One week had passed since the tragedy deep in the forest.
Everything in the city of Soltaris had returned to normal. The Crimson Order continued their strict patrols through the cobblestone streets, and the citizens went about their daily lives of hard labor. No one in the world above had the slightest clue that the psychotic killer lurking in their shadows had been completely erased from existence.
Deep beneath the feet of tens of thousands of people, inside the underground sanctuary of the 18 Undercovers, the atmosphere was tranquil yet bustling with constant activity. The blue-green glow of mana crystals bathed the stone walls. The scent of medicinal herbs mixed with the sharp tang of sulfur, while the rhythmic ringing of a blacksmith's hammer striking hot iron echoed through the vast cavern.
In the expansive training yard on the right side of the sanctuary...
The pale, blue-tinted figure of Azul dashed through the air with superhuman speed. He was equipped with a brand-new set of customized gear forged specifically for him. It wasn't the heavy, cumbersome plate armor he had seen the city guards wear. Instead, it was a sleek combination of hardened leather and matte-black metal plating, reforged from the remnants of the dead Dark Knight's armor. It was designed to maximize absolute lightness and flexibility, drawing out the highest potential of a vampire's innate Agility.
The weapons in his hands were not swords or spears. They were obsidian-colored metallic gauntlets extending all the way to his fingertips, ending in razor-sharp, blade-like 'claws'. The design perfectly synchronized with the raw, primal undead instinct to tear and shred.
Whoosh! CLANG!!
The metal claws slashed through the air, aiming directly for the neck, but they were effortlessly parried by the flat side of a single short sword.
Talia, dressed in her original outfit, stood with a relaxed posture that possessed absolutely zero openings. She flowed like water, dodging Azul's furious follow-up strikes with minimal effort, before twisting her blade and striking the back of the young vampire's knee with the hilt. Azul's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the stone floor.
"Too slow, Azul... You're letting your anger dictate your instincts," Talia said, her voice flat but commanding. She looked down at her new disciple, who was panting heavily. "Your strength and speed are vastly superior to a normal human's, yes. But if you face a Player, charging in blindly with raw rage is nothing more than sprinting toward your own death."
Azul pushed himself up from the floor. His dull eyes burned with an unyielding determination. "I... I want to get stronger. Faster."
"Strength isn't just measured by destructive power," Talia said, spinning the short sword gracefully in her hand. "The first lesson I am going to teach you isn't 'how to kill'. It is 'how to survive'. Read my movements. Anticipate the shift in my muscles. Hide your bloodlust completely until the exact microsecond you strike... Now, come at me again. We will keep doing this until these rhythms are etched permanently into your bones!"
Meanwhile, in a corner of the sanctuary converted into a workshop...
The sound of grinding gears and magical sparks flared continuously. Lars, the dwarven Blacksmith, was swinging his massive hammer, pounding heavy steel plates into the shape of a towering humanoid frame. Not far from him, Nina, the Alchemist and Engineer, was using a fine brush dipped in glowing golden fluid to paint intricate magical command runes onto a pure mana crystal Core.
"The main torso structure is complete, Nina! The joints are perfectly flexible!" Lars wiped the sweat from his brow, grinning with pride.
"The mana circuitry is ready on my end too, Uncle Lars," Nina smiled brightly, pushing her welding goggles up into her hair. "This energy core will allow us to manually adjust its combat stats... This 'Iron Golem' isn't meant to be a base guard. It's our very own, customizable 'EXP Farming Simulator'!"
By combining the Alchemist's runic programming and the Blacksmith's structural forging, they had created a golem whose level and stats could be artificially raised. If Azul defeated it, Nina would simply tweak the mana core, making the golem stronger and faster for the next round, providing Azul with the safest and most efficient personal EXP farm possible.
However, sparring with a hunk of metal wouldn't be enough. The scouting party had their own parallel mission to fulfill.
Deep in the western forests of Soltaris, the late afternoon atmosphere was calm, filled only with the rustling of leaves and the distant calls of wildlife.
Neigh! Clop-clop-clop!
The sharp whinny of a warhorse and the thundering of hooves echoed across a wide clearing. Perrin, the cavalryman, was joyfully galloping back and forth on his trusted mount. His right hand tightly gripped his signature 'Long Lance'. He took a deep breath of the fresh forest air. He had finally used his summoning skill to bring his warhorse out of its cramped stable in the city, letting it stretch its legs and run freely.
"Getting to ride out in the open like this... finally makes me feel like a Cavalry class again!" Perrin shouted cheerfully.
Not far away, Silas, the Necromancer, was squatting on the ground, humming a happy tune. His hands roamed over the massive, lifeless corpse of an 'Armored Bear' and several other mid-tier monsters they had just finished hunting.
"Oh wow, these bones are incredibly dense... This batch of zombies should be able to withstand Azul's claws for quite a while," Silas smirked, using his class skill to store the massive carcasses into his personal necromancy inventory.
Elin, who had been standing on a high tree branch with her bow drawn as a lookout, dropped down lightly beside Finn and Bryn. The two of them were carefully covering up the bloodstains and signs of a struggle on the forest floor to avoid alerting the Black Guards.
"Silas, if we just keep letting Azul farm these wild monsters and Nina's golem, how strong can he actually get?" Bryn asked, wiping down her hunting dagger.
Silas's hands stopped moving. The young Necromancer stood up, his cheerful demeanor fading, replaced by the cold, calculating logic of a gamer.
"If we calculate it based on the standard EXP system... grinding the golem and these monsters will skyrocket Azul's level incredibly fast in the early stages," Silas explained, his tone serious. "But eventually, he's going to hit a Soft Cap. Normal monsters will start giving him diminishing returns, to the point where his EXP bar will barely move."
