Nightmare Fantasy Online

"There's the kitchen!" - Black Bone

"Good. Time to brawl!" - Garami

Since there were no guards nearby, I kicked the door open and dramatically entered the kitchen. With no guards nearby or any quests to bother us anymore, we can hit the big drums regarding this rescue mission!

The kitchen is...a bloody hellhole. Literally. Is this place a torture chamber or a kitchen? Feels like a mix of both. That makes sense. This is a vampire's mansion after all. 

Two ghouls wearing chefs' hats, aprons, and gloves were busy preparing a huge cauldron filled with red-colored soup. And above it...

"NOOOO!! I DON'T WANT TO BE EATEN!!" - Rabbit

Above the pot of bubbling red liquid is a metal cage containing a rabbit wearing what appears to be a typical fantasy swordsman's outfit (rabbit-sized). 

The ghouls turned around only to be greeted by the business end of my scythe. I slashed off their heads, but as expected of the undead. They are still "alive". 

"Water Lance!" - Black Bone

A spear of water struck the undead to the right with enough force to launch it toward the wall at the end of the room. Meanwhile, I threw a [Web Bomb] at the remaining headless ghoul's feet to stick him to the floor before slashing at him again with the Erebus Scythe. 

"Hey, they're not dying!" - Garami

"Of course, they aren't! They are the undead! [Create Skeleton]: Sharpbone Fish!" - Black Bone

Bones gave a sharp reply to my complaints and created several skeletons of fishes that were swimming in the air. Like their name suggested, their rib-bones looked extremely sharp, to the point of looking like rapiers' blades. 

The killer fish swam in the air toward the ghoul that was lodged into the wall, ripping off pieces of rotten flesh as they swam through it. 

Around that time, the heads of the ghouls started to move. Freaky! I grabbed them with my demonic webbing and threw them at the ghoul-body that I'd been filleting. Then I added even more webbing to the pile and grabbed a bottle of cooking oil I'd noticed standing on one of the desks and threw it at the ghoul. 

"Ignite!" - Garami

The Lv.1 Fire-type magic from [Basic Magic Ability] hit the ghoul and turned the mess of rotten flesh, oil, and burnable webbing into a human touch. 

"Hey, be careful, you pyromaniac!" - Black Bone

What can I say? It's easy for accidents to occur in the kitchen. 

The torch ghoul should die on its own at this rate, so I assisted the fishes with killing the remaining ghoul-body with my Evil Eyes. 

Oh, and Echo? She was working with Nyx to seal off all the other entrances to the kitchen as a measure against reinforcements for the ghoul side. I've got all the bases covered~~. 

---

"Wow, that was close. Thank you again for saving me. And please be kind to forget what happened here today. For the sake of my pride, please forget it. Very please?" - Rabbit

After finishing the ghouls (and extinguishing the out-of-control human torch), we were greeted by the unusual sight of a rabbit doing a dogeza.

And on a completely unrelated note, good kids should NOT play with fire!!

"That's fine, but it will cost you extra." - Garami

"Cost me...? Oh, that is right. The SOS quest. Of course... By the way, I have not introduced myself yet, have I?" - Rabbit

"You were kind of busy screaming for help." - Garami

"Garami! Don't kick a guy when he's down! Also, my name's Black Bone, but just call me Bones. This jerk is Garami." - Black Bone

Who's a jerk? 

"My pleasure. I am called Palug, a knight of the proud rabbit knight order! Not that I have gathered allies to join my cause yet..." - Palug

"Palug?" - Black Bone

"Arthur and the other names were already taken..." - Palug

That doesn't mean you should settle for the monster! And that's the cat, not the rabbit! Name yourself "vorpal" or something!

"But how did you almost end up as the ghouls' lunch?" - Black Bone

"I am grateful that you should mention that! Fighting as an aspiring knight is not easy, so I obtained the Courier class to obtain some easy Sol." - Palug

"Courier?" - Garami

"It is a class that expands your inventory and unlocks special delivery quests." - Palug

I see. That does sound useful. And as a rabbit, this guy may have it easy running around with stuff.

"But to my misfortune, my latest assignment was a trap. The vampires of this mansion wished for a Corruption Keystone, but the seller tried to trick them with something else. They then vented their anger, and hunger, on me." - Palug

"...my condolence." - Garami

"Thank you. But there was the question about the payment for the rescue, no? Let me see, what do I have... I guess this should cover for it." - Palug

Palug pulled something out from his rabbit-sized backpack...HEY!!

"Ain't this a Keystone!?" - Black Bone

"Yup. This is the item that the seller tried to lure the vampires with. Its element is Shadow, so it is unfit for a knight such as me." - Palug

Now, this is some lavish reward. I grabbed the black sphere and threw it into the storage...tch. It's filled to the brim. Let's throw out some of the trash I picked up before. Can see how a class like Courier is worth something.

Bones and I had to upgrade our Storage skills with special item boxes that let us store specific types of items into the boxes, which again are stored in the Storage. But even then, there is a limit to how much you can put in there. And if you find items you don't have an item box for...

"I-isn't that a little too much for a rescue-*geh*-!?" - Black Bone 

I gave the loose-lipped skeleton a blow to the stomach, even when he's missing both of them. Be quiet, you idiot! We're getting a huge profit here!

"If you feel that this is too much, then you can do me a small favor at a later date." - Palug

"Y-yes, of course..." - Garami

I stomped the idiot skeleton's toes a few times without letting the rabbit notice. That fool...

"Th-then how about we work together for the raid quest later?" - Black Bone

"Raid?" - Palug

"Yeah. We sort of kicked it off earlier by clearing a quest here. It could be a good opportunity to give the vampires a little payback." - Black Bone

Bones then showed us the quest details for the "raid" he talked about...

It has been confirmed that a dangerous ritual is being prepared by the Nobilis vampire clan in the Blastfields region. Gather at the Adventurers' Union in the Blastfield Frontier to participate in the subjugation Raid against the Nobilis.

Oh, right. That raid. But...

"Before that, there is something else..." - Garami

"What's up?" - Black Bone

"I sorta got these...quests(?) along with the raid participation notice, but... They are really strange." - Garami

I opened one of the "quests" that had appeared and tried to show it to Bones, but...

"What is this? I can't read it." - Black Bone

"Huh?" - Garami

"I agree. It feels like a low-res photo that has been pixelated." - Palug

Huh!? Even the rabbit!? They seem to be saying the truth because they wouldn't be able to keep their faces or voices that calm if they could read the content of this thing.

It's too broken on so many levels. The biggest thing must be the whole "you may turn into the next Goddess of Corruption" if I fail. 

I told the two about some of the contents of the quest, and then...

"WHAAAAT!?" - Black Bone

"Miss Garami, that is a quest you should NOT take!" - Palug

"Rather, you are one of the potential sacrifices for the ritual?! Stop that! Get out of here! If this goes wrong, we'll have something worse than a demon princess or a Corruption Goddess to handle!" - Black Bone

Yes. It would be a Corruption Demon Goddess~~.

...jokes aside, I had 0 plans of doing this quest. It's too risky. That's why I even bothered to tell these two about it in the first place. And I have a bad past with these black/red quest notes. 

"Hold on. Miss, did you say that this "quest" is called an "epic"?" - Palug

"Mhm. And call me Garami." - Garami

"Alright, Garami. I still advise you to ignore this trial, but the concept called "Epics" is something you should not take lightly." - Palug

"Huh? Rabbit, you know something?" - Black Bone

"The name is Palug. About Epics...I don't know much. My fellow roleplayers discovered them while looking through the tomes in a certain library, but all they discovered was that the Epics seem to be given by the gods of this world. The contents of the Epics are always different from each other, but the common point is that they are about fulfilling the wishes of the specific god who created the Epic." - Palug

"The gods? That sounds crazy." - Black Bone

"I have to agree with you there. Another thing I know is that the Epics are divided into several parts. Like a real epic." - Palug

That part...sounds interesting. You can turn into a real legendary figure... Or should I say "epic figure"?

"But again, I would not try to complete this Goddess of Corruption's Epic, Garami. It is too risky." - Palug

"No worries. And I got a backup plan." - Garami

It wasn't only the Corruption Goddess' Epic that was unlocked earlier. I also got this one on my quest page (which is now officially renamed "Quest/Epic Page" on my system menu):

"The Goddess of...Ruin?" - Black Bone

The men tilted their heads after I gave a quick rundown of the second Epic. I didn't tell them much, only who the Epic giver is and that its contents are the opposite of the Corruption Goddess'.

If you ask me, I wanna start this Epic. This Goddess sounds like a cool one, and she's got an eye for Evil Eyes! I didn't tell Bones or Palug that, since this is more confidential info. You got to keep your best cards close to your chest when playing an MMORPG.

But I did mention that this Epic also gave rewards to my allies. When I did...

"10 AP!? Let's do this! Everything for our Lady Ruin!" - Black Bone

"Hmph. There is nothing I can do about it. Think of it as if our debt has never existed. I am your loyal knight, oh Lady of Ruin!" - Palug

...is everyone tight on AP these days? Anyway, the barricaded doors have been banging for a while now, so we'll do our escape through the air vents. Hurrah for old-fashioned yet modern buildings! Echo, go and find that ritual whatchamacallit! We're gonna piss off a dangerous goddess!