Draco spawned in a valley with no trees, just green grass, and a gentle breeze. It was sunny and the golden rays made his skin feel vibrant on contact.
Such a pleasant place shouldn't possibly hold the Abyssal Trove, yet the large fort standing before Draco told otherwise. What caused him to be at a loss for words was the fact that it was painted pink and had cute hearts all over.
The gate of the fort slowly opened with a wave of fairies surrounding Draco with excitement and joy. They were all females, being around the size of Draco's thumb.
Each of their trails came in different colors, some being blue, some pink, some red. The only missing color was black… which was quite predictable.
Before Draco could ask one of them what the hell was going on, he heard a continuous patter of steps coming his way. He tore his eyes away from the fairies to glance upon... a troupe of cute, walking teddy bears.
All of them were the type that a little girl would love. This marching troupe played a band theme as they circled around Draco three times before making a pathway for him, standing equidistant from each other on either side of the way.
The fairies pulled and tugged at Draco for him to enter, but he made sure to scan the place with the Eyes of Caelo as well as his Control first. Sensing that there were no threats in the vicinity, he entered the fort amidst the fanfare.
The inside made him even more speechless. There were many walking dollies that pranced about daintily, as if they were in an 80's sitcom. When they saw Draco, they giggled and winked.
Draco walked through the courtyard of the fort and eventually reached the keep itself, having the door opened for him majestically by two female dolls dressed as maids.
Upon entry, he scanned the interior of the fort and found that there was nothing of note here. No items, money or other goodies were present, but he did see something that topped off the icing on the cake.
Sitting in a throne at the center of the main hall of the fort was a unicorn, its posture like that of a biped despite being a quadrupedal being. He had a look of interest on his face as he gazed at Draco.
"So, after how many thousands of millennia have passed, there is finally someone who managed to visit the Abyssal Trove. Good, good." The Unicorn stated in a deep bass voice, which conflicted with his cartoonish and cute design.
Draco wondered if one of his prepared dishes had possibly included some kind of drug that happened to kick in just as he entered this quest. He frankly felt like someone had sent him into the dreamworld of a little girl...
"Where exactly is the Trove?" Draco asked calmly.
The Unicorn waved his hands. "Oh, don't worry, you'll be brought there soon enough. But before that, I have spent so long here without any company so I wish to spar for a bit. Surely you don't mind?"
Draco was confused. A unicorn wanted to fight him? Was this for real? Still, Draco wasn't going to disagree. He was a true gamer, and the way the Unicorn spoke, he smelled the stench of a secret reward or bonus if he won the spar.
"Sure. Please guide me, good sir." Draco agreed humbly.
The Unicorn nodded in approval, clearly pleased with Draco's humility. "Truly an exemplary lad. Then, let's begin!"
As soon as the Unicorn finished speaking, it disappeared from his throne, shocking Draco greatly. He then drew both his swords and executed Sword Skill 147: Whirlwind.
This was a semi-defensive skill where Draco swung both blades in a circular fashion, using the force to spin himself in circles. It was very similar to Boyd's skill, Colossus, and it made Draco's immediate vicinity somewhat impassable.
There was a clang as his technique was halted, as Dragorugio had clashed with one of the Unicorn's hooves. The hoof itself wasn't damaged in the least. In fact, it looked to possess the same solidity and sturdiness as an actual weapon.
This fact was further confirmed for Draco as the Unicorns other front hoof shot forward like a snake, so quickly that his eyes couldn't follow. He was struck in the chest and knocked back a few steps.
-3,000!
The Unicorn's eyes widened when he saw how little damage he dealt to Draco with his casual attack, while Draco's eyes widened at how much a casual attack from the fellow had been able to harm him.
He was wearing the Dragorugio armor for Christ's sakes. Even a casual swipe from Qiong Qi, who was a suppressed Rank 7 entity, had done nothing to him back then.
Draco frowned and used his Sword Skill 97: Forceps. Dragorugio came in an uppercut strike while Fragarach came from an overhead one, both at the same but opposing angle.
If one looked at Draco from the side, he would look like a pair of scissors snipping on something, with his body acting as the pivot. The Unicorn saw this technique and was pleased.
He used both hooves to clash with the blades, stopping their advance with relative ease. Draco smiled wickedly though, activating his Horned Demon true body.
His strength took a sudden unexpected jump, and the Unicorn was caught off guard. Both swords closed in on him, cutting deep wounds into his body as he stepped back to avoid getting bisected.
White blood leaked from his wounds, and he seemed to find it hard to believe that he could actually get wounded. Just as Draco was about to continue, he was hit with an overwhelming hunger that overtook his reason.
When he turned to the source, he saw that it was the fallen and still dripping Unicorn's blood that called out his very soul like the music of a siren. Draco forgot about the battle and absorbed all the blood he could get.
