Chapter 52: Completing the Death Shrine Quest
He had already reached his goal, attracting the players attention and sending away this elder to meet him at the mountain. His final aim was to create a chaotic scene at the final place where he would meet the two elders together, and face the two of them there.
Bloom knew if he appeared alone there, and started executing his plans, the two elders would suspect him, and this might put an end to his ambitions and make him fail the quest.
If the elder of death shrine had a teleportation gadget, then the elder of life shrine would also have one! If one of them ran, then he would fail! He could kill both of them easily, considering that none of them would really escape.
And here players would kick in to help him reach this goal. He would use the players to create enough distraction, giving him enough time to act. Without their interference, his plan was doomed to fail.
He was aiming to trick everyone, and he wasn't even hesitant about that! he knew if he wanted to unlock that hidden class then he had to be merciless, and he was already ready for that.
He just kept watching the ongoing battle between one side who was supporting his intentions and claims, and the other side who was doubting his good wills.
Both, however, agreed on the final aim of his, to join up and kill that elder of life shrine, and some were still fixed on killing Bloom himself. Bloom wasn't worried about his life, as he knew it would take a miracle for players to kill him now.
Despite reading many threads on the forums, of players celebrating their success in clearing dungeons, despite being lower leveled, or players managed to reach level six, and even a bunch reaching level seven, he wasn't worried at all.
His stats were really monstrous for the current mainstream of players, and plus he decided not to give out his location to anyone, making them find out his whereabouts finally at the last moments.
And this moment had already approached fast when he started to spot that mountain with that black skull on its peak from far. He knew it wouldn't take him ten minutes to reach there, so he started working at once.
"The elder of the shrine of life was spotted in the vicinity of this mountain. Be prepared, the two elders will fight, most likely, and players can reap the handsome rewards out of this."
He then posted the mountain coordinates into the post, and finally closed the forums and got focused on the task in hand.
He didn't directly head towards the mountain, as he hid somewhere near it. He only needed a couple of minutes to reach the mountain, and he didn't act until he started to see shades of distant players coming fast towards here.
Players wouldn't entirely fall into the bait, but most of them would rather be excited to watch two NPCs fight! That was enough to him, as the more players attending this grand closure, the easier his task would be.
He then started to move, not too fast, giving players more time to start to crowd around the mountain. He was sure the elder of the shrine of life was nearby, watching him, like the elder of the shrine of death.
He entered the same spot where he met the elder of the shrine of death before, and then he stopped in the middle of the many rocks there, shielding him from the eyes of many players.
"What brought you here? and why are all these players here?"
The voice of the elder of death shrine came from behind him, as he turned to face the dead eyes of that elder. Bloom just smiled, faintly, as he recalled how much hatred this NPC had for him.
"I just managed to get the stolen artifact, as you asked, esteemed elder," he simply replied, before pointing towards the players in the vicinity of this place as he added, "as for them, they have already accepted a quest from the shrine of life elder, asking them to kill me and you."
"Kill me?!" the shrine of death elder replied, while his bones cracked as if he was laughing on a silly joke, "I'm already dead, how can they kill me then?" he laughed, in his strange way, again, before adding, "that doesn't matter anymore. Once I take the stolen artifact from you, I will leave this dirty place and return to my shrine as a hero."
Bloom just faintly smiled, as he knew that NPC was eyeing the prize, ignoring the risks that surrounded him now. "Now, bring forth this artifact, and let me have it," the elder demanded.
"First I need to get the rewards for the quest, esteemed elder," Bloom started to stall for time, as he didn't know if that elder of the shrine of life was here yet or not!
"I need to get the artifact to give you the rewards," the elder said, in a sneaky tone that made Bloom sure that the elder was planning to kill him the moment he gave him the artifact.
"I suppose you can give me the rewards when I take out the artifact, by that you can grant me my rewards then you can have your artifact," Bloom stalled for time again.
"Fine, just show it off first," the elder waved his bony arm towards Bloom, as if he wasn't worried of him doing anything.
Bloom then took out the skull from his inventory. The moment he took out the skull, and that elder saw it, a system notification appeared.
"System alert: Player has completed the quest from the esteemed elder of the shrine of death. Player has finished the quest in a very short time, granting him the black ranking of the quest assessment."
"System alert: Player has received the twin gold swords as a reward."
"System alert: Player has received a title as a reward."
"System alert: Player has received the blessing of the death shrine as a reward."
"System alert: Player has received a map to the secret shrine of death mainland as a reward."
"System alert: Player has received one level as a reward."
"System alert: Player has received one level as a reward."
"System alert: Player has received one level as a reward."
"System alert: Player has received twenty basic Hp potions as a reward."
"System alert: Player has received twenty basic Stm potions as a reward."
"System alert: Player has received one hundred gold coins as a reward."
"System alert: Player has leveled up."
"System alert: Player has leveled up."
It was a long series of notifications indeed, however Bloom didn't have time to celebrate or allocate the points to his character yet, as that elder just waved his hand, demanding for the skull. "Bring it over to me, player," the elder said, in a ruthless tone that gave Bloom bad thoughts at once.
That elder would strike to kill him the moment he received that artifact! Bloom just hoped that the elder of life would be present now, or else he would die in vain!