Chapter 7: [7] : A Pragmatic Alliance, The Blood Burst
The silence around the campfire was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Declan casually tossed the wooden stick into the magical orange flames. He had just finished the last bite of the burnt rat meat. It tasted like old boots, but the dull yellow stamina bar at the top of his vision finally ticked back to full green. His health was sitting comfortably at 100 out of 100.
He wiped a smear of mud and hound blood off his chin with the back of his sleeve. He looked across the fire.
Sloane and Kendra were still staring at him.
Kendra's knuckles were totally white from gripping her wooden bow so hard. Sloane looked like she was trying to solve a math problem that didn't have an answer.
"You guys are going to catch flies if you keep your mouths open like that," Declan said.
Sloane blinked and finally snapped her jaw shut. "How did you do that?" she asked. Her voice was barely a whisper. "Those were Level 4 monsters. Five of them. They should have ripped you apart in three seconds."
"I have a good gaming chair," Declan replied with a completely straight face. It was an old meme from a lifetime ago, back before the megacorps took his life and threw him in a cell. He didn't feel like explaining his SSS Talent to them.
Kendra frowned. "What does that even mean? We are in a death game!"
"Look, the how doesn't matter," Declan said.
He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. The dark leather of his +10 Predator's Coat creaked slightly. "What matters is that I am very good at killing things. But this place is huge. The fog is thick. I don't know the map, and my base agility is basically zero right now. I need eyes."
Sloane crossed her arms over her white medic tunic. "Eyes. You mean you want scouts."
"Exactly," Declan nodded. "I need people to find the monsters. You two look pretty weak."
"Hey!" Kendra protested, her face turning red.
"Don't take it personally. Everyone is weak right now." Declan continued smoothly. "You have a bow, which means you have decent eyesight and range. Sloane has healing magic. That's a good utility combo. Here is my deal. We form a party. Strictly business."
Sloane narrowed her eyes. "What kind of business?"
"You two scout ahead," Declan explained.
"You find the monster camps, the bosses, the high yield spawn points. You pull the aggro and bring them to me. I kill them."
Kendra looked at the pile of dissolving blue pixels where the hounds used to be. "You want us to act as bait?"
"I prefer the term tactical lures." Declan said. "In exchange, you don't die. You get a share of the base experience points just for being in the party. Any normal loot that drops like armor, weapons, or junk, we split evenly. You guys can sell it or wear it. I don't care."
Sloane tilted her head. "That sounds too generous. What's the catch? Guys who dress like you always have a catch."
"The catch is the Origin Points." Declan said, his tone turning dead serious. "Every single Origin Point that drops from the kills belongs to me. You don't touch them. You don't ask for them. I get all of them. Deal?"
Sloane looked at Kendra. Kendra looked back at Sloane.
Origin Points were the main currency of the Grid. They were used to buy basic supplies or upgrade gear. Giving them all up meant they would be broke. But getting a free ride with a guy who could one shot a pack of armored wolves? That meant they would actually survive the night!
"If we say no?" Kendra asked nervously.
Declan pointed his thumb over his shoulder into the pitch black woods. "Then you sit by this fire until it burns out, and the next pack of hounds eats you for breakfast. Your choice."
Sloane let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through her messy brown hair. "Fine. It's a deal. You kill the ugly stuff, we get the scraps, you take the points. Better than dying in a mud puddle."
"Smart choice," Declan smiled. "Now, give me a minute. I need to do some crafting."
Declan ignored their confused looks and opened his system interface. He pulled up his inventory and checked his resources. He had 25 points from the boar, spent 10 to upgrade his coat, and looted 15 from killing Garret. That gave him 30 points before the hound fight. The five Level 4 hounds dropped 10 points each.
[Origin Points: 80]
He smiled. He had plenty of fuel for his talent. He pulled the rusty, mutated meat cleaver out of his inventory. It materialized in his hand with a heavy thud. The blade was still a jagged crimson color, and it literally pulsed with a faint, dark red light.
Kendra took a step back when she saw the weapon. "That thing looks cursed," she muttered.
"It's just misunderstood," Declan said. He mentally selected the cleaver and pulled up the enhancement menu. Pushing it to +10 gave him the Hemorrhage trait, which drained 50 HP a second. It was broken. But why stop there? He had the points.
"System," Declan commanded in his mind.
"Enhance the Chipped Cleaver ten times."
