FB: Chapter 26 – Interview

“Foxy Blight?” Fred asked me. We were in Fang City in a private room for the interview.

“Yes, Fred is it?” I asked.

“Yep, kept the same name in game. Branding reasons,” he replied. I nodded at that. “This here is a Rebecca,” he introduced me to the woman. I shook her hand.

“A pleasure. I like your outfit. A guild?” she asked me.

“Yes, I am the Guild Leader of the Fanged Fox Guild,” I replied with a smile.

“Well, we got your screenshots of your most recent fights. Quite…impactful. Anyways, this interview will be recorded, so don’t say anything you don’t want people to know. In addition, we will own the interview and all rights to it,” Fred told me.

“That is fine. I already signed the term sheet that was sent over,” I replied.

“Excellent. So, if you want to sit there, we will sit here. Just look at us when you are talking. The camera points are already pre-set. This won’t be live,” Rebecca said. I took my seat.

“Welcome viewers to a special interview. We managed to track down our intrepid explorer that went into the Bottomless Pit. You might remember that scene from three days ago. Well, now we have answers and pictures to confirm their story. Our lady of the hour, Foxy Blight,” Fred introduced me.

“Thank you, Fred, for that introduction. I did go into the Bottomless Pit. It was quite a long distance as well. Luckily it really isn’t bottomless,” I said with a smile.

“Well let’s start at the beginning. What made you attempt the descent in the first place?” Rebecca asked me.

“I was just curious and wanted to check it out. It might have been a bit foolish, but I am the type of girl that loves a little adventure and action,” I replied with a slightly flirty smile.

“Indeed. So that sphere? What was it made of? How much did it cost?” Fred asked me. I talked about the design of my descent sphere. The materials used and the cost. Screenshots were brought up of the interior. I brought up the design was available for sale at the Design Union for 10 gold for people who wanted to check it out in detail or purchase the plan for themselves in order to build a descent sphere.

Then I described the fall and how long it took. After that I talked about the bottom of the Bottomless Pit and then finding invisible super slimes. Screenshots were brought up during the interview to highlight the different parts of my adventure. I didn’t reveal my Divine Slayer title of course.

“After exploring the bottom, I went into one of the caves with glowing purple moss. Unfortunately, there was some kind of invisible monster, and I was forced to run. Quite scary.”

“Indeed, that really is an impressive tale. Anything planned for the future now that you were the first to reach the bottom of the Bottomless Pit?” Fred asked.

“Yes, I am doing a Champion’s run here in Fang City. Come watch my matches. I am using a skill no one else would dare use. In fact, one might say it is a bit overwhelming,” I said with a grin.

The banners that were going to go up, showed me puking into a person’s face. I had my mouth open and the angle was just right so it looked like the puke was coming from my mouth and into theirs. That screenshot was pulled up for the future viewers to look at.

“We did some research, and it looks like you are using the skill Murk Barf? Is that right?” Rebecca asked me.

“Yes. I actually grinded my way up in Murk Town and the Murk Swamp. Most people can’t even last a day, let alone an entire year,” I said with a smile.

“You seem awfully confident about taking a Champion title. What makes you so sure?” Fred asked me.

“Well, I can talk a lot of shit, or I can just spray it out at my competitors. I am not afraid of some rough and tumble. So, everyone please come and fight me or to watch me puke all over people,” I said with a grin.

“There you have it. Intrepid adventurer, now a contender for the title of Champion, Foxy Blight. Command stop recording,” Rebecca said.

“That went well. Can probably run the whole thing with only perspective edits,” Fred said.

“It was under fifteen minutes, so the length is fine. Good job with your answers. You do this before?” Rebecca asked me.

“No. But I did some research online. I look forward to speaking with you both again once I get 50 wins in the next four days,” I replied.

“Good luck Foxy,” Fred said, and we made our goodbyes after adding each other to our respective friend’s list. The interview would air in a couple of hours. With that done, there was only one thing left I could do for the day. I didn’t have spare money to waste, and I wasn’t about to leave the city to kill monsters right now.

I had a plan for my next 20 levels. I would need to set up another altar to grind up the levels, but the location wasn’t near Fang City. I would do that after my 100 wins and I got my title. Once I hit level 50, I would then go and try and get two of the items needed for special legendary skills.

The Dice of the High Roller and the Tome of Arch Mage Blight were both on my list. But there was one other item I could work on getting now. I switched out my skills and made my way to the Shadow Union. The Shadow Union only existed in major cities. It was the NPC thief and assassination organization.

Each Shadow Union had an underground obstacle course a person could pay to challenge. If you succeeded, you would get a chance to challenge the obstacle course in the Capital and earn a pick of various prizes. You would only be allowed to pick once so the choice was quite important.

