The Gunner fell forward in a quick nap instantly. Nijana landed beside the sleeping Gunner, switched out her chakram for her rapier, then plunged it through the woman’s back. Synaria drove her twin Marauder’s Dirks down to the opposite side.
They weren’t finished yet.
As the day went on, Alita sent party after party to eliminate the notorious PKers ruining everyone’s day. None succeeded.
That party led by a Berserker? Nijana slept them with Lullaby, got as far back as she could, and hurled the Marauder’s Chakram into his face. Her returning weapon awoke the Berserker, and they slowly yawned and got to their feet. By the time the Berserker retrieved their weapon, Nijana had already thrown the Marauder’s Chakram enough times to get 100 AP. The Berserker dropped dead without having the chance to swing their axe.
In the trees, Mages, Rangers, and Gunners attempted to strike the duo from above. Nijana and Synaria pissed off the elves of Alita. Nijana spread her wings and flew upward to deal with them. She played a comforting Lullaby for the Mage. They fell off the tree and hit the ground face first and died. Arrows came crashing into Nijana from a distance. Bullets put gory red holes into her back. Nijana was being hit by projectiles from both sides.
She drifted to the side, escaped the second volley, her injuries leaking blood to the landscape below. The Ranger and Gunner readjusted their aim in the treetops and fired again. Nijana’s fluttering wings carried her away from that. Swift Carol made her a hard target to shoot. After 100 seconds of flying circles around the trees, Nijana had AP, so she gripped the Marauder’s Chakram and used Dazzling Throw at the Gunner. She struck him so hard he fell over backward, off the tree branch, and broke his back upon impact. Synaria emerged from her Stealth and slit his throat.
Nijana twisted in the air and eyed their last target, the Ranger. She raised her Marauder’s Chakram, and the Ranger lowered their bow and climbed down the tree to escape. Nijana floated above and tossed her weapon toward them.
The Ranger got to the ground and ran—
Into Synaria.
Synaria cut into his leg and took it off with a critical hit. The attack sent the Ranger down on his back. Synaria spun her other Marauder’s Dirk around, and carved his face until it barely looked like the face of an elven man, just red meat stuck on a skull.
Once finished, the red-headed fae Bard and bunny ear druid Assassin walked away with everything they destroyed laying behind—Clerics and Medics from the nearby village rushed in to raise the dead and tend to their wounds. The elves the two had made playthings of told their horror story to all.
Nijana returned to the Cleric she had bested earlier. Nobody had gotten around to resurrecting them just yet, so she helped herself to the loot the Cleric had, namely their scepter. She blew them a kiss and walked away. Life as a plundering PKer was great and guilt-free. Nobody truly died forever as per the code of the people killers: always allow the dead to be resurrected.
She glanced at her level progression.
Nijana Celestina
Class: Bard LVL 21
Subclass: NONE
HP: 835/835
MP: 0/0
AP: 74/100
LP: 10/10
EXP: 157/6726
Then burst out laughing.
Nijana and Synaria had overdone it. They hit level 21, and she had a quest awaiting her eyes the whole time, one that granted her the astral cluster to switch classes. Nijana ignored the text. Synaria already explained how the subclass system worked earlier. Synaria set up a tent in the middle of the field, and the two used it to recover their energy and switch classes.
Nijana became a level 1 Cleric using a Bard subclass. Switching classes had left her naked in the tent with Synaria. The leather skirt and top of Synaria’s Marauder’s Jerkin outfit came off her body when she changed to her Mage. Synaria was a tiny woman, all right. A lock of her platinum hair had fallen over her right breast, obscuring the rosy nipple, her pussy hair white like fresh snow had fallen to her nether region.
Synaria reached for her Mage’s dress while Nijana settled with a simple Cleric dress she bought off the trade broker. With a few more levels, she’d be able to wear Averyl’s Flame Priestess’s Robe and impersonate her.
The two took a break, laid back for a minute, and stared at the tent’s ceiling.
“Why are you still using that old ocarina?” Synaria pointed at Dianna’s Ocarina clipped to Nijana’s belt. “The Marauder’s Ocarina has better stats.”
