"Meh, you've finally made some relevant progress." Misery commented as he threw another empty bottle at Kiran, which the young man caught with ease.
Kiran held the bottle calmly and nodded to Misery. "Thanks to your teaching, I have finally reached Third Order Knighthood."
Misery waved his hand lazily. "Its not just me. You have your sister to thank and this fellow here as well."
Shadowheart smiled. "Not a problem. I've learned a lot from observing the way the bloodline energy moves through the human body. It might not be possible to replicate it without the Merlin bloodline, but it can be used as reference for other energies."
As for Kiran's 'sister' Sublime, she was extremely uncomfortable with how her uncle pointed out their relation. After all, she still Kiran as her favorite plaything, and didn't want to let go just yet until she had milked him of all his happiness until he was left with despair.
As such, she glared at her Uncle with a pout. Misery simply pinched her nose and pulled it, making Sublime squeal like a pig being slaughtered. As she clutched her red nose with tears in her eyes, Misery noticed that another visitor had appeared.
"Oi core member losers, I AM BORED. Entertain me!" AP Berzerker walked into the training hall with an expression of looking to cause trouble.
Immediately, Shadowheart became dissatisfied. "Who let this mangy cur in here? How uncouth!"
"Peh peh, uncouth your mother! You refined fellows are like ass to me, you talk shit nonstop!" AP Berzerker replied with a sneer.
Shadowheart's eyes flashed as the weight of eternity roiled around him, giving him an orange-yellow aura that felt like it contained the vicissitudes of the universe. "It seems like my calm disposition has given you the assumption that I am soft. When I succeed in breaking your body in 4 seconds, I shall spend the rest of the time breaking your spirit."
AP Berzerker pointed his axe at Shadowheart. "Blah blah blah, I can't hear you with all that cock in your mouth!"
Just as AP and Shadow were about to brawl, Tunderpower appeared and clobbered AP Berzerker on the head. The hit was so strong that AP dug a hole in the ground and disappeared from eyesight without even getting to make a sound.
Tunder sighed and gave Shadowheart a look of bitterness. "Can you not purposefully indulge him?"
Elle Leone who had been accompanying Shadowheart all this time was baffled. She had been thinking whether to interfere and calm Shadowheart down, but she did not know if their relationship as two people had progressed far enough for her to try that.
Wait, so he actually wasn't angry??
Shadowheart scratched his cheek with a bashful smile. "He said he was bored, so I thought to entertain him and the rest of us."
Elle was speechless. Tiamat scoffed. "You useless in heritor, how can you, as the wielder of chaos, not even sense chaotic emotions and troublesome situations?"
"Shut up! At least I am strong enough to enter the Chaos Zone unlike you who couldn't even get a glimpse!" Elle lashed back cruelly.
Tiamat was damaged by this and spat out a wad of blood. However, the Dragoness was smiling crazily. "Yes, that's it. This is the real you, an evil witch who likes causing pain to others! Hahahaha!"
Elle paled slightly and decided to ignore the obvious goading and gaslighting that Tiamat was trying to pull. It was clear this wicked Dragoness had not given up trying to make the current Elle a clone of per personality wise.
While Elle was battling within...
"You know, you're a really nice dude." Misery commented honestly as he patted Shadowheart on the back.
"Am I? I've often been called anti-social and cold." Shadowheart commented with surprise.
"That's because you've never met people who could make you display your true self. Usually, anti-social people, by virtue of being such, are much more observant of peoples natures and can often tell bad company from good ones." Misery began while taking a swig.
"However, since most people present bad company in this bitch of an earth, most people call you anti social because you don't conform to their expectations of you, socially." Misery ended by throwing the empty bottle behind him, which clobbered an innocent Umbra basic member into unconsciousness.
Tunder folded his arms and nodded. "That's right. If you think about it, no one is truly emotionless unless they have been chemically altered. It is part of human nature to express it, unless one has difficulty expressing it naturally due to chemical imbalances, but then thats a different thing."
AP_Berzerker climbed out of his p[it and spat out sand and concrete before shaking his head. "I've been called anti-social life until I exploded that day. The way I see, Anti-social is used for people who are perceived to how low EQ. Its like how one would called a person with low IQ a retard. Its the equivalent."
Shadowheart pondered. "But I'm usually just quiet and reserved. How does that fit?"
Misery sighed. "People hate those who don't do the same things they do. If they go to parties, club, run away from school, fuck in bathrooms, they expect you to do same. If you don't, they give you a label and pressure you into doing it indirectly."
Tunder shook his head. "That's even for vices and unsavory things. Tamer stuff like being athletic, talkative, expressive and 'fun' are also expected. If you're the opposite, it is seen as strange."
AP_Berzerker smacked the side of his head and pushed out some stones from his ear. "Funniest part is, people actually don't like overly expressive people. You can quickly go from 'fun' to 'irritating', but a reserved person would never give that feeling. Rather, they give the normies a feeling of boredom."
Shadowheart was surprised. "Boredom? I don't think so. I also have hobbies and things I enjoy."
"Yeah but that's the problem, the normies don't share them with you. That is why they label you, because you like things they don't, dislike what they like and so on." Misery stated as he rummaged through his inventory.
