"Who are these idiots?"
The fat Boogie said while she looking at the Paragons. While Bannermanner and Melodia were focused on looking at how they could deal with the situation, Kane's attention was focused on Boogie.
'What's with those clothes? Does she think she's sexy enough to wear to skin-tight clothing with fishnets? I can clearly see his flappy stomach, yuck!'
Despite disgusted, Kane approached her, leaving Bannermanner and Melodia behind.
"I'm here because of Maria. I'm sure you know her."
"I know who they were. There were a lot of Maria in this town, and all of them were ungrateful troublemakers!"
While conversing, Bannermanner, without moving his legs, was looking around the place and saw many closed rooms. Unknown to him, it was the prison in which the Knights were being held. On the other hand, despite being the smallest person in the room, Melodia wasn't intimidated by the cave's ominous ambiance.
"I wanna pay for her debts."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. How much is her debt?"
"You feel different. You must be a Paragon. I guess that bitch managed to seduce someone as powerful as a Paragon, but I don't mind. Payment is a payment. Her debt was her father's life. To pay for it, I also needed life in exchange."
Kane secretly gulped as things were not working his way. Because he was not faltering as he was still not showing his ultimate card.
"If you're like that, then sure, go and catch Maria. Are you sure you don't want the goods that I have? Have you ever heard of Axel Tower?"
The vandals started chattering with each other. Even Boogie somehow changed her expression.
"Alright. You seem to be confident. Let's see what you have."
Since most of the people here were newbies, Kane probably was the richest man in the Herald Island with his exquisite items that he mined from Axel Tower. He opened his storage box to show Boogie the marvelous materials that he found.
THERE WAS NOTHING.
Kane started sweating in real life. His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. Luckily, he immediately disconnected the facial recognition that Boogie wasn't able to read his expressions.
'The fuck!?'
Kane had just realized that he lost all of his items since he was killed by the City Guards a few hours ago. Knowing he messed up, it was time for plan B.
"Hahaha! Here's your 1000 Gold."
"Wahahahahahahaha!!"
Boogie laughed while the rest of the vandals followed and started laughing.
BAM!
Boogie slammed her fist in the table while glaring at Kane.
"Are you kidding me, boy?"
"It's your fault for not giving me a price."
Kane was totally panicking right now that he was trying all sorts of methods to delay the conversation.
"100,000 Gold. That's her price."
"Are you damn serious? That could even let you live in a mansion in Miranda Kingdom!"
But Boogie wasn't joking. At that point, Kane knew that a single mistake would get them all killed. He doesn't have any money to pay for, and he knew that he couldn't escape the cave either.
Suddenly, he heard something from one of the locked rooms.
"Hush. Hush. Hush. Hsssss."
The sound was weird, and that Kane kept looking at the closed black door which was different from the other cells.
SNAP! SNAP!
Boogie snapped her fingers at Kane's face.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Ah! I'll take it! 100,000 Gold!"
Melodia cringed. She leaned toward Bannermanner to whisper.
"He's too bad at this. He didn't even negotiate."
"I mean... from what we've seen, he's bad at everything."
Boogie smirked. She took a piece of paper in her pocket and wrote something. After writing, she handed it to Kane along with a pen.
"Looking at your half-naked fashion, you don't have the money right now, do you?"
Kane swallowed deeply for a moment before answering.
"Yes."
"This is a contract. On this contract, we're gonna take your friends as hostages for now while you get your mone—"
"Here."
Even Boogie was surprised as to how fast Kane signed the paper. Bannermanner and Melodia were flustered. They were about to smack Kane's back, but the criminals grabbed their arm. Kane quickly smiled and bowed to Boogie so that he could leave faster.
"Alright, I'm going to get your money. Bye!"
Kane turned around and walked away.
CHING!
Bannermanner unsheathed his sword and leaped at Boogie.
SLASH!
But Boogie managed to block it by taking out a shield from her spatial inventory.
"I knew you'd do that, boy."
Bannermanner was surprised upon seeing that she could also access the spatial inventory like a Player. Boogie swung her massive shield, banging it at Bannermanner. The Paragon managed to dodge it only to get hit by a battleaxe that Boogie summoned.
"Uaack!"
Bannermanner was tossed to the floor with major injuries. Suddenly, a large health bar appeared on all of the players' screens.
