Parallel Vol. 3 [LEGACY EDITION]

Chapter 12: Resolute

"Sis, we're almost there."

Lunette heaved a sigh of relief when Shadow informed her that they were only a few minutes away from their destination. The small party had entered a complicated network of abandoned tunnels. There were many such endless tunnels close to the entrances to bewilder intruders and lead them into traps. These tunnels were one of the two reasons only Shadow, Syèl and Kira had gone to search for Lunette.

Kira had gone ahead of them to search for Kashi, which left the two nimblest of the party to brave the traps in order to find the right route.

Lunette glanced at Zafree to her side. Their journey had taken close to an hour, and Syèl's illusion spell had dispelled. Yet, surprisingly, there was surprisingly no sign of the charm effect wearing off. She was honestly stunned by this and could not understand why the charm was so effective. What she forgot to take into account were the bonus effects of Suvron's Mark and her own hard work.

When Kashi had Suvron's Mark, it gave him quite a few benefits, but all those paled in comparison to someone whose class and personality were attuned to the mark's attributes. Although Kashi was a Dimensional Artist, it was clear that to him fighting came before art, unlike Lunette who genuinely loved singing. As such, she was able to squeeze out the maximum benefits possible of the Mark. The beauty aspect passively boosted her charm stat by 15%. The effects of her songs were also passively increased by 10%. Of course, she could activate the mark at a huge cost to her mana, which would raise both percentages to 35% and 30% respectively. Last, but certainly not least was an added significant boost to the ease of mastery of music related skills.

Then there were the concerts she had held in the five weeks Kashi had been away. If warriors improved skills through fighting monsters, then bards improved their skills by playing to audiences. Just as warriors leveled faster if they fought numerous enemies, bards also did the same, but with both people and monsters.

Lunette had held eight concerts in total. She was always logged in on Tuesdays and Fridays (game time) for her concerts. Because of her professionalism, aside from her first two concerts, the rest had been all been absolute sellouts. Which meant she sang to a crowd of thousands at least six times. She had long since mastered most of her skills and was currently the highest leveled player in their group at Lv. 118. So, really, it should not have been too difficult to bewitch a man like Zafree.

The only reason she was surprised was that she herself had not had the time to test out the full extent of her abilities. Really, it was like having a Lamborghini and treating it with the mentality of a mini-cooper.

"We're here."

Shadow's voice snapped Lunette back to reality. Her eyes widened with pleasant surprise as they entered a hollowed out cave. However, before she could even let out a sound, she was tackled by Jade who gazed at her lovingly.

"Haha, you're alive! I knew you'd survive." Jade grinned as she inspected the blushing songstress. "Those Neanderthals didn't touch you did they?" She glanced at Shadow. "Guess not. If you were, Shadow would be covered in blood right now."

Shadow could only bend his head to hide his embarrassment. Even he was no match for Jade's earnest straightforwardness.

"Jade, how about you let the rest of us see her?" Shoko said with a laugh as she pried Jade off of Lunette. Shoko sent an apologetic glance Lunette's way as she said, "Glad you are alright. You had us worried there for a second."

Lunette smiled warmly. "I apologize for my selfishness."

Shoko waved away her apology. "No need for that." Her eyes held clear respect and admiration as she continued, "Your choice did reduce the number of enemies the rest had to face. Even if we made it on time, if you had not drawn half of their numbers with you, it is impossible to tell how high the casualties would have been."