“Y-You! You’re crazy!” Ben stuttered. “Did you really defeat that monster ten times? You and those weak arms? There’s not a single scratch on the sword either!”
Instead of feeling offended, Zen could only laugh weakly. If it wasn’t for his extremely capable older sworn brother, that wakizashi would be broken several times over. The boss slime simply did not have a chance against the impatient assassin who went forward to lead the new floor raids.
“I had help,” Zen admitted. “But I definitely killed the boss legitimately. It was difficult, and I died too many times to learn everything.”
===
Quest: Ben’s Apprentice Part 1
Requirements: Purchased a weapon fr
The slime nursery was full of adorable pink slimes. Zen realised that they came in different sizes, and none of these slimes was anywhere near as large as the ones Liu Feng smashed during their first boss dungeon run. Those slimes were at least as high as Zen’s knees, while the pink slimes in the nursery could fit in his palm. The biggest was only as big as his face.Seeing how defenceless and afraid they were, Zen almost felt for them. If this was reality instead of a game, he might forfeit killing them. However, this was a game. Zen could not help but feel like the game developer was trying to make fun of the hardened Mafiosi by adding such weak creatures in a secret dungeon. Did they really think those seasoned assassins would hesitate?“Go along, join your siblings,” Zen let the lost slime down, and the little creature bounced back as quic
When Zen returned with his pink slime hearts, Ben dropped his smithing hammer. How did Zen turn up with so many pink slime hearts for someone who looked like he was as gentle as a lamb? Honestly, even if Zen failed to collect those hearts, Ben would have given him a better weapon.===Quest: Ben’s Apprentice Part 2Requirements: Purchased a weapon from BenObjective: Collect Smithing Materials99/5 Pink Slime HeartsReward: 40% Friendship Bonus with Ben===“C-can I turn in the slime hearts?” Zen asked after Ben did not reply for a good while.
“Designated firewood chopping area? It’s just behind the weaver’s hut near the potato fields. Everyone in this village chops their firewood there although most of the time, the men will do it,” Ben told Zen.Hearing that there was a place designed for firewood chopping in this village, Zen wondered why the game developers included this detail. Was it really necessary? There was also a system restriction. Something felt fishy.When Zen found the firewood chopping area, he unloaded all the firewood he collected onto the ground. The designated chopping area was rather simple in design. Most people would not register the straw-thatched shelter with only an old axe stuck on the tree stump used as a wood splitting workbench.Zen tried to pry the axe from the tree stump, but the item would not budge
Swish!Swish!Swish! Swish-swish!Zing!Crack!Even though it was impossible to break into a sweat in the virtual reality, Zen felt as if his body was on fire after practising the art of swinging something in his hand. These dull daggers were hurting Zen’s hand more than the firewood. The grip on their handles made his hand blister, and even though his virtual character looked flawless, Zen could feel the pain they caused after swinging the daggers a hundred times.As a chef, Zen did not have a chance to find out if he was ambidextrous. He only knew that he was taught to use a knife in his right hand to avoid bumping elbows into other cooks in the kitchen. Sometimes, he woul
A wooden sword.Zen scrutinised the new blade Ben gave him. It felt like an ordinary wooden sword. This couldn’t be, right? Surely, there must be something special about it.“Inspect!”===Item: Wooden Training SwordDescription: An ordinary wooden training sword good for beginners to practice with.Effect: Attack +1Durability: 100/120===With unshed tears in his eyes, Zen trudged back to the designated wood chopping area. The durability was slightly higher than those dull daggers. However, this was made from wood. How ridicu
As it turned out, Zen did not spend too long chopping five hundred pieces of firewood. In fact, he found a rhythmic system to place fire logs and chop them. An interesting discovery while practising his swings was the use of combo points.His Bladeless skill only guaranteed a critical chance, but the combo affected Zen’s total damage caused over time. The more he succeeded in the combo, the greater the sense of concentration. Time could slow even if his physical speed increased. Zen saw more than he could understand, and the experience felt like an out-of-body illusion when he understood where and how to chop the firewood logs to make them crack into halves. It was so quick, but Zen felt a strong tug at the back of his mind, guiding his hand to where the weak points were.Sometimes the feeling eluded him, but when it happened, Zen was becoming better at s
