Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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—----------------

/Drip…/

[DING]

[You have completed the Mission, Fall of Ingur (Reenactment)]

"... Yeah…"

"I can tell." Dale spoke out loud as he held the head of a man, throwing it aside

Deep within Ingur, a wide throne room had been built.

But what was once a grandiose place was now a pile of corpses... And it's once dark marble ground had been painted red.

Dark Priests of all Ranks and ages, together with even their leader, the head on Dale's hand.

On the ground in front of him and behind the Archpriest's body stood the bifurcated remains of some kind of abomination, a creature that was being summoned but had its ritual cut short by Dale's brutal murder of everyone in the room.

Weakened due to a failed summoning, the creature was easily slain by him also.

"My throat's a bit dry…"

'Do they sell food in Babylon too? Even if I can't die while in the tower...'

'I wonder how the Stream's going?' He asked as he opened his stream panel

As he expected, the chat was on fire as people discussed feverishly what just transpired.

They really seemed to have liked his invasion more than his victory over the Barbarian army, and with reason, that fight ended too quickly.

'Wh… A donation? I actually got a donation?... It's just ten bucks but... Money is money.'

'Thanks, I guess.'

But he didn't thank the sender because he was trying to act cool.

[Calculating contribution and Mission progress…]

'I was waiting for this… So was Chat.'

'They're even betting on how many Hidden Objectives I'll attain… Well, I'm curious about that too.'

[Hidden Objective, Perfect Offense has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Gaze of the Dark Lord has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Into the Abyss has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Shadow Bane has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Thwart the Abyssal has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, May the Light of the Golden Sun… has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Finish the Siege within Five minutes has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Finish the Siege on Reenactment difficulty has been attained]

[Hidden Objective, Seed of Cataclysm (Dark) has been attained]

'Woah... This should net in some decent extra income.'

As the notifications played in his ears, Dale thought about his last fight, taking a look at the monster on the ground:

"It was… Decently strong."

'Because it wasn't properly summoned, I can only guess its Challenge Level.'

'ArchPriest Kulvan was CL 45, which is rather high but not really significant as he wasn't the main threat.'

'From what I understood, each Star Rating corresponds to a Level range, 0-Star would be Level 1 to 10, 1-Star would be 11 to 20, and so on.'

'This isn't the same Star Rating as those on Items, however.'

'It's something else completely so it's not to be confused.'

'This is because of the simple notion that while in Babylon, a 9-Star activity would be meant for Level 90 players, however, from everything I currently own, Caladgolg is the sole weapon to possess an 8-Star+ Skill.'

'And even then, other items I acquired such as my accessories were all recovered from extreme areas Level 90 players would definitely die.'

'It's hard to say if even Level 90 HardCore players would survive... But that's something else.'

'Ingur itself was a 5-Star Activity, but in a Siege, you can't have the level of the creatures be equal to that of the rating, otherwise, it's over… In most scenarios at least.'

'If 16 players were meant to deal with an entire army of thousands of super elite mobs that are also the same level if not higher than them then no one would be able to complete it.'

'I'm only considering Standard Players, both in gameplay and ability in this, of course.'

'The Rating just reflects the expected difficulty, so its value is relative and should only be taken for what it is a reference.'

'Of course, I'm unsure of what standards Babylon uses to create those, but I imagine they're taking it out of all players in the world unless they're artificially boosting the difficulty as in a way to screen people or for other purposes.'

'In this Siege, most monsters were between Levels 20 and 30, and some elite creatures were above that but not above 40, so Ingur being 45 is already pretty high, almost double the average.'

'He was likely meant to be defeated together with the Commander of the Legion, that seems to be the idea.'

'But the true boss of this Event was this monster, something that would be summoned after the Dark Ritual was completed, meaning, this was a Hidden Boss that only appeared once you failed in taking over Ingur fast enough.'

'I say it is around Level 70, and since it was a Boss too, as strong as some of the Devils I hunted in the forest a week and a few days ago.'

'And this falls with what I've been seeing from Babylon, this is an Event where the players are meant to test their potential.'

'Only average players will go after activities recommended for their Level, Elites will shoot above their level and Super Elites even further in search of greater rewards and secrets.'

