RD 2 Ch 29

Chapter 29

“The instance is almost stable.” Circe stood in the pit of the arena with the other three branch leaders and a few of their closest followers.

“Less than an hour if our guess is correct,” Zeus added.

But as they watched, the instance suddenly flashed a new update.

[Blood Dragon’s World Level 136 S 0/1]

Circe’s eyes narrowed.

“They completed it?” Hercules gasped. “Impossible. From our talks with Galen and Zane, the instance had become far too difficult.”

“Bran,” Circe breathed. “Bran must have finished it himself.”

Even as they spoke, a first person appeared from the portal.

It was Zane, stepping out. “Ah. Thank you for completing it, ancestor.” He immediately bowed to Zeus in misunderstanding as more and more of the initiates started appearing.

“Out of the way.” Zeus was at least quick in his thinking and dropped down a pile of loot. “Archy, the ladies.”

One of Zeus’ men shot away only to return with several dazzlingly beautiful women who only shined brighter on the gold. The women got into position, clearly an offering for Bran.

“Ha.” Hercules laughed and picked up an SSS-ranked sword, stabbing it into the ground in front of him before mounting a set of SSS-ranked armor on top of it. “It seems he’s a man of combat. Those things won’t tempt him.”

Circe turned to look at Simone, who only shrugged. Circe was going to feel like a fool offering this, but still, it was the best chance she had.

“What’s happening?” Galen asked.

“Move out of the way,” Zeus barked.

Persephone just tutted and watched on at the display while swinging her flower around. “You fools. What are you doing over this initiate? You should be making him beg to join you.”

“Just because you didn’t bring anything doesn’t mean that we can’t try and win him over,” Hercules argued.

“Did you forget? I have his mother.” Persephone smiled.

Everyone was looking towards the portal when a monster came out. She had a serpentine body, as well as her hair turned into snakes.

[Nyx Heros

Level: 102

Class: Medusaic Archer SSS

Status: Tired, relieved

Strength: 735

Agility: 1070

Vitality: 816

Intelligence: 825

Spirit: 634

…]

The snake hair reared back with everyone staring at her.

“Uh. Let me just step aside.” Nyx Heros twisted her serpentine lower half to get out from in front of the instance portal.

“Girl. Did you clear the instance?” Persephone asked.

“No. Well, I was with Bran. I just ran around shooting monsters and bringing them to him.” She glanced down at her non-existent legs. “Slithered around,” she corrected herself.

Circe could almost feel Simone giving the woman a once-over beside her. Circe realized Simone might be getting jealous, and that would not go over well.

“Pleasure to meet you.” Simone smiled. “Will Bran be long?”

“Oh. OH. You’re Simone. You’re so beautiful.” Nyx gasped. “I think he’ll be out in a minute. He was just looking over something.”

***

I closed the panel with a smile. We had been really racing against the clock, and I’d been ignoring the prompts. Crossing Level 100 got me a new skill. At first, skills came every five levels, but after that, they only came at larger progress points. The Level 100 skill was well worth it, though.

Pulling out all the blood I had collected from Zane as well as Galen’s blood and what I had discreetly taken from the SS rank bloodline holders as well, I started to pour them all down my throat, one after the other.

Adding that many stats in short succession made my stomach cramp and my body twitch but nothing more. After all, the physical reaction was in relation to how drastic of a change was occurring compared to my current stats.

It was enough though to reset my level early into digesting all of those and push me past A rank and into S rank. There were some serious lost stats in doing that, but I needed to be as strong as I could for meeting the branch leaders of the clan.

That done, I left the instance, stepping back out into the world and the sand pit of the arena.

The first thing I did was take a deep breath of real air. It always was fresher than that in an instance. Second, I looked for Simone, finding her healthy and well beside Circe.

I ignored everyone else and opened my arms to her.

Simone didn’t hesitate and rushed into my waiting arms, jumping into them and molding her body to mind. “Missed you.” She kissed me on the cheek.

It was clear she wanted to do much more than that, but it seemed the current situation was filled with tension.

“You must be Bran,” Zeus laughed jovially and ushered forward three beautiful ladies, each carrying some precious item. “Please allow me to send these three house servants with you to make your life at the clan more comfortable.”

They didn’t look like servants. Each of them looked like some high-maintenance daughter of a billionaire. The women had on brilliant smiles and smoldering eyes.

“Thank you.” There was no reason to look a gift horse in the mouth. I paused, realizing the Greeks were the ones to invent the Trojan Horse. I’d take them, but I would be sure to keep a close eye on them.

“Ah. Don’t let that old man sucker you in.” Hercules put 90s action movie stars to shame with his figure. “As someone who’s cleared such an instance on his own, you deserve a powerful set of gear to protect you and the clan’s interests.” He moved forward with the equipment, a pang of regret on his face.

“Please, Elder. It seems this might be precious to you. For now, why don’t you wield it to protect me and everyone else who resides in the clan?” I continued. “For someone of my experience, perhaps I should start with something lesser so that it doesn’t turn into a crutch.” I pulled out a D-ranked ring filled to the brim with S-ranked materials. “Could Uncle do me a favor and help me turn these into something?”

Hercules grinned from ear to ear. “Well said. Well said,” he repeated himself. He was so happy. “After all, my branch has the best smiths in the clan. We’ll have something whipped up by the best of the best.”

I nodded to him.

Two elders down.

“There’s still the conversation of which branch you’ll join.” A pale woman with chestnut hair and a daffodil spoke up. “As it is right now, your mother has joined Tartarus.”

