Chapter 403 Barter
As soon as Dave pressed a hand on La-Blair's corpse, a notification appeared in front of him.
***
You have obtained the following items.
[Demon Soul]
Ultimate Skill Book [Demon Spear] Tier SSS
[Chosen One's Token]
Special Rune [Demon Claws]
2,000 Gold.
***
Dave was surprised to see something similar to the [Dragon Soul] he had obtained from the kill on the Dragon of Terror, he believed that the [Demon Soul] would offer the same type of boost to his demonic related Skills. Sadly he only earned one so far, [Demonic Ascension]. However, with the new Skill Book, he got from the drop, that might change.
He inspected the Skill Book.
***
Demon Spear, SSS Tier.
Class Restricted: Ranger Only!
Shoots a spear that cannot be blocked, parried or evaded.
Drains 90% of the user's current mana, Stamina, HP. Deals 600% base weapon damage in true Damage.
Cooldown 24H
Enters Weakened State for 1 Hour.
Weakened State, all abilities will have their effects reduced by 20%.
***
Dave frowned, the Skill was not bad, but the Class Restriction made it useless to him.
"Guess you're in luck Zoe. Don't say I never gave you anything good." He joked.
"Oh, so sweet," Zoe laughed.
"Alright, Tiny," Dave called and the small slimy terror popped up from his inventory.
The Grave Lord looked at Dave with expectancy.
"Go, have fun eating," Dave said laughingly.
The slime shuddered in excitement and jumped up from Dave's side bag. It opened up revealing enormous jaws and swallowed the dragon-shaped demon from tail to head as if he were slurping a giant noodle.
No matter how many times he watched Tiny, it was an amazing sight to behold how the slime managed to eat something thousands of times larger than itself, without inflating or growing even a bit in size.
"Shouldn't you have tried to revive it first?" Lone questioned his course of action.
"Nope, not gonna risk reviving a demon into Undeath. Who knows if the Ash-King won't have a method of making it double-cross us. Especially a Chosen One, with their innate ability to revive as a stronger being… that's just a recipient for disaster." Dave shook his head.
"Alright, so what are you gonna do now?" Zoe asked.
"Gonna be sending CCN the footage of today's battles, and check up on the boys and their progress."
"You don't need to be online for that. How about you log out? Let's have breakfast," Zoe suggested.
"Ah, right! Sorry, I totally forgot you're still back in my apartment," Dave happily agreed.
"It's a condo. An apartment is the financial status of a unit in a building, a condo is an owned unit in a building," Zoe corrected him.
"Right," Dave said and logged out.
Once he was out, he noticed Zoe wearing one of his hoodies... well more accurately it should be one of his. This was the first time he saw it, but it was not too surprising given the fact that he now owned a room full of clothes, enough to outfit a midsize clothing store.
The girl's hair appeared half wet, indicating she must have used the shower before watching Dave's fight. She looked different from her usual ready state, but nevertheless, for Dave, Zoe looked breathtaking.
"Ho, you look comfortable," Dave said in a teasing tone embracing her in his arms.
"Why wouldn't I?" Zoe laughed back and kissed him lightly on the lips.
"We should get some food," She said.
"Yeah, I think I have something in the fridge," Dave replied. A bit unwilling to part, he eventually proceeded into the kitchen.
Zoe followed after and watched as Dave began preparing for breakfast.
He took out some eggs and bacon from the fridge as well as a carton of milk, then turned toward the drawers of the kitchen.
He was having a bit of a hard time locating the necessary utensils as he still was not used to where everything was. But it didn't take him too much time until he was ready to start. Zoe was leaning against the kitchen counter, watching him cook.
He began by frying the bacon and added the eggs while also preparing coffee and hot milk to go with some cereals.
A couple of minutes later he placed everything on the dining table and waited for Zoe to join in.
"I'm quite lucky I got myself a boyfriend who can actually cook," Zoe sounded chipper.
"This? This is just some basic stuff. You should try my roasted lamb thigh. I guarantee you'll end up licking your fingers after it." Dave claimed.
"Oh, really? I'm definitely looking forward to trying it out now. I didn't know you can cook something so complicated," Zoe said.
"Nothing is complicated with enough practice, I had to make all my meals myself you know."
"Yeah I do, I on the other hand never even boiled an egg," Zoe said.
"You can always learn. I'd be happy to teach you" Dave offered while he was cutting a piece of bacon.
"Wow, this is delicious! " Zoe praised him.
The two of them continued chatting as they ate. Zoe even volunteered to help Dave wash the dishes after they finished. The pampered princess of the gun-runner lord was having a great time performing menial work and enjoying every part of it, especially in the company of Dave.
"Mercy's currently not your biggest fan you know," Zoe mentioned suddenly.
"I bet. But what was I supposed to do? Lose?"
"Nah, but you should be aware, she is a perfectionist. She never likes when things don't go according to plan."
