Chapter 99 - The Shrine - 3

This situation in which he had to fight zombies repeatedly carried on for about 10 hours which is more than three hours in real-life. At the end, he finally managed to kill them all. He was extremely tired by this time and was exhausted and had no stamina left.

"Ah! After a long time, a bunch of people attempt to test themselves, but the first to arrive was the last to finish," came the voice of the soul remnant.

"The others finished their quest before me?" asked Balthazar aloud in surprise. The number of monsters he was asked to kill alone already put some doubts in his head. Though the players of Foedus Rex were good by the time he joined the game, he was sure no one would be as good as him at the early stages. So, he suspected that they couldn't have gone through the same test as him. Now, that all his teammates also managed to finish before him, he was sure of it.

"These idiots are definitely monitoring me and are making the game unnecessarily hard for me," thought Balthazar as he cursed them. But the next second he realized that there was an option for him to quit in the middle, the others could have been given the same option.

His doubts were right. There were quite a few among the others, who managed to finish their test, but his was set to very hard mode and he wasn't given the option to choose difficulty which was provided to the rest. That is the reason, he took so much time. The good thing about it was that the rewards would also correspond to difficulty and even the moderators couldn't stop that. He put in the effort and hence, he was going to receive the corresponding reward.

"Your performance was exemplary," continued the soul remnant. "I guess you are worthy enough to obtain these."

A pair of daggers with long ornate handles came flying into his hands through the wall at the end. Along with these a large treasure chest shining in gold also appeared at his feet. He quickly opened the treasure chest and sweeped it all into his bag. He was immediately transported back to the enclosure, where Merlin was waiting for him.

"Finally, at last. How come you took so long," said Merlin who was making potions in the enclosure. He had chosen the hard difficulty and it took him about 6 hours to finish his test.

"Give me something to eat. I am real low on stamina and might get kicked out," replied Shadow. Merlin quickly gave him a meat patty from his bag to Shadow who looked very tired. Once, Shadow was done eating it and rested for a few minutes, Merlin began talking to him.

"I didn't expect anyone to come out after me. So, what took you so long? What was your test?" asked Merlin.

"I had to kill 5000 zombies. What was yours?"

"Five thousand or hundred?" asked Merlin shocked. The number was a bit hard for him to believe. Even if he knew that Shadow was a real-life expert. The thought of one killing so many monsters was unbelievable to him.

"Five thousand obviously. Why would take so long to kill five hundred zombies?"

"What difficulty did you select?"

"Difficulty? There was no such option to select difficulty. I was directly asked to kill 5000 zombies."

"I think you used all your luck beforehand that you didn't even get to choose," said Merlin laughing.

"Ya, probably," said Shadow gritting his teeth in anger.

"Don't get angry. I was just kidding," said Merlin. "It was hard for me too. I chose the hardest difficulty it provided. I expected some test that would put my skills to use. Unexpectedly, I was given a few helpers at the start who would fight by my side."

"No way," said Shadow getting angrier. He expected something hard if Merlin also took a lot of time to get through the test but hearing that he had helpers was something that he never expected.

"Ya, but it isn't as good as you think. I had to make sure that they wouldn't die. The amount of health they had by the end of the test will be used to evaluate me. I had to help them kill 500 spectres. These helpers would only attack if I gave the order and I could control them for a certain time like a summoner. It felt like more of a test for summoner than a warlock. The demon told me that it is meant to check against the usual weakness of warlocks," explained Merlin.

"That makes no sense," said Shadow and it was reflected in his face. "I can understand the need for endurance for an assassin like me and hence, I was tested in such manner, but for warlock I expected something attacks against high speed monsters as majority of their stronger spells take time to cast," thought Shadow.

"Ya. I was kidding. That was Fire's test not mine," answered Merlin. "I was tested on my attack power and frequency. About 500 flying insects in a tunnel. Luckily, they fell down or got stunned on one hit of dark bolt or any other attack, which allowed me to run around as I killed them," he continued.

Shadow no longer cared about it. He was getting irritated by Merlin's jokes as he was already tired. He got up and started to move back to the staircase to get out. "I no longer care about the tests. Come on. Let us go," said Shadow.

"Ok, so what did you get as your reward," asked Merlin.

"Didn't yet check it," replied Shadow.

"What are you waiting for? You might as well check it now," said Merlin.

"What did you get?"

"I asked first, but I will show it first. It is no big thing," said Merlin as he revealed a violet colored 6-feet long sceptre which had a large crystalline gem at one end and a metallic shaft. It looked very pretty and beautiful like an ornamental sceptre than an actual weapon.

"That looks pretty. Any good skills on it?" asked Shadow sarcastically. Though he knew it was probably a unique weapon or at the very least a high-quality weapon, he wanted to get back at Merlin and was trying to joke on its appearance as he was feeling a bit angry.

"Pretty and powerful, my friend, the sceptre of evil is a unique weapon. Reduced my level quite a bit, but it has a few good skills and is upgradeable. Also received some other materials and recipies, but this was the best among the lot," replied Merlin. He was quite proud of the new weapon that he found and was showing it off. He didn't care a bit even that Shadow was trying to point out that it was a bit feminine. He took a snapshot of his weapons attributes and forwarded it to Shadow.