"HOOOOOOAAAAAHHHH!!" Draco cried out in ecstasy as the blood entered his body and got consumed. Words could not describe the feeling of pleasure that coursed through his very blood as his Horned Demon Inheritance converted this blood into nourishment.
It was like eating sweet, milky chocolate after avoiding sugar for 10 years, or like eating a sizzling barbeque with sauce after 10 years of chewing grass to survive.
The Unicorn had an expression of shock as well as chagrin as he saw Draco's action and reaction. However, his heart chilled when Draco's now red, beast-like eyes fell on him.
"Oh no…" He uttered, just before Draco launched at him with a flurry of precise and crazy attacks.
It was clear that Draco had not been going all out earlier, but that was normal. Draco almost instinctively never went all-out anymore, as nothing had ever pushed him that far until recently.
More cuts appeared on the Unicorn's body. After all, his only weapons were his hooves, and he could only use two at a time. As a quadrupedal, he already used enough effort to make sure to remain on two feet, much less now that he was under pressure.
He could barely keep up. With every slash from Draco that broke through his defense, Draco became even wilder as he absorbed more and more of the tasty blood.
He felt like he was a mere fish in the ocean while Draco was a shark. The slightest blood he lost would attract and empower the sharks to chase him like crazy.
The more blood he lost, the weaker he became. As such, the Unicorn surrendered and gave up. There was no point in being drained dry by this vampiric fellow for no reason!
Draco looked pained that he had to stop, but he reined in his bloodl.u.s.t and turned off his Horned Demon true body.
Once he did, Draco was surprised to discover that the desire for the blood left. now almost non-existent. So, it seemed his sudden bloodl.u.s.t was caused by the Horned Demon true body, which did make some sense.
The Unicorn returned to his throne and sat in it gingerly. He looked at Draco with a bitter expression and spoke. "Please take a short rest, my dolls will take you into the Trove to claim what you seek."
"Aside from that, since you bested me, let me inform you, that today seems to be your lucky day. We recently got a rare visitor who only appears erratically in the world at completely random moments. They should be leaving in a day or two, so I thought I'd inform you of their location."
The Unicorn waved for a doll to come over. "Take our guest… mr. Draco, was it?… to the Trove and after he is done claiming what he needs, take him to the special guest."
The doll nodded and waited for Draco to finish resting. Draco didn't really need to, but he took this time to buff himself up however he could. He refused to believe he could just enter the Trove and take what he wanted. This fight with the Unicorn couldn't have been everything.
He would definitely have to prove his worth somehow, whether it was through killing guardians, passing tests or whatever else they could throw at him.
However, just because he had been abused by the Dragon Lords and Four Hors.e.m.e.n didn't mean that he could get abused here. After all, those had been one-off scenarios that literally no other person at his Rank could even survive 1 second of.
As such, he soon got his act together and alerted the Unicorn that he was ready to go. The fellow nodded and his assistant led Draco through the colorful fort.
Draco saw some very lively decorations that made this heavily fortified building meant for war look like a playhouse. He could only remain quiet and go deeper into the bowls of the fort, choosing to refrain from commenting on this matter.
Soon, the doll brought him to a huge golden double door that at least looked normal. It was locked with a huge golden padlock, and one could see a slot for the Abyss Key on it.
Draco took out the key and slotted it into the padlock, turning it as he did. With a bright glow that illuminated the whole area, the padlock was unlocked, but the Abyss Key slowly disintegrated.
Draco walked forward and pushed the huge double doors open. When he saw what was on the other side, his eyes bulged.
Mountains and mountains of items, materials and ornaments were stacked up haphazardly. There were shelves that were lined with potions and a small amount of war weapons at the side as well.
What baffled even someone like Draco was that there was a mountain of Aether Crystals, ranging from low-grade to top-grade. Within the mound was a large device that was built like a platform, with one slot for a piece of equipment and another for an Aether Crystal.
Draco checked and found that it was a Magical Device that could auto-imbue equipment with Aetheric Energy.
However, what caught his eye was a small carriage at the back. It looked like a refurbished shop. It had a huge name card above it with the title 'World Merchant'.
It was painted a light blue color and the interior was filled with rows of stock items that had stock price tags. It - quite frankly - looked like an average shop an average player would use on the daily... were it not for their current location.
However, the doll that led Draco here walked over to the World Merchant's shop and spoke in a dainty voice. "Milord, this is the esteemed guest of ours. The World Merchant hardly pays a visit to us, but he appeared this time around."
Draco nodded. He then walked up to this shop and activated the interface. He wanted to see what this was all about.
｢System to Player Announcement
Welcome to the World Merchant Interface. This is an entity of the system, not belonging to any in-game species, and is created to facilitate direct trades with individuals for items as well as funds that cannot be locally acquired.
The World Merchant appears randomly in the world, so keep an eye out for its next appearance!｣
