Second Thoughts

By the time we returned to the cathedral we were no longer the only players there, two fifty-player groups were now standing back to back in the front yard of the cathedral surrounded by black crystalline skeletons aiming spears in their directions.

Just as we had expected, so few of the skeletons could speak and so many of them looked so dark and dangerous that the players had mistakenly attacked the NPC. It was almost comical if not for the fact that the skeletons were now as strong or stronger than most demons. Even though all of the players were gathered together in one place there were dozens of remains from fallen players scattered about the cathedral front yard.

These once peaceful townspeople who were reborn as undead by their own gods had become so powerful that they wiped out the two other clan parties with no signs of any deaths on their ends. Of course, the players only wore equipment crafted from trolls and weapons of a very inferior grade to our own. It was almost impossible for them to beat the skeletons who were now made up of a crystallized soul material that was registered as S grade.

Smiling brightly after perching above the entrance to the cathedral where I could overlook the gathering of a hundred players surrounded by at least two thousand skeletons, I loudly and slowly clap in the most condescending manner that I can manage while laughing down at the other clans.

"Fools!" I call out after several moments of acquiring hateful looks from the new arrivals to the dungeon, enjoying the feeling of superiority. "You knew nothing about this dungeon's lore and simply dove right into hell thinking you could manage high waters. Let me clarify where you went wrong. These skeletons are the NPC of this town, preserved by their gods to be reanimated so that they could rise up and fight back against the demons and chaos forces who destroyed their home. To them, you're now probably no different than chaos entities!"

One fellow among the players wearing what looked suspiciously like electrum plated armor and wearing a giant sword across his back calls out, "Well, can you help us or not? If you can explain the situation on our behalf, we'll pay you! Just make them stop killing us!"

"I can help you to help yourselves," I reply with a relaxed shrug, smiling under my masked helm. "I don't even know if it's possible to earn their forgiveness at this point. Most of these people were normal citizens of this place when before its collapse. They were mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, children, and elderly who all ran for their lives in their last moments seeking the salvation of their temple. When they got there, they were given a choice. Die peacefully or sleep for hundreds of years while waiting for heroes to arrive and bring them peace.

"YOU were supposed to be those heroes," I say darkly, laying it on as thick as I could to manipulate the 'public opinion' of the NPC who only I could hear were calling out in ghostly voices of anger in agreement with my words. "The only thing I can offer you is the door, don't let it hit ya where the good lord split ya. Open a path to the gate and send them out!"

In unison, the NPC all withdrew with the spears held upright and at attentions, clearing a broad path from the players to the gates of the cathedral property. "Is that it?" The same clan leader asks, remaining in place even as the other players began slowly making their way toward the gates. "We make one mistake and you're casting us out of the dungeon? You truly have earned your title as a bully!"

Tilting my head curiously to one side, I make as if to step down from the cathedral entrance roof and Flash Step all the way to his position so that I appear only a foot or two away from the man.

"Casting you out of the dungeon?" I ask curiously as the man quickly starts stepping back and away from me, giving me room to start walking forward so that he has no choice but to continue walking backwards. "Whoever said anything about leaving the dungeon? I'm casting you out INTO the dungeon! As you are now, you're all foolish and weak and too ill-equipped to handle the responsibilities here. Go get good, scrub."

"How are we supposed to do that without the quests and rewards from the NPC?" He demands even while backing away from my slow but steady advance, somehow still putting on airs of being strong and in command despite the position he found himself in.

"Quests? Rewards?" I echo with an obvious lack of understanding. "There's only one quest that I'm aware of and that's clearing the outpost around the manor. If you want rewards, do it the old fashioned way. Go raid an outpost! You probably saw us doing it just earlier so you should have some idea of how its done. If you can't handle that or even figure it out on your own, what use are you?!"

For a moment I could hear words not unlike my own ringing in my head, like a distant memory from another lifetime. Suddenly, instead of the cathedral I was standing among a few hundred players facing against a much larger thousand-man battalion in monochrome while their leaders berated and laughed at us. Except, this time, I was now the subject of hate.

Stopping when the clan leader finally gave up and turned to run off and rejoin his group, I could not help but stop and shake my head while muttering, "Oh how the mighty have fallen. Look at you, Leo… you really did become the bully."

Appearing as if out of nowhere, Zekrom simply and suddenly stands at my side and asks, "They truly were fools. I doubt they could have survived fighting my previous self yet they thought it wise to attack tenfold greater numbers than their own simply because they looked like skeletons."

Sighing inwardly while maintaining an almost stoic expression, I say, "There are lessons to be learned here on all sides, I can only hope we all find what we seek in some way. They're going to take some hard hits out there but they'll be stronger for it. If they manage to take an outpost, try and talk the people here into forgiving them."