Finn frowned. "Then what do we do? How is he supposed to survive out there?"
"Talia set a specific goal. At the absolute minimum... Azul needs to reach Level 80," Silas sighed heavily, his gaze drifting into the dark depths of the forest. "Level 80 is the baseline threshold where his Agility and Vitality stats will be high enough to safely 'run away' and survive an attack from a Level 100 Player."
The entire scouting party fell silent, absorbing the heavy truth of the game's mechanics.
"But to break through that level wall and push a newborn vampire all the way to 80..." Silas lowered his voice to a near whisper. "We are going to need the body parts and corpses of a certain number of 'Players' as sacrifices to artificially boost his stats."
A dead silence fell over the forest clearing. The weight of the grim reality hung heavily in the air.
Just as the tension threatened to suffocate them, a loud burst of laughter shattered the silence.
"Oh man! Why do you guys look so stressed?!"
Silas threw his head back and laughed, slapping Finn hard on the shoulder. "Did you guys forget who we are? We're Players! If we need Player corpses to power-level Azul, but we don't want to risk exposing ourselves by hunting them directly... why don't we just troll the massive guilds into fighting each other?! When they go to war and drop dead all over the battlefield, we just swoop in as third parties, loot their gear, and quietly bag the corpses! Hahaha! I'm an absolute genius!"
Elin, Bryn, and Finn looked at each other, then simultaneously let out a long sigh. As incredibly toxic and 'griefer-like' as the idea sounded, it was undeniably the most flawless gamer logic they had heard all day.
"Let's head back to base... We need to pitch this to Talia," Bryn concluded.
Inside the Main War Room of the Underground Sanctuary
The core members of the 18 Undercovers sat around the long stone table once again after Silas triumphantly presented his 'Corpse Scavenging' master plan.
"Hmm..." Talia sat with her arms crossed, tapping her index finger against the stone table. The crystal light reflected off her glasses. "Silas's plan carries risks... but if successful, the payout is astronomical. We secure the Player corpses to boost Azul's level, and we simultaneously diminish the military strength of the major guilds."
"So, who exactly are we targeting, Silas?" Lucian asked, leaning back in his chair.
"Easy!" Silas snapped his fingers, standing up and pointing at the map on the table. "This city is ruled by the 'Crimson Order', right? They have the numbers and they're arrogant as hell. If we can find a way to provoke them, mess with their operations, or make them think they're being targeted by another massive guild like 'Oracle'..."
"Ah, I see where this is going," Dane smirked. "If the Crimson Order's pride gets poked, they won't just sit there. But they also aren't stupid enough to launch a full-scale war on Oracle immediately. What their commanders will do is..."
"...send out small Scout Squads outside the city to gather intel and retaliate!" Bryn finished the thought, her eyes widening as the brilliance of the griefing strategy clicked.
"Exactly!" Silas grinned ear to ear. "And once those small parties are wandering around in the woods... we just ambush them, wipe them out, loot them dry, and stuff their bodies into my inventory! We get a massive chunk of EXP for Azul with zero effort, and the Crimson Order will just blame Oracle for ambushing their scouts! Two birds, one stone!"
"That is so incredibly toxic... but it's absolutely perfect," Sera clapped her hands in excitement.
"It's an excellent False Flag Operation, Silas," Talia nodded approvingly. "But here is the most critical question... How do we make the Crimson Order believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that Oracle initiated the attack? Oracle is famous for using Light-attribute magic and holy artifacts. Absolutely no one in our guild possesses Light magic skills."
As Talia's question echoed through the room, a pin-drop silence fell over the table. All eyes slowly turned to the mastermind himself.
Silas froze for three agonizing seconds. He blinked a few times, raised a hand to scratch the back of his head, and let out a very awkward, dry chuckle.
"Uh... well, Boss..." Silas laughed nervously. "About the whole 'how do we frame them' part... I didn't actually think that far ahead. I just had the concept! Hehe..."
Smack! Smack! Smack!
The sound of collective facepalms echoed around the stone table.
"For fuck's sake, I thought you had a whole plan figured out," Dane muttered, shaking his head.
"Good grief, Silas," Talia let out a long, exhausted sigh. "To frame a guild of that magnitude, we need irrefutable 'evidence'. If we attack them with our standard magic or weapons, the Crimson Order's investigators and mana-analysts will immediately realize a third party is involved."
Everyone sat in absolute silence, staring blankly at the map, racking their brains for a solution. But no brilliant ideas came to mind.
Dane broke the silence, a mischievous smirk creeping onto his face. "Well then, Mr. Mastermind. Since this is your grand project, I suggest you go do your homework. Come back and pitch the actual execution to the board at the next meeting."
"Yeah," Thom chimed in, catching on immediately. "I expect a full PowerPoint presentation, Silas. Bullet points, pros, cons, risk assessment matrices. The works."
"Make sure the font is readable from the back of the room," Lucian added smoothly, crossing his arms.
"And don't forget the pie charts! The board loves pie charts," Sera giggled, joining the bullying session.
The entire table erupted into teasing, piling on the demands for a corporate-level presentation.
Silas groaned loudly, throwing his hands up in defeat. He pouted like a scolded child. "Fine! Whatever! I just won't do it then! Forget I said anything!"
Dane laughed out loud, reaching over to clap the sulking Necromancer hard on the back. "Hey, I'm just messing with you. But seriously... if you want to pull this plan off, just go figure out the 'how'. That's all there is to it! Hahaha!"