RD 3 Ch 28 (Patreon)

Chapter 28

Jenny held one of the rockie-talkies while the other leaders of the Mul Branova circled around her. Also present were the three servants of Lord Bran, as well as Amanda and Helena. The six of them would be in charge of the larger Mul Branova, they had dozens of women to look after in the vault.

They were here to grow stronger as fast as they could. 

Jenny felt an odd sense of exasperation towards the three servants.

Each of them had easily cleared the stairs trial and had giant beaming smiles on their faces. After all, Lord Bran gave them bloodlines in preparation for the vault. The three of them were now the strongest of the Mul Branova.

While many of the ladies had powerful bloodlines, none of them could compare to the three SS bloodlines. Even now some of the younger ladies were calling them the ‘Golden Trio’. 

"We need the three servants to clear the monsters in a wide swath of land. Meanwhile, we need to use some of the inscriptions Bran gave us and create a defensible position. We don't know exactly what is coming during this trial," Simone instructed over the rockie-talkie. “How is everything on your end?”

Jenny nodded. "We came out of the mist together at the very edge of this forest. Or at least, I think it's the edge. Once you get past a certain point, it's all just fog. A person could easily get lost." Jenny reported back.

"Good to know. Good job, Jenny." The words were simple praise. However, Jenny couldn't stop the smile from stretching across her face.

It was always good to know that she was doing a good job in the Saintess' eyes, for the Saintess was the voice of Lord Bran, and if Simone thought she was doing a good job, that likely meant Lord Bran considered her work acceptable as well. 

"Is there anything else you need us to do?" Jenny asked eagerly.

"No, the goal for you guys is to control as much space as possible. Use the monsters to level those of you who need it. We believe the fruit will be harvestable in about 10 days. At that point, you are to collect as much fruit as humanly possible, but don't eat it just yet.” Simone said.

“What if the other Initiated find us?" Jenny asked. Even with the Golden Servants, they were a fair bit weaker than everyone else who entered the vault.

"Don't worry about that," Simone quickly reassured her. "I don't think there's anyone who could pose too much of a threat to you with Bran’s talismans in place for you to hide, and from the conversations we've now had with other groups, everyone seems to understand the better fruits and the stronger monsters are in the other direction. If this goes like we think it will, your area should be entirely free of competition, and hopefully you guys can quickly gather enough fruit to grow stronger." 

"If that's what Lord Bran thinks we should do, then it will be done," Amanda said. When Lord Bran wasn't around, the woman got incredibly serious. 

"Thank you, Amanda," Simone's voice came through the rockie-talkie. "What you guys are doing is a variant of what Bran is having another group do over here. Though, he's pushing into the higher level section of this trial. All the way up here, there are even monsters with 9,000 in each stat." 

There was a palpable sense of nervousness from the group around Jenny. 

"That seems like they could be quite strong." Helena was the weakest in the group standing around the rockie-talkie and already looking quite nervous. 

Jenny waved a hand in front of her face dismissively. "Like The Saintess said, this area seems to be segregated by strength. We'll form a wide net and we'll have people waiting by the fruits in 10 days. If we have enough people, we can mass harvest these," Jenny said, feeling confident in the approach. "Meanwhile, Lord Bran’s three servants will push as far in the direction of our Lord as you can before you start experiencing monsters that give you trouble. We'll use that as a landmark, and we'll just sweep the entire zone from the fog to that point. And then we can set up a base in the center." Jenny laid out the plan. 

"That sounds wonderful," Simone agreed. "I trust all of you will come through, not only for yourself and the Mul Branova, but for Bran as well. When they are ripe, just collect the fruits, put them in your spatial rings. And when time comes, Bran says he has a way to make the fruits even better for us." 

Jenny could see Amanda's eyes practically shine. 

"We won't fail you, Saintess," Amanda said, her voice filled with fervor. 

"I never thought you would," Simone said.

“Don’t forget my request.” Jenny hurried to remind her.

“Ah right. Bran come here.” The Saintess said.

“What?” His deep voice made something stir within Jenny. “Oh. Okay. I do declare all the monsters and other beings within this vault as my enemies. Quiet, not a vampire.” He said something to someone else there at the end.

Jenny didn’t care, she had a giant grin on her face.

“That’ll do?” Simone asked.

“We’ll have to test it, but I hope so.” Jenny glanced around to see Amanda nodding.

“Perfect, I have to get going.” Simone turned off her end.

The rockie-talkie clicked slightly and Jenny swept it into her spatial ring before focusing on the group around her. "Alright, it sounds like we have a plan." 

She glanced over at the three servants, inspecting them again and feeling slightly jealous. The thousand stats that they got from their SS-ranked bloodlines was certainly enough to make a girl jealous. Jenny and Amanda thought they were doing quite well with A-ranked bloodlines after Lord Bran had upgraded them, but it seemed A-rank was no longer the benchmark for strength.

Two ranks above was a huge gap.

The servants also got better access to Lord Bran and hadn’t been initiated with that cursed artifact. Part of her jealousy was that she knew they’d grow more useful and closer to Lord Bran.

It would be up to her and the rest of the Mul Branova to chase after the new peak strength time and time again.