The system prompts immediately flooded his vision in rapid succession. A blinding white light swallowed the cleaver in his hand.
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +11.]
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +12.]
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +13.]
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +14.]
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +15.]
The light grew brighter. The system threw up another bright red warning box, just like before.
[Notice: Item has exceeded maximum safety thresholds. Structural collapse imminent.]
Declan completely ignored it! His SSS Rank talent, Boundless Enhancement, kicked in instantly. The red warning box shattered into tiny digital pieces.
[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +16.]
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +17.]
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +18.]
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver +19.]
Declan felt the handle of the weapon changing in his grip. It was no longer just polished wood. The wood was twisting, turning into a dark, bone like material that molded perfectly to the shape of his fingers.
The blade itself was growing longer and wider.
[Ding! Chipped Cleaver has reached +20.]
[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]
A shockwave of dark, bloody red light pulsed out from the weapon. It blew the rain away from Declan in a perfect circle. Sloane and Kendra covered their faces as the sudden gust of wind hit them.
When the light faded, Declan looked at his weapon. It didn't even look like a cleaver anymore. It looked like a brutal, serrated machete forged in hell. The metal was pitch black, but the jagged edge glowed with a liquid, moving crimson energy. It looked wet.
The new stat screen popped up.
[Name: Carnage Cleaver +20]
↳ Tier: Scavenged Double Mutated
↳ Damage: 45 to 60
↳ Trait 1: Hemorrhage. 100 percent chance to cause uncontrollable bleeding. Drains 50 HP per second for 10 seconds.
↳ Trait 2 Unlocked: Blood Burst. Any active bleed stacks applied by this weapon can be manually detonated by the user snapping their fingers. Detonation instantly consumes the remaining bleed duration, dealing the total remaining damage instantly as internal AoE damage.
Declan read the text. He read it a second time. A massive grin spread across his face.
If he hit a monster, they bled for 10 seconds, taking 50 damage a second. That was 500 damage over time.
With Blood Burst, if he hit a monster and instantly snapped his fingers, the system would immediately apply all 500 damage at once. From the inside.
"This game is so stupid," Declan laughed out loud. "I love it."
"What did you just do?" Sloane asked. She was staring at the new weapon. "That sword just changed shape. How did you do that without an anvil or a blacksmith NPC?"
"Trade secret," Declan said. He rested the flat of the heavy blade against his shoulder. "Are you two ready to work? I want to test this thing out."
Kendra grabbed her bow and swallowed hard. "Where are we going?"
"Deeper into the zone." Declan pointed into the dark fog. "Find me a target. Something big."
After a while, The trio left the warmth of the campfire. The rain immediately soaked Sloane and Kendra, but Declan was perfectly dry under his mutated coat. The water just slid right off the black fabric.
They walked for about ten minutes through the twisting, dead trees. The mud squelched under their boots. Kendra was walking a few yards ahead, her eyes scanning the darkness.
Suddenly, she held up a fist. It was a basic military signal to stop. Declan and Sloane froze.
Kendra slowly pointed to a large, rocky clearing up ahead. "There," she whispered. "By the rocks."
Declan squinted through the fog. A massive, bloated creature was digging through a pile of garbage. It looked like a cross between a toad and a bear. It had thick, warty skin and massive claws.
[Toxic Mire Bear]
↳ Level: 5
↳ HP: 600 / 600
"Level 5," Sloane whispered, her voice shaking. "Declan, that thing is a mini boss. We shouldn't mess with it. It probably has poison attacks."
"Perfect," Declan said. "Unfortunate for it."
He stepped out from behind the trees. He didn't bother using his Shadow Meld invisibility. He just walked right out into the open.
The Mire Bear heard his footsteps. It turned around, dropping a half eaten deer carcass from its mouth. It let out a roar that shook the puddles on the ground. Green toxic drool dripped from its jaws.
"Hey ugly," Declan called out.
The bear charged. It was surprisingly fast for its size. The ground trembled under its heavy footfalls.
Declan stood completely still. He held the Carnage Cleaver down by his side. The bear raised a massive, clawed paw to crush him into the dirt.
Right as the paw came down, Declan sidestepped. The bear's claws dug into the mud right next to his boots. Declan brought the cleaver up in a fast, upward slash.
Schwing!
The crimson blade sliced cleanly across the bear's thick forearm. It was a shallow cut, just like the ones he gave the hounds.
[Trait Activated: Hemorrhage]
Dark blood sprayed out of the bear's arm.
