[VRMMO] Dead One

Week later after the area boss defeat.

In the middle of the forest filled with beasts monster, a Purple Hyena guild were hunting together and chatting together.

"The incident with PK player stopped completely by the look of things." – said Oron after killing a wolf monster.

"Yea. I even encounter one of the ex-guild members and they said that people began leaving after that day. The Land Pirates is good as done now." – said GreyHunt.

[Everybody level: 57]

"I looked a bit as well, by the look of things people are finally relaxing. The Land Pirates won’t try to do anything because if they did, they will get stomped on." – said GreyHunt.

"Yea. We can finally say they are out of the picture and that means, we can begin making chaos ourselves." – said ClownFrog.

"Finaly!" – said Shri.

"So, what do we do?"

".... I don’t know. Aimlessly killing other players or NPCs would give us too much trouble. If we want to do something bad, we can’t act like complete idiots." – said ClownFrog.

"Right now, we belong to the group of people in this area with the highest level, but after getting level 50, the leveling up speed became much slower."

"Yeb. That makes things bit annoying. Since we are leveling up slower, the people below level 50 will close the level gab quite quick. We need something to level up faster." – said GreyHunt.

"But what? We couldn’t find any dungeon or anything special. Things didn’t looked good for the entire week." – said Oron.

"So, we planned on becoming a villains, but we literally can’t do anything huh? Well, this sucks." – said Shri.

".... Anyway, did anybody found any new promising peoples that can join us?" – asked Shri.

"Nope." – replied GreyHunt.

"Nah." – replied ClownFrog.

"We didn’t either. Finding somebody who is willing to work with us and not betray us is very hard." – said Oron.

".... So, we to really only on ourselves huh?" – said Shri.

While talking, a dark furred wolf monster jumped at the Shri, but when it got close to her a giant ant monster with 4 jaws bit into the wolf neck and snapped it.

[Bite Ant Princess – Ami – Level 50]

"She is quite strong I see." – said GreyHunt.

"Yeb. It took some time for her to hatch and when she was still larva, she was quite weak, literally my weakest monster. However, after finally evolving into the bite ant princess, she became extremely power, she is currently my strongest tamed monster." – said Shri while petting Ami.

"Well, at least that confirms that the monster eggs can hatch into something powerful." – said GreyHunt.

"...."

(Fuck me. Is there really, we can’t do besides hunting or doing odd quests from the guild?) – though ClownFrog.

(.... Wait....)

(Right! I still have the "Favor"!)

"Guys, can we quickly get back to the city. I have to check something and it maybe worth it." – said ClownFrog.

"?"

"Well, we don’t have anything to do anyway, so let’s do it." – said GreyHunt.

The party quickly returned back to the city and headed straight to the adventure guild.

"Hello! How can I help you today?" – asked the adventure guild worker.

"Hi. Is it possible to meet up with the guild master right now? Tell her that the ClownFrog is asking."

"Hm.... I see. Please wait a moment." – said the worker before leaving her station.

Sometime passes after the adventurer guild worker left however, she returned back quite fast.

"The adventure guild master agreed to meet you. Please come this way." – said the adventurer guild worker after coming back.

The party fallowed the guild worker though the office and entered the guild master office.

"Hi. Good to see you ClownFrog. And they are?" – asked the guild master.

"These are my party members. GreyHunt, Shri and Oron." – said ClownFrog, inducing his party members.

"Uhu. Anyway, I heard you wanted to meet me, what do you want?" – asked the muscular female dark elf.

"Well, I want to use the "Favor". We are wondering if you have any special job, we can take care off or someone who can give us one." – said ClownFrog.

"A job you say? You want a job for a favor? You sure about that? This isn’t much of a favor."

"Yea, I’m sure."

"...."

"Well, I don’t have anything on me."

(Oh....)

"But I know somebody that kind of needs a hand or two."

"!"

