Second World Online

Morning light pierced through the gaps in my room's curtains, bringing a warmth that slowly drove away the remaining drowsiness. I opened my eyes and stared at the monotonous ceiling of this isolation room. The beeping of the heart monitor in the corner of the room became the only melody accompanying my morning routine.

However, the routine that usually felt boring suddenly changed one hundred and eighty degrees when the doorknob of my room turned.

"Good morning, Young Master," greeted a cheerful voice.

I turned, and instantly my breath caught in my throat. My eyes widened perfectly, almost unable to believe the sight that presented itself at the doorway.

It was Mira. However, she was not wearing her neat and closed classic black-and-white maid uniform. This morning, my lover and personal attendant stepped inside wearing sportswear that… extremely exposed the curves of her body. She wore a tight white sports tank top that clearly molded her full chest, paired with long black leggings that clung perfectly, wrapping her slender waist, her firm hips, all the way down to her long, proportional legs.

A thin sheen of sweat still lingered on her neck and collarbones, making her fair skin look slightly glossy under the morning sunlight. Her black hair was tied high into a ponytail that swayed with every step she took.

My blood suddenly surged. The heart monitor beside my bed responded with a beep-beep-beep whose tempo slightly increased.

As a normal man, seeing Mira's figure so seductive and captivating right before my eyes nearly made me lose control of my common sense. My biological instinct thrashed, triggering a desire that had long been buried. Yet reality struck me as hard as a warhammer. I tried to move my arm just to reach for her, but my muscles eroded by leukemia and chemotherapy felt extremely heavy. This disease imprisoned me in a weak body, reducing my desire to nothing more than a powerless gaze.

I could only remain silent, swallowing with difficulty, struggling hard to control the rhythm of my breathing so I would not look too pitiful.

On the other side, Mira was clearly very aware of the effect of her appearance. Although she tried to put on a flat expression like a professional attendant, I could see the corners of her lips twitching as she held back a satisfied smile. Her brown eyes sparkled with amusement; she secretly felt extremely pleased seeing her lover and Young Master staring at her with unconcealed passion.

She walked closer to the small table beside my bed and bent her body slightly to place a tray containing porridge breakfast and medicines.

That bending motion proved fatal to my sanity. The low collar of her white tank top opened a little, exposing the full cleavage of her chest right in my line of sight.

"Your breakfast is ready, Rian," Mira said softly; her voice was slightly lowered, radiating an extremely subtle tone of temptation.

I coughed lightly and hurriedly reached for the glass of plain water on the tray and gulped it down. My eyes wildly tried to find another focal point, but visual gravity kept pulling my gaze back toward her neck and chest.

I shook my head hard, trying to drive away the lewd thoughts that were beginning to poison my brain. Get a grip, Rian. Your body even has difficulty getting up from the bed. Don't think about things that require athletic stamina!

"Y-you… this is unusual," my voice sounded a little hoarse as I began taking a spoon and scooping my bland porridge. I looked into her eyes, trying to avoid the area below her neck. "Where is your maid uniform? And where are you going dressed like this?"

Mira straightened her body and folded both arms under her chest a pose that only further emphasized her assets. She smiled innocently without guilt.

"Not going anywhere. I just finished a morning yoga and aerobics session in the downstairs fitness room. Because it was already time for your breakfast schedule, I didn't have time to shower and change into my uniform," she answered casually.

I snorted softly. Liar. The distance from the fitness room to her bathroom was only ten steps. She clearly deliberately did not change clothes just to show off her body curves and tease me before she wrapped herself again later in her conservative maid uniform.

"You're deliberately trying to torture me, aren't you?" I grumbled softly between chews of porridge, looking at her with narrowed eyes.

Mira laughed lightly; the sound of her laughter was like pleasant bells. She extended her hand and gently stroked the top of my head. "Just consider this an additional stimulus for your morning, Young Master. Doctor Karin said an increase in heart rate in the morning is good for your blood circulation."

"A very medical reason," I replied sarcastically, though I could not hold back a thin smile on my lips.

After the breakfast and medicine-taking routine filled with stolen glances that made me blush and Mira who kept smiling with amusement, it was time for my main agenda.

Mira helped me rise from the bed, supported me with her arm circling my waist, and guided me toward the medical Virtual Reality capsule in the corner of the room. Physical contact with her while she was wrapped in that thin sportswear truly tested my patience, but I held it back with all my willpower.

