8 Chapter 7: To Invent Laughter

[New Quest — Rivenvalius]

I stood outside my house and waved goodbye to my family. My siblings were crying, but I reassured them that everything would be fine. As I set off, I took a deep breath to cool down my excitement.

Last night, I slept as if I was in my own bed, but it felt weirdly natural in the game. Sleeping felt so surrealistically real that when I woke up, it was almost as if I was dreaming that I wasn't dreaming.

That's kind of a weird analogy, but I hope I get my point across.

From this point onward, the game became a free roam, with only one main goal: defeat the archdemon.

There are five continents in the world of Serial Slain: Rivenvalius, Polsius, Enfernius, Puratorius, and Paradis. An archdemon rules every continent, and it is my job as the main character to liberate all the people. After defeating every archdemon, I gain access to the final boss, the Demon King himself. It was a simple progression, but the world was so massive that you never ran out of things to do.

I'm looking forward to beating up some demon ass.

"Ares! Wait up!"

A familiar girl's voice called from behind. I turned to see Ayame, panting.

"Ayame?" I asked. "What's up?"

"You're going to fight the demons, right?"

"Yeah."

"Let me join you."

"Sure."

"It's okay if you think I'll be a burden and all, but I'll be a powerful asset! I can shoot laser beams and—"

"I said that you could join me."

Ayame blinked twice. "Oh...really? Thank you so much! I just thought that since you were the Hierophant, you would only recruit the most elite of heroes or something."

"You seem elite enough to me."

The mage girl blushed, and she flexed her arms. "That's right! I'm an elite mage!"

Holy shit. She's too cute. I've never interacted this much with a person of the opposite sex before.

I gotta play it cool.

I'm Ares, the Hierophant who will end all demon terror. That's right. I'm a smooth badass.

Maybe I could even get my own harem in this world.

Now that would be epic.

"Uh, Ares?" Ayame asked.

"What is it?"

"You were making a weird face."

"Sorry. That was my thinking face. I was pondering a genius idea."

"Oh. I see."

"Ayame!" said a gruff voice.

A grown man and woman approached us from the left. A young girl—about fourteen years old—walked between them, holding a staff that appeared similar to Ayame's. The three people all had scarlet hair and maroon eyes. Her family, perhaps?

"Ayame," the man said with a sigh. "We knew you'd come looking for Ares. We tried to keep him a secret from you, but it looks like you still found out. Only the city leaders are supposed to know about his nature."

"I'm going with him," Ayame said. "We're gonna wipe out the demons."

"Are you sure about this?" the woman asked Ayame.

"Mom, Dad, you don't need to worry about me. I've been training as a mage since I was a little kid."

"But the demons..." the young girl said. She was presumably Ayame's little sister.

Ayame put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Sakimi, I don't want to run anymore. As we speak, the demons are taking more and more of the humans' territory. I don't want to see the day when all of us become slaves. The only reason that I haven't gone off by myself was that I didn't want to be alone, but with the Hierophant, I can easily strike down the Demon King!"

Technically, the Hierophant was supposed to one to do that, but I didn't want to ruin her moment of enthusiasm.

Ayame's father conceded. "Fine."

He then walked over to me and held out a hand. I shook it.

"Call me Mr. Fujimoto," Ayame's father said. "I trust that you will be able to protect my daughter."

Mr. Fujimoto was almost two heads shorter than me, but he carried himself with a sense of dignity that made him feel like a walking tower. His handshake was firm, fighting back against my own muscled palms with prominent pride.

"Yes, sir," I nodded in reply. "You can count on me."

"Thank you," Mr. Fujimoto said, stepping back.

"Good luck out there!" Mrs. Fujimoto and Sakimi both said.

Ayame waved back, "Thanks, everyone!"

"Let's go," I said.

After the goodbyes, the two of us started our journey through Rivenvalius.

Our first stop was the nearby town of Mechanicsville. I gave a few coins to a horse-drawn wagon driver, and he drove us down a paved road that winded through the woods. Most of the main roads in this world were lined with Totems of Warding, miniature wooden obelisks that were enchanted by a spell that prevent low-level monsters from coming near. At night time, the Totems also lit up, acting as torches to illuminate the path.

After an hour's travel, we made it to our destination, and Ayame and I got off. The driver waved us farewell as we parted ways.

If I remembered correctly, there was an easy way to rush the first archdemon in the game: first, get the hidden weapon Frigid Edge; second, get the special Skyfire Helmet.

Frigid Edge was a shortsword that gave a twenty-five percent boost to ice proficiency, a fifteen percent boost to holy damage, and it had the Frostbite passive ability, allowing it to inflict the "slow" debuff on the target while simultaneously reducing their ice resistance. On top of its ridiculously high base damage, it could take down the archdemon's fire shield in one hit and decimate his main health bar in three or four more attacks.

The Skyfire Helmet, on the other hand, didn't have very high base stats, but it was extremely useful for the archdemon boss fight because it gave access to the skill "Skyfire." Activating it will shoot down a bolt of lightning that deals massive AoE damage. It was similar to my default sword's "Messenger of the Heavens" special attack, but the cooldown was much lower, and it didn't do as much damage. Still, it will be useful because the archdemon periodically summons hordes of enemies. With Skyfire, I'll be able to wipe them all out as soon as they spawn.

There was one main issue: it was insanely difficult to get those two items. In the base game, I died multiple times when I fought the bosses that guarded the weapons. Now that I was inside the world itself, it may end up being harder than I expect. Still, I had the advantage of prior knowledge against the enemies.

Luckily, there was another dungeon just outside of Mechanicsville, and I can fight it to gain a load of experience. Accepting side quests was another way of getting experience points, but dungeons usually gave way better loot at the cost of being much more difficult. Unfortunately, the main story dungeons only reset once every day, so I wouldn't be able to constantly grind them like the endgame dungeons.

The lore says that most of the world's dungeons are portals that the God of Choas, Deorr, created, connecting the human realm with the demon realm. That's why they were always crawling with various enemies.

Clearing out the dungeon and closing the portal will only grant a momentary respite since Deorr could reopen the portal with a wave of his hand. So far, there was no magic that could counteract a Primordial God.

After some walking, Ayame and I arrived at the entrance to a cave. Earlier, we passed by a sign that warned of nearby goblins, but fortunately, we didn't encounter any of them.

We entered the cave and descended the dungeon. Behind us, a magical barrier enclosed the opening, preventing us from escaping until we defeated all the enemies, or until we were defeated ourselves.

From what I remembered before, this dungeon's boss required you to know how to perfect dodge. It was difficult for an early-game fight, but anybody who defeated it would have honed a new crucial skill. Perfect dodging was integral in many late-game fights, so I might as well get used to it now.

"This place is pretty creepy," Ayame said. "Why do we have to go here?"

"Training."

"So you train by going into dungeons? That's hardcore. I guess it makes sense; after all, you're the almighty Hierophant!"

I laughed. "I wouldn't call myself almighty, just yet."

Indeed, I still had a long way to go until I reached the max level.

Soon enough, we arrived at the bottom, where a cavernous arena awaited us. A lone demon stood up in the center, wearing black bandages all around its body like a mummy, save for its eyes. Upon seeing us, it unsheathed a massive katana.

I drew my own sword and rushed the enemy.