Night fell, and Amy, fuming, went to squeeze into a room with Are.
Because Lucoco had said that if she came to sleep with her, she would have to tell her the story about the goblin and the little princess.
Adrian, however, didn’t choose to stay at the inn. He went to the mayor’s house under the cover of night, hoping to learn more about the situation in Suomu Town from the old knight.
As for Lucoco, she was curled up in her own room, tinkering with the [Demon King’s Treasury].
Every time she looked at this creation interface, Lucoco couldn’t help but laugh.
This kind of GM-level ability was actually the greatest villain in the game.
The Demon King’s inherent skills really had some perverse settings.
Deceptive Chest: Creation time 1s, existence time depends on the magic power input.
Common Chest (White-Purple): Creation time 5s.
Elite Chest (Green-Purple): Creation time 30s.
Boss Chest (Blue-Gold): Creation time one hour, 1% chance for gold quality.
Lord Chest (Purple-Gold): Creation time twelve hours, requires consumption of Faith Power, 5% chance for gold quality.
King-Grade Chest (Gold): Creation time one month, cooldown one year, can consume Faith Power to reduce cooldown.
Sage Chest (Orange): Creation time one year, cooldown ten years, can consume Faith Power to reduce cooldown.
Unrestricted Treasure Chest (Random quality at current level): Creation time 2 minutes, white, green, blue total probability 90%, purple quality 9.5%, gold quality 0.49%, orange quality 0.01%.
In Lucoco’s inventory: one thousand common chests, ten thousand elite chests, five thousand unrestricted chests, several hundred boss chests, dozens of lord-grade chests, three king-grade chests, and one sage chest.
Whenever she had time, she would open the [Demon King’s Treasury] skill to produce chests.
Like when sleeping…
It wasn’t that Lucoco didn’t want to produce them around the clock, but chests had an accumulation limit.
For example, these elite chests could stack up to ten thousand at most, and unrestricted chests up to five thousand.
Therefore, the tasks she posted during the day only had two thousand slots, with five elite chests per person, which was just enough to distribute.
Moreover, producing chests had a side effect: it would halve her magic output, making her feel uncomfortable all over.
This was the real reason she disliked tinkering with it all day.
Right now, she was mechanically repeating the operation, setting levels for elite chests, five at a time, throwing them into the task reward pool, setting them to random levels between 20 and 40.
Setting levels also had restrictions.
For instance, her current level was close to 27, so the highest chest level she could set was 51.
This was limited to tiered chests; unrestricted chests didn’t require additional level settings.
“Ah~ Giving out tasks is so tiring~! I emptied my inventory in one go. Next time, I won’t set the rewards this high!”
Lucoco grumbled, her face full of reluctance, but her fingers never stopped moving.
Bored, she opened the forum to check the heated discussions among the players that had exploded because of this.
The players’ discussions were summarized below:
✧
An NPC handing out a purple [Epic-Level Large-Scale Task] single-handedly—what does that mean?
It’s equivalent to this NPC alone scattering the entire wealth of a medium-sized town for a year!
Such an NPC appearing in the [World Legend Quest] indicates what?
It means this world quest must be incredibly difficult to complete!
It’s possible that even if everyone works together, they might not achieve a perfect ending!
It probably…
Already touches the hem of a [Mythical Quest].
Therefore!
Everyone must not hold back; share any information you have!
✧
Finally, Lucoco’s attention was drawn to one particular post.
Official Forum: [Legend Quest: The Hope of Versadis – Information Exchange Thread]
Note: This thread prohibits discussion of unrelated events and posting irrelevant information.
[Coordinates: [Exile Zone], residents gathered for worship, rumors of an evil god ritual being performed.]
[Coordinates: Northwest Versadis [Moonwatch Town], the baron who repeatedly obstructed worship ceremonies was assassinated.]
[Coordinates: Southwest Versadis [Glazed Fort], traces of large-scale activity by the [Shadow Society] discovered.]
[Coordinates: Southwest Versadis Exile Zone border uprising erupted, suppressed by the Dark Knight Legion, the leading viscount beheaded.]