"The guy is called Miggrel. He is unliving demonoid researcher living in the outsides the city in the south. He is doing some "Dangerous" stuff and couldn’t find any helpers to "Help him out". If you tell him that you heard some rumors in the adventurer guild about him and the money he offers for the job, he should hire you. However, in reality I want you to observe him. Recently he was seen doing shady deals. I want you to get close to him and get his trust and see if he is doing anything illegal. If something comes up or anything, report to me directly."

"So, up for the challenge?"

[Quest have been generated.]

[Miggrel – Danger or not?]

[Quest Difficulty: ???]

[Miggrel an unliving demonoid research is conducting a shady experiments and is currently looking for any helpers with them, however the adventurer guild master Zoan thinks that the man is suspicious and want you to find out if he is trying anything illegal and dangerous.]

[Try and receive a job from the Miggrel in order to observe him and find out anything. Upon finding something serios or dangerous report immediately to the adventurer guild.]

[Reward: Depends on the performance and report received.]

[Do you accept?]

[YES/NO]

"What do you say?" – asked Zoan.

"...."

The party members looked at each other with silencer stare before each one nodded in agreement.

"Sure. We accept." – replied ClownFrog.

[You have accepted the quest: Miggrel – Danger or not?]

"Good. Miggrel lives right here. Just say that you heard about his situation in the rumors inside of the adventurer guild and don’t mention me at any cost, he would be other wise be on the guard." – said the guild leader after taking out a map and pointing on the specify spot with his finger.

"Got it!" – replied the entire group.

The entire party left the guild shortly after and began heading straight towards the Miggrel house after leaving the city.

"...."

"What do you guys think?" – asked ClownFrog.

"It’s not a reaped quest and the rank is unknown. Even if the quest by any chance is low rank, its still not repeatable so the rewards will be at least good." – said Oron.

"It would be perfect if the quest is very difficult, since that would end up giving us big rewards." – said GreyHunt.

"Its probably at least E rank or higher, since the guild master herself gave the quest." – said Shri.

"But anyway, how the hell you have connection with somebody like that? I never expected the guild master to be a sexy muscular black elf that somehow gives vibes like she is mafia boss or something."

"Stuff kind of happened. Anyway, we are getting close to the location pointed in the map, so be sure not to talk about the guild master." – said ClownFrog.

In the forest their wooden house with fences all around and even small garden at the front. The party moved towards the house and get close to the door, before knocking on it.

"...."

Moments later a door opened.

"Yes? Who are you?" – asked the skeleton with black horns.

[Miggrel]

"Hello. I’m ClownFrog and those my friends. Are you by any chance Miggrel?"

"Yea. What do you want?"

"Well, when we were in the adventurer guild, we heard rumors that you looking for the helpers and even offer a lot of money for it."

"...And what if I’m?"

"Well, it depends of what kind of job we are talking about and what rewards."

"...."

".... Come inside."

The party entered the building and as soon as they did, they saw a lot of different tools as well as different bottles filled with blood and even animal skulls.

"As you said, I’m looking for the helpers. Currently I’m researching poison and medicines, but I’m lacking some very necessary materials needed for the research. The stuff I want are monster materials and the monster in question are quite dangerous."

"Of course, I will pay for the materials as well as for the job. So up to it?"

[Quest have been generated.]

[Miggrel request]

[Quest Difficulty: E]

[Miggrel is conducting research on the poisons and medicine, but he is lacking in materials for it. He wants you to gather the materials for him and of cores he will pay you for the materials and for doing his request.]

[Bring to Miggrel:

-Rotten Healing Grass: 25

-Green Bat Poison Sacks: 40]

[Reward: Money / EXP / Miggrel Favorability increase]

"This is something for the start. If you can’t even manage that then fuck off." – said Miggrel after sitting down on a chair.

"Don’t worry, we will manage." – said Shri.

After accepting the quest, the party quickly left the house and headed off towards the deeper parts of the forest.

"...."

"What do you think?" – asked Shri.