Helping Ben to create the weapons the shady merchant needed was a lot simpler than he thought. Initially, Zen was prepared to hammer his hands off, trying to work with metal bars. However, he soon discovered that this part of the quest was more of a reflex game with an added difficulty of strength control.Basically, it was a rhythm game where Zen needed to wait for the moving meter to enter a strike zone to hammer the heated metal. It would automatically change into a different shape one step closer to the ideal end product if he succeeded. If he failed, the metal would cool a little and remain unchanged.Zen also learned that not all his hits had to be hard. It was actually better to watch the colour of the metal to decide if a hard hit or a soft heat was required. If he was working with a metal that was bright red, he should hit it softly. Hammering it too h
Not many knew about Zen Taro’s contribution as a gaming legend before he was sent to this death pit of a high school. Gaming wasn’t something most people could afford anyway unless they were wealthy civilians with successful businesses supported by the governing mafia family in their district. It was mostly done as a form of entertainment where gamers shared their perspective of the gameplay with others over a stream channel.Zen Taro was one of the only gamers who did not reveal his face and rarely recorded his gaming sessions. He only streamed whenever he was attempting a new world record. It didn’t take long for the name ZT to become very well-known in the community. To date, many of his accomplishments remained unbested, and nobody came close to his godly skills.More importantly, ZT raised the standards of gaming guides that soon became indispensable to the community. Not all gamers were as experienced and attuned to gaming mechanics as ZT was. Then again, they did not have all t
After entering the boss dungeon den, Zen shivered. It wasn’t similar to a wolf’s den. If anything, it appeared closer to an actual dungeon, as if someone had deliberately attempted to imprison the boss here. The stale smell of dogs and many broken chains of different sizes on the ground spoke volumes about John’s cousin.Unlike the short werewolf, who remained in his werewolf form constantly, the boss was a monster who could transform. Depending on the moon cycle, it could be a violent and bloodthirsty monster or a broken man who lived in constant fear and misery of his curse.“He changes according to the moon cycle once the rampage begins,” Akiko explained. “I took a while to figure out how to kill him, even on the first run. He’s immune to damage on a blood moon. We need to finish it as soon as possible.”With a full party participating in a boss battle, Zen had faith they could conclude it before even the blood moon p
Finally approaching the final boss’s cave, Zen wondered if the storyline would change because they had let Han murder John brutally. His body had been hacked into pieces and scattered around the rotting forest. The maggots would get to it soon and reduce it to bones. Yet, the cruel butchering session remained fresh in Zen’s mind.Everyone in the party knew that feeling all too well. Having lived in the underworld, they sympathised with Zen, who had lived like a civilian his whole life. Although not everyone participated directly in the act of murder, they knew what it meant to take a life. Even Damian had seen it happen. He knew how to interrogate for information and was quite adept at the craft when required.“Don’t think too much about it,” Liu Feng was the first to break the silence. “He wasn’t even real. This is a game designed by the Godfather to find the next successor. It’s just another test.”Even if it wer
Even after many years of not being on talking terms with the rest of the family, Hans fitted right in when delving blows at the cowardly werewolf. Mai ripped out chunks of flesh with her teeth, snarling at it the whole time while Laura expertly force-fed the werewolf with different herbs with particularly nasty effects.Even with regeneration abilities, John could not recover from herbs that tasted nasty, gave him muscle cramps or made him itch all over. Laura truly knew how to make someone suffer, and Zen watched with morbid fascination at their different uses. Her apothecary skills were no less effective than those of Herbologist Hernie.“Can you heal him again?” Damian asked. “Han needs another round. Mai roughed him up a little too good.”With a priest in the party who did not worship any known religion, the torture session became smoother and more effective. No apology from John would appease the family’s anger. Although Zen did not
After listening to the story about John, Laura’s expression hardened. “That son of a bitch!” she spat. “How dare he prey on my granddaughter! Where is he now?!” Slightly terrified by the murderous aura, Zen reported that Sasha and Damian had the werewolf at Gabrielle’s hut. Mai had been ripping him a new one each time he regenerated. The girls had been doing a great job of making him miserable. Han was already there. “I can’t believe I’m last at the party. That wolf deserves to die. Even death is too cheap a price to pay after what he did to my husband and son.” For once, Zen agreed. Even if John was merely a character in the game, he deserved death. The fact that the game administrators did not grant John invulnerable stats meant that it was possible to kill the cousin of the floor boss. While waiting for Laura to pack her ‘tools’ and herbal surprises, Zen approached Liu Feng and thanked him for accompanying them. In real time, it was already past regular l
