MONSTER MMORPG: Mayhem Online

Near Wenselm Dukedoms Territory.

[Welcome to \'The Graveyard of Vengeful Howls\'.]

I looked at the notification in front of me and couldn\'t help but get chills just from reading the name.

In front of me laid an eerie graveyard filled with ghostly cries and howls.

"Why are we here again?"

I asked as I rubbed my goosebumps. This fucking game had to make everything so realistic.

"Hmm? We are here to hunt for souls so you can refine them, obviously!"

Lynch replied with his eyes curved into a smile.

We had come in a party of ten people, which included me, Lynch, Nameless, Gomchul, Mizzen and five other members of the guild.

\'Coming to a hunting ground with so many people feels even weirder than seeing ghosts.\'

I couldn\'t believe that a day would come when I would be hunting with so many people.

"Oh, yes? Then why have you brought me to a place filled with ghosts of level 180? If it wasn\'t clear in the guild\'s members window, my level is just 144! You hear?"

"Haven\'t you killed a silver-named NPC of level 200 above already? These are just common ghouls and vengeful souls. You\'ll be fine."

Lynch, that fool kept smiling like a fool as he replied. What did I ever do to him to take revenge on me like this?

"That was one guy, and I had almost died trying to kill him. I got lucky that he let his guard down, or I\'d have been killed back then. Fighting with so many monsters almost 40 levels higher than me… And even if you think that\'s fine, why did you bring them instead of Fender or Bowser? The others are barely level 120, and Gomchul isn\'t even level hundred yet…"

I pointed at the rest of the players who had come with us. They were already shivering in fear. The only one who held his ground firmly despite only being at level 126 was Nameless. Gomchul was already shivering. Of course, an orc was no match for a ghost, that too twice the level gap.

"I said it\'s fine, so it\'s fine. I won\'t let anyone die even once, especially Gomchul, who can\'t even revive like us. Just trust me, and we\'ll be fine!"

Lynch still kept on insisting, and I couldn\'t help but feel uneasy.

"Nevermind. Let\'s do this!"

I shook my head of all the bad thoughts and resolved myself. Since I had to do it, either way, I might as well do it this way.

"By the way, how exactly are you going to perform alchemy on \'souls\'? Do you have any idea?"

Lynch asked since if we didn\'t even know how to do what we came here to do, this trip would have proven to be futile.

"Uh, yeah. I think I have an idea of it for now. I don\'t have three people living inside my head for no reason!"

I said, a bit unsure of my own words.

`Why do you sound so unsure? Don\'t you trust me?`

\'Not really…\'

`....`

It was Prolus\'s suggestion that I was currently depending on. Although he himself had never refined or even performed much of anything related to alchemy and was only a god of theories, his theories were still something that made him hailed as a genius.

~~Honestly, I don\'t trust this kid much either.~~

Drew said seriously, trying to sound as mature as he could, but his childish voice betrayed his act.

`Sounds convincing coming from a real kid.`

~~I am not a kid! Did you see my status info? It says I am a primordial slime! A primordial!~~

`Yeah? And what\'s that supposed to mean?`

Prolus asked smugly, and Drew silenced up for a moment before replying.

~~....I don\'t know, but I am sure it\'s something amazing!~~

`Sure, kid. Hoho!`

\'Stop fighting inside my head, go get a room. I\'ll go fucking insane! Learn something from Song. See how quiet he is!\'

I shouted at the bunch of fighting inside my head.

~~ It\'s not like he doesn\'t talk because he is mature! He is just sulking over his new name puhahaha!~~

\'I really wish there was a feature to turn off your blabberings.\'

[You can choose to deafen yourself from all mental transmissions through the settings.]

\'Wait, what the fuck? There was actually a convenient option like this, and the system is telling me now?\'

[.....]

I felt like the system wanted to say something like, \'You never asked\', but instead, it just chose to be silent.

Is the system really sentient like the NPCs?

It seemed true through the actions of the system. It usually listened to everything the player had to say and opened everything the players wished, even if the commands were extremely random. It wouldn\'t be able to do it without some sort of high-grade artificial intelligence.

