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Chapter 394 - We are losing

[Vow of Tenacity - Passive skill; When your health drops below 2%, all your stats receive a 200% boost for 10 seconds; Cooldown - 1 minute]

Alex gasped as she stared at her system interface without blinking. She read it again and again to make sure that she didn't misinterpret things.

This skill meant that any time she was close to losing or rather dying, she would get a last burst of strength and power to turn the tables around!

This single skill could seriously mean the difference between life and death! Skills like this existed? This was simply too unbelievable! Too over-powered!

She only knew one other person who could potentially have skills like these and that was Liam.

No wonder that guy is always able to pull ahead of others and fight like a maniac. She tsked inwardly and then shook her head realizing that she was comparing herself to the guy for no apparent reason.

She closed the system interface and turned to look at the priestess to say something when suddenly she noticed that something was off.

The golden throne was empty and the room she was standing in was also empty.

"Hmmm?" Alex looked around and spotted a door on the side. She opened it and stepped out to the corridor.

Once again, the corridor was empty but a couple of seconds later, a few temple attendants walked past her, all wearing the same white robe with the golden borders.

"Excuse me? Priests? Priestesses?" She awkwardly called out and the group of people abruptly halted.

"An intruder? Who allowed you inside?" One of them anxiously spoke but the other female attendant standing next to her stopped her.

"Sister, calm down first. You can't see the golden glow on her skin?"

The second part of her sentence was a low whisper but Alex heard it nevertheless. She quickly lifted her arms and looked and indeed there seemed to be some sort of a light glow.

She then touched her face and neck and a couple of other places. Weirdly enough, everything felt the same.

"What are you searching for, sister? It's just the holy aura." One of the younger temple attendants couldn't hold her laughter back any longer and chuckled.

"Shhh. Stop it." Another one warned her and then turned to talk to Alex, "Sister, if you are looking for the temple priestess she is at the war room."

"Oh? Thank you." Alex decided to quickly check out the place while she had the chance.

She could clearly see that she was on one of the higher floors right now. Perhaps if she left this place, she would not be able to visit again. She was not even sure if the higher floors of the temple were open to players.

She quietly followed the directions and turned right to enter a huge hall at the south end of the floor.

Just from the size of the place, she expected a lot of people inside but there was only one woman standing in a corner.

She was leaning over a table and staring at something spread out atop it. And as soon as Alex entered the space, she looked up as if she sensed her presence.

There was a visible frown on her face, which quickly changed as she glanced at the redhead.

"Welcome, paladin. You have come here at the right time. I have an important mission for you."

"Yes, priestess."

Alex raised her brows in pleasant surprise as she did not expect to get a quest here. She quickly walked over to the woman, wanting to take a look at the map on the table as well.

Alex had expected some sort of old map of the world on a faded yellow paper or something similar to that but when she went close by she was once again shocked.

The things on that table actually moved!

There was a sort of white fog over what looked like green mountains and lands. This somewhat resembled the image of an Earth-like planet when seen from outer space.

But atop this planet, there were several red points, blackish-red waves rippling from the point. Some of these points had less color intensity while some had more color intensity.

She was only barely able to get a glimpse when the priestess quickly waved her hand and everything disappeared.

Alex awkwardly gulped, wanting to have a better look. It looked very interesting and definitely important. It would be nice to know the contents.

But she swallowed those questions and talked about the quest. She had learned the hard way that it was always better to get the quest first and then poke around later.

"Please tell me what I can assist you with, Priestess."

"Mmm. Vile energy is beginning to seep into our air, water, and lands. More and more beasts are losing their minds and turning demonic. Visit the western valley to help our people."

[Ding. New Quest Received]

[Ding. Do you wish to accept the quest? Y/N]

"Yes." Alex quickly accepted the quest. "I will do my best to save them, priestess. It is my good luck."

"Mmm. I will bless you to have success." The priestess nodded.

