off arm let it slid through, and the infant rolled down the floor.
A feet appeared before it, but before he can say anything, it was kicked which launched the infant towards Trakiz.
Without his hand, he missed the infant, which made it stabbed through the sword that was already stabbing him.
Tears flowed down, but Trakiz swallowed it.
They were just natives. And the enemies are the awakened: the envoys of gods.
This means that if they die, the gods chose the awakwners rather than them. It was already known by them, from the very beginning.
"O, Gods, why have you abandoned us."
As he uttered the small prayer, spears and swords were stabbed to him.
Under his last breath, he hugged his son, and protected him from the stabs, but it went through his body. Still, he did his best, and pulled the infant in.
"Let's go. Let them be a warning to the others."
The kid said as the ice platform now moved and they travelled to the door of the dungeon.
The people behind him followed as they dragged other bodies and threw them out.
After they came in, a notification alert came to them.
[Dungeon Completion Rate: 87%]
The kid with the golden hair grew furious as he saw this.
This dungeon was supposed to be his, but a group of people took what he wanted, and now, somw other wants to wrung him dry and take his possessions.
"HURRY!" He shouted as the group ran towards the palace.
But, they are not exempted from the volley of witches that appeared before them.
[Dungeon Completion Rate: 89%]
The notification rang again, which made him furious.
Seeing this, the lady before her rushed through the foors of the mini-bosses.
After their 3rd kill, a new notification rang out.
[Dungeon Completion Rate: 94%]
"HURRY, AYAKA!"
As he said that, the lady slashed more frequently and used all her strength to kill the witches.
Once they were in the last witch, another notification rang and it made his blood boil more.
[Dungeon Completion Rate: 99%]
A shy away from clearing it, and they are just starting on the sixth one.
"Let me!" The kid said as he pulled his sword from behind him.
This sword is carried by maids behind him, and once he pulled it, the momentum threw them all off.
"AYAKA! GET OUT!" He said as he held the greatsword like a claymore, and slashed it down from the heaven.
"LIGHTNING SLASH!" A streak of lightning appeared, creating an arc that attacked the last witch.
"RAAAAAH!" As she turned to dust, the witch can't believe what happened to her.
In one move, she was killed.
But that one move, also cost the kid his everything.
"HURRY UP NOW!"
[DUNGEON CLEARED!]
BOOM!
As soon as he shouted, these two sounds rang out simultaneously.
"AYAKAAAAA!"
"Yes, Master!" The lady then rushed towards the room of the boss, but what she saw was something she would not forget.
Standing in front of the rubbles is a youth, with all the wounds on him.
An arrow is pointing at his head, meaning that he is a player like Ayaka and her master. Besides these, the place is like a zone of war.
Holes riddled the walls and floor of the place. There are also burns, water puddles and other dried twigs all around the place.
But, what really caught her eye are the two books in front of the kid.
There are always three things to look out for inside a dungeon when it is cleared:
One, is a scroll. Scrolls are like additional skill points. It unlocks one skill outside the original skill tree, and can change almost everything for an account.
For example, in his past life, the Spellblade of the Magic Night has unlocked a special skill Revive, which makes him not just a pure attacker, but can also revive after the enemy takes him down. This is also why Zypher just holds him down everytime.
Another one, is an emblem. Emblems vary and are used in many ways, and are the representation of a class in the game.
For example, the Spellblade emblem makes you resist 20% of magic and blade attacks, but also deals 30% more damage if you are one that deals damage. What's more interesting is each class can produce five emblems, eight when using legendary classes.
And the last one, are books. These are the absolute cheat of the game, because in them, there are skill encyclopedias.
For example, a Spellblade Legendary class is a mix of Warrior and Mage, and a Paladin is a legendary class of Supporter and Defense, and in no way that their skill trees will meet, but a book can do it.
Encyclopedia are the representation of wisdom in the game, and there are many things to gain from one book, but a book dropped from a boss is clearly another skill tree.
Which means, not only possessing one legendary class, but maybe two or three, but only the Skill Trees. This means that they can have a variety of skills that can change the flow of a battle.
And in this boy's hands are two of those. One has a star, but the other has four circles embedded on the cover page.
There are many things in the game that are inexplainable, and one of them are the shapes at the cover of the book, but that's for others.
