Chapter 139 - The Dragoness Of The Aether Mine
Chapter 139 – The Dragoness Of The Aether Mine
Draco frowned deeply when he saw this event. Even though he knew better than anyone how much importance the AI gave to quality content creation, he still didn't enjoy being paraded around like a monkey in the zoo.
He sighed and let it go. After all, his case was pretty mild. The Dark Knight, who was a bug that had suffered tremendous pain and suffering because of Draco's bloodline release, had his desire for vengeance turned into an event for the consumption of players.
A battle between the ultimate guild Umbra which possessed topmost quality but terribly low quantity against Myriad Cards and Lorebinders, who possessed great quality and excellent quantity. How could the AI let such a juicy circ.u.mstance go?
On paper, it looked somewhat equal, with the advantage tipping over to Umbra slightly. After all, killing a monster like the Metal Dragon was harder than fighting 500,000 players.
However, people weren't quick to write off Myriad Cards and Lorebinders. They had a great history in other FIVR games, much like Darkrow and Kamisuo, so they were bound to have some tricks up their sleeves.
At this time, Jada finished her divination. When she saw the screen that had popped up while she was focused, her face became weird, but she shook it off.
"Our victory chances are 75% while theirs are 25%." She said with an uncertain expression.
It wasn't that she distrusted her skills, as they were never wrong. Jada just found it hard to believe that any guild could topple Umbra at all. Even if all the guilds in the game came together, Jada believed that Draco and Riveting Night could find a way to surmount them.
Draco pondered for a bit before sighing. "Thank you, Jada. You and Jade should take the core members of Umbra and run the Spriggan Forest Dungeon on survival mode. What you'd experience there should help a lot."
Jada nodded and left the room to pass on Draco's orders.
Draco sat down in his seat with a somber expression. All the acc.u.mulated calmness and peacefulness from impregnating Eva as well as the unchanged contents of Update had 1 faded away.
The timeline was… chaotic.
It was clear enough to see. While Update 1 had remained the same, events occurring in the game continued to diverge from the norm even more ferociously with every passing day.
First was the Dragon Slaying event. Once Draco returned from the lucrative Flora and Fauna quest to hear about that, he knew things had gone haywire.
However, when he realized that the event was a direct result of his existence, he had calmed down greatly. Clearly, it should have been a one-time thing as long as he was careful from now on.
For this reason, he planned to dive into crafting for the next few weeks while the playerbase caught up in terms of levels. Then, he could go on a leveling spree and fill up all his upgradeable items before hitting Rank 2.
As long as general playerbase were around level 40-45, the AI shouldn't complain if he reached Rank 2. Then, he could take whatever reward came from that and continue with his next Unique Quest, which was the Refinement God's Treasury.
The title of Refinement God alone told him that a Divine item was waiting for him. Even the Legendary Rank Flora and Fauna Quest had given him the Ultima Sunt bloodline and Rila.
Only God knew what manner of outrageous items he would get during the Refinement God's Treasury.
Of course, that was interspersed with managing Eva's growing pregnancy, Roma's soon to come pregnancy and a few other races he would experiment with. Then, there was the conquest progress of the real world, as well as managing his budding global power.
However, all his carefully crafted plans had gone down the drain when those two fools played with something they shouldn't have.
Draco's fists clenched as anger roiled through him again.
Why had Draco and Eva been so angry about the matter? Sure, it was unexpected and derailed their plans greatly, but how could Joker and Happy Scholar have known?
The reason why both of them were enraged was twofold.
The first and most prudent reason was that Joker and Happy Scholar had coveted Umbra's pie.
When Draco had fired the Omega beam, he hadn't expected for it to leave a spatial tear behind that would lead to the Null Realm. However, it did and he found one more reason to refrain from using Omega as he pleased.
Still, if they knew so much about the Null Realm, why hadn't Draco or Eva touched the spatial tear but rather left it there? After all, Draco was heavily resistant to Destruction Energy while Eva could power through it with her Abyssal Eyes.
It should be obvious that the Null Realm was a thing that had many benefits, but also many detriments. They had left it there hoping that it would either close itself, or be inaccessible.
After all, there was a sea of Destruction Energy around it. Unfortunately, they had vastly underestimated the curiosity, greed, and willingness to sacrifice their guild members of those two guild leaders.
Not even Rank 7 entities would wade through that crap for the spatial tear, mostly because what existed on the other side would bring a calamity to everyone.
This bled into the second reason Draco and Eva were so angry. That was the fact that this Abyss Event was a horror show that was slightly worse than the Great War.
F.u.c.k, even the Demons wouldn't pray for the Void Monsters to enter the Boundless world. They were a calamity to everything and everyone. Whether Demons or Devils or whatever race, they were all made of matter.
