"9th [Mastery]?" Arthur asks as we walk through the plains where the <Hill Forest> stands nearby. "So that means you guys spent some [Mastery Points] just to get back on some ants?"
"It's more than that, my dear Arthur," I say in an accent that Sherlock Holmes often used in those movies from our literature class. "You guys said it yourselves. We're going to face off against some tougher enemies by the time the new expansion rolls around. If we conquer those monsters, we might able to gain access with more [Quests] that we can't access from the [Adventurer's Guild]."
"It's not only those reasons," Wind adds. "According to Kazu, we can't re-use the same-old tactics that helped us breeze through the early levels. Now that everyone's seen us in a real battle, we have to improve our battling styles as best as we can."
"That's right. Even if we're playing casual doesn't mean we're gonna be stuck in the early levels for long."
Arthur hums in thought as we clarify our plans. "I see. And what kind of [Masteries] did you guys choose then?"
I grin while putting my pointing finger on my lips. "Se-cret!"
Wind doesn't do the same, but he adds, "It's better if you guys see it for yourselves."
Yuri chuckles, much to my confusion. "If anything, I have a feeling those [Masteries] will be a good use to both of you."
-----
That's right. We think over what kind of [Masteries] we need as our 9th one and go over the advantages and disadvantages of our current equipment and current [Masteries]. Now that I have a new staff that is vastly superior to my [Plasma Staff] (I think?), I know what my next [Mastery] should be.
Taking out my new [Prototype Crystal Staff], I raise it in the air and begin my incantation. "Spirits that dwell the earth, heed my call! Lend me your power to manipulate the stones around me!"
As soon as I say this, several stones suddenly appear around me, a sign that it was working. Once all of the stones appear, I turn to the mob of [Link Ants] and smirk before I swing my staff at them.
"[Stone Barrage]!"
With that, I let the stones fly and watch them break through the ants' annoying armor. And thanks to my [Prototype Crystal Staff's] effects, it has a [Fire Element] imbued into my [Earth] spell, which seems to be enough to give them extra damage for good measure. And that's just the start of our revenge attack!
"You chose [Earth] as your 9th [Mastery]?!" I can hear Arthur's voice echoing behind me. "Man, you are full of surprises, kid! Then again, I'm not surprised since I knew you were going to be a mage."
"Since when? We already knew it was [Earth] after Kazu's friend told me about his new staff," Yuri pointed out. "You're just saying that so you won't make a fool out of yourself."
I don't know what's going on there, but all I'm hearing is Wind chuckling and Arthur growling.
"You little arrogant r-"
"Wind!" I quickly shout, knowing it might not end well if Arthur starts losing his temper as I've seen several times in real life. "I'm saving some exposed ants for you! Get ready!"
"Right! I'm leaving you with the leader, little bro!" I see my brother rushing in and drawing his bow and arrows to aim at the small ants. "You're mine, you little freaks!"
I smiled at Wind. As usual, I'll leave the dirty work to him. But before that, I may need to weaken those ants a bit more.
"Spirits of Earth, I call your strength! Help me summon the earth to overcome my enemies! [Rock Slide]!"
I swing my staff like a heavy hammer as several more rocks suddenly rain down onto the ants. At the same time, I can see Wind taking out his [Sapphire Sword] and stabbing its blade into the exposed skin where the rocks have broken through. True to the wiki's info about the [Link Ants], we can also break through their armor skin with their weakness against [Earth]. Of course, that's not the only trick we have in our sleeves.
As I start firing another set of [Stone Barrage] after its cooldown finishes, I watched my big brother store his sword away and to my glee, he takes out a new weapon that Wallaby built at the last minute yesterday.
[Iron Dagger]
[A dagger made of iron. It's a bit stronger than a simple dagger and a great upgrade for experienced Adventurers
Creator: <Wallaby>
Effect: +17 ATK
Quality: 15]
I have to say, Ol' Wally managed to make a good weapon. No wonder why he managed to turn Wind into a great blacksmith!
But back to the battle, I see Wind suddenly appear behind one of the ants who was hit by my attacks and quickly stabs it from behind. "[Backstab]!"
To my awe, I watch the ant screech before it falls to the ground and disappears into shards. That's another ant down! We can do this. We're not like the ones who accidentally ambushed a [Link Ant] before. We're gonna earn our redemption!
Eventually, Wind takes out two more ants before returning to my side and saying, "Alright, I think I made enough damage. Time to deal with the rest of the first wave."
"No problem!" I declare as I raise my staff again and cast [Rock Slide] again. At this point, their [HP] seems low enough to break through the armor skin of the [Link Ants] that survived that previous attack, so it should be enough for my final spell against these ant jerks. To do that, I switch from my [Prototype Crystal Staff] to my trusty old [Plasma Staff]. "Spirits of thunder, heed my call. Use your mana of lightning to cut down my foes!"
