Chương 62: Chapter 61 - Depart

[You have received: Scale Of A Goddess x5 (Legendary Crafting Material), Soul Particle Of Embridge x27 (Epic Ingredient), Dragon Mace (Epic Mace), Raycaster (Epic Staff), Fire Rift Band (Epic Unique Ring), The Godripper (Mythic Sword), Emerald Aurora (Mythic Robe).] A mythic sword and a mythic robe. Neither were for my build, but they were very popular equipment slots. If the stats were just right, these could sell for hundreds of thousands. I didn't know how to react.

A dumbfounded chuckle escaped as I showed the notification to Veyra. She stared at it for a long time. She lifted her head, meeting my eyes.

"Two? Two mythics?"

"Holy—" I blinked at the notification.

"—shit."

"Only five mythics dropped," Veyra said calmly.

"You got two out of five mythic items from the whole event?" I opened the item stats, and we read them together. The Godripper Item Type: Mythic Sword Required Character Level: 264 Stats: +6000 Attack Force +25% Defence Penetration +25% Elemental Penetration (All Elements) -40% Swinging speed Abilities: Collector Of Souls (Passive): Reap the souls of all slain targets with The Godripper. Collected souls grant The Godripper 10% of the slain target's maximum Attack Force for thirty seconds. 0/10 souls stored.

Reap (Active, Conditional): When the stored souls of Collector Of Souls reach the maximum capacity, consume all souls. Heal for 3% of all slain targets' maximum health. Increase The Godripper's Attack Force by 20% for ten seconds. That one, I knew right away, would be one of the best PvE greatswords in the entire game. The attack force stat was absurd, and the ability buffed it further. It didn't have any crazy spells to cast, and the skill just increased stats, but those stat increases were absurd.

The decrease in swinging speed and increased weight would make it a tough pick for PvP, but whoever owned this would roll through dungeons much faster than others. I was way more interested in the robe, though. I shifted closer on Veyra's couch to better show her the item details.

Emerald Aurora Item Type: Mythic Robe Required Character Level: 259 Stats: +4000 Spell Power +60 Defence +20% Cooldown Reduction +100% All Resistances +4 to All Healing Skills Abilities: The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Emerald Aurora (Passive): Casting a healing effect strengthens the robe's emerald gemstone, enhancing the next healing ability by 10% and applying a blessing to the target. Blessings can stack up to 10 per target.

Emerald Aurora (Active): Consume the power stored in Emerald Aurora, activating all blessings. Each blessing increases the target's all resistances by 50, and constantly heals the target for 1% of missing health every second.

"A support robe?" Veyra asked, her excitement fading. She leaned back.

"That one is OP as well. Any AoE healer would drool over that. Shame we can't use them. Congrats, though. You're rich now." Two mythic items. I still couldn't believe it. I didn't even know how to celebrate. I could probably buy a small house with just those two items. And that wasn't all. I also got epics and legendaries. I was skimming through their stats, which were good, but nothing special, when Veyra said, "Oh, and look at this!"

She had the top 500 global leaderboard open on her system menu, pointing at a name inside. There I was. Assassin - Rank 349.

"You're a top five hundred player now," Veyra said, smirking.

"Oh, wow," I said.

"Are you in yet?"

"No," Veyra said, and scrolled to the bottom to double check.

"My level should be high enough at 262 now, but I don't have any competition wins, and we haven't been questing in a while."

"That means I beat you in the race, then," I said, grinning.

"For ten percent contribution on an event boss, you should be shot straight to the top ten minimum."

"We'll shoot up after Worlds," I said.

"I'd say we have a fair chance. I'm confident after our last guild wipe."

"I'm not sure if I agree," Veyra said.

"We haven't fought proper players in ages. It's a shame your mythic drops were useless."

"But we have your spellbook," I said.

"That's overpowered." The robe was overpowered as well, if only Veyra could use it. She met the level requirements; she just didn't have any healing spells. If we could get someone to wear it for us, the elemental resistances buff would fix the one weakness my build had. I had insane defence, but elemental spells would still burn me alive.

"More importantly, we need to pick which event we'll compete in," Veyra said.

"King of the hill and the main events are already full, and the applications will close in ten hours from now." And our flights will be leaving in less than twenty-four hours, I thought, provoking a nervous pulse in my chest. We'll finally meet. That thought distracted me a little while we discussed our final decision of which event we'd participate in—along with last minute arguments about our builds and strategies.

We looked at the prize pools of each competition available again, as well as the list of contestants having already entered. Veyra's goal was still to earn the most money we could, without risk. It was a tough decision, but in the end, after one more hour of debating, we picked what we believed gave us the best chances of winning.

"That's it, then," I said.

"Everything is covered." Veyra faced the television, which still displayed the same livestream of the event fight, now with a commentator showing a replay and discussing everything that had happened. We'd turned the volume so low that his voice was merely ambient background noise. She leaned back and took a deep breath.

"It's really happening, then… I'm actually meeting a guy I met online." I grinned.

"And I'm meeting the best mage player in the world." She sighed.

"I shopped for new glasses, by the way... Not just for you, don't get me wrong! I really needed new prescriptions. Sweden would just be a blur otherwise."

"I'll take you on another date there," I said.

"If we win, we'll celebrate, and if we lose, we'll go cry in an alley together. Sounds good?" Veyra snorted.

"Sure. If you still want to go on a date after seeing me." This again… I leaned back and asked, "Are you still not ready to tell me why I won't like you?" She stared at the juice pitcher, a contemplative look in her eyes. She looked like she really wanted to reveal something, until she said, "I can't just randomly tell you now… I've hid it for too long. You'll learn soon anyway." I genuinely could not imagine what she was hinting at. What would possibly make me hate her?

If she wasn't a convicted murderer, I couldn't imagine anything. She said she didn't even fake her appearance.

"In that case, I'm looking forward to meeting you," I said. Out of nowhere, arms wrapped around my chest, and Veyra tackled me head-first with enough force to push me sideways on the couch. [We have detected another player making physical contact without consent. Push them away? y/n?] I mentally clicked no to toss the system notification out, my heart suddenly blowing up. I saw Veyra's red hair with her face buried against my cloak. She lifted her head just enough to meet eyes.

"I'm glad you joined the guild. Truly. This has been fun. And sorry for being selfish. I just want one last hug before we go." I couldn't say anything through the pressure in my chest, and I couldn't understand what was selfish about giving me a hug. I couldn't describe how amazing it felt.

"I checked online," Veyra said, "and the number of men who are willing to date a girl like me is less than one fifth. I'm sorry for lying for so long… I just… There's a reason why I'm the solo mage." I barely heard what she said. Holy shit, Veyra was actually hugging me. I grabbed her for a small hug, and through a heavy breath, I said, "If it's you I'm meeting in Sweden, I can't let you go." She squeezed tighter, until, just as quickly as the hug came, she let go.

With her eyes watery and voice hazy, she said, "I'll try my best. So please don't break my heart." She initiated a safe log-out, and before I knew it, she disappeared. And for the next twenty-four hours, she didn't log back again, with no texts to tell me what she meant. I didn't get any sleep that night. The next day, the time came, and I prepared to depart to the airport.