Chương 142: Chapter 138

AN: Today's chapter includes the new quest system reward setup for the first time since the rework, I hope it makes enough sense! The team ate breakfast outside, given that the kitchen table had been smashed up by a certain seven foot tall Demon who remained unrepentant for the damages caused, mostly out of petty spite to one Archdemon in particular. The food was Zin's treat, as a pseudo-peace offering and gesture of goodwill.

He'd put in a large delivery order on pizza and tacos earlier, which were two human staples for warriors returning from one full night's worth of bar crawling. That and puking up by the dumpster, but that part was unneeded for now. To Medy and Bael, this was a king's feast. The sheer array of different flavors, meat and spices was nearly insane to consider. Medy had instantly forgotten everything that happened moments ago, and went to attack the food in every possible way that existed.

Bael was far more circumspect, and only now did Wade realize the giant demon here hadn't been well behaved by choice - he'd been in shock this entire time. Sitting outside on one of the concrete and rock build-in platforms, staring at the sunrise for the past ten minutes now, Wade could see the tell-tale signs of disbelief still there, from what his body language betrayed. The demon was outright overwhelmed with all of the new.

Medy had been the one rolling with the punches this entire time, embracing it all as quickly as it came. Speaking of, she had words for exactly that: "What's this one called??" She pointed at the leftover empty paper wrapper, her mouth filled up like a squirrel. Frankly, Wade wasn't certain what had come out of her mouth was even English given how much food was in the way.

"That would be a burrito." He said, if the wrapper here was to be believed.

"Beef with cheese or something like that. And you're supposed to eat it in a few bites, it's not a one-bite thing." That part was said far too late.

"Surprised asking after putting in mouth." Leon chuckled.

"Not afraid of poisoning?" She said something in reply but this time it was a longer sentence and the aforementioned burrito was seriously hindering the issue. Zin was far more dignified in his eating, having brought out a smaller folding table to sit and eat on while the rest of the crew here were having a free for all, everything set over the concrete. As for their final party member, Eri was just Eri. Happy to stare up at the sun next to Bael, and watch the city below slowly wake up to the typical routine.

Wade left the demons mostly to discuss among themselves afterwards, just focusing on getting actual food in his stomach. Especially free food. Bael eventually rejoined them to start sampling the strange food. He had a far more normal take on asking first what something was made of before putting it in his mouth. But the talks were more amicable at least between all three demons. Apparently, while Zin wasn't beloved in any way, he wasn't absolutely hated either, so it made things somewhat easier to handle for Bael.

The way Wade understood it, finding out Medy was Xan would be like finding out he was standing next to Hitler, or Stalin. Or both put together. At least the fantasy version of them. Zin would be closer to some random french monarch or another. Sure, as an American, Wade knew the French monarchy had been pretty terrible. But there wasn't that viceral need to see them hanged on his end either.

According to Zin, who was most certainly an unreliable narrator in all this - all he'd done was see the signs there wasn't a win coming, and running away immediately. Other Archdemons genuinely thought victory could be a thing, went to war and then turned tail when it was far too late. Escaping at that point meant sacrificing several thousand others in order to get away. Which every Archdemon had done with few exceptions.

At least one of the legions from the third circle had a clear path to escape without an Archdemon actively trying to throw them under the bus. In a manner of speaking. As for if they would allow other Archdemons to travel here to Earth, Zin didn't think there was much to worry about. He hadn't been the greatest Archdemon to live, that title went to the nine Demon Lords. All of whom Play would have yanked away to Azdrial for shits and giggles if they were in the picture anywhere.

Given she'd yanked him here instead, likely meant he was the current strongest Archdemon that wasn't infected with Blackrot. The lineup left was rather grim. Bael hadn't been too far off track when he'd mentioned Archdemons were hunted down by abusing their pride. None could do what Medy had done, of going by a base name. Even Zin prefered being called Butler over that.

Which was equally why the idea of her being an Archdemon hadn't even been a thought in Bael's mind, rather the more out-there idea that she was a recent newborn, likely appearing in the world right before the invasion. Until Medy told him flat out she wasn't good at doing anything. Which was more believable to demonkind than an Archdemon hiding their full rank and title. After that, Wade drifted back off.

