"Need so help?"
Kyo was no longer looking at Seething Bazelgeuse. Instead, his gaze had shifted to the imperial princess, or more precisely, to Madam Calamity lurking behind the scenes.
"No! Since this is Her Highness's command, it is my duty as a knight to carry it out. And I ask every Savior watching to bear witness to the results of my training!"
Hasumi drew her Tachi with absolute confidence.
However, Carl, who was watching through Kyo's party perspective, imdiately noticed that sothing was wrong with the Seething Bazelgeuse.
"Hasumi, don't engage! That monster has been buffed!" Carl warned her at once.
"Lord Carl, there's no need to worry! I've secretly practiced with this weapon for hundreds of hours. Taking down this Bazelgeuse will be a breeze!"
Unfortunately, Hasumi's love of showing off and her narcissistic streak had flared up again.
She had always dread of proving her true strength in front of a massive audience of Saviors.
Now, the perfect stage had finally appeared.
Then, under Carl's helpless gaze, Hasumi showed tens of thousands of viewers exactly what it ant to disgrace every Tachi user alive.
There was no questioning Hasumi's strength. Although she had not reached Kyo's transcendent level, she could at least be considered highly skilled.
The problem was that after being empowered by Madam Calamity, the Seething Bazelgeuse had gained an entire set of new moves that Hasumi had never seen before.
Its roars now triggered violent explosions. Its wing swipes detonated the space in front of it. Its breath attacks erupted almost instantaneously. Every attack covered its surroundings so thoroughly that it had practically no blind spots.
With so many absurd new moves added to its arsenal, even Kyo might have been killed during his first encounter.
As expected, Hasumi's Foresight Slash was caught within the blast radius and sent her flying.
Her Special Sheathe was interrupted by a roar just as her blade slid into the scabbard.
Even after struggling desperately to build her Spirit Gauge all the way to red, her all-or-nothing Spirit Helm Breaker was intercepted in midair by an explosive breath attack.
Hasumi was blasted across the battlefield.
"Agh!"
In the end, Hasumi crashed to the ground alongside her Tachi. Her body twitched once, then went still.
She was dead.
"See? The difficulty is absurd, and there's almost no room for error. One mistake is enough to kill you!"
Following Madam Calamity's instructions, Lamia addressed the audience in her livestream.
"You would probably need hundreds of hours of practice, and all you get in return is that pitiful damage. Saviors, are you sure you truly want to fight in such a tedious way?"
The Tachi's ability to steal the Data Volu of an enemy's attack would probably be extrely difficult to reproduce in Oath, since the timing required was far too precise.
Even if the developers managed to implent it, most of the players watching the livestream would never accept it.
They had already grown accustod to Oath's default character performance, where units could practically fly through the sky or burrow underground, and every attack ca with spectacular visual effects.
Choosing the Tachi did not an dodging a single attack during a fight.
It ant dodging and countering again and again without making a mistake.
"Otherwise, one mistake leads to a grueso death. Who would willingly put themselves through that?"
Lamia looked at the flood of comnts agreeing with her and found herself thinking that Madam Calamity's argunt actually made sense.
To fight like Kyo, players would not only need to master every aspect of the Tachi, but also morize the attack patterns of countless enemies.
Just thinking about it made Lamia feel tired.
Oath players, who were accustod to combat with training wheels, would probably hate it even more.
"My Puppet Knights are much simpler! To defeat a monster of this level, I only need to give a single command!"
Empowered by Madam Calamity, Lamia snapped her fingers at the distant Bazelgeuse.
Although the number and strength of her Puppet Knights remained limited to what she could summon at maximum Soul Seal rank, Madam Calamity's control allowed them to slaughter Seething Bazelgeuse with ease.
But as Lamia watched the Bazelgeuse die once again, a strange emptiness welled up inside her.
Yes, her Puppet Knights were powerful.
No matter who controlled them, defeating a powerful enemy required only a single command.
But what was there to be proud of when anyone could do the sa thing?
Just as that strange thought surfaced in Lamia's mind, her livestream account received a private ssage from Carl.
Madam Calamity had no authority over webpages in the real world. Since Carl had previously donated a large amount of money and the livestream only displayed the ga itself, Lamia opened the ssage without thinking too deeply about it.
"Your Highness, Netherworld Village does have a weapon that can let you experience the thrill of fighting like a master almost imdiately. It is still undergoing internal testing, and I would like to invite you to beco Tester No. 001. Would you be interested?"
That simple ssage struck directly at Lamia's greatest weakness.
After seeing Kyo's exquisite movents and the way he had nearly dominated a powerful monster in battle, Lamia had felt the sa longing that almost any player would.
I want to beco a master hunter too!
The problem was that the imperial princess did not enjoy working hard.
Becoming a true Tachi master required far too much practice.
Even so, she desperately wanted the Saviors to respect her as a powerful player when she eventually joined them on co-op hunts.
More importantly, Lamia wanted to experience that exhilarating mont of self-discovery.
Am I really this skilled?
Her Puppet Knights could never give her that feeling.
Although Lamia did not reply to Carl imdiately, she could no longer suppress the restlessness in her heart after finishing the day's livestream.
She finally sent him a private ssage.
"Are you certain you're not lying to ? Judging by the way your villagers fight, becoming a master should require a great deal of practice."
