Ashes of Gods: Return of the Blade Emperor - 28 Preemptive Strike

With the Goblord’s death came the jingly sound of notifications. Shesmu clicked on the plus sign and a bunch of messages appeared.

[Congratulations, you leveled up!

Weapon Level up!

Weapon Level up!

Empowered Slash Level up!

Empowered Thrust Level up!]

Well, that took a while. They finally reached level 3.

The boss was generous with its exp. After reaching level nine, Shesmu looked at the exp bar under his HP and found that he was 57% of the way to the next level.

After a few seconds of the boss’ death, a blue portal appeared in front of the throne. However, neither Leo nor Ryan seemed to be fazed by its appearance.

“Wow, just wow!” Leo exclaimed, “You guys, just how did you do that?! It’s as if you were on sync or something.”

“Hahaha! Yes! Praise me more! My speed is impeccable, my timing is perfect. Only I could produce such an outworldly performance!”

Shesmu just shook his head at Ryan’s antics, smiling. “So, did your weapon level up?” Shesmu asked.

Ryan hesitated for a second before replying in a more serious tone.

“Oh, yeah, they did. Though it really doesn’t matter that much. We’re going through levels and content so fast that by the time a weapon levels up, another with much better stats drop.”

Leon nodded at Ryan’s words. “Yeah, I’m guessing that this mechanic would be useful later on when leveling up is no longer as easy.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true,” Shesmu responded.

“Let’s forget that for now. We need to look at the loot! The loot!!”

Ryan’s excited shouts made Leo excited as well.

“Yeah, that boss was so damn hard. If it drops trash, I would be so mad!”

“Stop jinxing it, you idiot,” Ryan rebutted Leo while checking his inventory.

“Haha, sorry sorry.”

Ryan looked at his inventory for a few seconds before his face turned into one of pure horror.

Seeing him act this way, Leo started stressing out a bit. “Ehh, Ryan? Is something the matter? Why are you so shocked?”

By this point, even Shesmu was interested in what Ryan saw that would make him look that way. Even with everything that happened until now, there wasn’t even one instance where Ryan showed such a face.

“What the hell is this?!!” He finally screamed.

By this point, both Leo and Shesmu were on the edge. They both gulped simultaneously.

“This weapon… It’s a gold tier sword!”

Hearing him say those fabled two words, Leo’s jaws dropped.

“What?!!”

“Yeah, let me show you.”

Ryan’s hand shone with blinding golden light, Shesmu covered his eyes in response. By the time he opened them an amber blade appeared on Ryan’s hand.

Looking at the gold-ranked sword, Leo exclaimed, “This is so fucking sick, man! Dude! With this, we’ll just breeze through content like it’s child play!”

“You’re damn fucking right!” Ryan said. “Let’s check the stats first though, they probably are out of this fucking world.”

While Ryan was talking, Shesmu used Inspect on the weapon. Even he was curious about the stats of this little gem.

[Cambion Blade

Rarity: Gold+

Required Level: 10

Weapon Level: 1

Attack: 250

Skills:

Demon Ki(Passive): Add Dark attribute to ki and increase the power of ki based skill by 20%.

Demon Slash: Long-range crescent-shaped slash. Base Damage: 500 +180% attack damage.]

Looking at the stats, Shesmu couldn’t help but chuckle. It’s official, this game is brain-damaged.

“Hmm, can someone explain to me one thing? Was O9 fucking drunk when they made this fucking game? This isn’t a sword, this is Jesus H. Christ’s holy stick!”

Leo waited for Ryan to finish his rant before adding in. “Holy fucks in heavens, Jesus would be proud if they had a stick this big. This beyond just broken”

Hearing Ryan’s and Leo’s rant, Shesmu couldn’t help but laugh. “Damnit guys, this is too fucking funny. Holy shit!”

Ryan and Leo joined Shesmu in his laughter.

“Oh well, O9 might be high on some weed, but at least we’re the one benefiting.”

“Yeah, this time. Wait until we reach the main city and everyone is styling on our asses with their divine equipment. Oh, I have a boot that lets me teleport and boosts my attack speed by 1000%. Oh, I have a sword that can cut through space and time and disconnects you with a slash. Fuck me sideways!”

Leo’s rant made Ryan laugh his ass off. “Hahahaha, damn dude. This is too funny! Honestly, I wouldn’t even be mad if some weird crap like that happened.”

“Dammit guys, let’s get serious here, okay?”

Hearing Shesmu’s intervention, Ryan grinned like a maniac.

“Oh, Mr. Broody McBrood doesn’t wanna have fun? Come on, give me a smile like the one you showed before.” Ryan stretched Shesmu’s cheeks to make his lips smile. “Here, much better!”

“You little shit.” With one pinch to the forehead, Shesmu pushed Ryan away from his face.

“Haha, okay okay, I’ll stop teasing you. We need to decide on who is gonna take this sword though. I can’t since I’m an assassin.”

“Do you still need to ask about that?” Leo asked. “I would be beyond embarrassed if I took the sword. Just give it to Shesmu already, goddamnit.”

Shesmu was embarrassed. Hearing praise from someone he considered almost his equal just a few days ago didn’t sit right with him. However, he couldn’t say anything to retort back. The facts were clear.

“Damnit, okay I’ll take this sword, but whatever drops next is yours, the both of you.”

“Deal,” Ryan responded.

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Leo added.

“Okay, if we no longer have anything to do here, maybe we should exit the dungeon.”

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Leo answered Shesmu.

The party then made its way towards a blue portal that stood before the throne. No one had seen it appear, and it certainly didn’t exist as the party was fighting the boss. However, no one paid it any heed. They just walked toward before Shesmu touched it.

[Congratulations, your party was the first in the world to conquer the dungeon: Goblin’s Den!

Please choose a party name!]

Shesmu thought for a second before asking Leo and Ryan for their opinion.

“Hey guys, we’re the first to clear this dungeon. It wants us to choose a party name, what do you think?”

Leo thought for a second before blurting out, “Blazing Blades?”

“Lame,” Ryan groaned.

“Hey, if you have a better name, say it!” Leo retorted.

“Wait a minute, I’m thinking,” Ryan pondered for a second before adding, “Black Moon.”

When Shesmu heard this name, he was surprised. Black Moon, huh? Interesting name choice.

“Black Moon, I like that. Sure, I can go with that.”

Seeing that everyone agreed on the same name, Shesmu concluded, “So Black Moon it is.” He then thought, Team name is Black Moon.

After he confirmed the name, multiple notifications flooded Shesmu.

[Congratulations on being the first party to conquer Goblin’s Den in Pliyx Stal Kingdom.

Congratulations on being the first party to conquer Goblin’s Den in the world.

Congratulations on being the second party to conquer a dungeon in Pliyx Stal Kingdom.

Congratulations on being the tenth party to conquer a dungeon in the world.]

Attached to these messages was a list of rewards, but Shesmu didn’t care at all about that. He immediately thought, Show dungeon ranking for Pliyx Stal Kingdom. In front of Shesmu, a list containing two teams appeared.

1-Dawn’s Resonance

2-Black Moon

Looking at the name plastered in gold at the top of the ranking, Shesmu’s eyes turned cold. His heart flared with the wrath of a dragon. Dawn’s Resonance. Just wait for me, I’ll be coming for you.