MMORPG: Birth of the World's Luckiest Player-Chapter 244: The Vixen Spirit

As it turned out, Marcus’s worries had been completely unnecessary. There was no ambush waiting ahead, no sudden reversal, and no hidden reinforcements appearing out of nowhere.

After more than twenty minutes of relentless pursuit with Lyanna flying beside him, Marcus and his companions finally managed to close the distance with the fleeing Wraith-Bird.

"Desperate Strike!"

-6500, -5000!

This time fortune was firmly on his side. Both Marcus and the Temple Guardian struck at the exact same moment, and both attacks landed as critical hits. The combined burst of damage tore through the Wraith-Bird instantly, leaving it no chance to escape.

SKREEE!

The creature let out a final, pitiful shriek as its body stiffened in midair before plunging toward the ground. Unlike before, no necrotic energy erupted from the corpse. No ghostly skull appeared to drag it back from death.

Instead, the clear and pleasant chime of the system sounded.

Ding!

"System Notification: Congratulations to player Stonehaven for slaying the Golden Wraith-Bird. Reputation +100. Gold +5,000."

As the notification faded from view, Marcus guided the Violet Thunderwing Steed into a sharp dive, following the falling body toward the ground below. His target was the bird’s tail, where the rare Black-Wraith Feather grew.

The long chase had carried them deep into an isolated and unfamiliar region. The Wraith-Bird’s corpse crashed into the center of a modest valley hidden among the surrounding terrain, and as Marcus descended he realized the place possessed a quiet, unexpected beauty.

Once he landed beside the fallen creature, Marcus immediately activated his Gathering skill.

Ding!

"System Notification: Congratulations to player Stonehaven for gathering a Black-Wraith Feather. Gathering proficiency increased."

—

Black-Wraith Feather: The singular feather from a Wraith-Bird’s tail. It carries faint magical properties and can be used when crafting cloaks or headgear.

—

’Perfect. Mission accomplished,’ Marcus thought with satisfaction. This was exactly the item Fate’s Trial needed for the quest.

He continued gathering materials from the corpse.

Ding!

"System Notification: Congratulations to player Stonehaven for gathering a Wraith-Bird’s Iron Beak. Gathering proficiency increased."

—

Wraith-Bird’s Iron Beak: A high-grade forging material. Weapons crafted with it emit a harsh, cawing resonance during combat that can unsettle enemies and reduce certain attributes.

—

Once the harvesting was complete, the Wraith-Bird’s body slowly dissolved and disappeared. Nothing else remained behind.

Marcus could not help feeling a small wave of disappointment. It appeared this particular Golden-tier boss had been created solely for the sake of the quest and was scripted not to drop any actual equipment.

’What a waste of a Golden boss,’ he thought with a quiet sigh.

With the task finished, Marcus finally allowed himself to look around properly.

The small valley was filled with lush green grass and tall, ancient trees whose branches formed a loose canopy overhead. The air felt unusually fresh and clean, and a faint path wound its way through the middle of the valley like a narrow ribbon hidden in the grass.

It was a surprisingly picturesque place, the kind of location that felt almost deliberately concealed.

’Where exactly am I?’

Marcus opened Silas the Wanderer’s map and checked his coordinates. Strangely enough, the valley did not appear anywhere on the chart.

There were only two possible explanations. Either the place was so well hidden that even Silas had never discovered it, or it had seemed so ordinary that the legendary explorer had not bothered marking it at all.

Either way, the faint path caught Marcus’s attention.

Most people would have walked straight past it without noticing. The grass had grown thick over the trail, nearly swallowing it completely. Yet a closer look revealed something unusual.

The grass along the path had been flattened and trampled. And not long ago.

’Someone passed through here recently.’

Judging from the disturbance, it had likely been a group moving in a hurry rather than a single traveler.

Curiosity stirred inside Marcus. After a brief moment of thought, he decided to investigate.

To avoid unnecessary trouble he unsummoned both the Shadow-Stained Gryphon King and Lyanna. If a battle broke out he could easily call them again, but keeping fewer companions active made it easier to move quietly.

He kept the Temple Guardian and the Sea Demon Soul at his side and began following the faint trail deeper into the valley.

The path eventually led him into a dense grove of trees.

As Marcus approached the edge of the woods, a sudden flash of brilliant light flickered through the branches ahead. At the same time he heard the sharp echoes of shouting voices and the crackling surge of magical energy colliding in battle.

’A fight,’ Marcus realized immediately. And judging from those spell effects, it’s not a small one.

