Chapter 6_ Northern End Cave_

'His movements...I can still see it.'

However, to Darius, whose stats were higher in both levels and agility, Lexus's speed seemed to fly just like a paper airplane. He lightly dodged and rushed towards Lexus, grabbing his sword and lightly stabbing him in the chest.

'I'll be on trouble!'

Seeing Darius, Lexus swiftly charged his way to him. He felt a sense of urgency, knowing that an incoming stab would be fatal to him. No matter how his stats increased, fighting a high-level opponent was difficult. But he was not giving up. His class was a legendary class; he could not let himself lose. If he gave up now, he would not be worthy of the Undefeated King's Successor class.

« Announcement. It is possible to connect to individual: Madra's ego. Will you allow to link Madra's ego to unique skill, Great Sage? [YES]/[NO]. »

He heard the voice of his cheat skill. It was sudden, but because he was feeling a sense of urgency, his senses were reacting violently, and he chose [YES].

Great Sage is essentially a google search. It allows him to search for information about whatever or whoever he asked as long as he had made contact to it just once. The problem was that it's limits is limited by the user's intelligence. If the user doesn't think to ask or think about something, potentially useful informations will never be answered.

Then, with the Great Sage's Link, a pretty interesting subskill that allows any soul or ego in his possession to open a connection with the Great Sage, allowing Lexus and whoever they are connected to— to communicate. In the case of Madra's ego, it allowed them to connect, even when Madra's ego was in the sheath, as long as the sheath was in Lexus' possession.

Apart from allowing them to communicate without anyone noticing, they could also obtain and share the latest information with one another along with the Great Sage. All of these details were inscribed on both Lexus and Madara.

「 Oho! So this was the reason why you became my successor without receiving my trial. Interesting. 」

As soon as the link was established, Great Sage provided Madra with the information pack he needed to know. Due to the link, he could now look at Lexus's status window and view all of his skills, something he had previously been unable to do without being in the sheath.

「 Great Sage and Plunderer...Two unique skills that I have never heard of before. Well this only makes it interesting. 」

Excluding the skills and the benefits that Lexus gained by becoming his successor, just with these two skills—Lexus' destiny to become a legend was already set in stone. The unique skills were just that great that even the Undefeated King's ego was impressed and thrilled about them. Having these two skills, talent could be completely disregarded altogether.

On Lexus' side, before the wooden sword reached his chest, he saw a swift message appear in his mind through telepathy from Madra.

「 You had interesting stuffs so pardon me for tinkering something for a bit, haha! 」

[The skill, 'Ember Combustion' has been upgraded with Madra's ego and unique skill 『Great Sage』 intervention and collaboration.]

[The skill, 'Sword of Ember' has been acquired.]

Unconsciously, Darius felt the searing heat, causing him to halt his attack and take a step back away from Lexus.

"..?!"

Darius widened his eyes as he looked at the flames that had emerged from the wooden sword in Lexus' hand. The flames seemed to concentrate on the edges of the wooden blade. Darius warily looked at the scorched wooden blade. He was surprised that it hadn't been burned to a crisp.

"Magic?"

Darius said in surprise. As a magic swordsman, it wasn't that much of a surprise for him that Lexus could use magic, despite being a swordsman; although being one is rare, it's not impossible.

"It feels similar to my Ember Combustion but that flame.... was made of a higher level of magic."

It hurted his pride a little to see that Lexus, who was younger than him, had produced a fire using magic and had managed to create a larger, more concentrated flame than what he could.

[Sword of Ember - Lv.1]

Rating: Epic (Growth)

[A skill based on 'Ember Combustion' and the fundamentals of Madra's swordsmanship created by the outmost perfection.

* Concentrates the intense flames of the sword along the edge of the blade. Deals slashing damage that is equal to 125% of your magic power.

* This is still an incomplete skill.

Skill Resource Consumption: 10 Mana per Seconds.

Skill Cooldown Time: 25 Minutes.]

•~×~•

"Your highness, we have reached Patrian. Should we inform Earl Ashur about your arrival?"

After the spar, they continued on their journey to Patrian. As the knights had already seen Lexus's capabilities, they were more than amazed by him. Even though he had a lower level than them, none of them degraded his skills because of that. The swordsmanship and magic he had shown had given them a great impression that Lexus had the potential to become a legendary figure.

When Lexus told them they had to change their direction to Patrian, they were confused as to why they had to go there and not just go home to the capital instead, but none of them voiced out their opinions.

This just emphasizes the importance of the prince's will, making it impossible for them to disobey him. After another three days of travel, Lexus had finally arrived at the fortified city of Patrian. It was a strategic point on the border between the Gauss Kingdom and the Eternal Kingdom, serving as both a military outpost and a demarcation line between the two regions.

The official starting point of the story and the starter city for players located within the Eternal Kingdom. It was also the place where the protagonist created his game character, Greed.

"No need. It's not like we will be staying here for long."