[Coordinates: Versadis [Withered Leaf Territory] capital [Steel Tower], Lord Count Talan expanded the territory’s army to 50,000, including over two thousand Awakened.]
[Below are all dungeons with recent abnormal dark element activity…]
[Below are the coordinates of villages and towns requiring support…]
…The post content was exceptionally concise, well-organized, all meticulously compiled by the players.
‘Wow! A game NPC getting this much information from the player forum is too cheaty~!’
Lucoco clicked her tongue and tossed the last five elite chests into the task rewards.
She increasingly felt she was the biggest bug in the game right now.
Not only did she have a god’s-eye view, no information barrier between players and NPCs, but she could also use these messages to deduce the truth and steer the quest in the right direction!
Closing the system interface, stirring the bubbling alchemy boiler, Lucoco started throwing unrestricted chests into the task rewards again, two at a time…
She kept busy until the wee hours before finishing the task rewards and several hundred bottles of [Level 30 Supreme Recovery Potion · Purple].
The potions had a shelf life of seven days, with the effect of fully restoring HP and MP for targets under level 40 within one second, with a two-minute cooldown.
[Estella Tidbit: Potions with fast effects and cooldowns are all alchemical potions. Potions brewed by [Pharmacists] have no cooldown, but their effects are almost all gradual recovery].
Lucoco kept a few dozen bottles for herself and packed the rest into a large chest, ready for Adrian to distribute as he saw fit.
Yawning nonstop, she collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep in one second…
♢♦♢♦♢
Her body rested, but her consciousness did not.
Lucoco attempted to project her consciousness near [Suomu Town].
It succeeded very easily.
A faint mist gradually spread for several kilometers around Suomu Town…
She didn’t manifest the consciousness body but traveled along the water sources, observing the surroundings.
Just as she suspected, the quality of the water sources in the large areas around Suomu Town was almost identical to that of Echo Territory!
After another attempt, Lucoco found her consciousness was once again blocked at a point about seven or eight li outside the river’s flow, unable to extend further.
Finally, she tried moving upstream along the river, towards the dungeon direction, where she could see the glow of fires in the distant forest.
This attempt indeed revealed a problem.
The concentration of the “juice” upstream had clearly increased a bit more!
Even the mist naturally accompanying her domain had thickened considerably.
Lucoco quickly accelerated, entering the forest, and saw the thousands of people forming a defensive line outside the dungeon exit.
And the source lake of the river was just two hundred meters away from the dungeon?
Without paying much attention to these adventurers and guards, she plunged into the bottom of the lake, trying to follow the underground river forward.
She encountered no obstacles at all, slipping in very smoothly!
The underground river was too dark, and her projection couldn’t use magic.
Lucoco couldn’t tell the direction and could only move guided by the “juice.”
It wasn’t until she surfaced again that she realized her location had actually reached deep inside the dungeon!
A river extended inward along the bottom of a cave several meters high.
Magic crystals on the cave walls glittered, illuminating the surroundings.
…
As soon as she surfaced, a hair-raising sound echoed from deep within the cave.
It was the language of the Demon Race…
And human screams!
Her heart jumped. Lucoco instantly accelerated, rushing urgently towards the source of the sound.
A dozen seconds later, she finally saw the situation inside.
It was a spacious stone chamber, with an underground lake at its center, surrounded by piles of wooden barrels.
At that moment, a large, tall demon was smashing a barrel, pouring the clear liquid inside into the lake, muttering words like “Great King… awaken” and such.
On the other side, a group of demons surrounded a group of people who were clearly slaves.
They howled strangely while continuously beating them with various weapons and limbs.
Whenever a slave lost consciousness from pain and fear, a Demon Race priest would step forward, using evil magic to heal these battered slaves, making them feel the pain again.
The slaves huddled together, screaming, begging, and crying incessantly.
The demons looked intoxicated, greedily sucking in the dense emotional power emanating from these people.
Suddenly, two strong-bodied minotaur demons stepped forward, roughly grabbing a “slave” who seemed different, dragging him towards the lake.