Void Monsters were the anti-thesis of all matter beings, so they were all stuck in the same issue.
In the previous timeline, the Abyss Event occurred when Draco and Eva had been Rank 5. The spatial tear then, had admittedly been twenty times larger than the one Draco left behind, so it was something so calamitous that even with the high level of players back then, many got crippled and had to start again.
And having to start again after Update 5 had come out… one could imagine the horror of it, especially for females.
This spatial tear was much smaller and very thin. Anything that could squeeze its way through should not be any stronger than Rank 1 at most, which was why the AI didn't bother to mobilize the NPCs like it had when a monster like Ratchet had gone wild.
As for that past event involving Ratchet, the players weren't required to take part. They were supposed to find a corner to hide like rats while the natives of the world dealt with the problem.
This event wouldn't be as catastrophic in comparison, especially because of Draco and Eva's special existence, as well as Umbra's presence. One could even call it a goldmine for them, as they could use it to gather experience, money, reputation and Aetheric Energy from Void Monsters.
Even with that, Draco and Eva were angry because… it was far too early! An event like this would open many avenues for current players to explore, and that was a problem.
Draco and Eva weren't worried about the playerbase achieving the same skill level as those in their past life. After all, while they had been ranked 3rd and 4th in terms of power, the two of them had been 1st and 2nd in terms of skill.
No, the thing bothering them was the possibility of the knowledgebase of the players increasing so soon. For example, Gentle Flower and Noble Soul would have never have given Draco and Eva all their Aether Crystals if they knew it could be used in this event, even if the duo threatened a Guild War.
Draco sighed and let the anger bleed out of him. Apart from the Abyss Key, he would deal Myriad Card and Lorebinders a heavy blow as a deterrent to others.
After all, the event had been announced worldwide, but the spatial tear was concentrated in the ruined Plains of Deriam. Unless a guild had members as foolish as those from Myriad Cards and Lorebinders, they would have to observe from the outskirts.
Essentially, it would be just like a repeat of the Dragon Slaying event, only that every guild in Boundless would be present there, in either full-force or semi-full force.
With so many guilds around, Umbra would have to exert force if they wanted to retain exclusive control and rights over the area.
Draco would have to use a mixture of force and diplomacy to manage that. No matter how it went down, he couldn't take down almost every guild in Boundless. The number of players reached the millions, and that wasn't something he could handle… yet.
Draco left the Common Room and went to the Vita Settlement after much thought. He also sent a private message to Eva as he did.
"I'm going to see what is up with the Aether Mine and the Dragoness. – Draco"
"No problem. I'll handle the members of Umbra in the meantime. Don't forget to check out the slaves I trained for you in the meantime. – Eva"
He recalled that she had elaborated on her happenings while he was away, and that included taking the core members to an auction at The Bazaar.
She had also purchased the Slave Trading Tradeskill and began its usage on the various slaves she had bought. Since she had a long heritage with that skill from their past life, it would be interesting to see how much she had already accomplished at a low level of the skill.
In essence, it was time for Draco to inspect.
Draco blinked to the Vita Settlement, which required more than a few blinks due to the distance. When he arrived, Draco first noticed that the settlement was a lot more active.
A lot of NPCs moved about with seriousness and hassle, some being guards while others doing miscellaneous jobs like cleaning, gardening or building, depending on their race.
Draco walked through the settlement which had seen a lot of progress since he was last here. Before, there had been a sparse few key buildings and many empty lots.
Now, there were many half-constructed buildings. They varied in different degrees of completion, some of which either just begun and others which were soon to be completed. It was no wonder as to how Umbra's property count had risen so sharply in such a short time.
The majority of the builders were dwarves and goblins, while the guards were mostly orcs and male elves. The ones doing cleaning were female goblins, dwarves and elves, while the gardeners were also mostly forest elves.
They stopped when they saw Draco, as Riveting Night had made sure they would know the face of their true master. She didn't allow them to call her master, as that title was reserved for Draco.
They all stopped what they were doing and bowed reverently as Draco passed.
Eva was a bit of a strict and wicked mentor, but she also gave out the carrot after giving the stick. Most of these slaves were eating, drinking and living a good life.
If one wanted to be ignorant and pretend that such a thing was good, their situation could be described as an employment contract with steep terms. They had various benefits and provisions so long as they did their job well.
The jobs weren't something outrageous, mostly what one would expect an employee of a certain sector to do.
So, in technicality, these slaves were semi-free.
However, slavery was slavery and Draco wasn't going to pretend like he was a good guy and neither would Eva. This treatment was not due to kindness in her heart, but the fact that the best treatment for slaves ensured they worked productively with utmost loyalty.
Draco walked into the Mayor's Hall with a poised gait. He saw that the building was now managed by many servants of various races, but Draco also noticed something startling…
All the servants were female! That alone wasn't the problem but… almost all of them… had huge butts!
