A cascade of notifications rained down upon Draco, as he watched the corpse of the Metal Dragon fade away. Ultimately, the Dark Knight was considered to be a player according to the system's standards, so his corpse could not be harvested for materials, not that Draco had any plans of doing so in the first place.
He sighed and chose to respawn Roma, who appeared right beside him like a heavenly angel ascending to heaven, but from the earth beside him. She stopped in mid-air and spent a few seconds there in a showy fashion before landing on her two feet.
It wasn't her decision to show off, as this was how all players came back to life.
Draco turned to her and smiled. "How does it feel to be immortal?"
Roma gazed at herself with disbelief. Although she had been told she would come back to life and she trusted Draco with all her being, some small part of her had still doubted this previously ironclad rule. Yet to go through such a miraculous event made waves go through her heart.
She gazed at Draco with so much love and desire to serve that the fellow laughed.
"As long as I may serve you for as long as you will have me, I shall claw my way back from the dead using any and all means."
Draco's laughter was cut off as he heard her solemn and serious vow. His heart couldn't help but shiver slightly, as her pledge to him was only slightly weaker than Eva's.
Riveting Night - who had since pulled back her hood as old habits die hard - heard Roma's words and from the seriousness of her tone as well as the commitment in her gaze, was just as moved as Draco.
F.u.c.k, any woman who was willing to serve her Draco with all their soul was more than just a side girl to Riveting Night. Such a woman was worthy to be considered her own blood sister on the same level as Sublime Notion.
Tsk, this Riveting Night really had some issues up there… such logical reasoning would even floor Socrates and Pluto, much less any sane person from the current era.
Then again, she was insane, so there was that.
Riveting Night hugged Roma's shoulders gently, much to the caramel-skinned beauty's surprise. "Mrs. Eva… I…"
Riveting Night silenced Roma's words with a gentle shake. "Don't call me that. I insist you call me Eva or Eldest Sis from this point forward."
Roma was touched because she could tell that Draco's true wife had fully accepted her, which made her happy to the point that she almost cried.
"Okay, Eldest Sis." Tears of joy ran down Roma's face, as she gleefully addressed the other party properly.
Riveting Night nodded with satisfaction and turned to Draco, who was currently parsing through the various notifications that had popped up.
｢Event Zone Announcement
All surviving players, congratulations on completing: Dragon Slaying National Quest
Time elapsed: 00:45:21
Assessment: A+
Reward:
200 reputation with the Sturgehaven Kingdom
300 reputation with all races
1000% experience
1000 gold｣
Everyone benefited from a sharp rise to their experience bars as they suddenly received 10 levels worth of experience at once. Too bad this bonus did not extend to players who had died, meaning that only the ten players were able to enjoy this boon.
Most of them had been around level 18-21, meaning that they either went to the late twenties or shot up straight into the thirties. Among the playerbase, they would now be the undisputed MVPs and for the foreseeable future, dominate the leaderboards.
1000 gold at this stage was unbelievable.
Apart from abnormal existences like Draco and Riveting Night, this was more money than anyone of these players dared to dream about having.
The kind of things they could do with this money would make one lose their mind, so they were excited to rush out and buy stuff.
However, this wasn't everything yet.
｢Event Zone Announcement
Guild Rankings have been calculated:
1. Umbra
2. Kamisuo
3. Desecrators
4. Meiren
The list of rewards will be a privately shared with each Guildmaster accordingly｣
｢Event Zone Announcement
Individual Rankings have been calculated:
1. Draco
2. Riveting Night
3. Fitter Cleric
4. Slim Fatty
5. Loving Aunt
6. Kiran
7. Panty King
8. Gentle Flower
9. Noble Soul
10. Yui
Rewards will be privately sent to each player accordingly｣
｢Event Zone Announcement
Last hit bonus awarded to:
Player Draco
Rewards will be privately sent to the player.｣
Each of the players read the announcements and then suddenly, new screens popped up above the old ones, which were only visible to those they were meant for. On these screens were the listed rewards and the player's eyes bulged as they saw the magnificence that was presented to them.