The creature roared in pain and pulled its arm back. Its health bar started to drop rapidly. 50 HP down. Then another 50.
But Declan didn't wait for it to bleed out. He took three steps backward, putting distance between himself and the angry monster.
He raised his left hand in the air.
He snapped his fingers.
SNAP.
The sound echoed sharply in the quiet forest.
Instantly, the system calculated the remaining bleed damage. 400 damage left on the timer.
The Blood Burst trait activated.
The Mire Bear froze. Its eyes bulged out of its head. The creature let out a choked, gurgling sound.
BOOM!
The bear violently exploded from the inside out! A massive shockwave of dark blood and shredded meat blasted outward in a ten foot radius. Chunks of warty flesh rained down on the mud.
The monster's upper half was completely gone, vaporized by the internal pressure. The lower half of the body simply collapsed into the dirt.
[Toxic Mire Bear Level 5 Killed!]
[Experience Points Gained: 500]
[Level Up!]
[You are now Level 5.]
Declan stood calmly just outside the blast zone. Not a single drop of blood landed on his coat.
He turned his head to look at his new scouts.
Sloane had fallen on her butt in the mud.
Kendra dropped her bow again. They were both staring at the smoking crater where the bear used to be.
Declan smiled. "So. Who wants to find the next one?"
-----x-----
Chapter 8: [8] : The Blockade, The Extortionist
The Weeping Thicket was starting to get annoying.
Declan, Sloane, and Kendra had been walking for another two hours. The rain never stopped. The mud just got deeper. Declan was fine, but his two new employees were shivering violently.
"My boots are full of water," Sloane complained for the fifth time. "I think my toes are actually pruning. Do avatars get trench foot? I feel like I'm going to get trench foot."
"Keep your voice down," Kendra hissed from the front. She had an arrow nocked on her bowstring, her eyes darting through the thick, gray fog. "You're going to pull aggro from something we can't see."
"It doesn't matter what we pull," Sloane grumbled, pointing a thumb at Declan. "The psychopath back there just snaps his fingers and turns them into meat confetti. We haven't been in danger for two hours."
It was true. Over the last two hours, Kendra had scouted six different groups of monsters. Giant spiders, mutated badgers, and more of those iron jawed hounds. Every single fight went the exact same way.
Declan walked up. He let them attack him so they would bounce off his +10 Predator's Coat. He gave them one shallow scratch with his +20 Carnage Cleaver to apply the bleed effect. Then he snapped his fingers.
Boom. Blood Burst. Instant death.
He was farming them like an assembly line!
Declan was now Level 6. His inventory was overflowing with junk drops like rusted daggers, wolf pelts, and copper coins. And more importantly, he had racked up a solid 200 Origin Points.
"We need to get out of this zone," Declan said. He stepped over a puddle of glowing blue slime. "The EXP from these Level 4 and 5 monsters is starting to drop off. The system gives diminishing returns if you out level the enemies."
"I see an end to the trees up ahead," Kendra called out. She jogged forward a few steps.
"The fog is clearing up too."
Declan and Sloane caught up to her. They broke through the final line of rotting, twisted trees and stepped out onto a rocky cliffside.
The view was bleak. A massive, bottomless gorge stretched out in front of them. The other side of the cliff was barely visible in the mist. The only way across was a long, terrifying suspension bridge made of thick steel cables and wooden planks.
[Area Discovered: The Howling Gorge]
[Warning: Crossing leads to Sector 5 Ashlands Level 5 to 10 Zone]
"Finally," Declan said. "Better hunting grounds."
"Wait," Kendra said. She dropped to a crouch behind a large boulder. She peered around the edge. "There's a problem at the bridge."
Declan crouched next to her and looked.
At the entrance of the suspension bridge, a makeshift barricade of spiked logs had been set up. Behind the barricade stood about fifteen players. They didn't look like the desperate, starving newbies in the spawn alley.
These guys were organized. They all wore matching dark gray armor pieces. Some had iron helmets. Others had chainmail vests.
They were carrying actual weapons like real swords, heavy maces, and crossbows. They looked like a private militia.
In front of the barricade, a long line of miserable, wet players was waiting. They were the regular survivors who had managed to scrape their way through the Weeping Thicket.
"What's going on?" Sloane asked, crawling up next to them.
"Looks like a toll booth," Declan noted.
