"You're back!" As soon as Jack entered the Pumpkin Farm's premises, a soft body flew to nestle itself in his embrace.
He could feel her gently earthly fragrance tickle his nose, enjoying the moment. He couldn't even hear the angry shouts of his pursuers.
"Cough! There's an army outside…." Bubblegum was the one to break the warm atmosphere.
"Oh, it's always like that here." A small giggle resounded as the small fairy explained. "Still, there's more of them than usual. What shall we do, master?"
Jack grinned, taking out the item. It glowed more intensely than a thousand stars glimmering as soon as it appeared.
"Wow!" Not a single soul could resist its charm.
The entire weapon was made of water. It even keeping a shape was a miracle. It was so damn beautiful that it almost eclipsed the beauty next to it.
This was definitely a weapon worth fighting for!
Jack hurriedly checked the stats.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mythical Mermaid Trident! :droplet:
- Status Hidden! No Peeking!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"?!?"
One would need to use a high-grade appraisal technique to discover this item's secret. He didn't expect to encounter such an item so early.
Meh, whatever. It wasn't like he was out of options.
For the next 10 minutes, his companions could see him wrestle with the thing. He even spoke to the weapon, going from cajoling to threatening. Was he alright?
"If you don't show me your status, I will cut you to pieces with this knife!!" He said, taking out his Demon King's Weapon Aspect.
The mythical weapon started…trembling?! It even seemed to hum sorrowfully, its watery body shedding tears.
[Congratulations! First to Make a Mythical Weapon Cry!]
[Acquired Title: Even Bullying Weapons!]
[User, please Explain!….?!? ]
Jack didn't even bother to reply, simply looking at the quivering Trident with satisfaction.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mythical Mermaid Trident! :droplet:
Rank E+
IF Water Affinity 50
OR [Friend of the Mermaids]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Attack] 20-30
[Speed] Fast
[Range] Melee
[Durability] Very High
[Passive] + Pure Water Source
[Active] + Tidal Wave
[Active] + Mermaid Transformation
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The actives were sure to be extremely strong, but his heart sank as he saw the usage conditions.
Water affinity of 50?! This was so damn high! As for the other one, it was even more of a problem. All of D.L. had mermaid blood on their hands too. #Awkward.
For an instant, his face twisted with regret. So much for being the owner of the first mythical weapon. Afterward, Jack sighed before busying himself.
He seemed to be building a platform?…
━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━
The players outside were about to go insane.
"Let's just charge and finish him already!" One proposed, impatiently playing with his axe.
They had all seen the previous beam of blue light in the sky. This was what a true treasure was. Just taking it out had caused a natural phenomenon.
"No, wait a little more. They're stuck like rats inside, besides…." The man never finished his sentence, only pointing a distance away.
A rogue was attempting to sneak in. He sneakily swam in the water, using a special skill to hide from the monsters. Just as he reached the tree barrier around the farm…
— BAM! —
A tree suddenly clobbered him with its branches, leaving nothing of the foolish player. #Juiced!
If they wanted to push forward, they had to destroy the protectors. But, it would be hard to guess the outcome of an all-out war, especially since there were many factions assembled.
Just as many were getting restless, they finally noticed a lone man exit the premises.
"Hello everyone, and welcome to my humble domain!" Jack welcomed with a bright smile.
"Cut the crap—"
"How rude! I won't invite you inside for sure!" He snorted, turning to the others impishly. "Now, who's interested in getting a Trident?"
"?!?" Was he going to auction it? Many signaled their interest, the earlier guy regretting his big mouth.
"All of you, follow me. Leave your weapons with the trees at the entrance." He instructed.
What the hell?! Also…they still had spare weapons in their inventories. Was there even a point to that?! As they glanced at his grin, they realized he was toying with them.
Still, they complied, sighing inwardly. How ludicrous was it for a man to have trees as servants?! Yes, they were jealous…
"Here we are."
As they saw the scene in front of their eyes, they couldn't help but marvel in wonder. As expected of a mythical weapon! It was so blindingly astonishing that they almost ignored the rest.
For some reason, he had made a pedestal for the mythical weapon. The magic circle surrounding it looked powerful, the wooden platform sturdy….But who the hell just stuck a mythical weapon in a pumpkin?!
On the side, a few signs had been written so messily it was deplorable.