He had done his job of bringing the demons here, it was time to turn back to the game, improving his lot in life. First came some administration. Charisma Check Complete! Insignificant Leveling Experience gained. Storefront options gained. The leveling experience remained at one percent of a level for him, so it was insignificant as listed. The real meat was the second reward that came with it: Options to unlock. He mentally clicked to open up the options and see what he had to pick.

And this time around, he was given two brand new options he'd never seen before. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Storefront Options - Select one path to unlock. Extraction Loot Upgrade [Earth Spawn points] Extraction Loot Upgrade [Basic System Potions] As before, he could only pick one of two. He'd seen unpicked options pop back up in future quest rewards, but that was all up to luck and chance.

Play had told him once, every time he picked one reward over the other, he was always running a potential chance of never seeing that option again. On her side, she'd be seeing more details about both options, such as cost and the description it would have. The two could at least coordinate a good choice forward. But this time, just the names seemed pretty straightforward to him. The first would probably allow the new extraction spawns he'd unlocked to pop up here on Earth, not just on Azdrial.

With this, once he'd bought the upgrade from the store, he could run around and go scavenge Zin's mansion and potentially find something impossible inside a cabinet or the jewelry boxes. Anywhere on Earth was likely the scope of it. Which would be amazing, especially as he upgraded down this path given the other option: Potions. The part Wade was actually excited about was the meta - having the option alone here implied there could be future upgrades that would do more than potions.

Perhaps he'd unlock weapons, armor, tools, and just about anything he could need. As for which to pick, the Earth one sounded great except for the fact he wasn't out exploring on Earth. Most of his time in the past two rounds had been preparing and practicing to survive the next round. On the other hand, potions always had use. Even if he eventually got stronger options, they could still be given to other people or at least sold.

Plus with his luck stat, there very well could be an event upcoming where finding the right potion on Azdrial might just be what saves his entire run. If he didn't unlock the option as quickly as he could, he'd hit that situation with his pants still down. Plus-plus, the next time the earth option showed up, they'd be that much more valuable with an increased loot drop of goodies. He'd get more overall loot by going this path first. He locked in the potions option, and watched as the interface closed up.

His phone buzzed shortly after. MICHAEL･ﾟ･(｡>ω<｡)･ﾟ･ Ah. On her end, she must have seen the new option pop up on her storefront page, and then him locking the choice down. He gave a very slight grin, and spend the next five minutes gaslighting the goddess into thinking nothing had happened at all on his end. Was it a good idea to mess with Play? No. But it made him happy, and he'd take all the happiness he could get these days.

He lied to himself there was a strategic value to all this - confirming that Play couldn't spy on him so long as he had his privacy words said and done. As far as his testing went, she really had no idea. She'd suspected he ran into another Player early on and the System had given him a quest, which he'd won. Eventually, he had to admit she was on target, just off target with who was involved.

He started to draft up a return text with the details, but the amount of typing slowly overcame his inner pettiness at the NEETess.

"All right fine," He deleted the wall of text he was working on, then looked up at the sky.

"You can watch for now." Was that enough or did he need to sa- YAY! ٩(◕‿◕)۶ Oh, he took you to his fancier house I see lmao Apparently it was. You do know that house isn't his right? Police are going to come there eventually, probably in two or three weeks from now.

"I know, he told us." Wait, he did? Wowowow, something happen between you two? Get more buddy buddy with each other hmm? („ಡωಡ„) Normally this would have been the kind of thing he'd omit telling anyone lol Wade had to remember she was a goddess of games and generally very good at guessing what other people would do. She was right something had happened between the two of them. Zin had a newfound goal now.

What got him by surprise was the parts Play didn't care for: The actual events between Bael, Medy, and Zin didn't interest the NEETess at all. Boring boring boring (； ￣Д￣) You know what? Thanks for making me skip all the cutscenes and go straight to the good stuff, none of it is important to you getting stronger, minus that quest"It's a little important to them." Wade looked over to the three Demons watching the sun, with one still trying to stuff her cheeks full of the next food item she could get.