[Ding. You have received the divine temple's blessing. All your stats are increased by 5% for the next 12 hours]

"Thank you, priestess."

Alex was happy about this bonus but she still wanted to ask about the map. "Priestess, please forgive me, but may I ask what the red spirals on the map are?"

"I… ummm… got a bad feeling from them."

Mmm… I will tell you. Since you are now a paladin of the first order, this is something that you are privy to."

"The red spirals are the cracks in the space where our defense is being tested, where the rift battles are taking place."

"More specifically, the red ones are where we are losing and the white ones are where we are winning."

"Ah… that means." Alex gasped.

"Yes, we are losing." The priestess solemnly nodded.

Chapter 395 - To win or to lose?

"Hey, I just learned something important." Alex sent a message to Liam the moment she stepped out of the divine temple.

After getting the quest and talking to the priestess for a few seconds, she couldn't find anything else to do there and decided to head out.

It looked like she needed to finish that quest first to get more quests.

So she directly started walking back out of the city, while informing Liam about what she had found out from the priestess and that map.

"I am currently stepping out of the divine temple. The priestess here is telling me that the demons are winning this war." She sent the next message.

Alex did not know if this piece of information had any significance to it or not but for once she was happy to find out something that Liam had no idea about.

There was even a small smug smile tugging at her lips.

She happily drank in some more of the divine city air and took a few steps, when the reply for message promptly arrived.

"Is that all? Did she say anything else?"

"Huh?" Alex stopped in her tracks and her face twitched as she stared at the message, "Is that all? Is he serious? He doesn't think that this is a big deal?"

She bit her lips and furiously typed a reply back, "I also received a random quest." She tried to think hard if she missed anything else but that seemed to be it.

"Ok." Another reply arrived.

"..." Alex did not know why but she suddenly felt like strangling someone.

Just as she was about to close the system interface and continue with her day, suddenly another notification popped up.

[Ding. Warning! Crimson Abyss Guild Residence is under attack!]

[Ding. Warning! Crimson Abyss Guild Residence is under attack!]

[Ding. Warning! Crimson Abyss Guild Residence is under attack!]

"What the hell!" Alex almost jumped in surprise. She then hurriedly messaged Liam but this time no reply came in from the other side.

She gave up on him and then opened the guild channel to see what was happening when she finally noticed all the shenanigans that had transpired in the last couple of hours.

She saw Liam's message in the guild channel and the all out brawl that was happening in the 'Rock Temple'.

Apparently what started as some sort of guild outing had evolved into a chaotic battle among several guilds.

That region was now even flagged as a PVP heavy zone and there were warnings in the guild chat asking others to not go over there.

There were also several people complaining about the guild and lact of proper authority and now on top of everything, someone was attacking their guild residence!

Just what the heck was going on!

She had only just now left the guild and so many things happened? And no one had even bothered to inform her about anything?

This was not good. Alex gritted her teeth. The main problem was that all their core members were still in the nether realm so their guild was basically a loose cannon right now.

They desperately needed more trustworthy members and they needed them now. They also needed more organization before everything turns into a clusterfuck.

Making a mental note, Alex started running out of the divine city, rushing back to the guild residence.

Luckily, she wasn't too far away and would be able to arrive there soon.

Even as she was running, she once again opened the interface and still, there wasn't a single reply from Liam.

Did this guy just not care about the guild residence or perhaps… did something really bad happen? She couldn't help but assume the worst.

Her thoughts started running wild and she quickened her pace wanting to get there before things became too worse, but the next second another notification popped up.

[Ding. Crimson Abyss guild has successfully defended against the attack!]

[Ding. Crimson Abyss guild has successfully defended against the attack!]

[Ding. Crimson Abyss guild has successfully defended against the attack!]

She abruptly stopped her run, almost stumbling down, and stablized herself. "Are you serious?!" She blinked and stared again, now more confused than ever.

It had only been one minute since the under attack warning and they had already defended? What was this? A child's game?