"He didn’t seem suspicious at first or anything, but he maybe trying not to reveal his real goal. Our only option is to do his request and find out." – said Oron.

"Normally in games, those kind of situation are about helping a guy out gather some stuff only to found out he was the bad guy in the end, but this isn’t a normal game in the first place, so everything could happened. He could just turn out to be a normal guy and it was all just big misunderstanding. We have to find out ourselves." – said Oron.

"Agree. I was trying to look around without looking suspicious, but I didn’t saw anything weird or suspicious." – said GreyHunt.

"The only option is to progress though and be on lookout for any hints.

After arriving at the location pointed by Miggrel the party began their search.

"...."

"Found another one." – said Oron.

"Same here. How many we have now?" – replied GreyHunt.

"We have now 11, only 9 more to go." - said Oron.

"But.... Where the heck are those bats?! We didn’t saw a single one yet!" – said Shri.

"Maybe they are hiding somewhere?" – said Oron.

"There also a chance that you can only find them during a specific time like during a night."

"Well, he said that these bats appear here, so if don’t find them then that means that they only appear during night." – said ClownFrog.

"...."

"?"

"Hey, did you heard that?" – said ClownFrog after standing up.

"?" – the group looked towards ClownFrog.

"Hear wh- "

Suddenly an unknown sound could be heard coming from afar.

The rest of the party quickly got up as the sounds began becoming louder and louder until a huge group of bats monster.

"Oh shit. That is a lot. – said Shri after a sudden appearance of the huge group of bats monsters.

ClownFrog and Shri quickly summoned their monsters and all out brawl happened, but the fight didn’t lasted very long.

".... Huh?"

"That was.... Easier than I thought?" – said Shri.

"Yea. There was shit tons of them out of nowhere, but they weren’t that strong." – said ClownFrog.

"Well, we literally have a tamer and necromancer, so we did have did had numbers. If we didn’t then the things could have gone sour." – said GreyHunt.

"Anyway, lets gather the remaining grass and get going."

[Sometime later.]

"Hm? You are back already?" – asked Miggrel.

"Yea, we completed your request, but why the fuck you didn’t mention that they stick in the big group together?" – asked Shri.

".... Oh.... I though you knew." – said Miggrel.

"No, we did not. A small army of bats appearing out of nowhere DID gave us a little surprise."

"...Aha. Well, they weren’t that strong in the first place, so if they beaten you, I would not entrust you another request. You could say it was a test of some sorts." – said Miggrel while avoiding making eye contact with Shri.

[You have completed the quest: Miggrel Request.]

"Anyway, now let’s talk about the real request now."

[Chain quest has been generated.]

[Miggrel Request – Part 2]

-Bring Stalking Manits Eyes: 10

".... Just asking, we won’t have any weird or unknown? Is there anything waiting for us we should be wary about?" - asked Shri.

"I don’t think so. There shouldn’t be any surprises going on."

[Sometime later.]

"You lying piece of shit! No surprises my ass! These guys could literally turn invisible for a moment and launch a surprise attack!’ – said angry Shri.

".... Em.... Sorry?"

"...."

"Shri. Please don’t." – said ClownFrog.

".... Okay. But I fuking dare you to pull that shit again."

[Sometime later.]

"....."

"I’m going to fuking murder you."

"!?"

GreyHunt and Oron quickly grabbed Shri by arms, stopping her from moving.

"At least let me fuking punch him!"

"The fuking toads literally self-destructed when they were killed and even caused chain reaction with other toads! It almost fuking killed me!"

".... Dude. Was intentional?" – asked ClownFrog.

"Em.... No?...Sorry?" - asked Miggrel.

"Just...Fuking tell us everything you know next time or she will just straight up murder you for real." – said ClownFrog.

"Okay! But don’t worry, this is the last target." – said Miggrel.

[Chain quest has been generated.]

[Miggrel Request – Part 4]

[Quest Difficulty: D+]

[Bring the Heart of the boss monster: Hunger Bear]

"The monster in question is the bear monster that posses a high vitality as well as defense and even has high attack power. It also posses a regeneration ability that restore a small amount of health every second. It also can heal by eating flesh." – said Miggrel with his hands up.

