Riveting Night stood on the back of Luxia, her Light Phoenix, tearing through the atmosphere at the speed of light. She stood near Luxia's neck with her arms crossed and her pose rigid.
Frankly, she looked heroic and super cool, but that was par the course for Riveting Night. Behind her were Zaine, Hikari, and Roma, each one with a child in their arm. Rila, Loki, and Rosella looked around with big eyes enjoying this kind of travel.
Overall, if one ignored who they stood on, they appeared to be the classic picture of a group of grown-up high school friends who met up for brunch to catch up.
However, that could not be further from the truth. This was shown when Luxia ended her Streak passive skill which allowed her to move at the speed of light, appearing over a normal valley.
The valley was heavily forested with many rivers and clearings spread out within, but Riveting Night didn't even look at those things. She directed Luxia to a certain lake in the valley that looked no different from the others.
Beside that lake was an average-sized cave that looked like it was the perfect home for a bear. Luxia entered Riveting Night's inventory as they all disembarked from her back.
Zaine, Roma, and Hikari observed the area curiously. They knew why they were here, but not what would happen next as it was a first for all of them.
Riveting Night took out a special scroll she had acquired a while back and activated it.
｢Deed to the Plains of the Colossus – Unique Item
Rank: Legendary
Effect: Grants ownership of the Plains of the Colossus Divine Dungeon.｣
Riveting Night had acquired this during the Divine Auction she had visited with Zaine, and it had been stored away for use later on. Now that she was planning on catching up to Draco, it was finally time to go all out.
The deed glowed and turned into golden motes of light before merging with her body. As soon as this occurred, the seemingly empty and average cave turned into a gateway similar to the one at the Godmar Divine Empire, only that this one was much, much smaller.
Riveting Night turned to the other women of Draco's inner circle and pulled down her hood. She gazed at them seriously and spoke deeply.
"While Draco is away, we have to shorten the gap between ourselves and him. We cannot become burdens as the premier women in his genealogy. We have to be the role models for the countless others below us."
"This is a Divine Dungeon. The difficulty of it is at the highest possible point for our levels. In there, we will work together to clear all the objectives of the quest while increasing our personal strength."
Riveting Night's declaration made them nod, as this was what they had expected. None of them felt good lying around while Draco went up and down to secure more power as well as benefits for them.
The worst part of it all was that it wasn't like any of them were some 'damsel in distress' kind of woman like in the stories. Each of them was a monster in her own right, a pinnacle species among her kind and even among all the races of the world.
Talent? If they claimed they were the second most talented women in the world, no other woman would dare to claim first.
The problem was that their growth rate had been stifled by their love life. Whenever Draco was around, it was just so much fun to be with him that everything else played second fiddle.
Not only that, but they had spent a good amount of their time pregnant. Even now, their children were still babies, yet to become toddlers. However, they couldn't wait until they grew up before they started progressing right? By that time, Draco might already be a God!
As such, Eva had brought them over to begin working on this Divine Dungeon. It would allow them to increase their levels as well as refine their chemistry.
When Draco returned, all of them should at least have reached Rank 2. As for Eva, she would have to cap herself at the pinnacle of Rank 1 until she could afford to try for her own Divine Class.
Hikari raised her hand and asked a question. "Erm, I don't know if Draco has shared this, but I can't get experience from fighting unless I'm with him."
Eva smiled. "I know. But as we are of the same clan, things are different. We can now create parties and share our experience together."
The other three shared a look. Roma then asked. "Eldest Sis… what's a party?"
Eva froze. She had forgotten that her compatriots were computer code due to how much she personally cared for them, but this fact slapped her in the face. Of course NPCs wouldn't know what a party was, as it was a mechanic meant for players.
The only reason why they could join one now was because of the fact that Eva herself was a player and an administrator of their clan. Obviously, if players were going to copulate with NPCs, there had to be a way to help raise their wives/husbands and kids.
It would be a really stupid and short-sighted mechanic to not have such a feature, but thankfully it was already present this time.
"A party is a special grouping that allows a certain amount of people to share experience and loot equally from kills. It also optimizes their battle awareness and teamwork through many functions."
"As you can imagine, this is something unique to Immortal Adventurers, but thanks to our familial relation, we can share this power with you." Eva explained gently.
The three ladies nodded their heads in understanding. Zaine even had a pensive expression as she realized many things. It easily explained why Immortal Adventurers in Draco's guild liked banding together and why their growth was so fast.
As such, Eva created a party and invited Zaine, Roma, and Hikari to it. She couldn't invite the kids into the party, as they were obviously too young to fight.
Upon joining the party, they checked out its functions and marveled at it. How convenient! There were so many ways to streamline team-fighting through this method that it was revolutionary to them!
"Hello, can you guys see this? -Hikari"
"This is interesting, this 'Text Chat'. It is like writing an instant letter to one another. -Zaine"
"Alukemun Tereshi Fgeradio. -Roma"
"... -Hikari"
"... -Zaine"
"Sorry, I wanted to see if Mystic Words of Power could be typed out… -Roma"
Eva allowed them to play around and discover the functions of the party system. It was better that they explored it and got a preliminary understanding of it now, rather than in the heat of combat.