When I lay on the gel padding of the capsule, Mira attached the neural sensors to my temples and neck. She then leaned down and gave one warm kiss on my lips.

"Have fun in your world, Rian. Don't push yourself too hard," she whispered; her mischievous smile still remained.

The capsule lid slowly lowered. Cold air swept over me.

Link In.

The cold sensation from the medical gel immediately faded, replaced by the familiar scents of pine wood, ash, and residual sulfur combustion. I opened my eyes. My avatar, Syl, woke from the wooden straw bed in the back room of the "Waterwheel" shop in Silvergrass Village.

I rose and stretched both arms. The sensation of possessing a fit, energetic body free from the shackles of leukemia always made me feel reborn. My Elf muscles responded to every command of my brain with absolute agility. Unfortunately, the morning temptation from Mira in the real world earlier did not carry over here, replaced instead by the solitude of the quiet workshop.

"Alright. Time to lock myself away again and make something strange," I muttered while walking toward my work table.

Before starting the experiment, I opened the system interface screen. There was a crucial matter I had postponed last night right before logging out.

[Status: Level 35]

[Attribute Points (AP) Available: 36]

Thirty-six idle attribute points. This was the great harvest from toppling the Miasma Snake Queen alone. Without the slightest hesitation, I immediately allocated those points into the two main pillars of my "Glass Nuke" build.

I put 18 points into Intelligence (INT) and 18 points into Dexterity (DEX).

I ignored Strength, Agility, or Vitality. Let my HP remain pitiful at the number 90 (without food buffs), and let my movement stay slow due to the Albinism Trait penalty. As long as I had Yuna as a defensive wall and absolute destructive power at my fingertips, I did not need survival statistics.

Ding!

[System: Attributes successfully allocated!]

I checked the summary of my status. My pure INT and DEX numbers now touched 76 points. And because of the Albinism effect that doubled stats from wood-based equipment, the accumulated physical and magical damage from the Titan's Ironbark bow I held would pierce the limits of reasonableness for a player in the Level 30s.

Next, I checked the notification about the Level 30 Milestone. Because Second World Online did not have a Job or Class system that bound playstyle, this Milestone functioned as an intrinsic limit increase for the character.

[Level 30 Milestone Achieved!]

[Base HP and MP growth permanently increased.]

[Level 30 Milestone Achieved!]

[Base HP and MP growth permanently increased.]

[Physical tolerance capacity against elemental energy increased.]

After closing the Milestone panel, my eyes fixed on my profession Skill panel. The level indicators for [Alchemy] and [Blacksmith] blinked brightly with the text MAX beside them. The creation of the Breaching Charge and the synthesis of the pure Empress's Malice poison last night had pushed both professions to touch the Level 20 limit, the maximum limit for the Intermediate stage.

This was not an ordinary level-up. This was the time for a profession Limit Break.

I touched the indicators of both professions. A golden pop-up window appeared. Fortunately, the Limit Break for crafter professions was not as greedy as combat skills in consuming Skill Points (SP). The system only requested 5 SP for each profession, plus high-level achievement requirements and rare material manipulation that I had coincidentally already fulfilled entirely last night.

With the remaining 17 SP in my savings from the Limit Break the other day, I immediately pressed the double confirmation button without hesitation.

Ding!

[System: 10 SP have been consumed! Remaining SP: 7.]

[System: Profession Limit Break Successful!]

[Your Alchemy and Blacksmith Professions have evolved to the Advanced Rank!]

[Unlocking Advanced Crafting Technique: Porous Material Manipulation.]

My eyes sparkled reading the last line. Porous Material Manipulation. This meant the system now allowed me to create micro-cavities inside the structure of metal or wood without destroying its durability. This was a secret feature usually used by high-level Blacksmiths to create hollow swords that absorbed magic.

However, my alchemist brain thought of something else. Something far more cunning and lethal.

I opened my inventory and took out the special storage box containing five crystal bottles of [Empress's Malice: Absolute Corrosive Coating]. The Epic+ liquid poison that could permanently melt enemy armor.

The main problem with Coating-type poisons was inefficiency. If I smeared this liquid onto my arrowheads, when the arrow shot through the wind, part of the poison liquid would evaporate or be flung away by air friction (Piercing Gale Arrow). And when the arrow slammed into a shield, the poison sticking to its surface would be wasted, splattering at the external impact point.

