Unlike Jake, Lana, and Louise, who gained their VR helmets in the third month of the game, Karina and some of her friends gained them in the first month, but they didn't have much time to play due to the school. Still, they managed to enjoy themselves every time they logged in, and while they could have completed the requirements to move from the tutorial zone faster if they had the time due to Karina's innate skill, they managed to move on to the next part of the game after one month.
However, things got really difficult from that point onward since the pain got more intense. The front-liners had a lot of work dealing with the Reptilians since they used weapons and were relatively smart. Still, after completing that mission a few times, they eventually grew confident and moved to the next mission. It was around that time that they met a party that belonged to Rick's guild, and they received the invitation to join them, and so they did it since they were impressed by their powers. They were fooled since they didn't know about the existence of the mana rings…
Karina and her group received some help from Rick, but the help was just an excuse for him to analyze the group and who had innate skills. While the others managed to survive until now, they were way below Karina's level. Not to mention, Rick got on his hands an item that would turn Karina into the best tool to get rid of some troublesome people or those who he may not like…
After giving them an impossible mission to clear the slimes' dungeon that had just broken, the entire group died with the sole exception of Karina. She returned to the guild completely in shock, so Rick had the chance to use the ring on her and without any resistance. The day Karina lost her friends was just the first day of her hellish new life…
Her first mission had been to track a certain group of players that clearly showed their disgust when they saw that Rick's party only had voluptuous women. While he tried to hide, he was always looking at others who he wanted in his guild. Karina was forced to kill them while they were having their dinner in the middle of a mission…
Her second mission had been to track a certain group of players that managed to get the rarest drop off the frozen slimes' dungeon on their hands: the freezing longsword. On that mission, Karina had to tail the group for a week since they were stronger than her, and they didn't show any weakness. In the end, she attacked them when the one guarding their camp at night went to take a piss. She attacked him from behind to make sure he wouldn't make any noise. Soon, she attacked the other, but at the last moment, the leader of the group felt the scent of blood and woke up just when Karina was about to kill him. From that night onward, she would remember his expression of shock and fear when he saw the dagger piercing her trust.
Her life during the day wasn't much better either. Rick would often make her eat less than the others to make sure that she wouldn't have the will or the energy to rebel. She only found relief during the missions where she had to mix in groups to fool them. She could eat as much as she wanted during those, but still, that only made things feel even worse when she attacked the targets later.
After killing close to thirty people, Karina received the mission to assassinate Jake. As usual, she looked for the target and found them near the river, close to the many starting points. With her stealth skill, she watched without being found and then eventually found that they were going to the Golems dungeon. She selected that mission and then made several Golems attack her in order to make Jake's group save her and for her to have an apparent reason to help them as well.
While Lana and Louise fell for her act, Jake never did. Not only did he never drop his guard, but he also made sure to keep his skills hidden from her. Aside from the most basic one, even if it made the battles harder, Jake never showed his true skills. It didn't take long for Karina to feel extremely bad due to that job. While in other missions, she found some good people, they never treated her as well as Lana and Louise. Even Jake, who was wary of her, still cooked food for her and even gave seconds when she asked.
Karina hoped that someday that torment would suddenly end, but then she realized that she couldn't wait for a miracle. If she wanted to make some changes, she had to work and make that happen. Before she could think of a way on how to do that, the battle against the Elder Salamander happened, and Jake dropped his guard for a second. Louise's instincions realized that and then dashed to cut his throat. While the original plan was to make that look like an accident, Karina knew that Lana and Louise would join Rick's guild if they didn't see her with Rick or make the connection. Still, at the last moment, she fought against the magic spell. That made her feel a pain that was similar to her muscles melting, and she ended up passing out when Jake attacked her.
When Karina woke up, she thought that she would be alone or even in the other world, but she found Lana and Louise looking after her. Not to mention, a few hours later, Jake showed up with the ring that dominated her will, and he just passed it to her without asking anything in return. Rick was dead, and she was free. Not only that, the group received with open arms, even after att that… Jake didn't try to hide his feelings. He apparently, he had a is a reason to let her join. Still, it didn't matter. What mattered was the chance that Karina had to retribute all the help she had obtained, no matter what...
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