Draco and Riveting Night were the only ones capable of remaining calm in the face of their rewards. Sounds of joy, happiness, and glee surrounded them, yet even the Evil Duo could not help but feel their hearts thumping loudly, especially Draco.
｢System to Player Announcement
Player Riveting Night, congratulations on placing second on the individual rankings.
Rewards:
1 Legendary Treasure Chest
2 Epic Treasure Chests
10 Rare Treasure Chests
50 Uncommon Treasure Chests
1000 Common Treasure Chests
10,000 gold｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Player Draco, congratulations on placing first on the individual rankings.
Rewards:
2 Legendary Treasure Chest
5 Epic Treasure Chests
50 Rare Treasure Chests
100 Uncommon Treasure Chests
10000 Common Treasure Chests
100,000 gold｣
Third place was the cut-off point where one received 1x Epic Chest, the rest had to make do with Rare Chests and below. Fortunately, these rewards were secret, so the players were already more than happy with what they got, otherwise those placing lower surely would be fainting at seeing the discrepancy.
Comparisons were really odious!
And this was not even including the guild ranking rewards, which were displayed next.
｢System to Guild Announcement
Guild Umbra, congratulations on placing first on the Guild rankings.
Rewards:
5 Property Upgrade Token - Platinum
2 City Upgrade Token - Platinum
1 Kingdom Upgrade Token - Platinum
50 Settlement Resource Pack
100 Aether Crystals
10,000 platinum｣
When Draco and Eva saw this, they barely kept themselves from screaming with joy and madness. This… this was too good!
Their bodies shivered intensely as each had mini-orgasms. One could not blame them for this though, as they understood just what heavenly rewards the AI had bestowed upon them.
As we had seen with the Settlement Building Token, players could earn certain rights and property titles without having to put in the bureaucratic legwork, as well as meet the system required criteria before obtaining something of this nature.
For example, to build a Settlement, one needed to have a Tier 3 Guild, a certain amount of reputation with the owner of the land you were building on, as well as provide the resources and payment yourself in full.
With the Settlement Building Token, Draco had only needed to possess the reputation and provide the payment.
The same thing was true for the Property Upgrade Token. It allowed a guild to Upgrade any of its listed properties in a Guild Settlement by one Rank, depending on the grade of the Token itself.
There were Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Tokens. Bronze tokens allowed the guild to upgrade Rank 1 and Rank 2 buildings, Silver was for increasing Rank 3 and Rank 4 and Gold could increase Rank 5 and Rank 6 by one Rank for each token used.
For all of the above, the relevant costs of upgrading would still have to be paid. This would cost thousands of platinum, but was extremely worth it when one considered the corners they would be cutting!
However, a Platinum token was OP in the sense that it allowed one to upgrade to any Rank, from any Rank.
In other words, one could upgrade a Rank 1 cottage into a Rank 7 Walking Castle directly, as long as they had the funds to pay for it.
That was one of the reasons why the Evil Duo were shaking so hard that it might look like they were vibrating. The benefits this could give the Vita Settlement were endless!
What did Umbra lack? Resources, manpower, and presence in multiple locales.
On the other hand, what was the one thing Umbra didn't lack? MONEY!
They could instantly turn five buildings in the Vita Settlement into their Rank 7 forms simply by putting their money into it, which was a perfect outcome for them. With this, the members who had suffered for this quest could be reimbursed in the best possible way, as they would have more avenues to develop themselves using these buildings.
Just look at what the Rank 7 Guild Hall and Shop had done for them. Now imagine 5 more of those.
The City Upgrade Tokens allowed Umbra to directly upgrade settlements into either a small town, a medium town, a big town, a small-tier city, a medium-tier city, a high-tier city or a capital city.
The same rules for the Property Token applied here. By using the Platinum token, they could outright turn the Vita Settlement into Vita Capital City, as long as they had the money and the land necessary for it.
The Kingdom Upgrade Token was the most valuable, but one that Draco and Riveting Night couldn't use at all yet.
It allowed one to upgrade a fledgling kingdom to a low-tier kingdom, middle-tier kingdom, a high-tier kingdom, a low-tier empire, a middle-tier empire, a high-tier empire, and divine empire.