Down at the bridge, a tall, muscular man with a shaved head and a glowing red broadsword was shouting at the crowd. He stood on top of a wooden crate so everyone could see him.
"Listen up, rats!" the bald man yelled. His voice boomed over the sound of the wind.
"This bridge belongs to the Black Vanguard guild! We secured it. We defend it. If you want to cross into the Level 5 zone, you pay the toll."
A skinny player in the front of the line stepped up, shivering. "How much is the toll?"
"One hundred copper coins." The bald man smirked. "Per person."
The crowd erupted in angry shouts.
"A hundred copper? Are you insane?"
"We just started! We barely have five coins!"
"You can't do this! The game just started!"
The bald man, whose floating name tag read Gideon, raised his hand. Three massive bruisers stepped forward from the barricade.
They were huge, easily six and a half feet tall, carrying gigantic two handed warhammers.
They slammed the hammers into the rocky ground. The boom silenced the crowd instantly!
"I don't care if you're broke." Gideon sneered. "If you don't have the coins, you can trade your gear. If you don't have gear, you can go back into the forest and farm until you do. Anyone who tries to cross without paying gets their legs broken and thrown into the gorge. Next in line!"
The skinny player looked terrified. He reached into his inventory and pulled out a rusty shortsword and a pair of leather boots.
He handed them over to a Vanguard guard.
The guard laughed, shoved the skinny guy past the barricade, and let him cross the bridge.
"Extortion," Kendra whispered, her eyes wide. "They are literally holding the map progression hostage."
"That's one hundred copper," Sloane did the math in her head. "Or equivalent gear. We don't have that kind of money. We have to go back and farm."
"No we don't," Declan said. He stood up from behind the boulder. He brushed some dirt off his black coat.
"Declan, what are you doing?" Sloane hissed, trying to grab him. "There are fifteen of them! And those three big guys look like they are Level 7 Warriors at least!"
"I don't care what level they are," Declan said calmly. "I am not paying."
He walked straight past the boulder and headed down the rocky path toward the bridge. His boots crunched loudly on the gravel.
Sloane and Kendra stayed back, watching him in absolute panic.
Declan walked past the line of miserable players. A few of them looked at him. They saw his pristine black duster and the confident way he walked. They quickly stepped out of his way.
He walked right up to the front of the barricade, stopping a few feet away from the wooden crate where Gideon was standing.
Gideon looked down at him. He took in Declan's appearance. The high tier coat made Gideon's eyes light up with greed.
"Nice coat," Gideon said, leaning on his glowing broadsword. "That looks like it's worth way more than a hundred copper.
Hand it over, and I'll let you cross. I might even let you keep your pants."
The Vanguard members behind the barricade laughed.
Declan didn't laugh. He looked Gideon dead in the eyes. "Your blockade is in my way. Move it."
The laughter stopped instantly. The crowd behind Declan gasped and took several steps back. Nobody talked to the Black Vanguard like that!
Gideon's smug smile vanished. A vein popped out on his bald head. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to, you stupid rat? We run Sector 4. I was trying to be nice. Now I'm just going to kill you and take your stuff anyway."
Gideon waved his hand at the three massive bruisers standing in front of the barricade.
"Crush him. Make it messy so the rest of these idiots learn a lesson."
The three bruisers grinned. They stepped forward, forming a half circle around Declan.
They raised their massive iron warhammers high into the air.
"Say goodnight, edgelord," the middle bruiser grunted.
All three hammers came swinging down at the exact same time. They aimed directly for Declan's head and shoulders.
Declan didn't block. He simply took one quick step backward.
The three hammers smashed into the rocky ground right where he had been standing a second ago. The impact kicked up a cloud of dust and gravel.
Before the bruisers could lift their heavy weapons back up, Declan moved.
He didn't pull his cleaver from his inventory.
He just materialized it directly into his right hand. The pitch black, serrated blade caught the dim light.
He stepped into the dust cloud.
Schwing.
Schwing.
Schwing.
Three fast, fluid motions. He didn't try to chop their heads off. He didn't try to cut them in half. He just flicked his wrist, dragging the crimson edge of the cleaver across their exposed arms and chests.
Declan stepped back out of the dust cloud.
He rested the cleaver on his shoulder.
The dust settled. The three bruisers were still standing. They looked at their chests. They each had a very thin, shallow cut on their armor. It barely bled. It just looked like a paper cut.
"Is that it?" the middle bruiser laughed loudly. "You brought a butter knife to a hammer fight?"