Boogie LVL 40
Hp: [12000/12000]
However, for Kane, since his level was still low, the HP was displayed in question marks. Seeing that it was a boss fight, Kane immediately ignored what's happening and continued running away. Since he wasn't the one who initiated the flight, no one was attacking him. Until a woman shouted.
"Boss! Our assassination plan has failed! What do we do now?"
Kane slowly looked behind to see who said that and who was that person she was referring. And his fears were correct. Melodia shouted it while looking at him.
'OMG! This bitch!'
Boogie pointed her battleaxe at Kane.
"Get that man! We're gonna sell these 3 Paragons here!"
The crewmembers of Boogie grabbed Kane and held him down.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! You said, let's be rational?!?!"
Boogie approached him while sharpening her axe.
"What is it?"
"A life for a life, that's what you said earlier, right?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I just saved your men's life from a monster. They can vouch for me! So, as a price for their lives, let me go! I saved almost a hundred of them! You're even indebted to me!"
Boogie turned at Melo, who was holding Kane down, instead.
"Is it true?"
"Ummm... yes."
SWING!
Boogie immediately slashed her axe at Melo's group. Luckily, Kane managed to pull him down, saving him one more time.
"If you've been saved by this idiot. Then you don't deserve on my crew. Kill them all!!"
CLANG!
The recovered Bannermanner attacked Boogie once again. But Boogie could block his attacks. During the scuffle, Kane stood up and grabbed Melo.
"There's the exit! We have to run!"
Kane, Melo, and his crew started running away toward the exit. But they were blocked by a massive number of thugs. Since the pathways were tight, Kane couldn't exploit his fast movement speed, forcing him to fight his way through.
Bannermanner fought with Boogie courageously despite that he was just level 18, facing a level 40 boss. But because of their level difference, Boogie continuously blocked all of Bannermanner's attacks, while Bannermanner couldn't. He had so much trouble in dodging Boogie's massive battleaxe.
Bannermanner took another attempt to attack Boogie. He grabbed Boogie's axe while she was swinging it, bringing him directly on top of her. Bannermanner released his grip from the axe and directly slashed Boogie's face.
[Critical hit]
Bannermanner dropped to the ground with a smile on his face as he was successful.
PAK!
"Ack!"
CRACK!
Even if it was a critical hit, Boogie was unscathed and kicked Bannermanner away, toward a pile of broken wares.
It only took a second for Boogie to reach him and slammer her axe directly on his face. Despite her obese stature, he was still way faster the Bannermanner. Facing a level 40 Boss was no joke.
Boogie walked away from the defeated Paragon.
SLASH!
"AAAAGGHHHH!!"
She was slashed in the back by Bannermanner. He was still alive despite taking fatal damage.
SWING!
Bannermanner rolled over and sliced Boogie's leg.
"Argh! You little!"
But it wasn't enough. Boogie stomped him in the face in retaliation.
BAM!
The floor cracked upon jamming Bannermanner's handsome face on it. However, he still managed to move his hand and stabbed Boogie in the leg.
PSSSHHH!
Blood started dripping out of Boogie's leg, but she was still fine. She pulled the sword from his leg and then kicked Bannermanner away. She found it weird as Bannermanner should've been dead already. But a Boss was called a Boss for a reason. She looked around and saw the hiding Melodia in the corner, who was secretly healing Bannermanner.
To survive, Kane resorted to grabbing his allies and pushing them into the enemies.
"Hey, dude. I saved you, right? Save me this time!"
"Uwackk!"
Kane pushing his associates at the people blocking him that he slowly managed to move toward the exit.
'These are just NPCs anyway!'
"RRRAAAAHHHH!!"
Boogie's loud scream echoed throughout the whole cave. After screaming, Boogie shoved the last barrel that was hiding Melodia away. Bannermanner tried to run toward Boogie, but he was shot by an arrow and dropped to the ground.
[Status: Fractured]
As he fell to the ground, Bannermanner saw a lot of archers on the cliffs. They aimed in the sky and rained arrows at the infiltrators. Melodia tried to protect herself by creating multiple barriers.
[Holy Barrier!]
Kane could see it. The light at the end of the cave. He was about to escape the cave, but an arrow landed on his back.
"Kuhh!"
Kane fell to the ground. He quickly stood and continued running to the exit. But he was showered by a lot of arrows.