Just what the hell was going on?

She took a deep breath and once again started heading to the guild residence. The attack might be over but she still needed to know just what had happened.

Now it made sense why Liam did not even flinch on seeing the warning notice. Maybe he anticipated this and made preparations?

"That must be it."

She brushed past the brambles and the tall trees and ran through the wilderness and as she did, she once again came to a screeching halt.

Suddenly everything made sense.

The map she had seen on the priestess war table and the fact that Liam trapped several guilds into wiping out completely in the spatial rifts, what if these two were connected?

Alex chewed on her nails nervously.

Of all the people she knew that this game was not merely a game. So if the demons are winning the war, she did not know what was going to happen.

Taking another deep breath, she opened the system interface to once again send a message. This was too important.

"Liam, I think maybe because of the huge number of recent losses, we might be losing this war. What do you think? Is this because of whatever you did?"

"Come on. Reply. Reply." She mumbled looking at the interface when a response promptly arrived the next second.

"Of course, it is because of what I did."

"What…" Alex opened her mouth and dumbfoundedly stared at this message. She could even imagine him smiling as he typed these words, the same cocky smug smile.

"Fuck!" She cursed out loud and then typed again.

"I have a feeling that this will end very badly for us. I mean… since you have the demons under your control or something like that, is there anything else you could do to change this outcome?"

Seeing that there was no other reply coming her way, Alex resumed her trip back to the guild.

Meanwhile… at the other end…

Liam continued to stare at the message. It was not that he did not want to reply but he himself did not know the answer yet.

Alex was absolutely correct. This change in outcome was definitely his doing.

He did not consider that the small strategical move he had made could have such a big impact, but it did.

It looked like these two victories were the difference between one side winning and the other side losing.

This meant that the margin of the victory had originally been very slim.

In his previous life, the humans had successfully defended all the spatial rifts and chased out the demons. They had celebrated this event as a great glory to all mankind.

But only now he understood the reality of it.

They had only managed to win by the skin of their teeth and now that he had meddled in this and tipped the scales, everything had changed in an instant!

Liam stared blankly at the system interface as he mulled over this. He now had a better idea of things but the main question still remained…

Which side should win?

Which side should win so that he could reap the maximum benefits?

The humans in the Xion realm won the war the last time around but that did not seem to play any role in the future landscape of earth.

Their victory did not translate to his world's victory? Then perhaps their loss would translate to earth's betterment?

"Hmmmm…" Liam silently pondered over this. This was important so he did not want to make any decision hastily.

There was still some time for the war so he decided to think about it some more before coming to a conclusion.

Besides, no matter what decision he made, things might already be out of his control.

He was only coincidentally able to cause a domino effect this time creating significant ripples that made one side win and the other side lose.

He might not be able to repeat this again even if he wanted to.

Engrossed in his thoughts, he tossed and turned on Luna's back. They were also on their way returning back to the guild residence.

After the news spread, more and more players started appearing at the site of the battle and most of the players were PVP lovers.

Things became even more chaotic and even the graveyard was not left out. So it was no longer convenient for Liam to stay back there.

Also, he had already obtained two of the three recipes he had come here for, high-grade mana potion and high-grade health potion.

With these two in hand, he could now start to practice the next grade of alchemy and if successful could easily become a Master.

So the duo did not linger around and quickly headed back to the guild residence.

Chapter 396 - Giving a bath to the redhead

When Luna and Liam arrived at the guild residence, coincidentally Alex also arrived at the same time.

The two of them did not say anything as they silently gazed at the damage and destruction, not inside the guild residence but rather outside it.

There were huge craters on the ground that the groundskeepers were cleaning up, and some of the nearby trees and plants were destroyed.

There were even greyish black smoke fumes still coming out of some places. Blood and bones were scattered everywhere.

No matter which way one looked at it, the guild residence couldn't have been under attack.

Rather it appeared as if some unwanted cattle or sheep wandered into the territory and someone blasted these foolish animals into smithereens.

