VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 63: Seeing the Potential
"Well that’s good timing then," Belladonna said with a bright, shark-toothed smile as she slapped a hand on his shoulder. "Because we are about to run it again."
"We are?!" Vestra whimpered before starting to gnaw on her fingernails about finding another group. However Belladonna knew what was going through her head and quickly responded.
"Yup! But don’t worry. We aren’t going to be relying on some group of idiots. We can run it with just the two of us, or I guess three of us now, If you want to join." She patted the Druids shoulder again, widening her friendly grin.
The Druid, however, couldn’t help but overlay that smile with the one he had seen on her face just before her death. The sadistic gleam in her eyes as she brought the Supreme Commander to his death in his own raid.
It sent shivers down his spine. The fact that what she thought was a friendly squeeze of the shoulder was actually crushing his collarbone ever so slightly, didn’t help.
He laughed nervously, wondering if he had gotten himself in even deeper trouble for just trying to be nice, before nodding softly and saying in a strained voice.
"S-sure. I’ll join you. But are you sure about running just us? I’m sure we could find a few more for a real party. We don’t even have a tank, or a proper healer. Besides, the only trust worthy Grave Keeper I knew I... Well, let’s just say we had a little disagreement and we aren’t talking right now."
Belladonna squeezed his shoulder reassuringly, causing the Druid to wince and hold in his pain whimpers as it wasn’t enough for the pain filter to activate yet.
"Don’t worry about that, I have plenty of ideas. Plus, we have our own Grave Keeper right here."
She stepped to the side, gesturing to the statue behind her, causing the Druid to let out a few nervous laughs as he glanced between the girls. Seriously... What had he gotten himself into?
***
It took some convincing to get the Druid to make an offering to the Brownies, and then a little bit more to convince him of its legitimacy, but eventually the three of them exchanged friend requests as they stepped into the dungeon.
Friend requests being a system that Belladonna had definitely not forgotten entirely about, as it was run through the scrying skull that she always kept in her Bottomless Bag and never checked.
Thus it came as no surprise when she found a request from Percy sitting there, gathering dust as it waited to be accepted. With a hint of guilt, she accepted Percy’s request along with Vestra’s and the Druids, before looking up at him with a strange look in her eyes.
"PleaseJustFiggingGrow? You... named yourself that? Willingly?"
The man indeed willing and intentionally known as PleaseJustFiggingGrow, or Figg as he was often called, laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head.
"Yeah... It’s a weird name, I know. But it seemed appropriate at the time."
Belladonna shook her head with a laugh, checking the skull for any more important messages, before putting it back into her bag. She willed two more things to come out, as soon she was holding a handful of colourful crystals in one hand and the stolen pouch in the other.
She opened the pouch first, smiling widely at the coinage glimmering inside. This really was the best thing she could have grabbed. He was probably screaming and crying when he realised he had lost it.
After a moment of thought, she tightened the bag up and tossed it towards Vestra, who caught it with a surprised yelp.
"Happy Birthday Vez."
"B-but it’s not..."
"Then think of it as payment for your valiant work as a sacrifice." Belladonna said with a laugh, before holding out her hand and showing off the crystals to the pair. They seemed curious as they stared at the handful of colours, but also confused.
Since they were both spellcasters, they were able to recognise these are the crystals that people used to craft things like Vestra’s wand or Figg’s staff.
"Who’s ready to develop their source and really kick their game up a notch?"
Smiling mischievously, Belladonna handed them five crystals each and kept the remaining five for herself. She then made sure to teach them the proper way to absorb the mana from them, according to her grimoires notes, and then how to form it into a source from her own experience.
This was the more natural way to do such a thing, and why source crystals were so valuable as opposed to being some gluttonous vampires snack food.
Above all, she made sure to batter home the point that they should never, ever eat the crystals lest they result in death, which earned her a confused look. Neither of them could understand why she thought they were stupid enough to just throw something obviously magical and weird into their mouths.
Once she was sure they had gotten the message and understood it completely, Belladonna left them to their meditating as they developed their sources, all whilst she popped one of the crystals into her mouth and let out a satisfied hum as it melted on her tongue. Thankfully, they were in a safe area of the dungeon, right at the front door.
Nothing ever spawned or came close to here. at least, not in normal dungeons.
While they worked on developing their sources, and also the vast amount of potential that Belladonna saw in both of them, she sat down and pulled out her own gem crystal. Not to eat, however, as this is the one that she had nearly lost her life retrieving from the bears cave.
She held it like a pencil and started to pour mana into it, as the deep purple crystal began to glow softly.
Once she was sure it was ready, Belladonna placed her grimoire next to her, open at a page filled with detailed notes on individual symbols, as she slipped off her shoe.
She crossed her legs, bringing the crystal down to the sole of her foot as she started to carve into it. The crystal glided through her skin like it was hot butter, all whilst Belladonna winced in pain and the strange tickling sensation this was giving her.
But no matter what, she kept carving away, only stopping to check the Grimoire every few seconds, just to make sure she wasn’t making an issue, before continuing to carve away.
