Chapter 20: Vampire Maria & Class Quest.
Contrary to what Isaac expected, he had no problem entering the mansion.
The guards didn't even verify his identity when they saw his companion.
Sitting in a luxurious living room decorated as in the old imperial era, Isaac looks around him with amazement.
'This mansion is strange; I don't know why but I feel like I'm constantly being watched even though I don't see anyone around.' He mutters while looking at the cup of tea on the black wooden table.
Seeing the thick red liquid in his cup, Isaac decides not to touch his cup; not to mention consuming something so mysterious.
'Even Jane doesn't touch her cup; it'd be stupid of me to put my life at stake for politeness reasons.'
After an additional minute of waiting, the back doors of the living room finally opened.
At the same time, two knights, escorting a woman with paler skin than the people of the north, join them.
Her eyes were ruby red like blood crystallizations, her long silvery white hair gave the impression of shining in the living room that was slightly lit.
She was dressed in a long red dress that was split to her thighs; exposing her long captivating legs.
When Isaac crossed her gaze, his heart began to pump his blood at an alarming speed.
[Palyer: Maria (Level 58)]
[HP: 100/100]
[IP: 76]
He immediately turns his eyes away with cold sweat on his back. 'This woman is ferocious, but also thorny; dangerously toxic!'
But he immediately regretted his decision when he saw the information about the two knights dressed in full red armor.
[Blood Knight: Jamil (Lvl --)]
[Blood Knight: Abdel (Lvl --)]
Isaac's eyes became dark when he saw that he couldn't see the two knights' levels who accompanied the woman.
The woman sits in front of him and looks at him with colder eyes than Isaac has ever seen before.
But her eyes suddenly stopped on Isaac's ring. "The thief's ring with a thousand faces, huh; it's an interesting item you have around your thumb, Sir Isaac; or should I rather say, Jack." She mutters her last sentence with a fake but abnormally threatening smile.
Hearing Maria pronounce his pseudonym, Isaac didn't change his expression.
But Jane had wide eyes when she heard the pseudonym of Isaac. "Maria, he's not Jack, but Isaac. Your eyes have lost their...-Humph!
Before she finishes, Maria snaps her fingers. And simultaneously, one of her knights, Jamil, vanished in front of Isaac.
The next moment, Isaac felt Jamil's shadow behind him. But before he warned, the knight attacked Jane, placing his hand on Jane's mouth.
'He's fast! I couldn't even follow his movements.' Isaac screams in his mind when he sees the speed of the knight.
But when he looked at Maria, he noticed a small smile that exposed her two little fangs.
'Tss~, she flaunts her power to intimidate me. I would never have believed that God-like Online players could be so threatening; I now understand why they are so respected and coveted by others.' Isaac had a sneaky smile on his lips when he guessed Maria's intentions.
The latter continued immediately. "Yes, you are, without a doubt, the same Jack."
"It's true, I'm Jack. But I feel like you're confusing me with someone famous else who has the same nickname." Isaac finally speaks; feeling the right time.
Hearing his words, Maria places one leg on the other without her smile threatening to collapse. "Your justifications won't be of much use to you. Jane revealed to me a lot of interesting things about you."
"Ho?" He looks at Jane with dark eyes.
"Don't take her for responsible; I was forced to use a special skill on her to be able to extract interesting information from her," Maria explains herself by seeing Isaac's dissatisfaction with her subordinate.
Isaac then crosses his fingers in front of his face and speaks in a dark voice "It's interesting; it's not the definition Jane gave me about you. Is her admiration for you also only for this famous particular skill?"
"Once again, you're going the wrong way, Jack. I consider my subordinates as the dearest to me in the world." Her voice was always as calm as it was frightening as she responded to Isaac.
"Instead of wasting our time with unimportant topics, why not address interesting topics?" she then continues.
Isaac frowns. "Interesting topics, you say? It'll depend on the subject you discuss with me."
"Fufu~, your arrogance isn't exaggerated, indeed, Jack. But I prefer to leave you the honor of choosing the subject." Her voice became slightly soft as she pronounced these lines.
"I'm curious how did you get this mansion and these two devoted servants." Isaac went straight to the point.
His question also aroused Jane's interest; even if she still couldn't speak because of the other knight.
But Maria didn't seem to be surprised by his question; as if she expected it. She looks at Isaac's cup. "I know it's rude of me, but since you don't seem to like my drink,... Can I?"
"To you the honor." Isaac pushes his cup toward her.
'I was right, this cup of tea contains blood.' He whispers in his mind as he watched Maria take a sip.
Maria's eyes turned garnet red immediately and then returned to normal; but still scarlet red.
She finally answers Isaac's question. "This mansion, just like the two knights, don't come into our world."
"...In the game?"