".... Everything?" – asked ClownFrog.

"Yea everything! There isn’t anything like laser, fire or anything. Its just a tough bastards that can take a lot of hits and can heal. This is all important stuff you need to know. I swear." – replied Miggrel.

".... Okay." – ClownFrog while looking at the Miggrel.

The party quickly left the man home while dragging Shri away.

"I really want to murder him now." – said Shri.

"Calm down sis. If you kill him now, then we won’t be able to complete the quest. On top of that the quest difficulty is D+, so we can expected the rewards to be quite good." – said Oron.

"Tch. Fine. Honestly, I don’t want to murder him since the rewards we were getting from him weren’t half bad." – said Shri.

"However, do we know anything yet? Is this guy dangerous or anything? Do we have any info?"

"Yea, maybe we do." – said ClownFrog.

"?"

"What do you mean?" – asked GreyHunt.

"I looked at the item description. The guts of the ground digging toads have mention of the dark mana and the eyes from the mantis also has mention that they contain dark mana."

"Is it a coincided? Or by any chance something different? There wasn’t anything about the materials description of being very dangerous or worth noting besides the mention of dark element mana. We can report about the materials we got for him to the adventurer guild master, maybe she know if they have any secret use or anything."

".... Can we kill him if he is a bad guy then?" – asked Shri.

".... No. I want to see what he is plotting. It maybe something for us." – said ClownFrog while smiling.

"....Oh. I get it." – said GreyHunt.

"?"

"I don’t." – said Shri.

"You will if we are right about him being evil." – replied ClownFrog.

"Anyway, lets first complete the quest and see if he reveals anything."

The party headed into the deeper parts of the forest in order to look for the field monster.

After some time of searching the party manage to locate field monster they were looking for.

[Hunger Bear – Level 59] [Field Boss]

A giant dark grey furred bear was feeding off the smaller bear corpse with grey fur.

"Okay, found the bastard. Why the hell it took so long to find him?" – said GreyHunt.

"Less complaining and more getting ready to fight." – said Oron.

"Yea, yea." – said ClownFrog before snapping his fingers.

A small army of the skeleton servants began rushing straight towards the giant bear, instantly getting the attention of the bear monster.

The bear monster didn’t even bother blocking the attacks from the skeleton servants even when they tried to stab the bear monster with their spears, but the attack did not manage to pierce though the bear hide at all.

The bear in response to the skeleton servant attack just raised its paw and swiped at the skeleton servant near it and crushing it to death even though it tried to block the attack with the shield.

(Huh. He wasn’t kidding about being tough and having high attack. I gave the skeleton servants stat buff and even weapons, spear and a shield but that fucker just crushed it with ease.)

"This guy isn’t a small fly. Keep your guard up." – said ClownFrog before sending even more undeads at the bear.

The horde of the undead creatures began launching assault at the bear monster, but the boss monster just took the hits without bothering to block and focused on crushing the undead monsters left and right, however while it was focused on the undeads, a several attacks were launched straight at the monster face.

"....!"

The bear monster took the attack head on and looked towards the direction where the attacks came from.

"Oh fuck. He is tough bastard alright." – said Oron after noticing the boss monster HP not decreasing much.

"Yeb." – said GreyHunt that was standing next to him.

The boss monster trashed around, killing an undead between him and the pair, opening a path and then rushing towards him.

"Fuck!" – said both Oron and GreyHunt.

The boss monster began rushing straight at the pair, but-

"[Pain Whip]!"

A whip suddenly flew at the bear monster hitting it and slowing it down.

[Pain Whip]

[Your next basic attack using a whip type weapon will deals bonus damage and slow the target for 15 seconds.]

Even though the bear monster was slowed down because of the skill, it still continue charging straight at the pair even they continue launching attacks at the boss monster, they didn’t tried to run away or anything because when the bear tried to finally get near them, an ant monsters rushed at the bear monster from a side and stopped it at the tracks.