As I raise my staff, the electricity enveloped itself to it, forming a blade around it. "[Thunder Blade]!"
With that declaration, I swung my staff-turned-electric blade at one of the ants, and thanks to the damage I made to their skin, the blade managed to cut through the ant's abdomen, I think. I can't really tell since the game completely censors everything I saw afterward. Regardless, I can tell my new [Thunder] spell worked after the ant breaks down into glass-shard-like pieces. Of course, I'm not done yet! There was one ant left and I would have ended it with my [Thunder Blade]. But I have other plans...
"I call the lightning from above to pierce through my foes' defenses!" I chant as another set of electricity gathered right in front of me, forming a drill-like spear this time. "[Thunder Lance]!"
I throw the spear and watch it stab through the ant's exposed skin. With that, the last ant of the first wave is defeated and we are now fully avenged!
"Yes, we did it!" I cheer triumphantly. "We finally beat those dumb ants!"
"And all of that without unknowingly dragging them near the other players and [Initio]," Wind points out. "But what about Wave 2 and beyond?"
Oh, right. This isn't the end. I did say this is only the first wave and by the looks of it, more ants are coming our way. And even if we have enough [SP] and [MP], we can't waste them along with time dealing with all of them.
"Servants of Nox, heed my call! Cover the field in darkness to confuse my enemies! [Dark Space]!"
Nox?! Before I can react, a black dome suddenly covers the area where the ants are. I can't really see what's really going on inside, but I can tell from their cries that they are surprised by this sudden spell that I definitely cannot do. Unless...
"Uh, a 'thank you' would be nice."
Wind and I turn around to see Yuri walking toward us with his sword in his right hand. Now that I recall, he does have a [Darkness Mastery] from his skillset a few days ago and I think that spell might be one of them from that [Mastery].
"Thanks for the save, Yuri," Wind says and I can say the same.
"No problem, but let's use this chance to enter the forest," Yuri replies. "[Dark Space] will remain for only 30 seconds, so we only have a small window to get through it."
"Alright. Arthur, Razul, we're leaving these ant jerks to you!"
On cue, I see Wind's friends come out of the bushes with their weapons drawn.
"No worries, guys! These ants won't survive against the awesome combo of Arthur the Great and Razul!"
Razul groans and says, "If only you would prove that "the Great" title is true. Regardless, I suggest you guys run like hell!"
Like they tell us twice! With a [Bluster Speed] spell cast on me, Wind, and Yuri, we dash into the <Hill Forest> as fast as we can. While I'm a bit guilty of leaving those ants to Arthur and Razul, I'm glad they are willing to hold the fort while we try to get through the [Hidden Quest] connected to our books. At the very least, we got through our first deaths and now, it's time to discover the mysteries behind our mysterious books and the game's world.
-----
Eventually, we go deeper into the woods and so far, the monsters trying to block our paths are nothing but pushovers since they are 10 levels below our [Total Mastery Level]. Well, some of them are a bit higher, but we still manage to bypass them with our teamwork.
As we look around, we can see that everything around us is covered in walls of trees, bushes, and rocks. It's no different from the <Tested Wilds>, but the atmosphere seems very different. Regardless, if we find something related to [Bai Hu] or anything <Volo>, I pray that our venture here is not a waste of time. But first off, it's been a bit quiet for almost an hour since we got here. So I decide to "break the ice" as Arthur would say.
"I was wondering. Why call this forest <Hill Forest>? No offense, but I can't find any hills nearby," I ask.
"Probably because we're on a hill. See?" Yuri taps his foot on the ground several times. Now that he's mentioned it, walking through this path seems a bit harder than usual. Not to mention that the ground isn't somehow straight the more we walk. "I guess that the forest is connected to <Volo's> deities from the [Prologue Lore]."
"[Prologue Lore]?" Wind asks. Right, he only heard a bit of it from me.
"It's a short story that tells about the game world's creation in the lore. It's available to read at the official site," I explain. "According to the story, 8 gods created this world with one of them naming it after himself."
"Uh, okay? So we have a narcissistic god in our mits, huh?"
"Er... Not exactly..." I can't really say if [Volo] himself is arrogant or narcissistic. "But all I know is that along with [Volo], there is [Nox], the god of darkness."
"You mean the very same Nox from that [Dark Space] spell Yuri cast?" Wind asked.
"That's the one," Yuri answers. "While I want to try leveling up my Magic Swordsman build, my true goal is to learn more about the in-game world and find the main story behind it. That's why I took the [Insignis] race to give me better chances to find one."
Wind and I stop walking when we hear this.
"[Insignis]?! You mean the very same race I'm using right now?!" I asked. "But you don't..."