"How is me defeating her aligned with that?" Dave asked.
"Well, she is the number one Assassin in-game, that comes with a perfect 100% assassination record of all players she faced since she started playing. And you just ruined her record, again," Zoe said.
"Uh, she wouldn't try to take it on me IRL, would she?" Dave asked.
Zoe laughed before answering, "No, Mercy is not that petty, but in-game, I would be very careful if I were you."
"Ugh, more problems, I'll have to tell Ralph to keep his girlfriend away from me," Dave shook his head.
The two kept talking, forgetting the time in their chat, they enjoyed each other's company and were fond of letting things go at their leisure.
Dave didn't press for attention, and neither did Zoe, and it seemed that it suited the two of them perfectly.
An hour later, Zoe bade Dave goodbye, she had to go back home. Unfortunately for Dave, he didn't have a secondary gaming capsule, otherwise he would have asked her to stay. Luckily all it would take to change this fact was money, something the current Dave did not lack anymore.
After Zoe left, Dave logged back in, he still had an army to lead.
He found himself in the Wilds. The southern section, near Urburg. He needed to head farther east. By now, his army should have already reached one of the nearby cities, and he needed to be there for the assault.
But the distance was too great for him to cover on foot, so he summoned Tiny.
The small slime appeared from Dave's side bag.
"Tiny, are you full?" Dave asked.
To which the small slime shuddered, convoying to Dave his answer.
"Good, I need you to take me to the East. Let's meet up with the rest of the boyz," Dave said.
Tiny understood Dave's implication and began transforming.
Dave had thought that the small creature would change shape to match that of the Wyvern he had consumed a while ago. But Tiny went a step over. Elongating itself to match that of an enormous black scaled eastern dragon.
Dave smiled and rode on Tiny's back as he took to the skies.
Dave noticed that the dragon didn't have any wings, but it still flew by stepping on empty space. He had read something related to this when he was young. That eastern dragon would sometimes step on clouds to move.
Tiny stepped through space and moved at a much faster speed than even his former Wyvern self. Making the distance from next to Urburg and all the way to Nora in less than ten minutes, and met the rest of Dave's army in even less of a time, deep in the Territory of the Qin army.
Dave had gone past many small towns that had burnt to nothingness. He didn't fail to see the many corpses of NPCs that had failed to escape the massive monster outbreak. It made him wince, he didn't wish for the NPCs to die. But he didn't fool himself thinking he was some sort of savior.
He needed to complete his agenda, and if it required the death of NPCs unrelated to his undead legion, he would have to reluctantly accept it and move on.
The dragon arrived next to Dave's camped army, it appeared to him that Singund hadn't issued the command to attack yet.
Dave had noticed that the city was at least as large if not bigger than Nora. Its walls were much wider and higher, and it had many catapults and ballistae sat up on top of its walls.
Sieging this city would cost him many soldiers. Even if the city was partially void of its citizens, with barely some soldiers stationed at the top of the walls and a small army situated right under the walls of the city.
"Singund, what's the situation?" Dave asked as he dismounted.
The giant High-Orc chieftain answered immediately, "Your lordship, the Qin Army have stationed a hundred of their Elite Soldiers at the city gate. We can whittle them down, but we will suffer heavy casualties. I opted to wait for your orders."
"Good decision," Dave said while his eyes were glued to the few hundred soldiers at the gate. At their front were the armored Elite Soldiers of the Qin Army. They wore their blue and green armors. Their mere presence was a huge deterrent to Dave's forces.
He didn't doubt that they could easily carve their way through his Death Knights. Dave judged each of them to be as strong as a Doom Knight. It was quite problematic for him to face these types of enemies so early on.
If he lost a lot of his soldiers before he raided the capital, he would find himself helpless against the fortifications that should be stationed by now at its walls.
Dave needed firepower, something strong enough to destroy the soldiers stationed at the gate. He didn't have what it takes right now to bore through them, however, he knows that there is one person in the current game that could actually do just that.
Dave used his phone dial and called Ralph. After inquiring a bit about the person in his mind Dave turned to the orc and said.
"Singund, stand your ground for now and wait for me. I may have an idea, where we can get some reinforcements" Dave ordered and tore a teleportation scroll to Icathia, the capital of the Devastator Kingdom.
Dave appeared in the middle of the city square. Hundreds of players moved about, each minding their own business.
But soon enough the first players noticed the Undead, many of the lower levelers swarmed around him, while most of the higher-level players stayed clear of his path and watched his movements.
Dave strode about in the town center, moving toward the Devastator Palace, the HQ of the super guild.
Moments later, Dave saw his friend, donned in bronze armor, the gear Dave gave him after killing one of the Qin Captains that dared assault Urburg.
"Bro, you should know that you don't currently have many fans in the Devastator guild," Ralph greeted his best friend with a smile on his face like it was no big deal.