They were either at the level of Zaine or towards the level of the Wood Elf girls from the Flora and Fauna quest. That was the one similarity all these women had, as apart from that, their races, skin color, personalities, beauty and chest sizes varied greatly.
All of them were humanoid to an extent and a large amount of them were nymphs of differing races. There were a few elves, and surprisingly… a small percent of the beast races.
In other words, catgirls, wolf girls, sheep girls and more. Not to mention that all these 'beloved' species by human males had big booties and were usually somewhat attractive.
Draco could only walk through the Mayor's Hall with a weird expression on his face as each of these scantily clad women shuffled about, but paused to bow before him.
Clearly, Eva had been paying attention to Draco's wants. She had seen that he liked to be revered by beautiful women who were servile in nature or occupation from when they first visited the castle.
Then, she had learned that he liked big butts from his own words. When he had been with her before, he never even looked at another girl because he never had any idea how much of a yandere she was. How was he supposed to know that she didn't care about whatever he did as long as it made him happy?
Now that Eva had not only given him permission to… 'branch out' … but actively encouraged him to do so, his preferences reared their head.
But that was only in terms of s.e.x.u.a.l attraction. Draco would be perfectly happy to stick to Eva alone, but she seemed to want him to taste all the fruits of the digital world.
As such, her selection had been precise and great. He even suspected they had been selected by their outer appearance first and skill only second. Draco had some deeper and much darker preferences though – as did any a.d.u.l.t – but he wasn't sure if he wanted to explore them just yet.
For what he had shown to like so far, Eva had done the best possible job.
Most of the servants wore something like a v.i.r.g.i.n killer sweater, only that it was made from cotton and had clasps around the neck and lower back.
It was so revealing of their 'most important asset' that it was clear who this was supposed to entice. Draco could only tear his eyes away as he walked into the Mayor's Hall's bas.e.m.e.nt.
In the bas.e.m.e.nt was nothing but a simple hatch. Draco opened this hatch and walked down the tunnel with a solemn expression. The area was quiet, so only his footsteps resounded in the area.
Neither he nor Eva had come down here ever since they built the settlement, so Draco wasn't sure of exactly how much it had changed.
When he went down, he noticed that it looked the same, only that there were a lot more Aether Crystals than before. Even as high as he was in terms of depth, there were more than a few medium quality Aether Crystals.
Naturally, this made the fellow overjoyed, especially since he discovered many high quality and even a few rare top quality Aether Crystals. At this rate, when he reached the bottom, there would only be top quality crystals.
His assumptions proved to be correct as he saw a sparse amount of top quality Aether Crystals. Draco laughed and pulled away about 50 of them to use for the Abyss Event.
His original plan had been to throw those other Aether Crystals he got from Gentle Flower and Noble Soul in here, in order to increase the purity of the mine.
Clearly, he had been thinking too much. The mine was doing the opposite of what most mines did, its resources were climbing higher and higher per week, in both quantity and quality.
So, he could take a few out to help buff his guild and his allies for the event. If he wanted to milk the other guilds, he could provide a select few with this boon. With more top guilds licking his boot, he would be able to control the rest.
What was that? If others knew he had this, they would gang up on Umbra?
Haha, they could certainly try. If there were a few fools who would do so, the show Draco would perform would even help to further establish Umbra's dominance over the playerbase.
Draco especially wanted players to understand one important fact.
'You are not my equal.'
His current obstacles were the NPCs and the monsters, as well as the world itself.
Draco entered the depths of the mine and came before the mental barrier that had stopped him last time. It was like a typical mana shield, which resembled a carapace of a turtle.
It was pure white and Draco stopped to observe it. Instead of using his Divine Eyes to 'see beyond', he just walked through while galvanizing his Supreme Rank Black Dragon source origin.
When he met with the barrier, he expected great and intense resistance, but that wasn't the case. Instead, he smoothly walked through as he saw some whitish substance roll around him gently probably probing to see what he was.
When it encountered the aura of his Black Dragon though, the substance trembled and became servile. This naturally stunned Draco, as he calmly walked through this white miasma and came to an open space.
When he looked around, he saw that this space was like a super mini small world, but very compact. It had one river, a few trees, and a lush meadow.
However, when Draco's sight fell on what lay in the center of the meadow, his body shook strongly. His pupils became slitted, like those of a serpent. His black aura erupted wildly and his body began to transform against his will.
The Black Dragon in his soul roared with red eyes as it tried to force itself into the real world, even though it was impossible. As such, it could only thrash about in desperation and indignation.
Opposite Draco, watching him with her head lowered and her body shivering with fear and desire, was one of the races that should never meet a Black Dragon.
The Dragoness of the Vita Settlement Aether Mine… a White Dragon!