"Like one?" Yuri interrupts. "Yeah, I know. But there is a cosmetic option where you can have your background to be [Half-Sign], meaning you're born as half-[Human] and half-[Insignis]."
I become surprised at this. We've never heard of that character-creation feature until now.
"And yeah, I know what you two are thinking. This is one of the beta features I'm testing right now for the developers. This was supposed to be a secret to the public, but they said sooner or later, this will be important as part of the game's main event soon."
"Oh, man..." I groan. "If we had known that by now, I would have Wind to be [Half-Sign] as well!"
Yeah, I had my priorities. But Yuri only responds with a chuckle, much to my confusion.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. It wasn't available during the launch anyway," Yuri assures us. "Besides, you guys might able to do so later down the road. Their words, not mine."
"Regardless, we should focus on the current task at hand," Wind says. "Like getting through this forest and finding whoever is connected to your strange and mysterious books."
[That won't be necessary, human.]
We gasp as soon as we hear a deep voice echoing around the forest. And we know it's not one of Arthur's pranks this time.
[From your manas alone, I suspect you two are the chosen [Insignis] being entrusted by the [Seer], correct?]
As Yuri has predicted, we were on the right track. "Y-Yes, we are," I reply quietly. "We're here to find out more about the books he gave us. And we know that this place is connected to it."
[Hmmm... I can tell you two must belong to the outsiders.]
Outsiders? What do they mean by that?
[However, what of the human hunter with you?]
Uh oh... This must have meant Wind and he's not either an [Insignis] or has the same book as us.
"I'm Kazu's older brother, Wind. As much as I want you to test him and Yuri, I cannot leave him be due to my role as a brother and guardian!"
Well, he's not wrong about half of it. Still, why do I have a feeling this won't end well?
[An older brother to the [Insignis], eh?]
I can hear them humming in thought that echoed through the forest around us. Again, bad feeling.
[Very well! It seems I might test all of you three after all.]
Before we can ask what he meant, something seems to glow below us. When we look down, we gasp to see several magic circles glowing below our feet.
"Damn it! The NPC got us!" Yuri yells.
I knew it! I quickly rush to my brother's side, but all of the sudden, I end up crashing into some sort of an invisible wall. I try to break it with my staff, but no dice. I also try casting [Thunder Lance] to break through it, but again, it doesn't seem to make a dent. From the looks of it, they look like [Mana Shields] and we have unknowingly started the [Hidden Quest] by being trapped here!
"Wind!" I yell in panic.
"Kazu!" He yells in return as he tries to break through the wall with his sword and dagger. But to my surprise, neither of them can break their walls as well. "Damn it! What the heck are you doing with us?! Let us go right now!"
[I told you, human. You and the [Insignis] children are being tested. This might torture you from the isolation, but if you truly need answers, you must survive the obstacle in front of you.]
Obstacle? Is that a hint for our [Hidden Quest]?
[Now then, let the [Sign Creation Ceremony]...BEGIN!]
The circles start to glow brighter and to our shock, Yuri suddenly disappears as well as the circle below him. Does that mean...
"Don't worry, Kaz! I will find you and get us out of this mess!" Wind shouts before I watch him disappear in a bright blue light. "I PROMISEEEEEE...!"
"Wind!" I cry as I bang onto the barrier to no avail. "Wind! WIND!!! Damn it! We can't start this [Quest] like this! I need you, Wind!!! Come back, Hayate!!!"
And as I keep screaming his name, the circle below me glows an intense blue light and before I know it, the world around me turns black.
-----
[Wind] has temporarily left the party.
[Yur1] has temporarily left the party.
-----
[NOTICE]
[The party is temporarily disbanded for the [Hidden Quest]. A temporary party will be formed for the time being.
The party leader will be [Arthur] until the [Quest] is over.]
-----
New Quest: Sign Creation Ceremony ***
Type: [Hidden]
Status: In Progress
Party Members:
[Kazu]
-----
[NOTICE]
[Please note that while you are required to play alone for this [Hidden Quest], your [Guardian Player] will keep track of your status for the duration and the settings they provided will still be up as per the game rules.
However, they have no right to stop the [Quest] nor leave their current location unless the minor experiences any mental issues for this segment. Player discretion is advised.]
-----
Wind's Masteries
[Archery] Level 19
[Woodcrafting] Level 10
[Swordsmanship] Level 18
[Cooking] Level 9
[Wind] Level 16
[Physical Enhancement] Level 17
[Hunting] Level 15
[Blacksmithing] Level 18
[Dagger] Level 6
-----
Kazu's Masteries
[Arcana] Level 20
[Thunder] Level 18
[Wind] Level 15
[Alchemy] Level 18
[Magecrafting] Level 15
[Magical Affinity] Level 19
[Scribe] Level 18
[Earth] Level 6