"Come on Play, even you have to admit having a new demonic micro-refugee city here is going to change a lot of things in the long run." Eh, maybe you'll get a few more quests for it? One storefront coin per demon smuggled over here would be real nice for power leveling up.

"Quit pretending you don't care. You sent Zin my way specifically to force something to happen." I got no idea what you're talking about or insinuating here. But shouldn't you be focusing on something else right now?

"Right, forget I asked." Wade sighed, "So, what's the details on the new potion unlocks on your end? How much is it?" It's four unlocks in total and each one costs a coin. Says it adds to the loot pool basic system quality potions. Health, mana, stamina and strength potions. Wade didn't miss the important part to that: "You sure it says System quality potions?" Yeh. Probably the same thing that potion crafting unlocks. I'd bet all my money these directly affect your stat points.

Wade had seen System quality goods before, and that was on another level compared to their regular real-world counterparts. His smartphone was basically the world's best phone and it followed him anywhere he went. And the scroll of necromancy had brought back Eri in a state that should be impossible according to actual necromancy science in Azdrial. Which meant system-quality potions might follow the same thing. You got that chitin in your pockets thou, right?

"The chi- oh." From the isopod he'd killed. The System had sent him a quest to pick a chunk up and run with it. Wade opened up his quest log and scrolled down to an earlier one. Alchemy Reagents (Part 1) - Collect a discarded chitin plate from a Mana-infused Isopod and sell it to an alchemist on Earth. Rewards: System Alchemy Recipe (Uncommon). Negligible leveling experience. Continued questline. At the time he was certain this was just the System pressing him to get Medy back to Earth.

But now, his eyes drew over the rewards. Yeh you see it don't you? System Alchemy Recipe. And I got a hunch the System's not going to reward you a normal recipe from someone's cookbook. It's going to be made to slot into the potion system it's got going. And he did have Medy here. Hell, she was currently attacking a burrito. He dug his hands into his pocket and looked around for the little chip of chitin. Outside in the light of the sun, the half-scale like thing looked indigo blue. And had an odd smell of iron.

Cracked mana-infused chitin (Low Quality)"Wait a tick. Mana-infused?" Yeh, you could use this as a catalyst technically. Eat it up, and cast spells from it. Probably not a lot. But, it would be enough for an alchemist to make use of. (¬‿¬) Of which he'd gone the distance to bring back. He turned over to look at Medy, who had once again failed to learn her lesson about taking smaller bites. He was more surprised she hadn't choked yet. Medy turned back to him, curious why Wade was looking her way. He waved.

She waved back.

"Hey Medy, want to buy this chitin piece from the arcane realm, for… let's say your empty wrapping paper there?" She looked down at the paper in her hands, and then to the stack empty wax papers she'd currently started to collect.

"Mmmfufmm." She said. Quest complete - Alchemy Reagents (Part 1) Negligible leveling experience gained. System Alchemy Recipe (Uncommon) gained. A piece of parchment with white glowing wording and diagrams popped into existence right in front of Wade, fluttering down. Luck Triggered! System Alchemy Recipe (Uncommon) upgraded. The paper began to glow a deep ultramarine blue, before Wade could even grab it out of the air. And when he did, he went full on into Identify.

System Alchemy Recipe (Rare): Consume to learn crafting [Vial of Inevitable Destruction]. Requires Advanced Alchemy skills or better. Wade read through, eyes widening, running Identify over the different terms on the page, looking for every bit of extra info. Vial of Inevitable Destruction (Rare) - Enemy targets exposed to this liquid will take true damage after five seconds. Damage dealt scales off percent of body mass afflicted. His eyes dove for more details from there.

True damage - Damage that cannot be mitigated or reduced by any means. Advanced Alchemy Skills - Unlocked potion crafting rank, or equivalent proficiency in Azdrian Alchemy.

"Okay." Wade hummed, slowly putting the scroll down as he considered, coming to one realization: The day he had to respec his points out of Luck was going to require grief therapy.