"The villagers' combat system prioritizes fun above all else. Naturally, there are weapons with a low barrier to entry that can provide an imdiate and overwhelming sense of accomplishnt," Carl replied almost instantly.
"..."
The imperial princess stared at the option to register an anonymous Netherworld Village account linked to her Oath profile.
If anyone discovered that she had registered as a villager, she might genuinely be executed.
Resist it!
You have to resist!
Lamia repeatedly warned herself not to destroy her future just for the sake of playing a ga.
Then Carl delivered the final blow.
"I believe Oath's official solution to the monster invasion will also involve co-op gaplay, most likely through a mode where several Saviors hunt the sa monster together."
"For a limited ti, Your Highness, you will be the only person with access to this weapon."
"Just imagine it. A group of Oath Saviors are on the verge of defeat during a co-op battle, and then you arrive to rescue them with a weapon that belongs to you alone."
"And this opportunity will not last forever. After all, the test period will be quite short."
It was practically the whisper of a devil.
It was already tempting enough to hear that a crutch weapon capable of easily defeating powerful monsters existed.
But this weapon would also belong exclusively to her for a limited ti.
Most irresistible of all, she could take it into battle and show off in front of an enormous crowd of Saviors.
Snap!
At that mont, sothing inside the imperial princess finally broke.
I want to play right now!
I want to beco a master hunter!
In the end, the main featured character of Version 2.0, Imperial Princess Lamia, registered a Netherworld Village account.
She beca a villager, switched perspectives, and appeared before Carl.
"Carl Agata, was it?"
Lamia crossed her arms and studied the black-haired, purple-eyed man before her.
"Your infamy has spread throughout the Empire. You had better give a weapon that can truly impress , or I won't remain here for long."
In truth, before coming here, Lamia had been wondering what kind of weapon could provide the thrill of mastery without requiring endless practice.
Monster Hunter had quite a few crutch weapons that fit the description.
This ti, however, Carl had chosen an absurdly powerful Impact Phial Charge Blade.
"A sword and a shield? What's so special about that?"
Lamia looked at the heavy weapon in Carl's hands. A sword-and-shield combination was one of the most conventional fighting styles in the Empire.
"The fastest way to understand it is to try it yourself. You only need to copy Saintess Lilesta's power. She has already unlocked this special form for your use."
Carl could already imagine how unpleasant the Saintess's expression must have been when she agreed.
But the imperial princess was essential to Carl's plans for influencing the Empire's internal affairs.
No matter how unwilling the Saintess was, she still had to lend Lamia her power.
"And then?"
By default, Villager Players could use the powers of every gacha character who had joined the villager faction.
Lamia was no exception.
She looked down at the heavy sword and shield in her hands. At first, she could not see what made the weapon interesting.
Carl then began teaching her the basic Charge Blade loop.
First, she attacked in Sword Mode to build energy. Then she stored that energy inside the weapon's phials. After that, she used the phial energy to charge the shield, entering the Red Shield state.
Finally, she combined the sword and shield into a massive axe and unleashed a Super Amped Elent Discharge, commonly abbreviated as SAED.
Lamia brought the giant axe down in a bold, sweeping motion.
The stored phial energy erupted across the ground in a chain of violent explosions.
"Is that all?"
Simply learning the weapon's basic loop had already given Lamia a small rush.
But now she wanted Carl to give her sothing even more exhilarating.
"First, you don't need to think about anything else during battle. Just repeat the sequence I showed you," Carl said at exactly the right mont.
Lamia pursed her lips.
Although she had only known Carl for a short ti, she was beginning to wonder whether this man was so kind of incubus.
Everything he said seed perfectly designed to stir up the desires hidden inside her.
The reason Carl had recomnded this particular version of the Charge Blade was simple.
It required almost no thought.
Build phials, charge the shield, then imdiately unleash SAED.
Discharge everything and start again.
The ability to repeat one powerful move without thinking was essential for any proper crutch weapon.
Monster Hunter had plenty of weapons that could be played in a repetitive way, including Dual Blades and Lance, but repetition was not the main source of satisfaction for those weapons.
The imdiate gratification of landing a Charge Blade's SAED, however, was sothing no one could forget after experiencing it once.
"And the second reason?" Lamia pressed.
"The second reason is that this weapon currently has extrely high knockout buildup. In other words, if you repeatedly land SAEDs during battle, it becos very easy to knock a monster down and leave it struggling on the ground. You understand what that ans, don't you?"
The mont Carl said this, Lamia understood exactly how the weapon would let her look like a master.
During a co-op hunt, dealing high damage was satisfying.
But the mont that provided the greatest sense of achievent was sothing else entirely.
Landing one decisive attack that brought a powerful monster crashing to its knees, leaving it helpless on the ground while every other player watched in admiration.
And this weapon had been born for exactly that mont.
While Lamia practiced with the Charge Blade, Carl's prediction ca true.
Oath's official solution to the monster invasion was to make the Co-op Hunt activity the main focus of the current major version.
Oath players could now fire SOS Flares while exploring the open world and request help from other players.
"Your Highness, I believe you'll be very interested in this new activity called 'Joint Hunt,'" Carl said as he shared the event page with Lamia.
"So many Saviors waiting for to rescue them..."
Lamia struggled to suppress her smile.
She wanted nothing more than to rush back into Oath with her newly acquired Charge Blade and show off in front of its entire player base.
(To be continued.)
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