One Hit
"One hit."
KRA-KOOM!
"...A barrier?"
"Uuurgh!!"
A white barrier had wrapped itself around the Hatchling. It was so absurdly solid that even the keen edge of the Yellow Marauder—a Mythic-grade item—couldn't bite through it.
"Guess I'll have to put some real force into this."
The Grim Reaper planted his feet and raised his scythe high. A frigid yellow aura coiled around the blade, swelling it larger and larger, until it was soon longer than its wielder was tall. Then he brought it down on the barrier faster than the Hatchling's eyes could even track.
KAGAGAGAK...!
The barrier shrieked far more threateningly than before. Sgaredo, who had believed them reasonably safe until this very moment, felt both her eyes waver.
It's going to break.
"How long can you hold out?"
KRA-KOOM! KRA-KOOM! KRA-KOOM!
"U-uuuuurgh!!!"
"She won't come, anyway. And even if she did, I'd just slip away."
Why was the Grim Reaper called the Grim Reaper? Partly because he carried death in his wake—but more than that, he moved within the darkness. His strength and mana rivaled any warrior or mage, yet his true capabilities were closer to an assassin's. No matter who she was, Lily couldn't possibly track a target who'd committed to fleeing—
FWOOOOSH!
"...!"
A spear came flying.
He'd used a perception-dampening magic scroll and layered his defenses thick—yet a single strike came soaring straight for the Grim Reaper's throat anyway. Tch. Clicking his tongue in regret, the Grim Reaper vanished into the shadows along with the Hatchling.
'Breaking the barrier can wait for later...'
"And where do you think you're going?"
He'd already been called out.
KWAZJIK!
"Kgh!"
"Uuurgh!"
Lily had leapt in on her spear before he knew it—and severed his left arm. No, not severed. Detonated.
The Hatchling dropped into Lily's arms, and in that very instant, the Grim Reaper didn't miss his opening. He activated one of the Yellow Marauder's authorities: Harvest. A yellow scythe emblem branded itself onto Lily's left shoulder, and a portion of her power began siphoning into him.
'The Harvest Mark drains a fraction of every stat for a set duration. Even the legendary Lily is no exception to this.'
It was a fact proven in his battle against Leo. He'd lost that fight, but the stats he'd stolen from her back then had amplified his abilities to a monstrous degree. It had only been about seven percent then, but the grown Yellow Marauder could now steal up to fifteen.
And now, ten times stronger than before—he might actually be able to stand against Lily and—
'...Ten times?'
The Grim Reaper, mid-swing with his incomparably empowered blade, felt something deeply wrong. The overwhelming wave of mana surging through his body, his physical capabilities—right now he felt like he could do anything, face down any enemy without fear.
……
He clutched the Yellow Marauder with sweat-slicked hands.
Meanwhile, Lily stood there perfectly unharmed, checking on the Hatchling and sizing up her opponent.
"Huh?"
If fifteen percent had made him ten times stronger...
"What exactly did you just take from me?"
Just how strong was Lily?
The yellow blade came crashing down in waves—a storm of scythe strikes threatening to swallow the entire space whole.
Kiiiiiing...
Lily answered in kind, unleashing Spear's Roar. The vortex of tearing wind blasted the yellow storm aside and shredded the building to paper. The dark ceiling collapsed, and pale light poured in. In the scythe's wake, yellow mana spread like smoke—and the mana, in time, devoured everything around it.
The hidden class: Soul Harvester. A class that plundered and seized everything in its vicinity, one that had granted the Yellow Marauder its Mythic Masterpiece class-advance quest. Every swing of the scythe turned all it touched into nourishment for the Soul Harvester—and from that nourishment came stat gains, both temporary and permanent.
Under normal circumstances, permanent stats barely rose at all. Even against a strong opponent, gaining two or three points in a single fight was considered a good haul; usually it was less than one.
'This is insane.'
But the Grim Reaper could feel it.
KWAGAGAGAGA!!
Ding!
The Soul Harvester has begun its harvest.
Harvested: STR +4, AGI +1, VIT +3. (Temporary — lasts 10 minutes)
Temporary Total — STR 37, AGI 13, VIT 55, MP 32, Keenness 7, Penetration 8...
Permanently increased: STR +1, VIT +1.
Permanent Total — STR 6, AGI 2, VIT 7, MP 4, Keenness 1, Penetration 1...
Lily was a monster. She was overwhelming him in every conceivable way.
And at the same time, a thrill shot through him.
I'm getting stronger.
A euphoria he had never once experienced while holding the Rank 1 Bandit title. Since climbing to the very top, this sensation of actively growing stronger was something he hadn't felt in far, far too long.
And perhaps that was exactly why.
Ding!
Conditional PVP has been activated.
User, Lily Elbrit, has accepted the Conditional PVP.
He'd been riding the high far too hard.
"Ah..."
I'm screwed.
☠ Combat intensity is extremely high. You cannot refuse this Conditional PVP.
☠ You struck first. You cannot refuse this Conditional PVP.
☠ You bear the title Plunderer. You cannot refuse this Conditional PVP.