Gideon sneered from his crate. "Pathetic.
Finish him!"
The bruisers raised their hammers again.
Declan raised his left hand in the air.
He looked at the three giant men. He smiled.
It was a cold, empty smile.
"Boom," Declan whispered.
He snapped his fingers.
SNAP.
The Blood Burst trait triggered simultaneously on all three targets. The remaining 450 bleed damage was applied instantly as internal kinetic force.
The three bruisers didn't even have time to scream!
All three of them exploded at the exact same moment. It wasn't a small pop. It was a violent, catastrophic detonation of flesh and bone. Their iron armor shattered outward like shrapnel. A massive geyser of dark digital blood sprayed twenty feet into the air.
Chunks of meat, shattered helmets, and broken warhammers rained down on the rocky ground. The three men were completely vaporized from the chest down!
The heavy, wet sound of their remains hitting the dirt echoed across the gorge.
Then, absolute, dead silence fell over the bridge.
-----x-----
Chapter 9: [9] : The First Bloodshed, Claiming the Bridge
The rain continued to fall, washing the fresh blood off the rocky ground.
Nobody moved. Nobody breathed.
The line of players waiting to pay the toll stared in sheer, absolute horror at the three piles of dissolving meat.
The twelve remaining members of the Black Vanguard guild were frozen behind their barricade.
Their weapons were shaking in their hands.
Declan stood in the middle of the carnage.
His pitch black +10 Predator's Coat seemed to absorb the dim light around him. He didn't even look out of breath. He just lazily rolled his shoulder, the +20 Carnage Cleaver resting easily in his grip.
"Anyone else want to charge me a toll?"
Declan asked. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried perfectly across the quiet cliffside.
Gideon stood on his wooden crate. His face was completely pale. His jaw hung open as he looked at the spot where his three best frontline tanks used to be. It took him a few seconds to process what just happened.
When he finally did, his shock turned into pure, blinding rage.
"You bastard!" Gideon screamed. Spit flew from his mouth. "You hacker! You're dead! You hear me? You're dead!"
Gideon jumped off the crate. He gripped his broadsword with both hands. The blade began to glow with a blinding, searing orange light. It looked like a piece of metal pulled straight out of a forge furnace. The heat radiating from it instantly turned the falling rain into steam.
It was a rare Warrior skill. Gideon had likely spent a fortune of Origin Points to buy it.
"Die!" Gideon roared.
He activated a movement skill, launching himself forward like a cannonball.
He crossed the distance between the barricade and Declan in less than a second.
He swung the glowing, super heated broadsword in a massive horizontal arc, aiming right for Declan's waist. He was trying to cut him entirely in half.
The Vanguard members cheered. The crowd of normal players gasped.
Declan didn't dodge. He didn't use his cleaver to parry the strike. He didn't even try to step back.
He simply stood his ground, squared his shoulders, and let the sword hit him.
CLANG!
The sound was deafening. It sounded like a sledgehammer hitting a solid bank vault door.
Gideon's glowing broadsword smashed directly into the side of Declan's black trench coat. The orange heat flared up wildly, trying to burn through the fabric.
But the +10 Predator's Coat had 50 points of flat defense. It was a statistical brick wall in a Level 5 zone.
The sword didn't cut. It didn't burn. It just bounced off violently. The kinetic feedback traveled straight up Gideon's arms, making his wrists pop and his whole body stagger backward. His eyes widened in absolute disbelief.
"What... what is your defense stat?" Gideon stammered, staring at his vibrating sword.
"Higher than your IQ," Declan said flatly.
Declan didn't give him a chance to recover.
He didn't aim for the chest or the head. He aimed for the joint.
Schwing.
The mutated blade sliced cleanly through the gap between Gideon's iron shoulder pad and his chest plate. It sheared through muscle, bone, and tendon with zero resistance.
Gideon's entire right arm, still clutching the glowing broadsword, was severed completely. It fell to the rocky dirt with a heavy thud.
For a split second, Gideon just stared at his stump. Then, the pain registered.
"AAAAAAARRRRGH!" Gideon shrieked. He collapsed onto his knees, grabbing his bleeding shoulder with his remaining hand.
"My arm! My arm! Heal me! Somebody heal me!"
He rolled on the ground, kicking his legs in panic.
None of his Vanguard healers moved. They were too terrified of the man in the black coat standing over their boss.
Gideon didn't need a healer anyway. The Carnage Cleaver's primary trait had already activated.