Studying advanced herbalism from Laura took more time than Zen expected. Thankfully, the game had a way of providing cheats for him. Instead of cramming all the knowledge into his head that would give him a splitting migraine, it provided a useful guidebook that would prompt him on what a particular herb does upon location and what combinations he could use it for with other known herbs. The problem was, to truly master this skill, he had to pass the final test. Laura’s pop quiz only had ten questions. However, there was a timer. While Zen could attempt it infinitely, there were thousands of herb combinations to remember. Not having any formal education in either of his past lives, the young chef faltered. “You may use anything in this cottage as a reference for your test,” Laura smirked. “All the best. I hope you won’t disappoint me.” Stressing over the best method to find what he needed, Zen tested a few things. Firstly, when Laura said that the new skill would inst
While the other party members gathered the family members for a reunion, Zen and Liu Feng finally found Laura’s cottage after taking a wrong turn. Funnily enough, it was the Seer who pointed out how they had been going in a circle before Zen realised he had misinterpreted the map. Knocking on the cottage door, Zen waited with his sworn brother. From inside, he could hear someone coughing badly. “Who is it?” the cranky old lady hacked as she cracked open the door. Instead of seeing her sloppy son or nosy granddaughter, Laura saw a cute priest and a handsome, long-haired warrior. The new adventurers surprised her. Were they lost in the forest? “What do you want?” she asked briefly before launching into a new coughing fit. It was a particularly nasty cold that had persisted for a week now without any signs of recovery. Despite all the herbal medicine she made, Laura did not see any signs of improvement. Perhaps she was getting on in age. Smiling, Zen show
It was a shame Zen was not with them. Sasha would have gone for a few more rounds, using the cowardly werewolf as a punching bag after Zen healed him. The more they dug information out from the pervert, the worse Sasha’s temper was. Damian did not stop her. The draconian needed somewhere to vent her anger, and it was best for it not to come his way. In truth, the cyborg felt a little sorry for Gabrielle, even if she were just a fictional character created for this virtual dungeon game. The cowardly cousin of the floor boss was no different from lowly thugs borrowing the influence of their powerful relatives to cause mayhem. Whimpering in fear and pain with his tail tucked in between his legs, the werewolf defect who could not transform into a human no matter the moon cycle kept a close eye on Sasha. Under the watch of the merciless draconian female, there was nowhere for him to run. He told them what they wanted to know and was alive for now. Given how tightly they w
Using hand gestures, Sasha signalled the countdown and Damian prepared his stunning spells silently. They only had one chance to catch the secret admirer off guard. Whatever he was doing was disgusting enough. Han wasn’t lying about the obsession. The stalker werewolf was plucking flower petals and chanting Gabrielle’s name to see if she would love him back. Each time the flower petals ended on a no, he would crush the flower, stomp on it and pick a new one, confessing his disturbing love to her before plucking off the petals of a new flower.“Oh, Gabrielle! What sweet rosy cheeks you have, all the better for me to bite into them when they are ripe! They were pink when you were a babe. They were red when you had a fever. I wonder if they’d bleed if I bit them… would you cry in pain and fear? It makes me so excited to think about it! Just wait a little more, my angel. You’d soon be an adult, and we could finally be together!”Disgu
As soon as Zen and Liu Feng departed, the remaining assassins pulled themselves together and got to work. Oritha opted to remain in the same room as the sleeping mother and daughter. However, Akiko went outside to share the information she learned last night about the stalker while patrolling the perimeter.“More brown hair?” Damian asked. “I could examine the cuticle to determine its genetic composition.”Handing the tuft of brown fur or hair over, Akiko also told Sasha the stalker’s route. Liu Feng only sensed the area where the unknown man was hiding last night. His lack of vision made him miss out on the obvious tracks. The stalker was not an expert. It must be how Han knew the foot size of Gabrielle’s secret admirer.Showing Sasha the tracks she found in the night, the Death Princess explained her hypothesis. The night hounds and wolves did not approach the house due to an invisible barrier.“It was as if they were t