Lexus replied to the maid who had informed him about their current location. Looking out the window, he saw several people roaming around with various types of equipment.

"Players?"

Lexus muttered to himself as he observed the players inside the carriage. They were distinguishable by their various types of equipment. It was also easy to guess based on their demeanor on the streets and their player names displayed above their heads.

"Maybe this is the effect of insight stats?"

Lexus amusingly chuckled thinking about his special stat.

[Insight]

Discover the target. Predict risks.

* The higher the number, the higher the probability.

* Stat points can't be distributed to this stat.

The stat allows observing the current abilities, maximum stats and skills of a target using the skill Character Observation or similar skills which Lexus was currently unable to do because of his low insight. A high insight gives the ability to read the skills and status of opponents. Insight will rise rapidly while observing. But the effect of the insight stat to detect the behavior of the target has a definite upper limit.

"Even though my insight is still low, its already good enough."

Lexus smiled and appreciated that he had the special stat instead of complaining how low it was when he easily obtained it. Lexus watches the players who were roaming around the fortified city of Patrian. This might be just a game for them but this is a world filled with swords and magic.

The players hoped they might be lucky enough to become a dragon slayer, successfully marry a princess, and reach the pinnacle of their lives. However, it is also common for warriors to be accidentally eaten by dragons, be killed by avengers, or die at the hands of other players; in some cases, they are even killed by tens of thousands of NPC forces.

In the world of Satisfy, users are immortal beings who experience no significant consequences from death, while NPCs have only one life. NPCs are fully aware that players will respawn if they kill them. Looking at their faces, Lexus saw different styles, but not much different than the NPCs around. The game's character system was far from perfect.

When a character is created, it actually reflects the user's real appearance. Only the skin tone and additional features such as hairstyle, tattoos, scars, and height can be changed a little bit. It is to keep the immersion of Satisfy's freedom and reality. In other words, a beautiful person in Satisfy is generally beautiful in reality.

"I wonder how long has it been since players had played the game."

Lexus mumbled nonchalantly. To him, even if the players were special in the eyes of other NPCs, they were all the same. They were all characters in the novel he liked, so there was no need to really differentiate or discriminate between players or NPCs.

Well based on the novel, there is a limit for players. No matter how they raise their stats or apply magic and buffs, there are still system limitations that cannot be overcome. A typical example is attack speed and movement speed.

Unless it is an attack or effect implemented with a skill or magic, a player's basic attacks are limited to six times per second, and their general movement speed is limited to 18 meters per second; therefore, there is no real need to be wary of them. With his potential to become the strongest NPC ever, who says that NPCs will have to be killed by players?

« Notice. It is detected that players had been inhabitants in this world for 1 year, 3 weeks and approximately 3 days. »

"Eh...How did you know that? Well, nevermind."

Lexx asked in reflex and shrugged it off as not being important. Considering the setting in the novel, time difference is set to 1:3 (real time to Satisfy). So 4 months of real time equals 1 year in Satisfy. So in real time, it has been 130 days or roughly 4 months since the release of Satisfy.

Thinking about the timeline... Lexus stood up as he realized that it was almost time for Greed's legendary class change. The day that the protagonist obtained the book. He didn't know the exact day or time, but Greed should be in the middle of his three month journey to that cave.

'It seemed as if I had no time to rest in the city and rush into the cave or else I would get nothing in there.'

Taking a deep breath and preparing some things mentally, Lexus looked at the clear blue sky in the carriage's window.

'There's no time to waste. I'll haste to the Northern End Cave.'

North End Cave or Northern End Cave is the initial setting of Overgeared where the protagonist of the novel, journey as Pagma's Successor and inherent Legendary Blacksmith began.

The North End Cave was located at the north end of an island and was concealed by a complex algorithm. It was one of the five forbidden zones in the Eternal Kingdom. Unlike Earl Ashur, who didn't even know if Pagma's Rare Book existed, Lexus knew for certain that it did exist, giving him a great advantage.

In the beginning of the novel, Earl Ashur came with his knights as soon as he had heard that Greed had entered the Northern End Cave so probably, with the knights of the royal family that is stronger than Earl Ashur's knights, Lexus could probably do the same as the cave had terrible difficulty.

Feeling expectant, Lexus looked at the maid who was sitting in front of him, ready for any moment of his need.

"Sera."

"Yes, your highness!"

As if waiting for any orders to be given since they had begun their journey, the maid named Sera quickly answered and stood in front of him, slightly bowing her head.

"Could you please request Captain Darius to join me?"

"Yes...your highness."

Without asking for anything in return, Sera bowed again and exited the carriage. She headed towards Darius, just as Lexus had requested. A slight smile played on her lips as she looked back at the carriage where Lexus sat, hearing him say that his request wasn't a command but rather a polite request.

Hearing the humble request of his highness, Sera headed towards him with a smile. Meanwhile, Lexus sat down and looked up at the clear blue sky, thinking with amusement.

'Two Pagma's Successors… How interesting would it be.'