“This?” Nijana held Dianna’s Ocarina up and rotated it around in her hands. “Its stats change as I level up. Right now, it has the same stats as the Marauder’s Ocarina, so I never made the change.”
“Eh, no, that is impossible.”
“How so?”
“Because that is not how it works, lass. Bard instruments are like all weapons and equipment. Their stats remain the same. That ocarina should not be getting stronger with you.”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you.” Nijana shrugged. “Hmm.”
Synaria lifted a platinum eyebrow in sync with her bunny ears. “Hmm?”
“The star-dweller Paladin, Guy, said that the previous owner of this ocarina was special. Perhaps that special nature rubbed off on it.”
“Never heard of that happening. Well then, now I’m really looking forward to robbing Averyl and her friends. I wonder what other rare items they have.”
Nijana clipped Dianna’s Ocarina to her belt. “As do I.”
“Well, in other news. I will use the Blade Dancer subclass from now on,” Synaria said. “Me experiment worked. Assassin with a Blade Dancer subclass synergizes perfectly with a Bard in the party.”
“How many classes have you leveled?” Nijana asked.
“Lots,” Synaria said, waved her hand through the air, creating a screen that listed all the classes Synaria had leveled. “Let’s see here . . . 15 Blade Dancer, 21 Mage, 22 Bard, 19 Cleric, 15 Berserker, and now, thanks to you, 21 Assassin. I want to level them all.”
“Why?”
“Why the fuck not? I got nothing else to do until star-dwellers arrive. Ideally, the ones we did not steal from.”
Nijana rolled on her side to face the druid. “Planning on ditching me on this world when that happens?”
The two made eye contact. “It would be nice to return to me homeworld and see how the corruption changed it.”
“Why’d you come to Alfheimr, anyway? I heard the world you druids come from is much better than this place.”
“Family drama.” Synaria shrugged. “Druids don’t like the corruption, claims it changes nature.”
“Which is true.”
“Yeah, so those afflicted by the corruption are expelled and forced into traveling star-dweller ships. Doubt that is the case now. I bet everyone back home has been touched by the corruption. I plan to laugh at them for kicking me out—”
A reminder screen appeared before Synaria. She sat up to access the new screen as Nijana looked over her shoulder and read the text written.
Vix, the dealer, will be ready soon. Return to the mists as quickly as possible.
“Just in time, too,” Synaria said. “Vix will be waiting for us in the mists soon.” Synaria leaped to her feet and went for the tent’s exit. “Ready to make some money, lass?”
Nijana nodded. She had forgotten about the deal to sell the Nox Knight soul crystal. “Yes,” she said with an evil grin. “After that, let’s get some levels on my Cleric, then we raid Averyl’s place, and her elven friends dry.”
“That’s assuming Averyl did not return to Lumière before us.”
“She didn’t,” Nijana said and joined the druid. “Averyl and Guy got separated from their friends.”
“Good.” Synaria peeked through the tent’s entrance and eyed the horses she rented, tied to a tree. “Let us bathe in the river to wash off this blood, then ride back to the mists.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
The Willow of the Empire waved the flag of Autumnfall promin
ently in the sky. The fae-constructed airship, brought to Alfheimr courtesy of the sentinels, slowed as it approached a New Svartálfar airship, one of many that had left the mists a day earlier. The Willow of the Empire came to a complete stop and hovered in the sky, casting its shadow down upon the New Svartálfar airship.
Serzax had an urgent matter to attend to on the dark elf-operated airship. He walked across the Willow of the Empire’s deck to its guard railing and looked at the drop below. He saw dark elf Spell Lancers and Mages standing on the deck of their ship. They were close enough for him to board their airship, so he gave the signal to do so.
“Throw the ladder down,” Serzax ordered.
“Yes, milord,” Leafblade said, and moved to address the imperial aeronauts. “You heard the Nox Knight, send down the ladder to the dark elf ship.”
