MONSTER MMORPG: Mayhem Online

—Sizzle, sizzle!

As soon as the vengeful spirit got near the furnace, it was immediately sucked into the small furnace and started burning inside the flames.

"Wow!"

No matter how much it struggled, it wasn't able to get out of the furnace as if there was something holding it back.

~~It's the alchemy runes ingrained at the surface of the furnace. They were placed there with the sole purpose of neutralising the flames and anything that was being refined inside it. As long as it's not a high-level monster or boss monster, most of them can be refined inside the furnace after losing more than 70% of their health.~~

'Oh?'

`Yes, now focus on alchemy! Although you're sure to fail on your first try, you'll at least need to learn from it.`

And so, I began channelling my mana inside the furnace and started controlling the heat of the furnace as I put some soul-calming grass, Riverdale grass and Kingroot grass inside as per Prolus's instructions.

`Now, activate the runes on the right side of the furnace and channel your mana slowly. After 5 seconds, stop channelling your mana on the right side and start channelling on the right side at an even slower pace for 10 seconds. Then try to turn the vengeful spirits and the herbs that should have turned into a lump into a pill, like you did back when you made pills for Ena.`

Prolus carefully told me everything step by step, and I tried to follow it as closely as possible.

—-Boom!

—-Cough! Cough!

'What happened??'

`What do you mean what happened? I clearly told you to channel your mana for 5 seconds on the right side SLOWLY. Is that your 'slow'?`

'...'

[Your party has defeated a Vengeful Spirit!]

[You have gained 12,879,765 experience points!]

[You have gained 56 golds!]

Everyone got experience and a few golds, even Gomchul.

'So, refining a monster will still count as 'defeating' it?'

It was a good thing that everyone would get experience from it. However, Lynch wouldn't really benefit much from it, considering that he was already level 200.

'What a monster! How did he get to level 200 so fast? I remember the last time I saw his level was level 197, along with Bowser.'

`Yeah? Is that what you want to think about right now? How slow can you be that you can't even understand the meaning of 'Slow'? Is this how you're going to progress? Just a friendly reminder, but you have to refine a THOUSAND souls, and you haven't even refined one yet. If you keep filing, not only would you drag yourself down, you'll slow down the others too.`

For the first time, even with that childish voice, Prolus seemed really pissed, and I didn't feel any resentment toward his justified anger.

'...I'll do better next time.'

`I hope so.`

Prolus didn't say a word after that.

"Did you feel?"

"Yeah, I am sorry."

"It's fine. I have seen and heard how hard alchemy is. Let's not dawdle around and move on to the next target."

Instead of being disappointed, Lynch just gave some words of encouragement and then went back to guiding the others.

"Hey, since we are going to share experience between ten people already, let's add another person too."

"Huh? Who?"

Lynch asked, confused as we were the only people around.

~~Muhahaha! The time has come for this Primordial Slime to show his greatness.~~

"Wow, who's this cutie?"

Lynch's eyes started shining brightly as soon as he saw Drew. Drew used his voice transmission through his body, making everyone able to hear his voice.

"Well, he's my pet…"

"Slime as a pet? I get this one looks a bit cuter than the others but aren't you a legendary class? Don't you at least deserve a drake if not a dragon or unicorn?"

Lynch said in confusion, and I could see Drew's invisible nerves popping up on his slime head.

~~Hey, mister! Don't underestimate me!~~

"At least he can talk, unlike other slimes. It just makes him even cuter. But taking him out during combat can be dangerous. It's not a place he should be at. He can die with a single stray attack!"

Lynch said with genuine concern.

There were many players who had some pets just because they looked cute or cool and weren't really useful in combat. Slime was like the most beginner of beginner pets and was famous among the girls…. For some reason.

They said it was cute and useful to them.

How? The boys had no idea.

"He's not really a normal slime. Here, see for yourself."

I turned on Drew's level visibility to [Anyone can see], and everyone immediately shrieked.

"A LEVEL 51  SLIME?? THE FUCK??

Lynch looked back and forth between Drew and me, and Drew somehow got a bit fuller as if he had taken in a huge amount of air, trying to pump up his invisible chest proudly.