< Get the Mythical Weapon out of the Pumpkin? Bring it home!>
< Trident-libur! Are you the chosen one?>
< Try now for 5 gold coins each!>
< *PS: It chooses its master.>
The players kept the signs over and over, jaw agape. What kind of thing was this?! Why did it look like a cheap carnival stand to trick gullible visitors?
"So, anyone wants to try? Just give the funds to Mister Tree on the side and step forward." Jack gently explained.
They all seemed to be hesitating.
"What's the trick?"
"Trick?! Do I really look like a shady person to you? I'm obviously the most honorable person ever!" Jack protested with a lie so obvious they didn't bother to refute it.
They deliberated between one another.
"I'm guessing the array makes it impossible to succeed…"
"The weapon's probably stuck to the ground."
"Maybe the thing's cursed."
"Could be a trap…."
Seeing their distrust, Jack took the initiative. Under their shocked eyes, he proceeded with a magical vow, swearing that everything was as it seemed.
Fulfill the wielding condition —> GG
That's when wariness left them, replaced by desire. With all he had done, they could all guess that this wielding condition had to be extremely perverse.
But, one could still dream, right? Plus, 5 gold wasn't too hard to get for them. Any player their level would be able to get such a sum in a day easily, needless to say, faction leaders.
"Fine, just watch me!" A buffed lady with incredible strength stepped forward. She flexed her muscles until she turned red, but to no avail.
"Tch— Ridiculous. If anyone's going to succeed, it will be a water mage like me." A man stepped forward with a confident grin, only to get the exact same result.
They tried after the other, all failing, and they could only leave dejected. They naturally spread the word to their allies.
If they couldn't even make it budge, there was no way that anyone would succeed. They warned them not to waste their money.
In fact, they were now convinced that Jack couldn't use the thing either, even with his monstrous power.
This should have been the end of it….should. Everyone heard the warnings and even believed them. But…what if? What if they were the chosen ones?
What was 5 gold in the face of a life-changing opportunity? At that moment, tons of dumb players all swarmed to try, handing him their hard-earned gold.
"Humans sure are peculiar. I've never seen something like this in the Fairy Village." The fairy confided, the other scoffing.
This wasn't normal for humans either! What kind of brain did he have to think of this? #Free Money!
The craziness wasn't about to stop either….
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sprigfield was completely empty of players.
The NPC could be seen looking around in confusion. They had seen them head toward the battlefield, but the battle had long ended. Had the gods recalled them?
In the quiet town, a few cloaked individuals were sneakily entering the Drunken Dailor through the back door.
"Finally, you made it." The man that welcomed them looked so casual as he elegantly ate a juicy steak with a side dish of mashed potatoes. "Here, join me."
He gestured toward the open seats, steaming plates already prepared for his visitors. They all obediently sat, glancing at their host, perplexed.
Every time he would eat a bite, they would wince in fright. Somehow, he had scared them into submission by eating potatoes.
"Eat. It's warm." Jack grinned.
The visitors, ghouls, all instinctively leaned backward at the order. To them, eating regular food was akin to eating dog shit.
The current Jack was undoubtedly undead. He was a transformed ghoul, but a ghoul nonetheless! "Eat." This time his tone was incredibly brusque.
"That—" They couldn't bring themselves to do it.
"I hear about what happened. At the first sign of the inquisitors, you guys disappeared in hiding. How long has it been since you've shown a little backbone?" He accused.
"That's because—"
"Because holy light counters you? I'm aware. It counters me too. Yet, I've killed them all. What were you all doing, eh?" He stared coldly at them.
"Are they really dead?!" They exclaimed in surprise, freezing. What insane concept was this?! Those guys had been so powerful! How was it possible?!
"Now, there will be changes around here. I want you all to grow some freaking balls. First, you need to learn to look human. This includes eating your vegetables."
"?!?" They shivered.
"Now, we'll start with that, then eventually fight paladins. Still, there's another order of business. The Lich wasn't in the Canyon, not near the Tier two area anyway. Do you know what this means?"
"..."
"Either you guys need to verify your information, or we'll have to get ready to fight Tier 3 creatures, which are way stronger than the paladins you guys ran from."
Even as undead, the ghouls gulped.
"Alright, here's what I want you all to do...."