"How..." Alex gaped with her mouth open wide.

"Heh. What else would happen if some idiot gathers an army to attack and take over an S-rank guild? They will be shot down of course!" Liam shrugged.

"By tanks or cannons or something?" Alex looked up at the compound walls to see if anything of that sort was there.

"No" Liam corrected her. "The compound has a magic formation inscribed in the building walls and boundaries."

"Well, this is the most basic for an S Rank guild. We can do a lot more fortifications. We just need to cough up more gold."

"Ah… I see."

As she looked at the craters on the ground, Alex gulped in anticipation of just how powerful those upgraded fortifications might be.

Snapping out of her thoughts, she noticed that the person next to her had already disappeared.

"Liam!" She called out after the guy. He was walking towards the alchemy tower.

Alex quickly followed him because there was still a lot more that they needed to discuss and she did not intend to let him slip away this time.

She followed him all the way to the alchemy tower and as she entered the building, she finally caught up to the guy.

Liam seemed to be standing at the entrance and looking at something.

"Hmmm?" Alex walked over and saw several big barrel-like containers on the showcase. "Eh? What is this?"

Usually, guilds only showcased their most prized possession, very rare potions in the guild lobby to entice other players to contribute more and improve themselves further.

So what were these unattractive barrels doing here? Shouldn't be there some stylish colorful glass potion bottles instead?

Just as she was pondering over this, Liam turned towards her and said, "Good you are here. You can try this."

"Huh? Try what?" Alex squinted her eyes to read the label of the potion. "Body cleansing potion?"

"Yup. It cleanses and purifies your body. I want to see how effective it is. Do you want to try it?"

"Ohkay?" For some reason, Alex felt a little wary. Nevertheless, she followed Liam up to the top floor where Seeka greeted them with a smile.

He gave a set of instructions to her and she started preparing for the bath. Soon everything was set up and Alex eyed the boiling water in hesitation.

KYUUU!

Luna was this close to pushing her in but Liam chuckled as he pulled the fox back into his arms.

"Just step into it. It will be a bit painful but you will be fine." He explained. "I will be right here if you need anything."

He was doing this because he wanted to check just how efficient the potion is for someone who had already progressed this much in their strength.

This solution gave the best results when one was in the initial stages of mana exposure, but this way shouldn't be too bad either?

Even if they manage to gain some bonus stats, it was still a plus. So he urged Alex to step in, waving his hand with a misleading smile.

Alex as well nodded and started climbing into the vat, when Liam abruptly interrupted her. "Oh, you just remove your armor and other items. Best to just enter the bath in your underwear."

"Huh? In my…" The woman's face instantly changed as she became anxious.

"What are you thinking about? Calm down. This is the way to get maxim benefits." Liam shook his head helplessly. "Besides, haven't I already seen everything there is to?"

"You!" Alex's blood immediately shot to her cheeks, making her face and neck red with embarrassment and she turned to retort back angrily.

But seeing the calm indifferent look on Liam's face, she was once again reminded of the past and she did not want to make the same mistake again.

She knew that the guy was probably just giving instructions for her betterment so she let out a small sigh and stripped down before quickly stepping inside the vat.

The hot sizzling liquid scorched her skin and suddenly being embarrassed and half-naked in front of Liam was no longer her biggest concern.

Mother! Alex bit her lips as she let out a loud yelp.

After being killed and wounded several times inside the game, she should have already been used to this kind of pain, but it was still unbearable.

Surprisingly, she saw Liam walking toward her. He sat next to her calmly on the ground. "You are doing good. Hold on a little longer." He even encouraged her.

Alex did not expect this kindness and dumbly nodded.

As the burning waters slowly warmed her body down to her very core, she felt something deep inside her burn.

She did not know why but tears started spilling out of her eyes as let go of everything she was holding to.

It was easy to react to this overwhelming straightforward physical pain when compared to the other things that she had buried inside her heart and mind.

She closed her eyes and silently cried.

Liam did not say anything. He did not disturb her and silently waited for a few more seconds. "It should be done now. Did you get any notifications?"

He did not want to embarrass her by saying anything else so he only talked about the stats. Also, that was the only thing that really concerned him.

"Ah." Alex flashed her eyes open. She was so engrossed that she did not even realize that the waters had cooled down now.

She quickly pulled up the system interface and saw that she had received a notification just like Liam had mentioned.

"What? How is this possible! I got a plus 10 in all stats!" She stood up from the barrel in shock, splashing water all around her.

She did not even realize that her white linen bra and panties were now completely wet and transparent.

With her dank red hair sticking to her body, her face and cheeks flushed lightly, and her deep curves glistening in moisture, she looked extremely seductive at the moment.

If it was any other person, they would have straight up gotten a nose bleed just from the single look but Liam now had lots of practice.

Alex was indeed extremely beautiful but this was nothing when compared to the two seductive nymphs who threw themselves at him constantly.

Thanks to the mother and daughter pair, he was easily able to maintain his composure and answer with a straight face.

"That's good. I prepared some more. So make sure all the core team members get a shot at it."

He then turned around to leave, giving her some privacy, but it looked like Alex still did not realize her situation. She quickly called after him.

"Liam, one second. I have something to ask you." She stepped outside the vat, her tits bouncing lightly, and walked over to Liam.

"Hey, I wanted to ask you… What happened in the guild a couple of hours back? Why did you rile up everyone? And why did you start that fight with the six guilds? What was the point of it?"

"Oh, that?" Liam grinned. "Now that you remind me about it…"

He started emptying out contents from his inventory space. Alex's mouth opened once again as she gasped in surprise.

In just a couple of minutes, huge piles of sparkling equipment glittered on the floor.

There were all sorts of items in these piles. Most of them even looked high-end, having silver and golden luster to them.

"Don't we need items for the guild incentives? You can use these. Keep only unique rated items and toss the rest to Berat for selling and scraping."

Alex nodded, continuing to dumbfoundedly stare at the items. She was unable to take her eyes off them.

Even for her, this was something extraordinary and she was not strictly thinking about the items themselves.

Sure, the equipment on the ground was impressive but more importantly the carnage one needed to cause for obtaining all these items was even more… terrifying.

Just the thought of it gave her goosebumps.

She didn't notice but her nipples visibly hardened and especially because she was effectively naked at the moment the person in front of her could see everything.

Some women were turned on by money, some by gold, apparently this one liked items? Liam chuckled and did not say anything.

He turned around to leave thinking he would give her some privacy when he remembered the other crucial thing he had gained from all the chaos.

The news about the soul healing potion!

Chapter 397 - A way to cure your brother

Liam looked at the naked redhead drooling at the items and thought about it for a second. He then decided to go for it.

He currently had a lot of things on his plate. It was best to leave this one to the two sisters.

After all, they were both equally motivated or rather even more desperate when it came to finding a medicine like this in order to cure Rey, so he was confident in their abilities to see it through.

"Alex, one more thing. I have some news about your brother's condition." Liam did not beat around the bush and directly came to the point.

"I found two men who could potentially lead you to a cure for your brother's condition."

He relayed to her everything that he had overheard in the graveyard and Alex dropped the item she was holding in her hand.

The golden staff clattered on the floor as she stared at Liam in utter shock.

This was it! This was what they had been waiting for and tirelessly searching every day and night, combing through this entire bizarre world.

And now they finally got a crumb to follow!

"Liam, is this true?" She clenched her fists and asked.

"Mmmm. It is. If I am correct, these two men should be at the guild's massage parlor at the moment."

"Ok." Unexpectedly, Alex immediately started walking out of the room, but Liam quickly grabbed her and pulled her back with his hand on her waist. Only that area seemed to be safe to touch.

"First of all, calm down. Don't do things rashly. We might have only one shot at this."