The same rules for the City and Property Upgrade Tokens applied here.
With platinum - assuming they manually turned Vita Capital City to a Kingdom, as there were no shortcut tokens for that - they could turn Vita Kingdom into Vita Divine Empire.
The tokens had some weaknesses and limitations, the first being that the end result was only a skeleton framework. In other words, the settlement or buildings would have the functions and capabilities that any of their Rank had, but it would be up to Draco and Eva to outfit it or provide the 'meat'.
An example would be the City Upgrade Token. Should Draco and Eva send Vita Settlement straight to Vita Capital City, they would have to build all the new and required buildings, hire new guards to patrol their lands, attract the relevant population and set up whatever functioning ecosystem they intended to have themselves.
It would just provide the most basic things a Capital City would need to be called a Capital City.
Everything had a limit after all.
Another limitation was that these tokens could only be used in guild owned settlements.
Draco had been able to build the Guild Hall and Shop at Rank 7 because of his Battle Maniac title, his funds and his reputation with the human race and the Sturgehaven Kingdom which was sent to the maximum thanks to Richmond's Heraldry.
Not everyone could get up and do what he did back then, even if they had the funds.
Even then, doing so in the Sturgehaven Kingdom was easy because the Kingdom met the requirements to have such buildings within them.
A Settlement, however, did not. It had to meet various requirements to be promoted at every Rank, which were painfully stringent.
They were so bad that so many players had resorted to unspeakable evils like r.a.p.e just to achieve it, which was enough of an indicator of how bad it would get.
As such, these tokens only applied to Settlements and not Kingdom-based buildings, which was disappointing on one hand, but still very useful on the other.
Another limitation was the rise in upkeep.
Just as the Rank 7 Guild Hall and Castle brought Draco many benefits, they also had outrageous management costs. The upkeep required was nightmare-inducing, and would need to be maintained for 5 buildings should Draco chose to use the Tokens.
Let's not even mention the upkeep needed for a Capital City, or some in the crowd might just die from shock.
The Settlement Resource Pack was self-explanatory. Once it was opened, the guilds could get a random amount of building resources that were necessary for creating buildings and expanding territory.
Draco and Riveting Night were thankful for it as it would soften the blow of upgrading their buildings.
What also made their breathing quicken were the Aether Crystals.
They had an Aether Mine hidden under Vita Settlement, but they didn't plan to mine it since it would provide many unseen benefits for their budding empire. One could only look at the error such a thing had caused when they were first building the Settlement to understand how great it would be.
The only way such an error could occur was if the AI never factored in the chance that settlements would be built over Aether Mines, so whatever benefit it would bestow upon them would be unique as well.
Aether Crystals had a variety of uses like powering magic circles, being the best source of Worldly Energy for any purpose including combat, as well as acting as an upgrading reagent for any Tradeskill.
They were extremely valuable too. To compare, an Aether Crystal to the world of Boundless was about as valuable as Jadeite in the real world.
To receive 200 of them was more than just good, it was extremely great!
The other guilds present had also received something similar, but of lower quantity and quality.
Kamisuo at second place got 3 Property Upgrade Tokens and 1 City Upgrade Token that were of the Gold Rank, 20 Settlement Resource Packs and 100 Aether Crystals.
Desecrators took third place and received 3 Property Upgrade Tokens that were of the Silver Rank, 10 Settlement Resource Packs and 50 Aether Crystals.
Meiren came in fourth and obtained 1 Property Upgrade Token that was of the Bronze Rank, 5 Settlement Resource Packs and 10 Aether Crystals.
All in all, the guilds had gained many benefits as individuals and as collective associations. This was obviously because the quantity of players remaining were so few that the quality of rewards shot up in value.
Had there been 100 guilds, the rewards for being first or second would not be nearly as good. It would be even worse for the individual rankings.
Putting aside the fact that the rewards were so great because the final boss was a true Dragon, the number of people remaining attributed to the outrageous rewards.
But then again, it was understandable. This event had an outrageous difficulty level, so it was natural that the rewards would be outrageous too.