The crew buzzed their wings, grabbed a rope ladder, dragged it to the edge, and tossed it over and down to the floating New Svartálfar vessel. Serzax climbed down to the ship below and leaped off to step foot on the New Svartálfar’s ship’s deck. The dark elf ship captain approached, a half-naked purple man wearing a loincloth as his chest shimmered with white light from his sigils.
“Hold position here,” Serzax said to the captain. “There has been a slight change in plans.”
“Is that so?” said the captain. “Queen Meridtila mentioned nothing of that.”
“I sent a carrier pigeon to Meridtila to explain the situation,” Serzax said. “The Paladin is here on this world. I have met him myself and he is growing stronger. We must neutralize him and his friends before pushing into Lumière. Doing so would provide us an advantage we did not expect.”
“Hold position here? What if Lumière sends their fleet after us?”
“They will not. I have . . . someone on the inside. Lumière is unaware of our position, and my contact will ensure it stays that way.”
“So we do… what? Wait for the Paladin to come to us?”
“Yes,” Serzax said. “My contact will provide us the Paladin, Averyl, and something else vital to our new strategy.”
“Very well,” the captain said. “I shall see that the fleet hears of our new direction. Can we anticipate the sentinels’ assistance?”
“No, their ships remain untouched by the corruption. Until that changes, their machina is no match for airships such as these. The sentinels will remain in orbit for the time being and search for the starship that brought the Paladin to this world.”
“Anything else, human?” the captain sneered.
Serzax grinned. “Yes.” And he walked past the captain, the Spell Lancers, and dark elf aeronauts. Serzax turned his attention to the open space on the ship’s deck. “Show yourself, Vix.”
Vix, the dark elf Assassin, appeared having shrugged off his invisible Stealth skill and strode to Serzax, a pair of daggers at his left and right.
“You called?” Vix snickered.
“Any new soul crystals for me?” Serzax asked.
“Not yet,” Vix said, shaking his head. “Oh, that reminds me.”
“Hmm?”
“Might have a seller offering a rare find,” Vix said. “One of the people killers acquired a Nox Knight soul crystal.”
Serzax raised his right eyebrow. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, I just did not buy it because I wanted to check with you first . . . that and, I need the francs for it plus . . .”
“Your finder’s fee. Yes, yes, I know.”
“You need to pay me a bonus for finding high-valued soul crystals,” Vix said. “And I am sure a Nox Knight soul crystal counts as that.”
“It does indeed, Vix.” Serzax opened his Inventory screen and selected a generous sum of elven francs. He offered the sack of coins to Vix. The dark elf Assassin dumped a few of the silver and gold coins onto his hand and counted.
“Yes, this should be enough,” Vix said. “Would it be too much to ask the good captain to drop me off in the mists? That is where I shall meet with the seller.”
Serzax looked at the horizon and the wall of perpetual white fog covering the marshlands there. It was not far away. “No, I see no harm in that, Vix. Go meet with your contact and bring me that soul crystal.”
Vix spun to talk with the captain—
“Hold on,” Serzax called out, stopping Vix in his tracks. “Who was it you said had the soul crystal?”
“Some druid woman and . . .” Vix recalled the details. “Oh . . . she was with a pixie as well. Cute little thing too. Would you like to meet them?”
Nijana and Synaria shared a horse and rode away from the southern plains of Alita, past Lumière City and its surrounding forests, towns, and meadows. They arrived at the edge of the mists and the marshlands within it. They rode to it incredibly fast, with little to no downtime. A floating screen above the horse’s head explained why. The corruption touched it. The horse had stats that allowed it to move at fast speeds. The more it ran, the higher its level got. Very handy. Too bad Synaria didn’t own the horse. It was a rental, and there was a countdown timer letting her know how long she had before the rental period was up. Once that happened, if Nijana understood correctly, the horse would shrug them off and race back to its stable.
They had minutes to find Vix, sell the Nox Knight soul crystal, then return to Lumière City. And of course, level Nijana’s Cleric up so that she could wear Averyl’s stolen Flame Priestess’s Robe.