[Trait Activated: Hemorrhage]
Dark, corrupted blood began to pour out of Gideon's severed shoulder like a busted fire hydrant. It didn't stop. It flowed so fast it formed a massive puddle around his screaming body.
His health bar appeared above his head. It was draining at an insane speed.
[HP: 250 / 300]
[HP: 200 / 300]
[HP: 150 / 300]
Declan just stood there and watched. He didn't bother snapping his fingers to use Blood Burst. He just let the bleed effect run its course. It was more educational this way.
"Please!" Gideon begged, coughing up digital blood. He reached his left hand out toward Declan. "I'll give you everything! My coins! My guild! Please stop it!"
"The game says the weak get deleted," Declan said coldly, looking down at him.
"You charged poor people for walking. Seems to me you're the weakest guy here."
[HP: 50 / 300]
[HP: 0 / 300]
Gideon's eyes rolled back into his head. His screaming finally stopped. His body went limp in the mud, right next to his severed arm. A second later, the corpse shattered into a million blue pixels, floating up into the rainy sky.
[Player Gideon Killed.]
[Note: PvP kills grant no standard EXP, but drop items held in active inventory.]
Where Gideon's body had been, two items lay in the dirt.
Declan knelt down. He picked them up. The system immediately identified them.
The first item was a pair of boots. They were made of dark, hardened leather with sharp steel spikes protruding from the toes and heels.
[Item: Spiked Striders]
↳ Tier: Forged
↳ Defense: 10
↳ Agility: +3
"Nice," Declan muttered. A solid upgrade from his useless burlap pants. He opened his inventory and equipped them instantly.
The second item was much better. It was a small, glowing blue book.
[Skill Book: Dash]
↳ Type: Active Skill
↳ Description: Consume 10 Stamina to rapidly dash 5 meters in any direction.
Cooldown: 5 seconds.
Skill books were incredibly rare drops this early in the Grid. This was probably what Gideon was saving his extortion money to fully upgrade.
Declan dismissed his cleaver and stood up.
He felt completely different. He had real boots, a broken coat, a god tier weapon, and now a movement skill. He was finally starting to feel like a real player.
He slowly turned his head to look at the barricade.
The twelve remaining members of the Black Vanguard were pressed up against the wooden spikes. They looked like terrified cattle cornered by a wolf. Their leader, a guy who claimed to run Sector 4, had just been chopped up like a cheap piece of meat without landing a single scratch.
Declan took one step toward them.
That was all it took.
"Run!" one of the guards screamed. He dropped his crossbow and bolted across the suspension bridge.
The rest of the guild followed instantly. They threw down their shields, dropped their weapons, and scrambled over each other in a desperate panic to run across the bridge and get into the Ashlands.
Within ten seconds, the barricade was completely abandoned.
Declan let out a breath. He turned around and looked at the long line of normal players.
They were all staring at him with a mix of awe and sheer terror.
Declan waved his hand dismissively. "Toll booth is closed. Bridge is free. Go."
The crowd hesitated for exactly two seconds before breaking into a massive, chaotic cheer. They swarmed forward, bypassing the spiked logs and rushing onto the bridge, eager to get out of the Weeping Thicket.
Declan stepped to the side, letting the stampede pass him by.
From behind a large boulder near the cliff edge, Sloane and Kendra slowly walked out.
They looked just as shocked as the rest of the crowd.
Sloane walked up to Declan. She looked at the bloody puddle where Gideon had died, and then looked at Declan's perfectly clean coat.
"You're a psycho," Sloane said. "You know that, right? You're a certified, walking horror movie."
"I told you," Declan said, adjusting the collar of his duster. "I don't pay tolls."
Kendra swallowed hard, gripping her bow.
"You didn't even flinch when he hit you. What is your plan here, Declan? Are you just going to murder every guild leader in the game?"
"Only the ones standing in my way," Declan replied easily.
He turned his back to them and looked out over the massive gorge. The thick fog was starting to clear, revealing the jagged, fiery mountains of Sector 5 in the distance.
He pulled up his system menu and looked at his Origin Point balance. He still had plenty left. And now he had a brand new skill called Dash. His SSS talent applied to skills too. He wondered what a basic Dash would look like if he forced it to +10.
A dangerous, excited smile crept onto his face.
"Come on," Declan said, stepping onto the wooden planks of the suspension bridge.
"We have a lot of points to farm. Keep up."