This slave was clearly different from the other tortured people.
He not only lacked a slave brand, but there was no fear in his eyes either!
This was a player, but only level 24.
“I’ll fck your fcking! Damn demon race! I…”
The cursing player roared, trying to resist.
Thump!
The player, who was trying to kick the minotaur in the crotch, was knocked out by a punch.
The minotaur dragged him to the pool’s edge, pulled out a knife, and stabbed!
Gushing blood flowed into the pool water, and Lucoco actually sensed that her own aura in the pool water had become much stronger!
Her gaze swept the surroundings, seeing that beneath the strange plants around the stone chamber, piles of dry bones were already stacked, with shackles and chains still clearly visible on them.
These demons actually knew about sacrifices!
And it seemed to really work!
But who provided them with the slaves?
The demons in the dungeon absolutely couldn’t have obtained so many slaves on their own; most couldn’t even break through the defenses outside the dungeon.
Suddenly, Lucoco remembered the message Are had gotten from a player earlier: the players seemed to really dislike this mayor and his daughter.
♢♦♢♦♢
‘Looks like I still need to investigate this properly!’
Thinking this, Lucoco didn’t hide anymore and directly manifested her form in the lake water!
She originally wanted to use the mist to simulate the form of a certain former Demon King to scare these demons, but found she couldn’t do it at all.
The white mist she condensed was also twisted into black, becoming the form of that faceless statue!
Lucoco was stunned for a moment, her thoughts racing, but since she was already manifested, there was no time to delve deeper.
Hiding her original voice, she angrily shouted in a voice familiar to everyone on Blue Star, the voice of Yapool: “You’re too noisy!”
The sudden change instantly silenced the stone chamber; the air seemed to freeze.
Even the screaming slaves instantly lost their voices, their eyes fixed in a daze on her.
The minotaur by the lake widened its bovine eyes, and then, fanatical flames ignited in its gaze!
It suddenly knelt! Its head slammed heavily into the mud, shouting loudly: “My Lord! You have awakened!!”
Immediately after, all the demons knelt down like dominoes.
Deafening, fanatical shouts filled the stone chamber, echoing incessantly!
And in the eyes of those slaves, pious light also began to flicker.
Disregarding their injuries, they struggled to prostrate themselves on the ground, their voices choked: “Great Your Crownship, you have finally returned!”
…
‘What does this mean?’
This time, it was Lucoco’s turn to be dumbfounded.
The demons were shouting “My Lord,” and these slaves were calling her “Your Crownship”?
‘The object of their worship is the same one?’
Looking at her current projected appearance, Lucoco’s mind couldn’t wrap around it.
And right then, balls of faith light suddenly floated up from the bodies of those demons and slaves.
They split into two portions.
The light balls from the slaves directly merged into the water flow, while those from the demons went straight into her consciousness body.
In an instant, the light balls answered Lucoco’s question: What they believed in might not be the same entity!
But even bigger question marks followed one after another.
Her current appearance was that of the faceless statue, yet both the demons and the slaves simultaneously recognized her as the object of their faith.
She was absolutely certain that both groups recognized her as the same target!
Otherwise, just based on the slaves shouting “Great Your Crownship,” it would have been enough for these demons to tear her to pieces.
But if they worshiped the same target, why were the demons torturing the other side and using them as sacrifices?
The target of the demons’ faith was the Demon King.
She indeed was the Demon King.
Manifesting, the faith power flowing to her was not a problem.
But what were the slaves worshiping?
Didn’t they know the demons worshiped the Demon King?
They must know!
Did they worship the Demon King?
Absolutely not!
Then why were they worshiping the same image as the demons?
Did the demons also have the same faceless statue?
‘Ah!! My brain is going to explode!’
Information swirled around chaotically in her mind.
Lucoco couldn’t sort out a single useful thread of thought for the moment.
‘If I can’t figure it out, I’ll just set it aside for now!’
Lucoco gave up thinking and turned her gaze to the demons before her.
Since these guys recognized her as their object of faith, they should obediently listen to her, right?