I needed a Delivery System that could inject this liquid directly into the target, mimicking the anatomy of a venomous snake's fangs.

"Injector arrows. That's what I'll make today," a crooked smile formed behind my silver hair.

I took out a pile of [Refined Steel Ingot] and lit the forging hearth. Hot air once again filled the room.

Instead of hammering that steel into solid plates, I heated it and used micro chisels along with the porous manipulation system to shape the steel into a very thick needle cylinder that was hollow in the middle. The front tip of this needle I made was extremely sharp (armor-penetration Bodkin design), while along the sides of the needle there were microscopic capillary hole gaps.

This micro-level forging process was far more complicated than making the assault grenades yesterday. Every time I struck the hammer wrong or the temperature was slightly off, the cavity inside the steel needle would collapse and fail.

After three hours of sweating and discarding more than a dozen defective pieces of steel, I finally succeeded in producing a dozen precise hollow-needle-shaped arrowheads.

The second step was its storage tube. I moved to the alchemy table. Using leftover crystal bottles, I cut them into small glass tubes the size of a little finger's joint. I installed a small metal spiral spring at the base of the glass tube, then connected it to the rear of my steel needle arrowhead.

The working principle was extremely simple yet brutally mechanical: When the tip of this arrow slammed into an enemy's shield or armor, its kinetic force would push the glass tube behind it forward. This pressure would shatter the glass seal, and the spring would force the poison liquid inside to spray out at high speed through the capillary cavities in the steel arrowhead that had already embedded.

This was not coating. This was a forced injection.

With hands that had to be extremely careful considering even a single drop could melt my leather gloves I used a long glass pipette to transfer part of the Empress's Malice poison from its main bottle into the glass tubes on every arrowhead neck, then sealed them tightly with airtight resin.

Finally, I attached the Blood Oak wooden shafts and balance fletching from thin copper plates.

Twelve arrows with long, terrifying steel tips, each possessing a small glass tube filled with thick purple liquid at its neck, now lay neatly on my table.

Ding!

[System: Original Creation Successful!]

[System: You have created [Venom-Fang Injector Arrow] (Epic)!]

[Venom-Fang Injector Arrow x12 – Rarity: Epic]

A savage arrow design that mimics the anatomy of a deadly snake's fangs. Sacrifices part of its kinetic destructive power for the absolute delivery of poison into the deepest tissues of the enemy.

Base Damage: 600 Physical/Piercing Damage.

Special Effect 1 (Kinetic Injection): Upon striking a solid target, forcibly injects [Empress's Malice]. The poison will not evaporate in the air before hitting the target.

Special Effect 2 (Armor Degradation): Permanently destroys 25% Durability of the equipment that is pierced.

Special Effect 3 (Melting Inside): Deals 1500 Acid Damage per second for 10 seconds. If it pierces flesh, the enemy's healing (Heal) effect will be blocked by 80%.

Crafted by: Syl.

I lifted one of those arrows and spun it under the glow of the shop's lamp. The thick purple liquid inside its small glass tube swayed beautifully, hiding death behind its luster.

"Perfect," I whispered in satisfaction. "The initial six hundred physical damage is merely a deception. The real damage is fifteen thousand acid damage from the inside and permanent armor destruction."

If there was an enemy Tanker perhaps from Arthur's rival Guild such as Ouroboros who tried to block this arrow with an Epic shield worth thousands of gold coins, they would realize within seconds that their prized shield had turned into a pool of metal mush.

Exactly when I was about to store this new masterpiece into the quiver on my back, a Whisper notification sound broke the silence of the shop.

It was from Alya (Yuuki).

Yuuki: BIG SISTER SYL! Big Sister is at the shop, right?! Emergency, Big Sister! Me and Yuna are trapped in the middle of the Obsidian Forest! Help us! There are players hunting us!

My gray eyes narrowed sharply. The panicked tone from my little sister immediately erased the satisfaction aura of my alchemy, replaced by the cold air of a sniper ready to take lives.

Players? Not monsters?

I grabbed my gray cloak and gargoyle mask, slung the giant bow over my shoulder, and slotted the twelve newly finished Venom-Fang arrows into the special tube at my waist.