"?!"

The bear monster tried to deal with the ant monster that stopped it, but as soon as it tried to, from another side an undead bears attacked together, making the any movements for the boss monster difficult.

The boss monster once again began trashing around, trying to kill the undead bears, but only managing to push them away, however when it tried to do the same to the ants, the bite ant princess stopped the boss rampage for a moment, allowing the party to launch a series of the attacks at the boss monster nonstop.

After bit of struggling the boss monster finally manage to push away the ant princess as well as bite ant capitans, but it ended up being surrounded by the even bigger horde of the undeads.

The fight continue on for some time, but because of the ant monsters as well as undead monster ganging up and blocking any movements of the boss monster, the party was able to continue attacking the boss monster from the safe distance, literally "Bullying him to death".

[You have slain: Hunger Bear – Level 56]

"Finaly its dead. How much damage he was able to freaking take?!" – said Shri.

"Well, at least he wasn’t lying about him being tough, having regeneration and having high attack and nothing unexpected happened, right?" – said Oron.

".... He will live. I won’t kill him." – said Shri.

"Anyway, do we, have it?"

".... Yea. It dropped." – said ClownFrog.

[Hunger Bear Heart]

[Rarity: Rare]

[A heart of the hunger bear. The heart itself even though no longer beats it still posses a lot of vitality. A heart its self is tough as an iron and rich in natural mana.]

"Well, lets get it over with." – said ClownFrog.

The party once again returned back Miggrel house.

".... Okay. I wasn’t expecting you to finish it so quickly. I though you would fail one or two times at least, but okay?" – said Miggrel.

[Miggrel Request – Part 4]

[You have leveled up.]

"Anyway, here is the money I promised." – said Miggrel before handing a bag of coins.

"...." – ClownFrog took a bag of coins from the man without saying anything.

"...."

"What?" – asked Miggrel.

"Do you still need something? You already did everything I asked you to, so you can get going already." – said Miggrel before returning to his desk.

".... What are you doing?" – asked ClownFrog.

"?"

"What?" – asked confused Miggrel.

"I’m asking what are you doing with those items you wanted us to gather. I don’t know is it because of your job as the researcher of poison and medicine, but something is off about everything."

(I’m bluffing. We couldn’t find anything off about him during the entire situation or even the things he asked us back to bring.)

(However, that is the problem. It looked too good. It was too perfect. I can’t tell if he is very good at hiding secrets or he really isn’t a hiding anything.)

(The only way to find out is to mix bluffs with a truth and see his reaction. Maybe then we will find something) – though ClownFrog.

".... Look. I paid you already so get lost. This is my deal what I do with materials in the first place." – said Miggrel while getting up from his chair.

(Oh? He is angry?)

"Well, then can you tell us what you do SPECIFICYL with the stuff we given you?" – asked GreyHunt.

"It does not concern you. Leave. Now." – replied Miggrel.

ClownFrog looked towards his party members in silent before turning back to Miggrel.

".... Okay, but we can tell you something. We are assholes. The adventurer guild leader ordered us to spy on you and try to find anything weird. As of right now, if we were to go back, she will probably come back here personally."

"?!"

"You- "

"I’m not bluffing. I’m serious and if you are smart you realized that."

".... What do you want?"

"Well, simply put, we are allowed to kill you, if necessary, but as I said before, we are assholes. If you show us what you are hiding and give us something to shut up then we can consider lying about you or we can even continue working with you, depending on what you have to offer." – said ClownFrog.

"...."

"...." – Miggrel stayed silence for some time before finally speaking up.

"Fine. If that will keep you shut up then we have a deal. If SHE were to come here, she would turn this place upside down and find it anyway, so I have no way of hiding it in the first place."

"!"

(Bingo!)

"Fallow me." – said Miggrel before moving away a carpet and revealing a hidden trapdoor underneath it.