Free Web NovelChapter 138: Chapter 138: A Forged Signature
Dante left the Royal Palace, and the SSS-Rank hidden quest for the lost grandmaster was securely logged in his system interface.
The Path of Gods and Demons was located far beyond the eastern walls of Aethelgardia.
He needed a ground mount. Something fast, heavily armored, and capable of traversing hostile terrain without drawing a massive amount of cosmic aggro.
He navigated toward the military district of the Capital and headed for the primary stables of the city. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
The military stables were a sprawling complex filled with hundreds of high-tier mounts.
Massive armored warhorses stamped their hooves, swift dire-wolves paced in their pens, and heavy transport rhinos snorted steam into the crisp air.
As Dante approached the main paddock, he heard a loud and highly energetic voice echoing over the ambient animal noises.
"I am telling you, old man, it is a completely legitimate promissory note!"
Dante stopped walking.
Standing in front of a heavy wooden fence and arguing passionately with the gruff NPC Stable Master was a player.
He wasn’t a standard heavily armored warrior or a sleek dark-robed rogue. He looked incredibly young, maybe sixteen or seventeen years old.
He wore a mismatched set of flashy and overly colorful cloth robes that looked completely ridiculous. He wore bright purple sleeves, a neon green sash, and a wide-brimmed yellow hat.
He was practically vibrating with hyperactive energy and bouncing on the balls of his feet.
His player ID hovered above his head in bright green text.
[ID: Willy]
[Level: 19]
[Class: Illusionist]
Level 19.
He was drastically under-leveled for the Capital city and likely sneaked through the high-tier zones or paid a massive fee to a caravan escort just to get here.
"The Guild Master of Vanguard’s Legacy personally signed this!" Willy yelled. He aggressively waved a crumpled piece of parchment in the face of the NPC.
"It guarantees payment for one fully armored and premium warhorse!"
The Stable Master was an NPC with a thick scar across his eye and arms like tree trunks. He grunted and shoved the parchment away.
"I do not accept localized IOU notes, boy," the Stable Master growled. His dynamic AI was clearly losing patience.
"I accept gold. Or raw materials. Vanguard’s Legacy does not have a standing line of credit in Aethelgardia. Get out of my stable."
"It has the signature of Silas!" Willy protested indignantly and refused to back down.
"Do you have any idea how much a signature from the second-place loser is worth on the black market?! People will pay millions just to burn it!"
Dante raised an eyebrow and stepped closer to the argument.
His Intuition stat didn’t need to ping. It was blatantly obvious what was happening.
The kid was trying to actively scam an endgame NPC merchant by using a forged signature of a rival Guild Master.
"He is not going to take the note," Dante interrupted smoothly and walked up to the wooden fence.
Willy spun around with his hands on his hips. He was clearly ready to argue with whoever was interrupting his grift.
The eyes of the Young boy widened to comical proportions when he saw the pitch-black [Mantle of the Void-Dragon].
He immediately spotted the golden [Aegis Vanguard] guild tag hovering proudly above the head of Dante.
"Oh my god," Willy gasped. The crumpled piece of parchment slipped from his fingers and dropped into the mud.
"You are Dan. You are the anomaly. You are the guy who dropped a sky-beam on a demon army and bought the economy of the server."
"I am," Dante said.
Willy didn’t look terrified. He didn’t scramble backward or draw a weapon. He looked absolutely star-struck and ecstatic.
"I am your biggest fan!" Willy cheered and practically vibrated out of his colorful robes.
"I watched the stream! You completely humiliated Ryujin! You bankrupted Silas! You literally made him buy a silver participation trophy for a billion credits! You are a legend! Can I have your autograph?! Please!"
Dante stared at the hyper-energetic Young boy.
He was used to players running away from him, plotting against him, or demanding loot. He was used to god-tier NPCs throwing mountains at him.
He wasn’t used to aggressive fanboying in the middle of a stable.
"An autograph," Dante repeated slowly.
"Yes!" Willy pulled a fresh crisp piece of parchment and a charcoal pencil from his inventory and shoved them eagerly toward Dante.
"Just sign it right here! To my favorite fan, Willy. Please! It would mean the world to me!"
Dante looked at the kid. He looked at the glowing piece of blank parchment.
Then he looked at the Stable Master who was watching the interaction with a deep and annoyed scowl.
Dante realized exactly what was happening.
He didn’t sigh. He didn’t yell at the kid for trying to pull a fast one.
He took the charcoal pencil and quickly and legibly signed his character name on the parchment to hand it back to the Young boy.
"Here," Dante said, and his voice was entirely flat. "Trade that to the Stable Master. It should cover the cost of a horse."
The eyes of Willy lit up with brilliant and chaotic realization.
The Young boy didn’t hesitate for a single microsecond.
He immediately spun around and slammed the freshly signed autograph onto the wooden fence directly in front of the NPC.
"Behold!" Willy announced dramatically and gestured grandly to the parchment.
"A genuine and authenticated signature from the Savior of Ironhold! The Guild Master of the First Guild! The conqueror of the Abyss!"
"I will trade you this priceless and historical artifact for your two fastest horses!"
The Stable Master blinked.
The dynamic AI of the NPC immediately processed the value of the signature against the current overwhelming server-wide fame associated with the avatar of Dante.
The system calculated the economic impact of owning an artifact signed by the entity that had just altered the geopolitical landscape of the server.