\'Anyways, I can\'t shut these guys off. We never know what kind of an emergency I might get stuck in. I need Prolus\'s help to refine the souls, to begin with.\'

`Hmm, hmm! Wise choice!`

…On second thought, I should really just mute them or something.

"What are you spacing out for? Anyways it\'s good that the mobs here are the type to only attack when deliberately provoked. So we can hunt them one by one!"

Lynch swung his fist around like he was going to punch through every ghost that came his way, but then he took out staff and a coned wizard hat.

"What the fuck is that? Puhahaha!"

I laughed as soon as I saw his weird attire, and Lynch\'s face turned red as he tried to keep his composer.

"These are my items that increase my mana and intelligence as well as decrease my casting time. Although I really wish I had something that reduced my cooldown too."

Sweat trickled down my spine when I heard that. I am sure Lynch would again die with envy if I told him I just sold an item like that.

"Let the hunt begin!"

Lynch shouted, and Gomchul and a fat guy from the guild stood in front of him. Goomchul was wielding the twin axes that I had gifted him, while the fatty had a large shield.

They were going to act as our tankers for the hunt, while Nameless and two others would play the role of the close combat fighter. Lynch and another guy would fire spells from behind the tanks, and a supporter would buff everyone from the centre, while an archer would deal damage from the back.

As for my role?

Well, I was practically going to sit and do alchemy in the middle of battle.

That was the plan.

\'Right?\'

`Trust me, trust me.`

Prolus hummed confidently. For some reason, from Lynch to Prolus, everyone seemed so confident that I felt like I was overestimating the situation.

"Gomchul, take the nearest mobs aggro and be sure not to attract more than a single monster."

"Okay!"

Gomchul ran towards the nearest black-coloured, eerie-looking smokey monster and swung his axe at it.

—-Kkkkrrrrreeeeeecchhhh!

The monster shouted and instantly ran behind Gomchul, swinging its smokey claws at his back as he regrouped with everyone.

\'He lost one-tenth of his health in a single claw scratch. As expected, the level difference is too big.\'

At this point, I just prayed that Gomchul doesn\'t die tanking for us. He was a resident of Ethra and not a player like us. He couldn\'t be reborn, unlike us, who can be resurrected as many times as we want after dying at the cost of a penalty.

For NPCs, there was no such luxury as resurrections. Once they die, they die for good.

"Good job, Gomchul! Shielder, your turn!

It was truly amazing how easily and precisely  Lynch gave out his orders without losing his calm. I was the type to fight alone, so guiding others to fight would definitely end up in a casualty.

Shielder, the other tank, used his taunt skill to gather the monster\'s attention to himself.

—-Skreeeechhh!

[Vengeful spirit has activated its area debuff skill!]

[Morale of the whole party has been lowered!]

[Status conditions don\'t work on a legend! You have resisted the \'Morale Debuff\' condition!]

[You have received the blessing of the buff\' morale boost\' from Jonghan! Your morale has been boosted!]

The monster shouted again as it tried to lower the morale of everyone. But his skill was immediately cancelled due to our capable supporter.

Supporters who never directly fought a battle had very low levels and were still considered very valuable for a party. And hence, having a level 120 support was really good.

"All damage dealers, attack!"

And with that, multiple skills landed on the pitiful monster, to the point where his HP dropped by 80% in a single go.

[Vengeful spirit has lost more than 80% health at once!]

[Vengeful spirit has been stunned for 5 seconds!]

"This is your chance, go Shura!"

"Yes!"

I had already taken out the furnace that I needed to use to perform alchemy.

It already had the necessary circles installed in it, and all I had to do was refine the soul of the Vengeful Spirit.

[Skill \'Elemental Control\' has been used on \'Vengeful Spirit\'!]

[Due to \'Vengeful Spirit\' being immobilised, the skill casting had succeeded!]

\'Time to burn some ghosts!\'

...

//DreamNote//

As I mentioned earlier, I have been thinking of increasing the chapter release rate, so let\'s try it for a few days. However, as many of you might not know, I have three books and have to write 12k words daily, and this book comes third in my priority list, so there might be a few days with only one chapter.

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