The Game Rune System

A few days after Tetsuya's visit in the underground city, the news of the vampire race reached the top mercenary parties in Bende City.

Even a few nobles seemed to catch on this subject, but the mercenaries were the first ones to go to the birds' forest.

Their goal was to secure information that could be later sold for a hefty sum.

Tetsuya aimed for it from the very beginning, his eyes looking at all those mercenaries going deeper into the forest.

He began to use his game master's powers that had been imbued within the forest for a few days already meaning that he got some control over it!

-

The mercenary group had a strong rank, A!

The A Rank group stepped forward the first while followed by lesser ranks that were just leveraging them.

The group's name was Strike First and their fame was impactful in Bende City.

A lot of people heard about their movements and many that wanted to become their underlings or teammates patiently waited for their new mission.

Strike First had a fairly balanced party with even healing runes in their party.

They followed the unusual and highly detailed map carefully, then blended more into the forest.

The changes immediately began to occur then…

[Welcome to the MOBA GAME: BIRDS' FOREST MAP.]

"What is this?!" The leader, Cedra, looked at the sudden message with fear in his eyes. This was too sudden and unexpected, so he took out his sword and slashed through it as if trying to free himself.

However, his sword passed through the message window and left everyone speechless.

His party members also could see this message, fear slowly sprouting within them!

"I can't see… others…" The lady with healing runes, Makayla, looked behind and saw that the forest somewhat changed! People following them disappeared and she felt a hidden barrier separating her from the real world.

Others called out their suspicions, "We got trapped by those bloodsuckers?"

"Probably…" The rest agreed and looked at their leader.

Cedra bit his lips and appeased the mood a little, "We will survive through it. Since when our missions had been so easy? It's not mere information gathering, but real battle!" He shouted, then the message window changed.

He got personal window with his passive and skills, [Cedra HP:540/540 MP: 335/335 Lv.1]

The rest of his party was the same and their eyes went wide as their information and abilities got exposed as if nothing!

They also got limited to four skills and passive skill? What were the other unknown abilities? Teleport? Short Jump? Barrier? The questions kept rising!

[Your Goal is to level up, get the rest of your abilities and destroy the enemy's base gem!]

[Minimap has been updated.]

"This is the enemy's base! Their name… Vampires? Have you heard of them?" Cedra asked his party, but to no avail. Everyone just shook their heads and read their abilities instead.

However, the sudden appearance of their own gem startled them.

"We have to protect that or we will lose." The healer said out loud.

Strike First's members nodded and returned to read their abilities, but the sudden minions' appearance alerted them!

"Back off!" They jumped to the side, then looked at the minions going forward in an orderly manner.

[Minions are your allies! Enemy minions are the source of your income!]

[You can't wound your own minions! Tip: Minions are strong in early game and they can be your sixth ally!]

[Neutral jungle monsters can be taken by anyone and both give a lot of money! Choose one person to clean them! This is a jungler's task!]

[Step on the tree lanes and clear the minions while fighting your enemies in a clever manner! Clear the turrets to make a clean path towards the enemy's base! Defeat epic objectives to help you get additional buffs and win the game easier!]

[Remember to buy items to get additional stats!]

[The winners will get hefty rewards!]

[Good luck!]

Could it be more simpler? A certain game master didn't think so.

The sudden messages startled the Strike First party, but they just looked into each other, peeked at the map, then the leader voiced what had been lingering on their minds ever since those messages appeared.

"Can't we just go through one lane?" Cedra uttered, his teammates nodding in agreement.

Why should they go through three lanes if they can just together beat the turrets on their way and clear the game faster?

Bloodsuckers should be also beaten easier in five versus five!

"There is a shop, though. The message also mentioned buying items." Makayla pointed at the small box that had 'The Shop' window above it.

The players came closer to it, but the shop was just filled with sticks so they couldn't take it seriously.

"AD Stick? AP Stick? Tank Stick? Jungle Clearing Stick?" What was that joke?

Cedra just noticed that AD meant Attack Damage and immediately bought it. His friends also wanted to have more attack stat and just bought it despite their classes and purposes being different.

They all then stepped on the mid lane and went forward with the goal to clear the game as fast as possible.

A certain game master face palmed himself while looking at the mercenary group.

"The sticks are in the inventory. They just make us stronger here… What ability did you guys choose?" The leader asked on the way.

He personally took the Sword Slash which was his Q as not even being able to move his sword sounded too absurd.

His teammates also took offensive abilities, but their numbers were different.

The healer complained, "Why am I so weak?"

Because you are a healer; a certain game master shouted from afar.

"In this game, you might be weak, but we know your potential, Makayla!" The others merrily cheered her on, then spotted the minions fighting against each other.

Those were made out of earth, so no blood was here, but it still looked devastating to see them fighting without clear purpose!

They were going at each other like mindless fools, but the Strike First' group raised their eyes at the bloodsuckers.

They were also on the mid lane, all five…

A certain game master had been sighing a lot lately…

"Bloodsuckers… You look better than I have imagined," Cedra spoke like a leader, "This game will be our victory! We will get rewarded, learn about you and pass this information to the nobility! Haha! Let's go, everyone!"

Cedra was the first one to step forward together with his tank.

He never called his friend a tank, but this friend had a shield and performed the tank duties on a daily basis.

Both of them ignored the minions and went forward to take down the bloodsuckers!

On the other hand, vampires decided to take things slowly. They also were limited to one ability and decided to just wait for their enemies to come closer.

It unknowingly turned into a great decision, because the moment Cedra and his group had passed through enemy minions and attacked vampires, they triggered their aggro and enemy minions shifted their attention to them.

Their small swords quickly went at the mercenaries, arrows following quickly after!

[-34 HP!]

[- 42 HP!]

"Wait, wait, wait! Why am I losing so much HP?! What's up with this speed?!" Cedra and his tank screamed in tandem.

Those minions had been just like described earlier, the sixth member. Their damage was so high that the mercenaries got distracted by them too much!

They also became exposed to the vampires whose hands turned into claws filled with red and bloody aura.

Attacked from two sides, the mercenary group abruptly faced defeat, "No! We will die?! Nooo!" The pain wasn't that much compared to the 'real life', but Cedra's mind shook with horror as he imagined himself dying in both the game and real life.

His friends also screamed and soon their vision turned gray.

[You have died. Respawning in ten.]

'Respawning?' Cedra questioned himself.

Ten seconds passed then and he appeared in his base, not too far away from the gem that he must protect at any cost!

His party members appeared shortly after, "That was weird… feeling…"

"Yeah… Is that how death feels like?" The talks continued and even Cedra spoke with confusion within his eyes.

However, he quickly parted his lips, "We must go to those bloodsuckers! Our minions are defenseless!"

"Yes!" The mercenaries rushed back to the mid lane and realized that vampires were already level three!

They had three abilities and used those to bully the minions!

Even the tower that had a unique minion on it had been under their attack!

"Our tower! No fucking way we let you take it down! Forward!" No death, so they could take risky maneuvers and just go all out!

However, the mercenaries didn't know how big the early level gap could be!

[You have died.]

[You have died.]

[You have died.]

[You have died.]

[You have died.]

-

Looking at the MOBA GAME from afar, Tetsuya and Ashley were silent…

If one could look at both of them at the same time, then one would be able to see their dead eyes looking at the mercenaries…

"At least we will… get stronger by having them play… I think new runes have been described in Purple Cube and we can manufacture after some more games… We can't let them go and just focus on the games instead…"

"How about vampire's runes?" Tetsuya asked, sounding so disappointed his partner immediately spoke up.

"Their runes are also analyzed by our purple cube. We will be able to analyze their darkness. You see, their ultimate ability is related to this darkness, so we will get this under our control for sure!" Ashley did her best to sound as cheerful as possible, but Tetsuya already passed some messages.

[In the next game, leave four vampires in the mid lane and go to the side lane. You can get levels faster by killing minions alone, then ambush those mercenaries.]

He sent a message to Evelyn as vampire's runes were far more interesting than mercenaries ones!

"This is just a project anyway… We lack proper towers, minions and jungle camps anyway…" Tetsuya said 'Anyway' twice which made Ashley chuckle…