"Yes, these two are the NPCs who served me loyally in the game. But I was far from imagining that they would respond to my summons."
Hearing her explanations, Isaac's face became pale.
"Something bothers you?" Maria frowns.
"N-no, please continue," Isaac speaks in a heavy voice.
But Maria didn't seem to be determined to leave this mystery behind. "As I just said, they appeared when I invoked them thanks to a scroll of minion summons. As for the mansion, it was already here before I moved here. I only did the cleaning; my two henchmen helped me of course."
"...I see; so they were faithful to you as soon as they appeared?"
"It's normal for them to be loyal; they were already my most loyal subordinates from the beginning."
"..." Isaac remained thoughtful after hearing Maria's explanations.
'The right of housing, it's thanks to this damn right of lodging that she was able to acquire these two knights. But no matter how I think, I have never heard of any parchment that could invoke knights. Some skills allow players to summon their subordinates, but not parchments.'
Seeing Isaac remain silent for so long, Maria was forced to wake him up. "I have a favor to ask you."
"Huh?" Isaac raises his eyebrows slightly.
"Of course, as I just said, it's only a favor, so you can refuse it; so don't throw me this raven look." She buzzes these words while sipping another sip in her cup of tea which is like Quartz polished by a talented craftsman.
But despite her reassuring words, Isaac could not help but distrust her.
'To reach such a level in such a short time, she must be a regular God-like Online player. I was disappointed when I saw Nohhah's shitty level. But this woman shows off the presence of a seasoned player. I learned a crucial thing in this meeting, I must not avoid my subordinates, but have them by my side; no matter if they become uncontrollable, as long as they are faithful to me, the rest will matter little to me.
-Plus, if the games' areas have begun to appear in our world, it means that the second impact is not very far away. I've to complete my starting objectives before focusing on my own progress.' Maria's brief silence allowed Isaac to develop some elements that he had neglected at first.
But at that moment, Isaac's eyes flicker with disbelief when he sees a quest notification appear before him.
[Class quest.]
His heart skips a beat when he sees the name of the quest. He became so nervous to the point that sweat sparkled on his forehead; waiting for the information of the quest to appear.
[You're an apostle of the god of lust; therefore, you must have great goals. Beauty causes desire, desire causes lust. - You've been fascinated by this female's magnificence, as an apostle of lust, you don't have the right to one-way feelings.]
'As if I were going to accept such a suicidal quest!? I don't have time for--
[You will have the Rendy and Cindy parchment if you succeed. You'll lose half of your PMs in case of failure.]
"..." Isaac's face has become as pale as Maria's.
'...Sigh, That's why I didn't want this class despite all its advantages.'
At the same time, Maria puts down her cup of tea and looks at Isaac with cold and serious eyes. "But before telling you my request, I'd like to have some confirmation from you. Is it true that you just woke up?"
Isaac frowns.
Seeing his mistrust go up a notch, Maria reaches out to Abdel who was still standing behind her.
The latter gives her a spherical crystal the size of a beast's core.
"A red crystal? So the beasts with such levels have appeared huh?" Isaac pronounced soberly, guessing the woman's intentions.
Maria nodded her head and continued. "Ordinary players think that the more a God-like online player spends more time in the tutorial the more advantages it will have against other players, but this idea isn't quite accurate."
"??"
Seeing she had captured Isaac's interest, she continued with a small smile on her lips. " To secure the balance."
"...What is this about?"
"Sigh, if you don't know that, it answers my previous question; you just finished the tutorial." She mumbles with a satisfying smile on her lips.
"In short, God-like Online is full of the most talented players who have been fascinated by the vulgarity, difficulty, and perversion of this game's universe. But among the pro players, there are the first hundred who are struggling to stay at the top of the ranking.
-It's the only game that constantly changed rankings every second; I'm talking about the first ranking, not the others. The competition was so fierce among the most powerful players that the God-like Online game obtained its famous nickname of "pro players' battlefield" among its other competitors.
-But you already knew that. That's what brings us to balance. So far, we've heard of the appearance of the first thirty players who were at the top of the ranking. This means that more than half of crème de la crème have not yet appeared, or are hiding to increase their levels.
-In any case, you've surely understood what I mean by that. The real game hasn't yet begun. But within a month the second impact will begin, and it's at this moment the competition will begin; when the sealed areas will be accessible to the whole world. Everyone is just waiting for this event." She stops momentarily to see Isaac's reaction.
But seeing that the latter had no panic or other interesting expressions on his face, she continued.
"My request's simple; I want you to assist me to clean a dungeon that threatens my plantation. My knights can't accompany me there, their levels are too high for that, but the others have levels too low to accompany me.
-If you accept my request, you won't only have the opportunity to increase your level but also to have all the information you want from me; including your Guild location."
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Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone