“What would you do if I said I could take you out of this game?”
Zach’s interest piqued. He pondered for a while and asked, “How can you do that?”
“This game is created by the gods. It’s their world, their rules. So we simply have to end the gods.”
“You make it sound like it’s an easy thing to do. We are talking about the gods here. You can’t just defeat them.”
“But I can. They were threatened by my and my sister’s existence. So they exiled us from the higher realms and threw us into the world of mortals,” Aria uttered with a hint of anger and frustration in her voice.
She looked into Zach’s eyes and said, “I could use your help to end the era of gods.”
“…” Zach didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t just trust a random girl he had just met, especially when she was after his life a few minutes ago.
“As I said previously, I was able to read one hour of your memories, and in that memory, I saw how you were on the brink of death,” Aria uttered and continued. “Did you not find it strange how the first five floors were enough to level up by four and the reward to clear the first five-floor was 2500 EXP. Then it gave another quest to reach level 5. But reaching level five was hard. The sixth floor only had one monster, and it gave 50 EXP. The rest of the floors also had a few monsters, and the increase in EXP was gradual. However, it also gave the players the incentive to progress further; only to die a cruel death by the monsters.”
Of course, Zach had already realized that, but he also knew that he was no match against the gods, not yet. He has yet to grow strong and become limitless.
Annoyed and frustrated, Aria jumped from her throne and walked to Zach. She reached her hand to Zach and uttered, “Join me, mortal. And I shall give you my wisdom. With my help, you can reach the apex, and with your help, I can get my revenge. Together, we both shall conquer everything we want.”
Aria walked one step further, but Zach backed off some steps and kept his guard up.
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of killing you. Why would I kill you when I can benefit from you?”
“I haven’t agreed on anything yet. And keep your distance from me. I am not good with girls,” Zach remarked.
“I will give you some time to think about it. But first, you need to grow strong. Your spiritual powers are close to none. However, let me warn you about the cost of powers,” Aria asserted. “Since you said your body is mortal, you will first need to evolve your body. Otherwise, your mortal body won’t be able to handle the immense soul powers or any powers, and you will be either crippled for a lifetime or die in the real world.”
“Get strong in the game to make your body strong in the real world. You already have the knowledge, but you still lack the experience. You have never been on a battlefield, and you don’t know how it feels to lose someone important to you in front of your eyes. Even when you are strong, there will be times where all your powers will be useless,” she added.
“Get used to pain, despair, and…” Aria sighed and threw something at Zach.
Zach caught it with his hand and saw it was a coin made of rock with the same weird symbols like the circle carved on it.
“What is this?” Zach asked with a puzzled and curious look on his face.
“It’s a token. It might give you some benefit in the game. But you can also use it to come and access my sacred dimension, to cultivate or to rest,” Aria replied sincerely.
“I have no intention of coming here again, though,” Zach muttered in a low voice.
“What did you say?”
“I said this place scares me.”
Aria snapped her fingers, and the scenery changed to the green land with trees, flowers, and the water wall. It was the scenery Zach saw when he was trapped in the illusion.
“Is this good?” Aria asked.
“I am not fond of illusions,” Zach answered.
“If you put it like that, then the game you are trapped in is also an illusion,” Aria remarked. She then turned around and walked some steps before stopping. She tilted her head back and looked at Zach from the corner of her eyes. “You can summon me here whenever you want. Until then, I will go back to my slumber. See you later, Zach.”
Aria then vanished into thin air. Zach glanced around and wondered, “So… how am I supposed to get out of here?”
Suddenly, a prompt appeared in front of Zach, and it said, [Congratulations! You have purchased land in the game! Please name it!]
“This shouldn’t be part of the game, though.” Zach noticed his HUD was back, and his HP was 1.
Zach pondered for a while and inserted the name ‘Aria’s Domain’ as the name of the place.
He looked at the token and saw its use.
[Benefits- You can cultivate with 2x speed in Aria’s domain.]
“I don’t even know my regular speed,” Zach murmured.
[You can cultivate 1MP in 10 Seconds.]
“Okay. Now that’s creepy. Why is this game answering my questions?”
Zach looked at the token to see its benefits.
[Aria’s blessing- 1)You can use it infinite times to switch your class any time you want. Active – As long as you want. Cooldown- 24 hours.]
“So I can change my classes any time, but I won’t be able to change back in the next 24 hours,” Zach muttered.
He was so lost that he hadn’t realized that Aria called Zach by his name when she left.
“All this time, she was calling me mortal, but she called me by my name when she left.
Nevermind, he did realize it.
“What a weird girl. At first, she was trying to kill me, and now she is trying to help me. I can’t understand girls,” Zach uttered as he remembered his ex-girlfriend.
He then looked at his other hand that was holding Aria’s feather.
[Name- Cursed Dagger.
Class grade- Mythical Rank.
Use-This dagger will inflict damage of 0.1% (per second) of the total HP of the enemy.]
After reading that, Zach placed his hand on the neck and sighed in relief.
“There is no wound.” he looked at his body and muttered, “The burns are gone too.”
“I should get out of here.” Zach glanced around and uttered, “Open the portal.”
Suddenly, a yellow portal appeared in front of Zach. He let out a weary sigh and walked into the portal to exit the dungeon.
****
Total players in the game 46222.
25 new players logged in.
3 players died.
=====
[Weekly target.]
«200 power stones- 1 chapter.»
«400 power stones – 2 chapters.»
===
Author’s Note- Finally, he can go back and get himself healed. On the other hand, Aria gave him some nice stuff. What exactly is their relationship now? Enemies With Benefits. (Pun intended.)