Eeeooww! Eeeooww! Eeeooww!
Kane fell to the ground with almost 10 arrows impaled on his back.
'Damn it. Is this it? Am I gonna die? Again!? What kind of bullshit quest is this? Fighting against a level 40 is fine. But fighting against a hundred enemies who were at least level 20 at once is unacceptable! Fuck this game!'
The reason for that was because this quest wasn't supposed to be played this way. They needed to free the prisoners so they could help the Players finish the quest. To add to that, the captain of the royal guards imprisoned behind the gates was level 100.
Still on the ground, Kane couldn't do anything but to stare at his allies falling one by one. Kane closed his eyes. His character and his body in the real world were both lying down as he was already exhausted.
It was a long day. He tried to fight some guards, and then some thugs, and then he accidentally woke up an ancient tree, and now he was trying to fight the final stage before leaving the Herald Island.
'I should've logged out earlier when I defeated the treant. I wanna sleep.'
Melo, who was just beside him, tried to save his friends from the raining arrows. Bannermanner also started crawling on the floor, trying to save Melodia. But all of their efforts were futile.
An arrow landed on Kane's leg, but he no longer cared. He was too tired to think about anything that he was just blankly staring at the cave's stalactites.
'Man of justice, my ass. I wanna res—'
His eyes widened upon remembering something.
'It's funny that even though my level was high, I was crawling through the Red Cliffs to find the right materials for my Moonwrath Armor like an idiot!'
Kane remembered those words that came from Joshua. The stalactites of the caves made him remember about the Red Cliffs that Joshua used to say.
Kane immediately rolled over toward the closed rooms to dodge the arrows as it was the only place where arrows won't go land. He began ramming at the doors to get inside.
BAM!
"Ow! Ow! Ow!"
But he just hurt himself because the doors were sealed. Most of the prisoners stood up and saw the commotion. They keep calling Kane for help, but Kane couldn't do anything and moved on to the next rooms.
Boogie finally smashed the last barrier that Melodia made. Bannermanner saw it and tried to crawl faster by jamming his sword to the ground, using it as a cane.
[The durability of your sword has decreased by 10]
[The durability of your sword has decreased by 10]
[The durability of your sword has decreased by 10]
Bannermanner wasn't deterred by the notifications, as saving Melodia was more important than his sword. But he was too far from them.
Boogie swung her axe toward Melodia that hurled her flying to the sky. Because of her light body, Melodia was flung way too high that she was slammed to the ceiling and fell back to the floor.
[Status: Fractured]
In just one hit, Melodia entered her fractured status. It was a miracle that she was still alive.
Boogie mockingly stared at the helpless Bannermanner before going straight at the incapacitated Melodia. Bannermanner tried his best to move forward by jamming his sword once more, but it was never enough.
Kane, still intoxicated because of exhaustion in real life, tried to limp forward to find shelter. But Kane reached one locked room and heard something.
"Tsssssssss. Hush. Hush. Hush. Hsssss."
"What the? This is the same sound earlier? What's in this door?!"
He stopped and tried to pry it open but couldn't. He kept on punching on the door, but a notification popped up.
[You need 150 STR to destroy this sealed door]
[You received 20 damage]
[You received 20 damage]
[You received 20 damage]
'Ahhh shit. Should I use metamorphosis? Is it time?'
Kane scratched his head as he doesn't know what to do. Using metamorphosis was an option, but it would only last for 5 minutes.
Bannermanner kept on trying to crawl forward, but he was too far from Boogie and Melodia. As Boogie finally reached Melodia, the female Paragon couldn't do anything but to just reach out to her hand at Bannermanner's direction. Boogie laughed.
"Aha! How cute."
Boogie raised her axe to strike Melodia. But Melodia healed and enhanced her hands that it boosted Boogie's swing. Her amplified swing made her lose the grip on her axe, hurling it a few steps away from her.
"Hmph! What was that? It only gave you a few seconds to live."
Boogie turned around and walked toward her fallen battleaxe. Bannermanner still didn't lose hope and kept on going forward. Suddenly, someone shouted at him.
"Hey! If you wanna save her, throw me your sword!"
Bannermanner looked to his left and saw Kane shouting at him. Bannermanner ignored the culprit of this mess and continued going toward Melodia. But Kane screamed one more time.