"You don't have to remind me that. I am calm. I will not let them both get away." Alex snapped back.

"Oh really? You are calm? Did you take a look at yourself first?" Liam narrowed his eyes and looked at her sternly, his gaze then drifting to the rest of her body.

Hmmm? Alex was confused. It took her a second but her eyes followed Liam's gaze and she finally realized her current plight.

The man's hand was wrapped around her waist and her bare ass was tightly pressed against his body.

She could feel the cold, comfortable feeling that seeped out of his touch, the place where his hands touched her. It felt good. It made her pulse quicken.

She shuddered slightly and then snapped out of her thoughts. She did not know why her body was reacting like this.

Everything else was even worse. Her nipples were visible. Her peach was visible. Basically, she was naked with every inch of her body on display!

Gasp. Her eyes widened and she quickly pushed Liam away, pulling out fresh clothes from the inventory and covering herself up first.

While doing so, she did not forget to shoot death glares at the guy.

Liam, however, simply shrugged. How was he the bad guy here? Maybe I should have reminded her that everything was displayed vividly?

"Well, whatever." He ignored the death glares and continued, "Now you do understand. Anyway, I don't think you are still calm enough. I suggest you call Mia over as all."

"I think both of you should work on this together. And if you still need more help, immediately message me. This is too important. Not only for your brother but for all of our futures."

"I hope you can get this done. Hmmm?"

"Yes, I will get it done." Alex gritted her teeth and replied. She did not want to admit it but the guy was right about everything.

She opened the system interface and messaged Mia instantly.

"Are you sure I have time? Will they be in the massage parlor?"

"Heh. Yes. Yes. I am sure. You don't have to worry about that part. Those two are men of culture. They are probably getting the special massages."

Liam nodded with a serious expression as if he was stating a fact.

"What culture?"

"Nothing. Nothing."

Alex saw this and her face twitched but she didn't say anything. "Ok, in that case, I will make a move now."

"Good luck."

She paused for a moment by the door and mumbled, "By the way… I… ummm… thanks, but Liam, I am sorry. I have to ask, what about the demons?"

"What about the demons?"

"Won't they weaken us tremendously? I mean if they win the war and all the demons enter this world or if something like that happens?"

"Or maybe they will make us stronger?"

"Ah…"

"Seriously, there is no way of knowing the future." Liam sighed. Even after living through this twice now, he could not predict which way the coin would fall.

"Don't think about these things. If I were you… I would think about the vow you took."

"What do you mean?" Alex's interest was piqued.

"Think about the conditions under which you triggered that quest, perhaps you might get clues for something more. Maybe there are more vows?"

His words struck Alex like a jolt of lightning and she instantly had an idea about something.

"You are right! You are absolutely right!" She blinked her eyes in a daze, solidifying the idea in her head.

"Heh. Don't mention it, teammate." Liam smiled and patted her on the shoulder as he walked out of the room.

Sitting on his back, all curled up, a small fox raised her head to give Alex a serious stink eye.

For a second, Alex was extremely startled to see that very human-like expression on the cute adorable animal, but she had far too many things on her mind now, so she did not take it to heart.

Outside, Liam walked over to one of the adjacent rooms which Seeka had already prepared for him. He now had the required potion recipes to continue training in alchemy.

Apart from what he had looted a few more people also submitted recipe books and raw materials to the main guild assistant, hoping to get a lot of guild contribution points and get in good graces with the upper management.

All in all, he had gained a lot from this small mess that he stirred up.

"What do you think Luna…? Heh, wars are the most profitable and most efficient way to gather resources." He patted the fox's head.

Kyuuuuu!

The little beast smiled, enjoying the attention.

"Oh and that reminds me… I need to collect my rewards from the other side also." Liam's mind wandered over to the demon whom he had inadvertently cucked.

He couldn't help but wonder how things were going there on the other side in the nether realm! He had to be a hero there, right?