He slowed his advance and became much more cautious. Guiding the Violet Thunderwing Steed carefully, he moved forward until he reached a massive ancient tree at the edge of the forest. Using the thick trunk as cover, he leaned slightly to observe the scene beyond.

The woods opened onto a wide, flat clearing.

At the center of the clearing stood a large wooden manor built in an elegant classical style. The building rested against the slope of a mountain, and a narrow stream flowed gently nearby. The entire setting blended architecture and nature so naturally that the place seemed filled with a quiet spiritual vitality.

In front of the manor stretched a large garden.

Rows of herbs grew in neat clusters across the soil, their shapes and colors unusual enough to immediately draw Marcus’s attention. He studied them carefully but failed to recognize even one of the plants.

Yet judging by the strange forms and faint auras radiating from them, they were clearly rare and valuable ingredients.

’Someone’s living here as a hermit,’ Marcus concluded.

Unfortunately, the peaceful atmosphere of the valley had been thoroughly shattered.

In the open space before the herb garden, roughly a dozen figures were locked in a chaotic melee. Brilliant spells exploded across the clearing while streaks of energy clashed and scattered in every direction, tearing through the calm landscape and threatening to destroy both the garden and the manor behind it.

’Seriously?’ Marcus grumbled inwardly while watching the destruction. ’Have some respect for the environment. No sense of conservation at all. You’re wrecking the place.’

He began studying the fighters more carefully, but his attention was immediately drawn to the person at the center of the battle.

A woman dressed in white.

Her clothing was simple and pale, draping over her tall and slender figure like a soft breeze moving through willow branches. She resembled a lone jasmine blooming in a quiet valley, fresh and graceful, carrying an almost tangible sense of vitality.

When Marcus finally saw her face clearly, he froze for a brief moment.

Her features were delicate and refined, as though carved from flawless stone. Her eyes were clear and calm like still autumn pools, her skin carried a faint natural glow, and her lips formed a perfect gentle curve.

She was breathtaking.

What impressed Marcus even more was her attire. The fabric she wore was plain and coarse, the sort of clothing one might expect from a simple village girl. Yet instead of diminishing her beauty, the simplicity only emphasized it.

She radiated a natural purity that felt completely unforced.

She doesn’t need jewelry or expensive silks at all, Marcus thought with genuine admiration. If she dressed like a noblewoman, she’d probably outshine half the royal courts in the game.

Like Lyanna, the woman was clearly a high-level NPC created by the system’s central AI, Skynet. Yet unlike many beautiful NPC women designed to be overtly seductive or distant and arrogant, her presence felt simple and genuine.

Her beauty was not aggressive or dramatic; It was simply pure.

’Another system-generated goddess,’ Marcus concluded quietly.

At the moment, however, that ’goddess’ was in serious trouble. Eight enemies surrounded her.

When Marcus focused on them, his eyes widened slightly. Recognising them from images in forums, they were Vixen Spirits.

Each one possessed the graceful figure of a young woman, their bodies slender and alluring. Their clothing consisted of thin, translucent silks that clung to their curves while revealing far more skin than they concealed.

If not for the pointed fox ears atop their heads and the three soft, swaying fox tails behind them, they could easily have been mistaken for a group of dangerously seductive women.

The vixens moved with teasing grace, twisting their bodies as they circled their target. Their silk garments fluttered with each motion, revealing flashes of smooth skin while they waved crimson silk handkerchiefs through the air.

From those handkerchiefs drifted clouds of pink, peach-colored mist.

The mist surrounded the vixens like a supernatural aura, enhancing their already captivating presence. At the same time, the vapors were being directed toward the woman in white, slowly gathering around her position.

She stood at the center of their formation.

It was obvious that the woman in white was the true owner of this valley, and the vixens were the intruders. They must have been the ones who trampled the path Marcus had followed earlier.

’If this were players fighting monsters, I’d probably just walk away,’ Marcus thought with a faint, mischievous smile. ’But monsters attacking a high-level NPC? There’s a good chance there’s a reward waiting if I step in.’

Unfortunately he was still too far away to activate Insight and check the vixens’ exact levels. However, each of them possessed three tails, which meant they were far from ordinary enemies.

The woman in white held a slender bamboo staff made from translucent green crystal. The staff pulsed with a soft, vibrant light that resembled fresh spring leaves glowing in the sun.

Just looking at it made Marcus feel as if he could almost smell the scent of new growth in the air.

’That staff is definitely a treasure’, he thought.

It was also the reason she had managed to endure this long. The verdant light radiating from the bamboo staff formed a protective barrier around her body, shielding her from the waves of seductive pink mist that the vixens continuously sent rolling toward her.