"You know it yourself! You're not gonna make it! Stop acting like a hero, and focus on a realistic way of saving her instead!"
Bannermanner knew it. He knew that his efforts were futile. Regretfully, he threw his sword at Kane.
PAK!
Kane safely caught it and immediately bashed it on the door.
[The durability of this sword dropped to 10%]
'Shit! 10%? What's with this sword?!'
But just like before, problems kept on kicking in. The sword was already useless as Bannermanner already messed it up by grinding it on the floor. One more hit, and if the door still wasn't destroyed, the sword will be destroyed. Kane took a step back, raised the sword, and shouted.
[SWORD THROW]
Kane threw the sword at the door and activated his skill.
CLANG!
[The durability of this sword dropped to 0%]
[Weapon destroyed]
The sword was split into two. However, because of Kane's skill, he managed to create a large hole in the door. Kane peeked at it.
"MAMA MIA! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!"
Kane immediately jumped away upon seeing a creepy figure inside. The black creature came out and tried to bite Kane. Luckily, fell down that he unknowingly dodged the attack.
"KAAAHH!! TSSSSS!!"
The creature leaped passing over Kane and landed beside Bannermanner. Even the respectable gentleman was horrified by the monster. It looked like a female human because of her female body and long hair, but its skin turned into black scales, and its size massively increased.
Bannermanner tried to crawl away, but the creature was too close to him. The creature opened its massive mouth to eat him but stopped midway upon seeing a larger prey.
Boogie was about to drop her axe at Melodia, but the creature bit his neck.
"AHHHH!! FUCKKK!"
"Rraawwwwrrr!!"
Suddenly, multiple souls appeared around the cave and were absorbed by the monster. Because of his class, only Kane managed to see what happened. After eating the souls, the creature became a lot bigger, far bigger than the already big Boogie.
Seeing the monster up close, Boogie started to feel fear.
"Everyone! S-Shoot this fiend!"
As a lot of arrows landed on the creature, it only irritated the monster even more. The blackish being opened its mouth and aimed it at the cliffs.
BEAM!
Suddenly, a laser came out and obliterated the line archers.
With a new enemy entered the fight, Kane took the opportunity to run to the exit once more. But the creature's laser destroyed the cave and created falling boulders everywhere.
Bannermanner and Melodia both managed to survive. But they were still in the middle of the cave and very prone to being crushed by the boulders.
Despite stepping up his game, Kane was once placed in a stalemate once again. No matter what kind of effort he made, problems kept on appearing.
'Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!'
He opened his status box and looked into his skills.
"I still have metamorphosis, but what can it fucking do against level 40s when I can't even defeat a level 20 treant alon—Huh? What's this?"
Kane's eyes widened while looking through his skills. He looked around and saw the ships filled with smuggled goods were docked on the riverbank. Kane immediately stood up and skimmed through the crowd of people fighting each other. Kane grabbed them to look at their faces.
"Are you that guy? Oh, you're not!"
And then pushing them away if it was not the guy that he was trying to find. Some of them tried to attack Kane, but Kane could outrun them anytime. After a few attempts, he finally found the person that he was looking for.
"Hey! You're Melo, right!"
"No, I'm here!"
He grabbed the wrong baldie. It should be the baldie behind that baldie.
"Come here!"
"What do we do, brother? Are we gonna die here? I didn't know it would happen this way!"
"No, it was my fault. If only I really have money to pay. And that's why I'm gonna save you guys once again. Try to survive! But first, did you know what kind of supplies are stored in those ships?"
"Yes. I do. What do you need?"
"I needed a specific item. An item that could help us survive! No! It could even help us win this shit!"
While there was chaos everywhere, Bannermanner and Melodia finally managed to reach each other by crawling. But as soon as they held hands, a large boulder started falling on top of them.
[SWORD THROW!]
The rock was split into two by Kane. He arrived and carried Bannermanner while Melo went to the other side to take Melodia. Both of them were taken toward a ship. While walking toward the ship, Bannermanner got curious about something.
"How did you know there was some kind of creepy shit in that room?"
"I-I can see souls."
"What? Is that an item effect? I also want that item."
"Ummm, yeah. I mean, no. It was a permanent buff. You can get it by worshiping and bowing for 9,999 times in front of graves."