[Sceptre of Evel] (Unique Weapon)

Level 10;

Bound to Merlin Grimlock.

Focus/Search +10; Willpower+10; Magic Resist: +10;

Intelligence +12; Vitality +6; Endurance +5;

Increase Free attribute points by 2 points for every increase in level.

Passive Effects:

1. Enhanced Power: All curses and spells have prolonged effects than the usual. (Depends on the spells)

2. Reduced Cooldown: The cooldown of the spells or curses is lower than the usual.

Equipment can be leveled up to level 15 by absorbing the life essences of 1000 creatures of the dark faction.

Additional skills:

1. Siphon Mana: Siphons the opponents mana for one's own use at the rate of 10 MP per second. Duration: 30 seconds; Requires: 50 MP; Cooldown: 5 minutes.

2. Siphon Health: Reduces an opponent's health at the rate of 20 HP per second and half of the health reduced would be used to replenish one's own health. Duration: 30 seconds; Requires 50 MP; Cooldown: 10 minutes.

3. Subjugation: Has a chance to force to opponent to be your servant. Duration: Persists till the servant dies or is released by you; HP: 300 MP; Cooldown: 20 minutes. (Note: Has a 50% chance to fail opponents at the same level. The chance to fail increases if the level of the opponent is higher and reduces if the level is lower.)

"Powerful weapon. Right?" asked Merlin looking at Shadow. He had to agree that there were some good skills provided by the weapon. Even the passive skills were quite good and improved upon a warlock's skills.

"Yeah, it is not bad," said Shadow without much change his expression. "Either this fellow is quite good at maintaining his expressions or he already has seen something as good," thought Merlin.

"You have seen something as good before?" asked Merlin doubtful.

"Yeah, I already had a unique equipment," replied Shadow. There was no point in hiding it from Merlin and any others as they also probably had seen others with Unique equipment or personally have them right now.

"Well that explains few things now. I guess it definitely contributed quite a bit to your strength," said Merlin.

"Yeah, it has its advantages, but levelling gets harder once you have a unique equipment. You must have also observed it. What is your level now?"

"I was directly converted to level 9 after equipping mine. Luckily, there was no change in the number of attribute points that I had. It just managed to get back to level 10," said Merlin.

"Yeah, congrats!" said Shadow. "How many others managed to get hold of such armaments?"

"Everyone completed their tests, except for Blinding White, Little White Feet and Holy Radiance. We all got Unique weapons," replied Merlin. "Though they didn't get unique weapons, they got some decent equipment. Little White died and didn't get anything."

"That is very good. Nine of us received unique equipment. It would improve our strength by a lot," said Shadow.

"Yeah. We were really lucky. If only we had options of repeating the test. They would also have managed to get better equipment," said Merlin hoping that they have landed on a gold mine.

"Did Rudra send any others to attempt the test after the first batch?" asked Shadow. "I hope that we actually manage to get more people to attempt the test. If we manage to get more armaments from this shrine, we definitely stepped on a great place and it is worth a lot more than what I expected of it," thought Balthazar.

"Yes. He had sent more people. The first thing he did was to check in the game site about unique weapons. Though he didn't find any info from it, it was clear that these are rarities and he had only a four of his guys attempt it after he realized their importance. None of them returned yet though," said Merlin.

"OK. We will wait for them. Frankly speaking, based on the difficulty of my test, I didn't expect that so many would have passed the test," confessed Shadow.

"Dude, your test was ridiculous compared to the test of others. It also took most time compared to the others," said Merlin. "The tests were all similar to the ones we faced, focusing on the usual weak points of players with those professions, but for professionals, it wasn't much of a problem. I was actually surprised that Fire and Tang managed to finish the quest, but it was expected of the others who passed it. Your's was the only freakish one, the highest number of enemies, the rest of us faced was five hundred."

"Now, check what you received before we get going, I have seen the equipment of the others. Let me have a look at yours too," continued Merlin looking at him as he waited for him to open up his rewards.

Shadow also decided that it was the best time for him to check out the rewards, he received. Though he had carefully planned for getting the weapon, he felt a bit anxious when he actually was about to check it out. He was a bit afraid that he might not have received the weapons that he was dreaming about since his past life. He didn't even check the weapons he received from the soul remnant due to the same reason

"Fine, I will check it out," said Shadow as he pulled out the gold treasure chest that he received from the soul remnant. He was still a bit hesitant to check the weapons. He opened the chest and found that it had four items in it.

These items were very valuable. They were a cloak, a crossbow weapon design and two materials. The most valuable among them was the cloak for Shadow. The crossbow weapon design was also very valuable to a guild. He would have immediately given it to the guild, if he was sure that the engineers and forgers would be able to successfully create it, so he immediately learned it. Once, he equips the weapons he was sure to the reduce in level, so he was sure that the design would help him in gaining easy experience.