The two had dismounted when their rental horse entered the marsh within the mists. The afflicted crocodiles were still there, snarling in the distance. Synaria led the way through the swamps and trees as her Assassin. She had to. Nijana was a level 1 Cleric with a Bard subclass, and the monsters there would only prove to be just as difficult as the last time Nijana was there. That, and only Synaria knew where to meet Vix.
As expected, the afflicted crocodiles that lived in the marsh challenged the duo. Synaria grabbed her twin Marauder’s Dirks and protected Nijana while she assumed her new role as a healer. Cleric Bard was an interesting combo, as Nijana quickly discovered, a mixture of healing and support, especially with the new Bard song she learned, which used the sigils of Minstrel, Heart, and Voice.
Divine Hymn
Increases the potency of the next heal targets receive.
Cost: 100 AP
Because the Bard subclass gave Nijana a boost to her charisma, she met the Recruit’s Chakram’s 30 charisma requirement, and threw it to build AP, then used that AP to sing Divine Hymn, literally. Nijana didn’t have any instruments her Cleric could use, as Dianna’s Ocarina evolved and carried a 66 Charisma requirement.
Since Nijana sang songs rather than play them with an instrument, their range, and effectiveness were limited. She had to stand next to Synaria for her to receive the effect. Singing a personal song to an Assassin as they fought with a crocodile was weird and nearly allowed the crocodile to kill her via its tail swipe. Nijana would have to readjust her setup later. The Recruit’s Chakram didn’t have healing potency on it. Synaria yelled at Nijana when Starlight Recovery returned only a minor amount of HP.
I suppose I will have to drink the ginseng tea, for now, she thought, and pulled a spare cup of it from her inventory. She winced at the fact she could pull a cup of tea out of thin air, then drink it.
Nijana’s AP rose 1 point per second. It would take Nijana 100 seconds to have enough AP to sing a song.
Still a handy combination, Nijana thought. I will have to use the scepter for now to increase my healing potency. Blast these stupid game rules . . .
The duo fought their way to the grove where Vix was to meet them. Nijana had gained three levels on her Cleric during the trek, bringing her base wisdom to 61 and intelligence to 39. She still lacked the 69 wisdom 60 intelligence to wear the Flame Priestess’s Robe. A few more levels and asteriarite might change that.
Vix hadn’t arrived.
Nijana looked at Synaria. The druid Assassin paced back and forth, hands on her thin, tiny hips. “Okay, Vix,” Synaria groan
ed. “In case you did not hear me the last fifteen fucking times, I am here.”
“Seventeen times, as I recall,” Nijana said.
“Whatever.” Synaria faced the open space. “Vix, show yourself. Me rental horse is gonna run off on us soon.” Nothing happened. “Where the fuck is he?”
“Right here,” Vix’s voice echoed from the mist surrounding the two. “Waiting for your horse to fuck off—”
Firm hands grabbed Nijana from behind, one forcing her head up to expose her neck, the other bringing a dagger to her throat. The hand gripping the blade was purple. It was the hand of a dark elf. Synaria drew her twin Marauder’s Dirks, whirled them around for dramatic effect, and ambled to the man holding Nijana captive.
“I would not do that if I were you,” said the voice of a second man.
Out from the mist entered a human man wearing black armor covered in spikes, with a long cape fluttering behind. If you could even call his armor, armor. The man’s armor had a deep vertical opening on the front, exposing his solid, sigil decorated chest. The human man brandished a longsword, its blade pulsing a dark purple aura. His sword’s blade was strange. It looked like it was absorbing the light rather than producing it. A sword that created darkness.
Nijana eyed the man long enough for his information to flash above his head.
Land-human (Nox Knight) | LVL: 30 | Rank: A
And the Nox Knight confronted Synaria. “Where is the crystal?” he asked.
Synaria slipped one Marauder’s Dirk into her dagger belt to free her hand and reached for the soul crystal. She held it up high for the Nox Knight’s grinning face to gleam.
“My son . . . I am sorry I failed you.” The Nox Knight looked down at the druid and her trembling hand. “Hand it over, now.”
“Eh.” Synaria gestured with her head toward Nijana. “Let her go first.”
Mirror Princess: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 2) Page 38