"What?! Did you seriously do that?"
"I'm not forcing you to believe me. But think about it. I did know someone was inside that room."
It was a blatant lie. We all knew that Kane could see souls because of his Doppelganger class.
They continued running toward the ship, but the entrance was blocked. Melo gently dropped Melodia on the ground to kick a sword toward Kane. As soon as Kane grabbed it, he tossed the sword using one hand toward the blocked entrance.
[Sword Throw]
[Sword Throw Level Up]
[Sword Throw – LVL 2]
[Description: Inflict 250% damage by throwing your sword. If it landed on a skull, it would inflict 350%. Has 10% chance to critically hit]
'Wow, I'm getting used to this!'
The sword quickly destroyed the gate. The group entered the ship and immediately dropped the injured Bannermanner and Melodia to a secured room before leaving to find something. The exhausted Bannermanner and Melodia leaned at each other.
"Are we gonna live?"
The lady broke her silence.
"I'm sorry. I said I'll join you earlier to help. But you're the one who healed me a lot of times, while I did nothing."
"No. Thank you. Desperately banging your blade to the floor just to reach me is more than enough!"
Melodia replied with a bright smile on her bruised face.
"Thanks for trying your best!"
Seeing her bright smile healed Bannermanner mentally. But their romantic moment ended when a member of Melo's gang entered the room.
"They barged in! We have to go!"
Their allies came in and carried Bannermanner and Melodia. The pulled them through the hallway and saw a crowd of vandals coming inside the ship. Because Kane destroyed the entrance, the boat became the only place where everyone could be protected from falling boulders.
"Here! Melo came here!"
Bannerman and Melodia were pulled toward a broad hallway. As soon as they entered, the crewmembers locked the door and threw piles of chairs to block it. Eventually, they reached the locked door at the end of the hallway in which Melo and Kane were believed to be behind it.
BOG!
A loud slam was heard from the other side of the barricaded door.
BOG! BOG!
The sound became louder.
BOG! BOG! BOG! BOG! BAGUMMM!!
The barricade was destroyed by Boogie's crewmembers who wanted shelter from the raining boulders.
"Attack!!"
Boogie's crew and Melo's crew clashed each other. But in just a few seconds, Melo's team was overwhelmed due to their inexperienced members and lack of numbers. With only a few of them left, Melodia tapped Bannermanner's shoulder, and a white light enveloped him.
"That was my last mana. Make it count."
"Of course!"
Bannermanner took a sword on the ground and fought with Boogie's crew. Despite being exhausted a few minutes ago, Bannermanner was still able to display his superior sword fighting skills. He took down five opponents at once!
The Paragon took a shield on the ground and continued his killing streak. Suddenly, another smuggler approached Bannermanner from behind. That smuggler was too big as its shadow was big enough that it blocked the light coming from the other side of the room, making the whole hallway dark.
Despite that, Bannermanner threw the shield at that big smuggler's head, pushing him back. The Paragon dashed forward and stabbed that thug in the stomach.
PIERCE!
But nothing happened. Bannermanner looked up and saw that it was actually Boogie.
"W-What?! Why are you her—uwaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!"
Boogie grabbed his head with her bare hands and lifted him up while trying to crush his skull. Bannermanner couldn't do anything but scream. Melo's friends were all already defeated, and Melodia was sitting in the corner, terrified at the sight of Bannermanner's skull being crushed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
Bannermanner kept screaming in pain as his health, that Melodia restored, quickly dropped to 10%.
[Status: Fractured]
PAPAK!
"Ugh!"
Suddenly, another giant man appeared and punched Boogie away. The punch was too strong that Boogie became dizzy for a few seconds, and loosened her grip on Bannermanner.
While Bannermanner was falling on the ground, the man as big as Boogie caught Bannermanner with his large hands like a newborn baby carried by a mother.
The man turned around and gently dropped Bannermanner beside Melo and Melodia. Because Boogie fell down, the light shining the hallway was back, and it shined the ridiculously big muscular man.
It was a man with a tiny head but a very large body. It was like a bodybuilder, but this was way over the top that the body was massively big, with a head that stayed with its original size. That person was Kane.
"HUEHUEHUE! WHO'S YOUR DADDY NOW!"
Kane stood up in his boxing posture and faced the level 40 Boogie alone with his ridiculously looking body.