I narrowed my eyes at the woman who I could only assume was the leader of said branch. “That’s strange. She was happily in Circe’s palace last I heard.”

“Decisions were made. By looking into my branch too deeply, I’ve taken her to keep it secret. After all, we cannot allow for the branch to be discovered.”

I tried to use Soul Gaze on her, only to realize she wasn’t real. The figure in front of me was some sort of projection from somewhere else. Her form wavered just slightly from Soul Gaze before re-stabilizing. Her eyes narrowed dangerously at me.

Rather than engage her, I just simply looked away and to the last branch leader, only to get a shock.

Circe was wearing an apron over the dress she’d just been wearing. All said and done, it hid the dress, almost making her look like she was just wearing the apron from the front. In her hands was a pie.

What she was holding was not some store-bought or professionally made pie. The lattice was uneven, and the edges were a little burnt.

“I had hoped to welcome you into our branch with a pie. Simone said you liked pie.” Circe was clearly a little awkward.

“Oh?” I let go of Simone and stepped over, summoning a knife from my spatial ring and cutting out a slice directly. “I do love pie. Homemade is the best.”

Taking a piece, I enjoyed the first bite in front of everyone with a groan of contentment.

“Well, I guess you’ve tempted me into accepting the welcome gift, so I need to go to your branch,” I mumbled around another bite of the pie.

It was actually quite delicious.

But most importantly, Simone had advised her, clearly picking which branch treated her the best as well as following her keen intuition. Circe had stepped down from a high horse to actually make me a pie. All said and done, I was happy to join Odyssey.

“What?” Persephone hissed. “You made him a gods-damned pie?”

“It’s a great pie. You should try some.” I cut another piece and shoved it in her face before she could react. After all, none of them expected me to move with such agility.

The pie went through her face and fell down her chest like parting smoke through the illusion, only for it to curl back and reform.

The colosseum pit was so silent that only the splatter of the piece resounded for several seconds. It seemed that none of the other branch leaders realized that she’d been an illusion.

“That’s a shame. When you are done with the smoke and mirrors, I wouldn’t mind a talk with the real Persephone.” Hitting the illusion with a full blast from Soul Gaze, I banished it before she could say anything else.

The daffodil was the only thing that was real and fell to the ground atop the ruined piece of pie.

“What?” Circe was the first to speak.

“I know. She ruined that piece of pie. I’m terribly sorry. Consider me in your debt, Branch Elder.” I dipped my head to her and went back to eating my piece of pie.

“What did you do?” Hercules asked.

“She was an illusion.” I shrugged and talked around the pie. “My Inspect pierces illusions.”

Saying that statement caused dozens of Inspects to hit me all of a sudden. I pushed them all away. I had considered hiding myself with talismans, and I even prepared six different sets as I considered how I wanted to exit the instance.

However, given Nyx’s level, I had no talisman prepared that would be remotely that high or would seem anything but completely unrealistic for someone who had just cleared the Level 136 S rank instance. I needed Simone to make those disguising talismans.

So the other option was to remain mysterious and ward off the inspections.

Even Circe was frowning at her inability to see my stats.

I winked at her. “Later. I’m formally joining Odyssey with highly positive impressions of both Olympus and Hercules branches. Though, my impression of Tartarus could use some improvement.” Pulling Simone with me, I stood behind Circe. “I believe we all join branches now?”

“I’ll join Olympus for those who’ll follow me.” Zane lifted his chin proudly and marched to Zeus, who recovered his pride a little. There were a few that followed Zane, notably Lisa had been right on his heels.

Good for him.

“Hercules is the best branch.” Galen marched over to Hercules’ side, but only one woman followed him.

Everyone else stood like their feet were rooted as their gazes swung back to Circe who was holding the pie for Simone to take a slice.

“Please. We welcome you to pick a branch.” Zeus’ smile was strained.

“Is Odyssey accepting more?” Nyx hurried forward.

“I think perhaps some of you would enjoy the stability of Olympus and Hercules more,” I tried to turn them away.

“No,” Nyx instantly refuted.

I was worried about her most of all. I did not want her to join because of me. I was never great at staying in one place for long. Soon I’d be off to Vein City.

“I won’t turn down someone of your quality,” Circe said, putting the pie away. “However, I must note that I won’t be able to keep you or anyone else with Bran. In all likelihood, he’s going to have a much different trajectory than the rest of you.”

Her statement made many of them hesitate. A few trickled over to the other two, but most looked lost.

“Please take your time. Over the next week, please meet with Zane and Galen for your decisions. Now”—I looked through the group to the one in particular who was trying to go unnoticed; however, her dark red hair made that almost impossible—“there was some conflict in the instance that needs to be addressed.”

My statement caught the three remaining elders, and they followed my gaze to Katie.

“Ah. We’ve already heard the stories from Zane and Galen. Chain her.” Zeus waved his hand imperiously as several of his men stepped forward to throw shackles around her.

Katie snapped. “I’m his blood whore! He did this to me!” she shrieked.

Everyone turned away awkwardly as she continued to rant, even as she was dragged away.

“Please return to your homes or follow your branch,” Zeus said before glancing at me. “There is a conversation we need to have shortly.”

“Of course.” I nodded, mostly relieved that they hadn’t decided to throw me in shackles and drag me off to a dungeon to rot.

The elder who seemed most likely to do that had her illusion banished by me. Still, that she had taken my mother would need to be settled.

Sooner rather than later.