User, Grim Reaper, has accepted the Conditional PVP.
Please select the stakes your opponent will wager on this duel.
"I'll take the Yellow Marauder, thanks."
"...You son of a—! That's not even Mythic-grade!"
"Is that really something the man who kidnapped an innocent little dragon should be saying?"
Seems like a bargain to me, honestly?
Lily smiled a lovely smile. And though it was undeniably a beautiful one, the Grim Reaper couldn't take that face at face value; he stumbled backward.
A demon. She's a demon through and through.
'Son of a— three Mythic-grade items in a single duel?!'
He had to admit it. He'd been far too intoxicated, and in his haze he'd completely forgotten about Conditional PVP—the system that triggered whenever players fought one another.
Conditional PVP. A duel in which both players wagered equivalent stakes, where the victor took absolutely everything through win or loss. Normally it required mutual consent—but it was not a system bandits bearing the Plunderer title invoked often. Bandits could already extort items and resources by force through PK, after all.
The problem was that Conditional PVP was among the deadliest systems a bandit could face. One defining trait of the Plunderer—someone who lived off other people's property—was that unless circumstances were truly exceptional, they could refuse no duel system whatsoever.
And the higher a bandit's ranking climbed, the slimmer their odds of refusal became.
"...Son of a bitch."
This is exactly why I tried to bolt immediately.
"Tell me what you'd like. I'll accommodate you as best I can."
"...You end the PVP here?"
"Hand over the Masterpiece and I'll end it. Oh—wait. No, that won't work, will it."
Lily raised the hand she'd been holding behind her back. At some point the seal on the Hatchling had come undone, and it was now glaring at the Grim Reaper with ferocious eyes. If looks could kill, he'd have died a dozen times over.
"I do owe you one hit."
"......Hoo."
I need a cigarette.
"Shall I pick the stakes for you, then?"
"What?"
Ding!
User, Elbrit, proposes the following rewards: Blue Guardian, Red Guide, Green Hermit.
⚠ The value of the duel stakes is severely mismatched!
Do you accept?
"...What are you thinking?"
"You seemed to be deep in deliberation."
An offer this good—how could you resist?
"......"
The Grim Reaper wavered at her words. Honestly? He was tempted.
'Three Mythic-grade items in one duel?'
Just acquiring them would mean billions in cold hard cash, and his combat power would strengthen beyond anything he had now. With these alone, he could bring even that Leo to her knees.
And better yet—a ring, gauntlets, a dagger. All weapons and equipment a Soul Harvester like himself could wield in full. He used a scythe now, but daggers had been his original weapon.
But the Grim Reaper had fought countless battles, and he knew.
'I lose. No question.'
Not that refusing would change anything.
"...Haah. What a garbage game. Honestly."
[Accepted.]
⚔ Duel Victory — Acquire: Blue Guardian, Red Guide, Green Hermit.
⚔ Duel Defeat — Forfeit: Yellow Marauder.
Conditional PVP will now begin.
If he had to fight anyway, he might as well reach for even the slimmest sliver of a chance. The Grim Reaper readied his ultimate skill.
A technique with an extremely long cooldown—the Soul Harvester's guaranteed-near-death finisher. Soul Brand: tears away 80% of the marked target's HP. It applied only to players, and anyone hit by it was all but guaranteed to end up on death's doorstep. In that window, he could unload every skill he had. There was a chance—
'Wait. Where did she—'
"One hit."
KWAAAAAAKRA-KOOOOM—!!!
A pure-white hammer obliterated the Grim Reaper's skull.
'Thank you for the intel. It was hardly anything on my end, and you've given me World Boss information on top of it.'
'Not at all. Ah—Lady Lily, one thing I'd like to say privately. There's actually one more way for you to obtain a Masterpiece.'
'Among the bandits there's a user called Grim Reaper. A parasite who survives by stripping stats and equipment off others—he'll be in this area right now.'
'The catch is that he's carrying the Yellow Marauder.'
How about it—care to bait the hook once?
"...Heh heh."
"Uuuu!"
"There, there."
Thanks to Vlack's help, the Yellow Marauder was now mine.
Conditional PVP, huh. To think such a wonderful system existed, and I'd gone all this time without knowing.
Toying with the yellow scythe that fit so perfectly in my hand, I turned my attention to the chat window I'd been ignoring until now.
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[Is Lily a god? Is Lily a god? Is Lily a god?]
[Grim Reaper one-shot LMAOOOOO]
[Masterpieces are just copy-pasteable apparently lmaooo]
[That's 4 already...]
[Grim Reaper WAILING lololol]
[Serves the bandit right. Bet he never imagined he'd be the one getting robbed?]
[Bandit education time LOLOLOL]
[Masterpieces just rolling in on their own]
[If you spend your life robbing other people, you should expect to get robbed too]
[Fr lolol]
[Real]
[Alright, let's go gut the rest of them]
[3 more to gut and we're done, right?]
[?]
"Hey now. I'm not the kind of person who just goes around taking things from people."
This was a perfectly legitimate duel, you know.
That's my story, anyway.