There were good things there, but by far the best item was the Tome of the Silent Assassin. The special legendary skill shard that required that item was by far the best legendary skill in the game in my opinion. It was always rated in the top five of useful skills if not the top one.

When that special legendary skill was first discovered by a player, they sold the knowledge to 50 different guilds at the same time making each guild think that each of them was buying information just for their guild. It was a huge scandal, but not having the skill would be much riskier. Then the process of getting the special legendary skill shard was leaked by a guild two days later out of spite or for some other reason related to all the drama. The person who caused the chaos claimed to be from the dark guild Devil’s Dick and then vanished after that, since everyone was hunting him. Just one more bit of chaos that the dark guilds had unleashed in Exponential.

I arrived at the Shadow Union and paid a silver to challenge the obstacle course. There were just more blades involved than a course like this would have on Earth. Well, the years of gymnastics and cheerleading would have paid off if I didn’t cheese the course.

The use of Epic ranked Quick Step and Shadow Step to quickly dodge obstacles and attacks. I had experience with those skills previously. The course was designed to require these two skills to complete easily. It went from punishingly hard to incredibly easy once I used these skills at the right spots.

Quick Step slowed physical objects around me and allowed me to take five steps in the time span it would normally take one easily allowing me to dodge past traps. It didn’t slow down magical attacks, but that wasn’t a concern at the moment. Shadow Step allowed me to move through a physical object and negate physical damage for five seconds. The cost of each skill was 2 MP times 5 due to the rank, so 10 MP.

They also had cooldowns of a minute each. They couldn’t be spammed in combat easily, since MP wouldn’t regenerate in combat, but for an obstacle course like the one I had to deal with, they were perfect.

Since the skills were Epic and personally raised to that rank by me, the cost was really 9.6 MP and the time for Shadow Step a bit longer. But this was another case where having a personal skill didn’t make a huge impact. I also had the skills soul bound since I didn’t want to drop them if I was killed.

I completed the course and was told I could challenge the main course in the Capital when I went there. What the clerk forgot to mention was that it cost a platinum coin to challenge the main course, and the main course changed each time someone went through it.

The difficulty increase was massive. But I wasn’t that concerned. Just like this course, if you had the right skills it was much easier. There were purists who claimed that doing the course without skills was the only legitimate way, but they were idiots who would waste a lot of money.

They could have fun dodging blades, darts, wires, and all the other nonsense. I preferred to just cheese the entire thing and save some money and headache. While I was decent at gymnastics, I was no former Olympic athlete or S class combatant.

With the course done, it was time to log off. The next nine days would be boring, since I was stuck in the city, but I could use that time to prep supplies I would need for the next altar.

It was too early to do research on other legendary skills. While I had some fame and renown, it wasn’t enough to make the process easy. That was why it was better for me to wait until I earned the title of Grand Champion.

The title of Grand Champion gave huge reputation bonuses. NPCs would know who I was. I could also pay a herald NPC to announce my Divine Slayer title and spread the word about me, but I was going to keep that a secret for now. While it would boost my reputation massively, it would no longer be a secret.

The fact that it gave an extra title slot was too valuable to share. That was the kind of knowledge a super guild would focus on acquiring to give their top players an advantage. It was far too important to give up an advantage like that.

What I was trying to figure out was what I would pick as my fourth title. Since I was already at the Shadow Union, I paid 1 gold for a poison tasting. I had no doubt other people would go for this title once I became famous.

Changing titles required visiting a herald NPC to switch them out and took a gold coin and there was a month long cool down. Titles weren’t something a person could quickly switch around and equip at will. That was why it was important to pick the best titles and just stick with them.

I wasn’t even sure if there was a Luck focused title. There probably was, but it most likely required copious amounts of gambling. Actual gambling and not just betting on myself. In contrast, the poison title was more readily accessible.

I switched back my skills to my coliseum build, I sat down and braced myself in the specialty restaurant I had walked to. Another out of the way place you had to know about to find. I paid a gold for the horrible meal that was about to arrive. The first item was a worm, still alive and wriggling. I quickly swallowed it trying not to think. Then came various bugs. I constantly took health potions, and with my poison resistance at 70% I didn’t die. You weren’t allowed to use an antidote, otherwise this process wouldn’t work for getting the title I wanted.

The foods were raw and nasty. I thought I could feel them moving in my gut occasionally. Thankfully the time I had spent in the Murk Swamp had hardened my resolve towards nastiness. It really made everything seem less terrible by comparison.

Eventually after ten horrible things I had to eat in full, I earned the first title in the title chain.

Poison Taster
Refine your pallet with ten basic and different things that poison you.
+5% Poison Resistance
+5% Max Poison Resistance