~~Kuku! What did I say? Don't underestimate me!~~

Drew said smugly.

"Man, is there anything normal about you in the game? That I shouldn't be jealous of?"

Lynch asked with an honest expression. Although he was trying to get accustomed to it, he still couldn't accept everything without being a little jealous.

"Let me think… I have a really shallow understanding of the game. I am not really skilled at gaming. I am sure if you had my legendary class, you could have done much more in this much time. I lack experience and judgemental qualities. Heck, I sometimes forget I have stat points pending or some skill that I could use to turn a situation around. I don't have as much of a presence of mind  as you guys have, and I am constantly trying to work on it."

I honestly listed out a few things that I genuinely thought I lacked when compared to others. I didn't feel inferior to them because I lacked these qualities, but I had resolved myself to get better and better and work hard to keep the faith that the people of Chrysanthemum Guild had put in me.

'Fuck, I still haven't changed the guild's name.'

'"..."'

Lynch, Nameless, Shielder, Jonghan and the others all stared at me with shocked expressions.

Kek!

Hahahaha!

"You just went ahead and accepted all those in front of us? Don't you feel like you should try to maintain an act of 'coolness' around people to maintain the dignity of a legendary class?"

Lynch asked after laughing to his heart's content. His face looked at me with an unbelievable expression, but he was continuously smiling.

"No, obviously, I want to look cool in front of others. But you guys are the people who decided to trust me with your whole guild. What's the use of keeping up pretences with you? Wouldn't it be better to admit the points where I lack and learn those things from you guys so that I don't have to be ashamed in front of others as your guild's leader?"

I blurted out like it was obvious. Although I hated working in a group, it was basically due to the fact that I was once betrayed by some shitheads from my previous guild and had been kicked out while being disgraced. On the contrary, I was the guild leader here.

If I couldn't trust people who turned me into their leader and trusted me with millions of gold, then I don't know who I can ever trust in this world.

"Don't downplay yourselves like that. History has proven time and time again that luck is also a skill, and you were born with SSS grade luck, I think. Fuck, it can even be EX at this point."

Lynch laughed helplessly before saying that they should focus on hunting again.

Soon after, we followed the same pattern but with a bit of difference. Although Gomchul took the aggro first, the one who received the first strike was Drew, who used his Weapon Shapeshift skill to transform himself into a shield.

[Drew has taken 999999 damage from Vengeful Spirit.]

[Drew has been stunned for 10 seconds.]

That was the benefit and loss of Drew. He won't die no matter what, but if he receives a lot of damage at once, he'll be stunned for a duration which can extend up to ten seconds. And in a real battle, even a single second would mean death if one was careless.

Although it was still a pretty good situation, a level 51 pet tanking against a level 180 monster was unheard of. And just one single distraction for the monster meant its doom when everyone else barraged it with continuous offensive.

The spirit was stunned, and I used my skill on it immediately.

This time, I followed Prolus's guidance with careful deliberation and slowly heated the right side for five seconds before moving on to the left side and lowering the temperature even more.

—-Boom!

The second try also failed, but I didn't get scolded this time because I was very close to successfully refining the monster and only messed up at the last moment when I turned off the heat a second before necessary.

On the third try, I succeeded in refining the monster, and one single crystal-like transparent pill came out of the furnace.

[Congratulations! You have successfully refined a low-grade soul stone!]

[Dexterity increased by 1]

`That's what I am talking about!`

Prolus cheered inside my head and praised me.

`Even those so-called geniuses from centuries ago wouldn't be able to achieve this in just three tries. You have got talent in alchemy, don't say you don't have skills. Luck isn't your only skill.`

"Nice! It worked, right?"

Lynch asked with a hopeful expression, and I looked at the quest window.

[Quest completion condition: Perform alchemy on a thousand souls.

Completion status: 1/1000]

"Seems like it did."

"Let's fucking go! Only 999 more to go!"

Lynch shouted, and others who heard him started sweating. This quest will take some time, but it didn't seem like it was impossible.

...

//DreamNote//

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