MONSTER MMORPG: Mayhem Online

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

Lynch asked curiously.

"I don't really know, but trying won't hurt. Would it?"

I replied as I looked at Gomchul, who stood nervously in front of me. I asked him if he could see any screens or such things in front of him. But contrary to my expectations, he couldn't.

I had learnt that NPCs who can see their own status screens could join a guild like any other players, and that's why I wanted to see if Gomchul could see his status.

Regretfully, there wasn't anything special about him apart from the fact that he was stronger than the other southern orcs. He was still much weaker than Zultan.

To solve this problem, I suddenly remembered the reward I had gotten when I was given the title of an earl.

[You can now appoint 4 Knights and rule a city under the Sahhan Empire.]

I wasn't sure as to which city I would be given to rule, but choosing the four knights was totally my own decision.

Since Gomchul was a mere orc, his growth potential was fairly limited. Later on, when the game progresses, Orcs would be mere low or mid-level monsters. So assigning an orc as my first knight would be nothing short of foolish.

The knight system was strict. Once you assign a knight, you can never change it unless the knight in question dies. Not to mention that if a knight under you dies, not only does it affect your fame inside the game, but you'd also be penalised.

So if I did make Gomchul a knight, there was a chance he might unlock the system screen and might not unlock it. I wasn't sure because there was no information about it on the internet. Of course, players who had the pleasure of having knights are all royalty and wouldn't share classified information on forums just to brag.

If I made Gomchul a knight, someone who had very limited potential for growth, then it would be nothing short of foolish. But I was the one who had asked Gomchul to follow me, and he had left behind his whole tribe to do that, so I was in no position to be stingy about this.

"Are you ready?"

"Aa, y-yes!"

Gomchul seemed to be more nervous than me. For monsters such as Orcs, Ogres, Trolls and Goblins that weren't recognised as official races, it was a huge honour to receive recognition and become an official of the empire. After all, these monsters were different from races like Elves, Dwarves, Beastman, etc. Who had been recognised for their skills and have been mingling with humans for centuries after centuries.

The humans actually looked up to them as they were genetically higher species than humans.

"Don't be so nervous. Loosen up and get on your knees."

I said, and Gomchul heaved a big breath before sitting on his knees in a knightly manner, trying his best to copy a knight clumsily.

—-Ahem!

I coughed and took out Eclipse before placing its flat side of the blade on his shoulder and saying.

"I, Shura, an Earl of the Great Sahhan Empire, am willing to take you as my personal knight. Do you swear your loyalty and life to me, do you agree to place my life before yours in any situation, do you swear to be my sword and my shield through tough times, do you accept the role of my personal knight and swear eternal loyalty to me and me alone?"

I tried to say it as grandly as possible and couldn't help but cringe at myself. I could see Nameless' eyes shining from a corner. He sure was enjoying the situation. Anyways, this was necessary as it was a tradition of all the empires, and it also solidified the bond between a knight and his employer.

But I had tweaked the script a bit at my own convenience, and I was sure anyone with a brain would do the same. It was the part where the knight had to swear loyalty to both the royal family of the Sahhan empire and me.

If someone from the empire had seen me taking in a knight without making him pledge loyalty to the royal family, they'd call it blasphemy. After all, that was basically announcing that you want to take over the throne later or that you might go against the empire in the future.

Which, I obviously would.

"I, Gomchul, swear on the honour of a southern tribes orc to forever be loyal to earl Shura and his descendants, and my axe would just be for the protection and use of the earl and his family. Even if the empire asks me to, I shall not change my stance."

Gomchul, being the smart orc that he was, understood the intentions behind my words and even went on to basically say that he would even go against the Sahhan royal family if I commanded him to.

How brave and loyal.

It truly wasn't a waste to make him my first knight. As for his limited potential, I was definitely going to do something about it. Seeing the evolution and Kris and the others, I might already have a way.

[You have successfully assigned 'Gomchul' as your knight.]

[His overflowing loyalty to you has been noticed by the spirit of Ethra, Gaia.]

[Gaia had blessed the southern orc, 'Gomchul'.]

[You have successfully acquired your first night.]

[One-time achievement unlocked: Assign your first knight!]

[Charm +10.]

For a second, a light shined from Gomchul's body before it subsided and retracted back into his body.

'Was that shine from appointing a knight, or was it Gaia's blessing?'

I wasn't sure. But one thing that I was sure of was.

'This Gaia is so sus.'

So far, I have never had such a big sponsor in my whole life, be it in real life or in Mayhem. Gaia was almost like my sugar mom at this point.

'Let's see the Knights' status now.'

[Knights: (¼)

Gomchul

Level 98 Warrior (Southern Orc)

[100/100] Loyalty Points

Special: Received the blessing of Gaia, Potential Opened.

Unallocated

Unallocated

Unallocated]

'This… what does she even want from me?'

As I had expected, it was Gaia's blessing that had made him shine. His potential was opened, which basically meant he was ready to advance his race.

Now I understood that lower-class monsters like Ogres, Orcs and such needed their potential to be open or receive blessings to open up their potential. When I mass revived everyone in the village, Gaia blessed the whole village, opening everyone's potential, which was then boosted by my food and then they eventually evolved.

'My food has the power to evolve races as long as the monsters have their potentials open. And I have a sugar mommy who can open up potentials like popping popcorn.'

It was a weirdly funny and suspicious situation. I could already smell a really, really bothersome and big quest coming from Gaia for all these favours, but well. I can't do anything about it right now, so I'd just let it be.

"OHH! I can see it! Lady Gaia has blessed me! I have been blessed by Lady Gaia!"

Gomchul suddenly exclaimed, making the others look at him with a puzzled expression.

"Don't worry. He's talking about the status screen. And also about my sugar mom."

"....what?"

Bowser looked at me weirdly.

—-Pfft!

I laughed seeing his expression and explained to him about my current sponsorship relationship with Gaia.

"Were you some kind of god in your previous life? A god of luck, maybe?"

Bowser remarked, hearing what Gaia had been bringing to me all this time.

"How do you feel?"

I asked Gomchul, who was still staring in the air blankly— his status screen.

"I feel like a new world has been opened up to me, my lord."

Gomchul immediately fixed his posture and put his right hand near his heart, making a fist and kneeling with one knee touching the ground.

"I am extremely grateful to the earl for providing me with this amazing opportunity. I swear I'll never forget this grace and would etch it in my heart for eternity."

"Yes, yes. I get it. So stand up now."

I said as I patted his burly shoulder. He stood up with genuine gratefulness in his eyes.

[Affinity with Gomchul increased by +80]

[Affinity with Gomchul is at max already!]

I smiled from ear to ear as I could feel flowers blooming around me.

"And he gained a cultist following just like that…"

"I know, right?"

At this point, the jealousy in their voices had already been replaced by helplessness and glee.

Helplessness because they couldn't do anything about the current situation, glee because I was now tied to them.

"Oh, right, Shura. Didn't you say you needed to perform alchemy on a thousand souls?"

"Yeah, for the job change quest."

"It didn't mention any particular type of soul, right?"

Lynch asked with an evil smile on his face.

"No… it doesn't seem like it."

"Then I know the perfect hunting ground for us to both level up and complete your class quest. We might even be able to gain some decent drops if we are lucky…which I am sure we'll be if you're around."

He said the last part really slowly, almost like a whisper, but my enhanced hearing easily heard it. His face looked so greedy right now that he could pass off as a merchant NPC easily.

…

//DreamNote//

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