Game’s Dogma

​​​​​​​Drako Yau was caught between a rock and a hard place. If Zephyrwolf had not been his friend, he would have fled the city long ago.

Seemingly sensing his hesitation, the Castellan’s tiny eyes shone as he said, ‘Young man, it’s better for you to stay sharp. No matter how I look at you, you’re like an old man who’s scared of every tiny thing.’

However, Drako Yau was unaffected by such taunts. The old geezer had told him before—that dying here meant actual death. He had no interest in dying, let alone dying while trying to play the hero.

The Castellan was a tad bit annoyed with how gutless the young fella was. ‘Fine, fine! I can’t tell you the details of my request right now, but I’ll guarantee that you won’t die. I can promise only that much. This is fine, right?’

Seeing that Drako Yau was about to speak, the Castellan immediately shut him up before he could open his mouth. ‘Kid, don’t try to bargain for more, this is as far as my offer goes. If I could take care of it myself, I wouldn’t ask you for help either.’

How did I end up with such a coward… Can this kid really bear such a heavy burden…

‘Deal!’

The tide of battle was now swaying back and forth between both sides. Drako Yau had a heavy look, but with the mask hiding his face, he gave off the feeling that he had everything under control and things were going just the way he had planned for.

In truth, though, the players were still the ones at a disadvantage.

Combat location had changed from spacious fields to narrow spaces within the city, and most players were not adept at urban warfare. Also, the wolves that had only been agile thus far now had a new advantage of stealth. Only the Yoda guardsmen were unaffected by their sneaky attacks. Even worse, the wolf and beastman commanders were unstoppable as they went on a killing spree.

Upon noticing such, Hades immediately sprung at the wolf commander, but no one else had the confidence to win against the beastman commander in a duel. Instead, the players swarmed the commander, led by Soulsmith, Everlastor, and Bloodless Bladester who were doing their best to keep the commander in check.

Drako Yau wasn’t just looking on the sidelines either. He was slaying monsters here and there, though he didn’t rashly challenge the enemy commander. He could feel that something… someone was controlling the monsters at the west gate from behind. He was preserving strength for unknown situations that could arise.

Phantasma Violet never thought that some random kid would manage to find reinforcements. That fatty… he was supposed to be neutral; looks like the kid got scammed real bad.

Focusing his gaze on Drako Yau, Phantasma Violet pitied the young man. Those Castellans, they were all shrewd foxes who would make their unfortunate prey suffer without them even knowing. 

Another poor lad… Hm? Wait. Phantasma Violet furrowed his brows and looked at Drako Yau even closer.

‘Maverick… So he’s a Maverick, no wonder the fatty’s letting him off the hook…’ Finally in the mood for something fun, Phantasma Violet slowly shut his eyes to focus and calm his mind.

Drako Yau was now on the main road that led to the west gate. Every city had four major roads, which led to the north, east, south, and west gates respectively. They were particularly wide, and the resurrection altar was situated near the intersection of the paths.

After the monsters broke past the west gate, the main road now turned into the main battlefield.

All of a sudden, the monsters froze. Upon noticing the strange phenomena, the soldiers which Drako Yau had borrowed as reinforcements also ceased moving like puppets with their strings cut. Players at the west gate found the situation so eerie that they weren’t sure what to do either.

In a brief moment, the monsters started moving once again, though not for combat. They lined up neatly along both sides of the main road and knelt down on one knee with their heads hung low.

A young man with the appearance of a human being casually entered the city. His face was identical to that of humans, excluding the fact that his skin was purple in colour. It was such a feature that differentiated him from humans, and it was precisely said young man who had the ability to make countless monsters kneel before him.

The purplish young man appeared to be strolling, but in just a few blinks, he was already barely several dozens metres away from Drako Yau. He locked eyes with the spearman, a corner of his lip twitching upwards.

‘Kid, do you want to keep a hold of your city?’

Drako Yau stayed silent while staring daggers at the strange man. While the purplish weirdo seemed frail, Drako Yau could feel the alarms ringing in his head, which was why he looked at the man cautiously.

The purplish man shrugged and said, ‘Easy now, I’m here out of goodwill. You can tell, right? While I’ve got no idea what sort of deal you made with the fatty, it’s impossible for him to send out enough troops to flip things around. That is to say, we’re still on top right now.’ He winked cunningly before continuing, ‘Say… I’ll order the monsters to dissipate right now and roam around in the city. When the timer ends, as long as one of my monsters remains alive, this city’s mine.’

Drako Yau squinted his eyes while his mind was analysing the situation at full speed. With how respectful the monsters were, the weird man was surely the strategist who had been operating behind the scenes. What the man said was undoubtedly exploiting the game’s loopholes, yet it did not violate the existing system rules—the despicable could actually work. In that case, the man had to be very familiar with the game’s laws.

‘What do you want?’ A text bubble appeared above Drako Yau, which made the purplish man laugh.

‘It’s alright, you can speak. No one can hear us under my influence.

‘My request’s a simple one’, he said calmly. ‘Receive my attack head on. One strike. If you survive, I’ll withdraw immediately. Just that simple!’

Drako Yau felt nothing but danger looming upon him. ‘What if I fail to defend against it?’

‘Nothing serious, you guys can just continue with your games. I’ll disappear immediately. It’s just a game for fun really.’

‘Can I refuse?’ The man’s words made Drako Yau extremely uneasy.

Phantasma Violet chuckled and had a good long look at Drako Yau before saying, ‘You’re a smart one. Of course you can’t, brace yourself!’

The moment Phantasma Violet finished his words, Drako Yau could feel goosebumps shooting up all over his body while cold sweat ran down his forehead. The purplish young man’s tremendous aura filled with killing intent exploded right at his face, devouring him like a tsunami. Even the fat Castellan was probably not as powerful.

Phantasma Violet smiled gleefully, though that sort of smile was no different from the smile of a devil from Drako Yau’s point of view.

‘You ready?’

However, he was left stunned on the spot—because Drako Yau turned on his heels and fled the scene.

Mage

Description: Mages are humans who communicate with the world’s elements and convert such forces into powers. Donned in cloth armour, mages sacrifice defence in exchange for powerful magic.

Skill type: Most of their skills carry special effects which are related to each skill’s element. Fire spells can cause damage over time, ice spells can slow or freeze enemies, dark spells can cause debuffs, while lightning spells carry electricity.

Class progression: Elementalist, Tormentor.