Not for Zypher.
In his hands are the spoils of war, and the last things he kept were the two skill books he got.
One of them, has five circles.
Five shapes means that the encyclopedia has at least epic legacy. One for common, two for uncommon, three for rare, four for unique, five for epic and so on.
But, the shape of a circle has no sides. Meaning, the epic skill tree will just have one side of a skill tree.
That said, it was a pretty good haul. This epic skill tree may come from an epic class legacy, and one skill tree from it is useful enough to change a battle.
The second one is what shocked him.
There are five shapes, four symbols and two embeds in the game, as far as he know.
The five shapes are circle, triangle, square, pentagon and hexagon. Six skills outside a skill tree is enough for an account, and more than that can break the game.
The four symbols are of a deck of cards: heart, diamond, spade and clover.
And the two embeds are the sun and moon.
But, in his past lifetime, no one have seen a star on a cover of a skill book. This means that he is currently treading in an uncharted territory.
He was excited to try the things he got when a knife was suddenly aimed at his throat.
"Give up the ownership books, and I will spare your life."
Yes, ownership.
The things inside a dungeon are precious, and the one who took the kill will possess the items, unless, one, they died before they can claim the items, or two, they give up the ownership of the said item.
Surely enough, Zypher did not die and has already collected the loot. This means that he can only give up the ownership of it, which is why a knife is pointed at his neck right now.
Seeing the knife, Zypher calmly breathed out as he thought of what to do.
Loot-stealing is a taboo of the game, that's why the game has this kind of feature.
This is like leeching off of others while doing nothing. And the company doesn't want a game like that.
But, there are still exeptions in the game, such as the class Thief or other thief-related items that can steal the loot.
And while staying calm, Zypher smiled.
"What if I don't want to?"
"Then I will kill you." The voice of a lady startled him, but his grin grew wide.
"Scary, but I don't think you can do so?"
"And why is that?" Asked the lady.
"Because, if you can do so, you have already did."
After saying that, a chakram whistled upon his front and Zypher decisively slid down to dodge the incoming chakram.
Seeing this, the lady was caught off-guard and sent her flying, only to be caught by a kid with golden hair.
Seeing the people before him, Zypher's eyes grew wide, not in shock, but by anger.
In his past life, as a player, there are some people that he doesn't want to meet right now. But now, two of them appeared and he can't contain the wrath he feels.
One is the Ninja Assassin, Ayaka.
And the very person he hates, the main reason of his return.
The golden hair kid that always thwarted his plans, and stalled all the time.
The kid that almost wiped them out because of one skill, and the person that he swore to make his life miserable.
"Kid, give me the books!"
Ayaka shouted, and the golden hair kid understood what she means.
Books. Skill Encyclopedia.
With a smirk, the golden haired boy started walking towards Zypher, but, Zypher, wanting to throw him off, started walking backwards.
Not just backwards, but at the same pace that the kid is walking.
"Stop!" The kid said.
His face contorted as he saw what Zypher was doing.
Although shameful, he lost his cool by what he did.
"Quietly hand over the skill books, or I will kill you he-"
"She already said that. I said, if you can kill me, you already did. But no, you can't."
"Basta-"
"Nope, I'm not the bastard. You are. These are my spoils, what gave you the right to take it?"
"Do you not know--"
"Blah blah blah. If there's anything else, I should go."
Zypher then walked away as fast as he could, but the kid's veins bulged at his head.
"KARMA!"
He shouted as a fast thief appeared and ran towards the fleeing Zypher.
Zypher knew that he won't escape today, so, he chose a "tail of a lizard" to give today.
And when he looked at his arm, he knows what he has to do.
As he ran towards the exit, he slowed down to make the thief catch up.
And as he ran, he made the thief ran around and around, making him frustrated.
But this is not Zypher's goal. He rushed towards a dark path, but suddenly, an arrow struck the place where he was supposed to run.
"Oh, not one-on-one already? Are you impatient?" But then, a knife was swung beside him.
Not wanted to get entangled anymore, he turn around, held the book in his hand and decided to let it be cut by the thief.
THWACK!
As his arm was ripped off, Zypher jumped away as he hid in the dark path, and all what's left outside was his arm and the book with five circles.