'If there's another Siege with similar circumstances as Ingur out there where every single monster is Challenge Level 50 and the last boss is Challenge Level 70, then the Rating will reflect that, done.'

'There are tiers of difficulty from Standard to Reenactment as well, but as they increase, so does the Ratting.'

'No doubts that in the list there are activities with the same Ratting that are harder than others above it, but if it's just from what I can read in the list, then it's hard to tell, you can only assume things based on the name, number of players, total rewards etc.'

'Since I have Class 3 privileges, I should be able to access harder content, and given how well I've been doing so far, maybe I will start right away.'

Having his thoughts come to a conclusion, he refocused his attention on the System:

[DING] .

[Achievement: Defiance of the Abyss]

[You have been awarded 10,000 Favor]

[Achievement: Sword of Annihilation]

[You have been awarded 15,000 Favor]

[Achievement: Citadel Smasher]

[You have been awarded 25,000 Favor]

[Hidden Achievement: Interest of the Lord of Fragile Ego]

[You have been awarded 30,000 Favor]

[DING]

[Calculation completed]

[Contribution rate: 94.9%]

[You've been awarded 472,500 Favor]

[Due to the Hidden Objectives, you've been awarded an extra 225,000 Favor]

[Due to your Special Packages, all Favor and Recognition rewards times 3]

[Due to the Great Instance Modifier(Dark), rewards are partially modified]

[You've been awarded an extra 209,250 Favor]

[You have been awarded, Greater Instance Modifier (Dark)]

[Will you take the Challenge, oh arrogant one?]

[You've been awarded 2,720,250 Favor (Final Value)]

[Your Recognition increases and your Achievements spread further]

[Others are starting to notice your actions]

[Within a few seconds, you'll be transported out of the stage]

"..."

/Breathe in... Breathe out.../

'Ignoring a very glaring issue... I've made a lot of Favor.'

'Almost three Million Favor as a reward, not counting the multiplied bonuses from all the Achievements.'

'With that alone I can already pay for everything I bought, meaning that I can go back to the shop and buy more items, once again not adding what I made last Mission.'

'With this... It should be possible for me to acquire some of those items, maybe even... Urg... Those gambling items.'

'Even if it's "False" due to it being from a reward Box, it should still have the power it was meant to have.'

If it wasn't clear by now, Dale didn't treat items that came from rewards directly from defeating a monster and pulling it from a System screen very seriously, at least from a realistic standpoint.

He loved his armor, don't get him wrong, but compared to Caladgolg which has a clear history, and its existence where he pulled it from was confirmed by many sources, he preferred it when compared to his armor he pulled from a System interface.

It gave him a feeling of it being artificial while Caladgolg, to some degree, was completely real.

It was merely a matter of perspective, after all, Dale was unsure who made the System, for all he knew all of the items that came from it were of better quality than those outside of it.

Or maybe the System was just a channel through which someone pumped items, as such both his armor and sword were handmade by someone, somewhere.

It was a strange emotion he didn't really have much explanation for, some might even call him... A boomer, as he preferred to get his things directly instead of being handed by the heavens above.

Some might raise the question that the box was something he was buying with currency and that it wasn't a System reward... But Dale just felt iffy about it, that's what it came down to in the end, his feelings.

But he couldn't let those get in his way to glory, could he? That is why he was considering things heavily.

'Hm... I don't think I need equipment but it would be short-sighted of me to not check them out.'

'I'll grind maybe two or more harder missions while using the Seeds... By the time I'm done, I should have enough for another spending spree.'

'There were some items in there that cost tens of millions, and I'm sure there would be others that will cost even more.'

'Even if there are not, acquiring dozens of consumables and supplies won't be that bad, including getting a copy of every Skill Book... Though that won't prove easy.'

With his arms crossed, Dale closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was next to a table in the middle of a plaza.

He was still thinking about his rewards and the message he received, but he decided to ignore that for now, after all, he still had many seeds to use.

If similar things happened whenever he used one...

He had a theory in his mind, about the very nature of Babylon.

"Shall we choose our next mission?" He asked out loud as he sat down

...

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Notes

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