If Draco did not have his skills as a reincarnator, if he did not have the Tactics Tradeskill, if he did not have Qiong Qi or Roma or Eva, if he didn't have the Seal of Camelot, if he didn't have Aunt Fyre here, If he didn't have the Eyes of Caelo and if he didn't unlock his bloodline during this lifetime, he would have failed.
If Draco did not possess any one of the above-mentioned aides, he would have failed this quest and suffered a penalty. There would have been a 0% success chance, and that was a mind-boggling fact.
Any one of those things made him seemingly overpowered on their own, but together, they were unstoppable. Yet, they could only barely come together to piece together a win with only 10 people left alive.
In everything, the AI was fair. If you planted tomato seeds and cared for them intensively, you would get flawless tomatoes.
Whatever effort you put into a task, you would reap an equivalent reward. You put in poor effort, you get a poor reward. You put in a godly effort, you get godly rewards.
Draco smiled and turned to Gentle Flower and Noble Soul. "Thank you two for staying by our side to fight despite the tough situation. As I said earlier, I will help you mitigate some of your losses by providing financial aid."
"In return, I would like to buy your Aether Crystals from you at a premium price of 100 platinum per piece. Is this agreeable?"
Gentle Flower and Noble Soul froze. 100… 100 platinum per piece?
Truth be told, they had no idea what these Aether Crystals did or their true value, but it was clear Draco did. Not only that, but he knew how to utilize these items and since he was willing to offer this much, their value might be even higher.
Gentle Flower and Noble Soul were not fools, they were incredibly sharp. Agreeing to sell to Draco was probably a loss in the long term, but the tradeoff was that they would earn his trust and friendship, especially after sticking with him through the battle.
After all they had seen, they now understood that Draco was the King of the playerbase currently. He had abilities and knowledge no one else did and his future was too bright to look at without sunglasses.
As such, Gentle Flower made the best decision she could.
"No thanks, I would like to gift these Aether Crystals to you and Madame Night as a token of friendship. Please do not reject my gesture."
She directly transferred the items to the Evil Duo without hesitation, making the two shake inwardly. Noble Soul followed suit with gritted teeth, placing all his faith in the intellect of Gentle Flower, who he knew to be incredibly astute.
Draco and Riveting Night also knew that she was too clever for her own good, which was why they didn't mind befriending her in this life, and was why they had never picked a fight with her in their previous one either.
Draco accepted the crystals without hesitation and nodded to the duo. "From now on, you are my people. If anyone dares to put undue pressure on you, I will personally step in to destroy them."
Noble Soul and Gentle Flower likewise felt their hearts tremble as they received Draco's pledge. This was what they wanted and more, a direct promise from the powerhouse called Draco and his guild Umbra.
With this, they could move about with relative impunity in the game.
"Eh?? What about me?" Yui asked with a pout.
Riveting Night smiled and rubbed her head gently. "Silly girl, you are our family. Your situation is entirely different."
Draco nodded. Not just Yui, but any member of the Amaterasu Lineage was no different from his closest family. This was how he felt and this was how his bloodline felt.
As for the Lucifer Lineage, they were lucky he didn't pick a fight with them, they shouldn't hope for him to treasure them in such a manner any time soon.
Yui smiled and nodded, standing to the side of Riveting Night.
Then came the public announcements.
｢Sturgehaven Kingdom Regional Announcement
Players Draco, Riveting Night, Fitter Cleric, Slim Fatty, Loving Aunt, Kiran, Panty King, Gentle Flower, Noble Soul and Yui have ranked in the top 10 of the Dragon Slaying Event!｣
｢Sturgehaven Kingdom Regional Announcement
Guilds Umbra, Kamisuo, Desecrators and Meiren have ranked in the top 4 of the Dragon Slaying Event!｣
Draco smiled at this. Just as he was about to check what he received for getting the last hit on the Metal Dragon, a golden pop-up screen appeared in front of him, a few seconds before he was made to see black.
｢Boundless System-wide Announcement
Enough data has been collected to increase the playability and effectiveness of the game world. As such, all players will be logged out for 24 hours in real-time in order to allow the AI to perform maintenance for Update 1.
Thank you for playing so far!｣