"If they prove useful…" a ghostly voice whispers in my mind, causing me to turn around and find the head priest skeleton standing nearby carrying a small scepter or black crystal. "They will be forgiven. If they prove themselves weak, then what's the point?"

The fact that the NPC agreed with my plans to cripple the other clans by making them fight alone made the slight guilt I was feeling grow. Because of this, I say, "But they're doomed to fail. Their levels and equipment are subpar and even if they have the skill they'll be hard pressed to use it. If they end up getting wiped out and all reappearing here, give them each a lance to even the odds. After that, though, just limit the support they receive to basic supplies."

Continuing to watch the new arrivals leaving on their small exodus, I see them soon meeting up with my own clan alliance only a few hundred yards out from the cathedral. The initial meeting did not look friendly at all but after the clan leaders came together I could clearly see Little Thirteen jovially discussing something or other with the new arrivals.

Did I actually think he would not find a way to profit from the other clans before they bled themselves dry trying to fit in with us cool kids? No, I knew him better than that. However, for it to happen so quick was a little surprising!

Knowing that things would only get progressively worse for the other clans, I simply spread my wings and flap up into the air a few times before gliding over the cathedral and to the dried up pond in the back. I still had a long way to go in my Demigod branch and needed all the time I could get in Mana Assimilation.

Unlike Zekrom and his chaos related energy, I did not have relative permanent access to this divine energy and my Demigod branch could end up stagnating for long periods of time.

The process of condensing the mana and divinity in the air around me was smooth and swift, soon generating a compacted mass of bright light within the pond that was level with the ground above. Inside this condensed mana field I decided to take my chances and soak in the mana through my pores as well as breathing it in.

As I feared it was less than half an hour before I was quietly joined by a few dozen people within the reincarnation pond. However, they all kept to themselves and maintained a respectable space between us as they scattered about the middle of the pond bed where I was meditating. I could imagine this was for the sake of enjoying my condensed mana field which was much more substantial than Zekrom's.

After a full hour of Mana Assimilation I finally managed to reach the second level of Demigod. However, I only received an extra one hundred MP and increase in my affinity for light element and healing magics. I was hopeful for another boost in HP but it seemed like that was only a first-time reward.

At the same time, though, I managed to reach level seven in MA1 and gained seven hundred more MP, bringing me up to a natural five thousand and sixty MP with a bonus pool of six-forty. Aside from a few other extremely lucky players or the previous Loose Cultivators, I probably had one of the largest mana pools in the game.

By the time I broke through to the eighth level of MA1 and gained another eight hundred MP an hour after reaching the second level of Demigod, Demigod was less than twenty percent of the way to level three and I truly did want to cry. I was even blindly soaking up mana at rates of around a thousand MP per second on top of my own expiration which could now take in thousands per breath.

Not long later, though, there came the faint vibrations of what I instinctively recognized as expansive energy explosions. Acting by reflex, I immediately cut off the suction force of the alternative intake in anticipation of being disrupted. Luckily, though, these vibrations did not grow despite continuing for several moments before taking a brief pause.

Noticing that the others around me were also switching to only expiration practices, I quietly got to my feet and used my mana to goad the rest of my team into taking over the mana field. This process took over a minute but once it was done I was able to jump almost straight up and out of the pond before flying out toward the cathedral.

Once I has risen up over the cathedral by a few dozen yards and could look out over the ruined city, I soon saw a scattering of a hundred players over a mile away at the nearest outpost on the right side of the encirclement facing hundreds of demons who did not even bother leaving their walls to fight.

The combat for the time being was all ranges, exchanging volleys of spears and arrows and spells from the humans to the weapon skills of the Taurians on the wall. These other players were not without their own strength, felling a couple dozen demons from the walls every few seconds that I spent watching. However, in the same amount of time at least a single player was downed.

At this rate, with an estimated couple thousand demons in every outpost the other clans would end up being wiped by the time they got halfway through the enemy numbers. I could not help but feel even worse than I did earlier when I basically chased the other clans out of the cathedral grounds.

Sure, they would probably only lose ten percent of a level and some items but nobody had access to their player inventories here. If they lost equipment then they would start burning through their spares if they even thought to bring any. If not for my suggestions, I doubted Mr. Thirteen or Donna would have thought for their clans to bring in storage containers and organize their character loadouts.

[You are such a nice person]

"Are you laughing at me?" I ask after noticing the unmistakable traces of laughter in Melpomene's voice. "Fine, laugh if you will. I never minded being the kind of guy to target people or PVP randoms in the wild for profit, but this… monopoly game. I'm not used to doing this, I'm used to stealing bosses and dungeon records, not manipulating people and giving them a boot. Help them, Melpomene, you're their only hope."

[Then I shall give them hope]

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