[Jenny Mul Branova

Level: 89

Class: New Devotee of Bran SS

Status: Serious, Devoted, Excited

Strength: 558

Agility: 365

Vitality: 504

Intelligence: 305

Spirit: 305

Skills:

Awakened Bloodline of The Burning Eared Fox A

Blessing of Bran B

Power of Blood F

Blood of Devotion A

Meteor Strike B

Martyr’s Price E

Ritual of Purification C

Sanguine Cloak B

Bloodstained Prayer F]

Jenny checked her own stats with a smile. She had done well thus far chasing after it, but it still wasn't enough. Most of that strength came from Bran anyway. The only skill book she’d afforded and used was Meteor Strike.

"Helena, why don't you lead the girls in sweeping north and south. We will consider the mist the far west border. Work your way back and forth like a winding snake," Jenny suggested, standing and summoning Sanguine Cloak. Blood pooled out from the back of her neck before swallowing her head in a cowl and flowing over her shoulders like the finest of red silk to enshroud her body. 

Helena frowned, her blue eyebrows pinching down in a way that made her cute. "And what are you going to do?" 

Jenny drew a blade from her spatial ring. The scimitar-like sword looked heavy, but felt nearly weightless in her hands. "I'm going to go hunting. This is an opportunity for me to push myself. The monsters in here give levels like any other instance, and while we brought a number of people who are low level, for me and Amanda, this is a chance that we don't have outside of the vault." 

After all, she and Amanda had already out-leveled the B rank instance that the Mul Branova controlled. It was hard to make progress on their levels, but this was much better.

Helena on the other hand, who spent far too much of her time crafting, and the others could benefit from farming the weaker monsters. All the way closest to the mist, the monsters were as low as level 40, and in a group, they could handle that level of monster farming easily.

"I'm glad you didn't assume I would be babysitting," Amanda said, drawing a far thinner blade with a slight curve to it. "I'll be going with you, of course. There's two monsters at each fruit. If we really want to push ourselves, we should find something that we can only fight one-on-one."

Jenny didn't waste any time throwing herself forward, her cloak flapping in the wind behind her.

Only for Amanda to catch up to her immediately. It was as if she'd been anticipating Jenny's attempt to run away. The leggy, blonde driver held her katana in such a way that the tip was nearly grazing the ground as she ran. A smirk played on her face as she kept up effortlessly. 

"What do you say we have a contest, Jenny? Whoever can kill their monster first wins, and whoever has the most wins by the end of this trial gets to drive Bran when we're out," Amanda proposed. The two of them had a fierce rivalry, and Jenny could only narrow her eyes in response.

"Better yet, let’s up the ante. Whoever wins gets to drive Bran for a week.” Jenny replied.

“You better not regret that," Amanda said, suddenly picking up her speed even further. 

Now that a pair of monsters appeared in the distance, both of them had the same set of skills, save for one move each that had been skill book drops in an instance. Amanda, both with her bloodline and with the coins she had spent, had higher agility. The blonde appeared next to the two monsters before Jenny, pointing her blade to the ribs of a giant raccoon before spinning and covering it in slashes. 

Amanda activated Blade Cyclone, her one differing ability. Wind whipped around her as her blade melded into the gale and tearing a dozen wounds into the raccoon.

Jenny gathered strength in her legs before launching herself into the air, heaving that scimitar forward as she activated Meteor Strike.

Her machete came down hard on the giant possum that had been fighting the raccoon, slamming it into the dirt. She preferred to overwhelm with strength rather than Amanda's favoritism for speed. 

Jenny's machete carved huge wounds in the possum, her blade making quick work of it. Its claws weren’t strong enough to do more than fray at the Sanguine Cloak. They’d have to find something stronger.

Only for Amanda to finish first, stabbing her katana through the skull of the raccoon and pinning it to the ground. The blonde then nonchalantly leaned on her katana and fanned her mouth like she was yawning. "Oh, I'm getting tired over here with how slow you are," Amanda teased and played with her Sanguine Cloak. 

Jenny then beheaded the giant possum, swishing her machete to the side, splattering blood on the pine needles. 

"Really, it was like two seconds difference," Jenny retorted. 

"Two seconds is a lot when you're as fast as me," Amanda replied, jerking her sword out before wiping the blood off the giant raccoon's fur. "Well now, the first one is my win. Shall we keep going, or would you like to admit defeat already?" 

The blonde had a giant smile on her face, and Jenny spat on the ground. 

"As if. You're going to have to do a whole lot better than that if you think I'm going to give in. Just watch, most of these monsters are going to be more easily overwhelmed with a single strong stroke," Jenny defended her preference, while Amanda shrugged. 

"If you're fast enough, you can make it look like a single stroke when you cut them twenty times. Besides, with speed like mine, I'll be untouchable one day. I would hate for any of these monsters to ruin my hair," Amanda retorted, as she flipped her hair. 

Jenny could only roll her eyes. "Keep it up in a hat all the time, for as precious as your hair is to you.”

“We've talked about this. It's about the drop. That's what'll get Bran's attention." Amanda pointed her katana at Jenny. They'd had this argument more than once, and Jenny could only roll her eyes. 

"The drop is only impressive once," she said. 

"And that's all it'll take," Amanda replied with a giant grin on her face. "Perhaps after a week of being his driver, I'll move ahead of you in more ways than one." Amanda then ignored her, bodily throwing herself forward as her feet pounded against the pine needles in search of another group. 

"Hey, wait up! It's not fair for you to get an early start," Jenny shouted, trying to launch herself forward with each step, to keep up with her agile rival.