"And why is that?" Dave asked after he fist-bumped his friend.
"Because your thoughtless actions caused a shit ton of problems for us!" came the enraged answer from someone quite familiar to Dave.
Dave turned his head to the side. There was a black armored player with a battle-ax strapped to his back, standing with his arms crossed.
Right next to him was the all too famous Guardian in Pink.
"How so? It's been a while since I visited you guys" Dave did not acknowledge any sort of guilt.
"What Warlord wanted to say is," Valentine interjected before the discussion could turn hostile.
"That the Age of Dragons has come too fast, and too unexpected. We aren't strong enough to fight against them. This place might be safe, but we are constantly receiving reports of Dragon Attacks in other regions."
"Oh… I offer you my condolences, but I still fail to see how that is my problem?"
"Well, the Expansion releasing was technically your doing," Ralph added in a rueful smile.
"Don't really care, now where is he?" Dave asked.
"Hey, you're in my city! I get to call the shots and ask questions, we aren't your Undead bro." Warlord shouted.
"Easy dude," Dave replied, holding both hands forward.
"Captain Blaster told us you needed Jeffery. As you should know by now, he has already become a member of our guild. If you wish to hire his services, you'll need to pay the proper compensation," Valentine interjected once more.
"Yeah, I didn't expect anything less. How much do you want for his service?" Dave asked.
"We don't need money, we want access to the Underworld." Warlord answered a bit too gleefully.
Valentine on the other hand frowned, and Dave understood from his expression that Warlord had spoken too hastily revealing their true purpose.
Dave however smiled, "Forget it, I came here not because of dire need. Having Jeffery will be helpful, but his presence is not required to that degree!"
Dave pulled up a teleportation scroll and a moment before he was going to tear it, Valentine called out to him.
"Wait. We get that you must be busy in the Wilds, but you have already spent time coming over here. It would be a shame to leave empty handed. Let's talk. I am sure we can find common ground and negotiate this better." He proposed.
"You are right. It would be a shame. So what exactly do you have in mind then?" Dave asked.
"Fifty players. We want fifty players to be able to enter the Underworld, we can loan you Jeffery for two days."
"Aren't you a greedy one. Five players, I'll get to use Jeffery for a month." Dave countered.
The players around the plaza were looking at the now public negotiation between some of Conquest's top players with strange bewildered expressions. They were currently talking about using Jeffery, known as the player with the only Mecha-Type weaponry in the game like he was some sort of item to be traded.
Yet none of them dared to voice out their thoughts. They all were satisfied with being able to witness how the trade would go down.
"Twenty, and one week."
"Ten players, two weeks. Last offer. Your presence alone is going to cause a lot of problems for me. Ten players is the maximum I can handle. Anything else and the negotiations are off." Dave declared. His hand was already back on the teleportation scroll.
Warlord was about to say something but Valentine quickly stopped him, "We accept!"
When the guild master saw the look on his friend, he stopped his words. "Let's have Albert be the witness of our contract"
"Good, as soon as I'm done with Jeffery, I'll come and take you to the Underworld," Dave nodded.
"We didn't agree to that!" Warlord could not hold it any longer.
"Sorry bro, but right now I don't have the time to babysit you. Once I finish my stuff I'll come and take you to the Underworld."
"We don't need you, just give us the teleportation scrolls. We can handle ourselves," one of the higher-ups of the Devastator guild spoke up.
Dave believed that the same thought was crossing all of the Devastators' minds, so he gave him his typical Draugr smile: "Are you an idiot? You'll be teleporting ten strangers, humans, living people, to the heart of an Undead city. Do you seriously think they'll let you walk past the Teleportation Gate? You'll be murdered a hundred times over before you even get a chance to explain the situation. I have to be there with you, otherwise, you'll all die." Dave stated in a matter-of-factly.
Warlord cringed, he too had had the same thought. But now that Dave pointed out the obvious conclusion, they couldn't do anything but agree to his demands. And be at his mercy. If he decides to leave them to the Undead, their chance at grinding EXP in the Underworld would be wasted. They had to stay on his good side.
"Okay, call Jeffery, tell him he has a mission. And you, Kis'Shtiengbrah, once we are done, don't forget we'll be fighting." Warlord said.
"Oh, I'm not a fan of bullying," Dave said.
"Huh, don't worry, like I said, even if I'm a higher level than you, you have a more powerful Legacy, it should balance itself out."
"Huh, I guess you haven't noticed yet." Dave smiled.
Warlord frowned, not understanding what the Draugr was saying.
"Shit! He's level 505! How the fuck did he do that?!" another player, that had the wits to inspect Dave, shouted in disbelief.
Then once Warlord heard it, he inspected Dave, realizing that once the notification appeared in front of him, that he no longer was the highest-level player in the game.
"As I said, I'm not a fan of bullying. But you can come at me anytime!"