As an admin of the Morningstar clan, Eva could check the stat sheets of the other three women through the party system. Of course, this was something players could only do to NPCs under specific situations and with the right permissions.
｢Name: Roma - Rank 1 Mystic Servant
Level: 17
Exp: 34%
NPC Str: 20
NPC Dex: 20
NPC End: 20
NPC Int: 30
NPC Spr: 20
NPC Cha: 25
NPC Lck: 20
Active Skills: Necrotic Hands, Evil Curse, Life Steal, Divination, Dark Resurrection.
Passive Skills: Charm, Insight, Foresight, Flexibility, Illusion.｣
｢Name: Hikari - Rank 1 Dragonling
Level: 26
Exp: 72%
NPC Str: 100
NPC Dex: 100
NPC End: 100
NPC Int: 190
NPC Spr: 130
NPC Cha: 110
NPC Lck: 100
Active Skills: White Light Healing, White Barrier
Passive Skills: Aether Production, Dragobond.｣
｢Name: Zaine - Rank 1 Royal Devil
Level: 1
Exp: 0%
NPC Str: 10
NPC Dex: 10
NPC End: 10
NPC Int: 10
NPC Spr: 10
NPC Cha: 10
NPC Lck: 10
Active Skills: Mind Blast, Charm, Energy Drain, Rapid Blink, Omega Blast.
Passive Skills: Seduction, Telekinesis, Psychometry, Telesthesia, Illusion.｣
Eva's lips twitched when she saw this. Roma and Zaine had very average starting stats for NPCs, with both starting at 10 points per stat at level 1.
Hikari was a monster who started at 100 points per stats at level 1, but only because she was a White Dragon. Most of these stats were useless for her anyway, so it was mostly for decorating her CV.
Now, the system's means of handling NPC growth needed to be explained, as it was far different from that of players, which was quite a given.
Players started at Rank 0, level 1, with 1 stat point in each category. They gained 5 stats per level until Rank1, level 10. After that, the stat gain was 3 points per level until Rank 2, level 50.
However, NPCs worked differently. There was no Rank 0 for them, only for players and monsters. So they started at Rank 1, level 1 of whatever designation they were given.
They usually had starting stats of 10 in each category, meaning that they had 70 overall, which was higher than what the average player could get by reaching Rank 1 (57 points).
What made things worse was that they earned 5 points per level for Rank 1, and 3 points per level for Rank 2, etc. In essence, their growth stats-wise would always be one step ahead of players as a form of protection for them.
After all, the NPCs were not supposed to be enemies of players. That was why there were no monetary or item drops when NPCs were killed, as well as a 50% cut in experience received.
The system of Boundless was very direct. There was no protection for players from each other, but NPCs were worse off. They couldn't just resurrect like the Immortal Adventurers. Players could assault them in different ways, but they could not do the same to players.
This created a disadvantage for them, so the system had to create ways to protect weaker NPCs from the vices of players. This was just one of them.
What baffled Eva was that Draco only half-trained both Roma and Hikari. He and Roma fought together during the Flora and Fauna quest, so how was she only level 17?
Hikari also was left at level 26. From what Eva knew, Hikari would get her next White Dragon racial skill at level 30. Why did he stop just before she was at the next threshold?
As for Zaine, Eva wanted to crack open her skull and see why her superior brain - which was better than all of theirs - prioritized laziness so much that she had never trained even once!
Well, then again, Zaine had only been truly accepted into the fold just before she gave birth. Before that, her position was really awkward in the whole genealogy, so it was natural that Draco didn't take her out to level.
Eva sighed. Thankfully, she was here to help Draco. Then again, she couldn't chastise them for doing the same thing she did. Her character sheet was also quite bland for someone of her power.
｢ Name: Riveting Night
Class: Shadow Assassin (Optimal)
Rank: Adventurer (1)
Level: 30
Exp: 0%
Str: 10
Dex: 40
End: 10
Int: 5
Spr: 5
Cha: 5
Lck: 40
Combat Skills: Stealth, Short Blink, Instant Healing, Multishot, Assassinate, Shadow Tendrils, Shadow Veil.
Non-Combat Skills: Revenger, Cloud Feet, Speed Break, Escapism, Shadow Illusion, Dark Interrogation.
Tradeskills: Slave Trading (level 21, 90%), Negotiation (level 10, 12%), Tracking (level 34, 90%), Intelligence (level 1,0%)｣
She had made almost no progress since the Emergency Quest for her level and stats. After all, she needed to level up her growth items, and the Eye of Heaven was already complete.
As for her Tradeskills, forget it. She had been by Draco's side almost 99% of her time, so she hadn't made any progress there either.
Eva could only blush and scratch her cheek awkwardly. It seemed like they were all basket cases. Due to their obsession with Draco, they had postponed their own personal growth.
However, they were here to rectify that. As such, Eva waited for the others to finish testing the party system's mechanics and led them into the gateway to the Divine Dungeon.
Her black eyes flashed with a solemn vow. No matter what, when they came out of that gateway, they would all have caught up to Draco… by any means necessary!