The math resolved.
"Deal," the Stable Master grunted. He snatched the parchment off the fence and carefully tucked it into a secure lockbox under the counter.
The NPC turned and walked into the paddock. He led two incredibly fast and sleek armored warhorses out of the stable.
They were Level 40 mounts clad in heavy silver barding.
Dante grabbed the reins of the first horse and easily pulled himself onto the heavy leather saddle.
He looked down at the Young boy who was happily climbing onto the second horse. The teen struggled slightly with the stirrups due to his baggy robes.
"You are a genius grifter," Dante noted and was thoroughly impressed by the absolute brazenness of the scam.
He had used the fame of Dante to completely bypass the gold requirement of the NPC.
"I prefer the term opportunistic entrepreneur," Willy winked and adjusted his bright yellow hat.
"Thanks for the ride, Boss! And thanks for bankrupting Vanguard’s Legacy! Silas rejected my guild application last week because my gear was not optimized enough. Look who is optimized now!"
The Young boy kicked his horse and galloped out of the stable yard. He let out a loud victorious whoop as he completely vanished down the bustling street.
Dante shook his head, and a genuine smile touched his lips.
The server was full of dangerous enemies, primordial gods, and massive corporate armies.
But it was also full of chaotic and highly entertaining idiots just trying to hustle their way through the apocalypse. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
He gripped the leather reins of his warhorse.
"Alright," Dante said and turned the horse toward the heavily guarded eastern gates of the Capital. "Let us go find a lost grandmaster."
The ride to the eastern gates was fast.
The high-tier speed stats of the warhorse allowed Dante to effortlessly weave through the crowds of players still marveling at the architecture of Aethelgardia.
He reached the massive towering archway marking the eastern exit.
Unlike the other gates of the city, which were wide open to allow trade caravans and player transit, the eastern gate was completely sealed by a shimmering translucent wall of golden holy magic.
Standing in front of the barrier were a dozen elite paladins. They weren’t standard guards.
They were heavily armed inquisitors with their armor etched with ancient runes.
As Dante approached on his warhorse, the lead inquisitor stepped forward and raised his hand.
"Halt, Outworlder," the inquisitor commanded.
"The eastern gates are sealed by decree of the City Lord. The path beyond leads to the forbidden zone. Entry is strictly prohibited."
Dante didn’t dismount.
He opened his system interface and pulled up the active SSS-Rank quest log he had received from the City Lord.
He projected the digital authorization code directly to the inquisitor.
The NPC scanned the code. His eyes widened slightly.
"The seal of the City Lord," the inquisitor noted and lowered his hand.
He stepped aside and signaled the other guards to stand down. "The authorization is valid. You may pass, Champion."
The massive golden wall of holy magic hummed loudly, then slowly split down the middle and parted just enough to let a single rider through.
"Be warned," the inquisitor added. His voice dropped to a grim whisper.
"The Path of Gods and Demons is not a standard combat zone."
"The entities that dwell there have been suppressed for tens of thousands of years. They are bitter. They are starving. And they do not forgive."
"I will keep that in mind," Dante said.
He spurred the warhorse forward and passed through the golden barrier.
The moment he crossed the threshold, the golden magic instantly snapped shut behind him to seal him out of Aethelgardia.
The environment violently shifted.
The pristine white marble roads and bright blue sky of the Capital vanished entirely.
Dante found himself riding down a massive jagged canyon forged from dark blood-red stone.
The sky above was a chaotic swirl of bruised purple and harsh blinding crimson.
The air was incredibly thick and smelled of old blood, ozone, and dense concentrated mana.
He had officially entered the Path of Gods and Demons.
[Zone Alert: The Path of Gods and Demons]
[Hazard Detected: Primordial Suppression.]
[Warning: All healing items and support spells are reduced by 90%. System communication networks are disabled.]
Dante dismissed the warning prompt.
He expected the healing reduction.
The forbidden zone was designed to be a brutal and uncompromising test of raw survival.
He rode deeper into the zone.
The silence was oppressive and was broken only by the steady clopping of the hooves of his warhorse against the red stone.
He needed to find Grandmaster Jack.
But more importantly, he needed to find an entity capable of granting him a Class Advancement that wouldn’t reject his cosmic weight.
His Intuition stat suddenly pinged.
It wasn’t a massive and overwhelming threat like a Celestial boss. It was a sharp intent to kill.
Dante pulled the reins and brought the warhorse to a halt.
He looked up at the sheer vertical walls of the red canyon.
Clinging to the rock face and perfectly camouflaged against the dark stone were dozens of massive multi-eyed spiders.
They weren’t the blighted fleshy spiders from the Wyrmrest Caverns. These were forged entirely from jagged razor-sharp steel and glowing red energy.
[Monster Spawn: Slaughter-Weaver]
[Tier: Gold]
[Level: 30]
[HP: 35,000 / 35,000]
"Level 30 Gold mobs," Dante muttered and rested his hand on the hilt of the [Dawn-Breaker Blade]. "The trash mobs here hit like regional bosses."
The Slaughter-Weavers didn’t screech. They didn’t drop from the ceiling to engage in melee.
They opened their mandibles and began rapidly firing massive high-velocity spikes of solid steel directly at Dante.
Dante didn’t panic. He was ready to test his newest Zenith-tier skill.