"Hold on, hold on, stop! Why are you guys even discussing this stuff right now?" Elle interrupted with frustration.
"More like, why are they talking about such stuff while still sober." Nightwalker joked at he walked over with his hands in his jacket, a calm smile on his face.
"Hey, its the calamity guy. What's brings you here?" Misery asked with a look of amusement.
"Hmph, what's it to you drunk bastard?" Nightwalker scoffed as he glared at Misery.
Misery simply snickered and continued drinking, deciding not to bicker with this guy. Nightwalker also ignored Misery and focus on Shadowheart and Elle. He rubbed his chin as he observed them.
"So guys, what are we? Family? Friends? Or a super secret group of super powered beings set to save and or destroy the world?" he asked with a smile.
Shadowheart and Elle shared a look.
"Don't ask me. From the way our guild leader speaks, this guy is his second in charge." Elle stated as she pointed a finger at Shadowheart.
Shadowheart gave Elle a look of dissatisfaction. "Why, you threw me to the dogs real fast huh?"
Elle simply snickered and looked away. Knowing that he couldn't do anything to her - yet - Shadowheart pondered Nightwalker's question.
"Logically, ethically, morally and factually, all of the above. We are technically family no matter how distant as we share the same blood, we are also friends since we share the same purpose and belong to the same group and we are also destined to either save the world or destroy it depending on how our boss decides." Shadowheart answered wisely.
"Personally, I prefer destruction." Nightwalker replied while folding his arms, Jormungandr nodding with agreement.
"Err... me too...?" Elle added slowly, with a look of uncertainty. Her face became red when Tiamat roared with satisfied laughter within.
"As long as there's brew leftover, I don't care either way." Misery interjected cheekily.
"Ohh!! Me! Me! I also want despair and destruction!" Sublime jumped with excitement, sending her chest on a ride between the folds of space.
"I would rather save the world." Kiran stated calmly, his eyes reflecting indifference.
"Shut up you bloody bootleg Eastern Fantasy protagonist." Misery cursed as he threw a bottle over to Kiran, which bonked the fellow in the forehead.
Kiran though was totally indifferent. He just had this air that showed he was neither servile nor overbearing. He was the face of utter calmness.
Misery slapped his forehead. "I've got to save this brat before he sinks to deep!"
Nightwalker gave Kiran a look askance. "If you ask me, he seems already too far gone."
Misery could only sigh with defeat.
"Meh, I'm thirsty." AP_Berzerker announced before casually walking over to Misery and swiping his rum before he could take a swig.
AP_Berzerker drank the entire bottle in one gulp and then burped, then ceremoniously threw the bottle towards Kiran. Kiran was exasperated by this. Since when had he become a walking target for drunkards?!
Misery just glanced at his empty palm, touched his dry throat and gazed at the empty bottle flying over to Kiran. Just as he was about to fly into a rage and beat this fellow to death, Nightwalker spoke.
"Why do you waste money buying drinks? Why not just make your own?"
Misery glared at AP_Berzerker who wiggled his brows provocatively before answering Nightwalker.
"I have already learned the Tradeskill, and I've been putting hours into practice. But fuck if this game doesn't require you to grind like a bitch to make any progress."
The other shared a knowing look.
"I've also had difficulty in my Magical Theory Tradeskill despite putting hours into it as well. The grind in this game is honestly ridiculous." Shadowheart acknowledged Misery complaint with a nod.
"We're even lucky we have bloodlines and special abilities. I heard that the common players grind even harder in combat than in Tradeskills. Me? I got to Rank 3 in just a week of time." Nightwalker added with a snap of his fingers.
"Lets not even talk about grinding for stuff like reputation or tokens. Before I could get this elven race change, I had to spend an entirety of 2 years. 2 goddamn years! Doing quests for the Elves nonstop!" Elle complained bitterly.
Sublime seemed surprised. "You guys don't know about the Tradeskill Altar?"
Misery glanced at her with confusion. "Tradeskill what now?"
Sublime's lips twitched. "Its a special mechanic Draco brought back from his latest adventure that speeds up the development of Tradeskill crafters by insane degrees."
The eyes of the other lit up when they heard this. "Tell us more about it!"
Sublime proceeded to explain the pros and cons of the Tradeskill Altar as well as how to use it cleverly and effectively. The jaws of the other fellows dropped when they heard the list of functions and realized that this guild really was something else!
Free Class Ups! So much money! And this Tradeskill Altar!!
How couldn't they be the number one in the world with all this? In fact, if the guild ever faltered or was even slightly inconvienced, all the management should be forced to commit seppuku, because it was practically impossible to fail with all these boons!
Sublime led the group over to the core area where the Goddess Descendants usually stayed. The group were surprised to find that of the 99 Tradeskill Altars, only about 15 were in use. After all, the only ones with access were the citizens of Vita and the members of Umbra.
Most of everyone had already used it during the early days, so they hardly saw any use now unless it was new members who just discovered it. This lack of usage severely bothered the fellows who came here and they couldn't help but glance at Sublime with questioning gazes.
