๐๐ถ๐บ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ล
"Y-you! Who are you?" Likru asked trying to regain himself from the shock of almost being killed. Thankfully I had my mask on so Likru couldn't know who I was.
"Not your business, but what are you doing here?" I questioned.
"Not your business, but what are YOU doing here?" Likru questioned back regaining his confidence.
Suddenly a familiar voice shouts loudly. "LikRUuUUuUuU!!!!! liKrUUuUuUu!!!!! I cAN hEaR yoU!!!!" The black figure shouts. Likru's face became sad and angry as he watches the being look everywhere. Noticing this, I question him. "You know that thing?"
"Why should you care?"
"Because I'll-- Kliyer will be involved with this from now on," I said without hesitation, It felt like it was my fault for making this situation worse for some reason. Likru's face becomes troubled but speaks anyway. "Hinu, a colleague of mine. He died long ago as we escaped from that time with my wife." He doesn't say anymore and had a look of guilt.
"This might be his vengeful spirit."
'Spirits....'
A spirit was a creature that was either a dead being or an elemental one that mostly stayed in one place. Vengeful ones usually either stay where they died and haunt the area or they will haunt their killers until they die so that they can finally pass on.
I spoke again. "I fought a small amount of those black things back in Bellken, from what I know they possessed things," I explained to him.
I didn't actually know about them possessing people and things but after seeing that infected humanoid phoenix and the black being known as Hinu, I decided to tell him anyway.
Likru looks back again and saw an artificial spew a black substance out of its body before breaking down and before long, the metal body was consumed by the goop.
The two were silent not knowing what to do next. For some reason, the goop was slowly consuming the factory.
A strong tingling feeling. Immediately, I grab Likru and hop on the other side of the sewer. A small tentacle-like substance was in front of them and with a small pause, I quickly slashes it.
The tentacle didn't have any time to react before getting slashed and soon disintegrated.
"Tch, even with this barrier they can still breakout, this means that they could be anywhere in the city," I spoke and in response, Likru panics and tries to leave.
"I'll alert the city about this, I'll let you go this time so come with me!"
Realizing that he wasn't trying to trick me, without hesitation follow suit. Likru escorts me out of the gate and I leave while Likru heads to the very center of the city.
I went back to the inn without being spotted. Dropping myself to the bed, I felt very unsatisfied and confused. Likru's vague involvement with this and my anxiety about that goop escaping, made it hard for me to sleep. It took me 3 hours or so before I fell asleep peacefully.
Himura woke up early with the sun on his face. As a reaction I shut the windows loudly which made the room dark, I then lit up a candle on the table before starting his usual exercise.
After finishing my usual, I checked his body once again. There were a tiny bit of abs visible, I felt my confidence rise a bit and felt energetic.
"I have been eating foods with low amounts of fat ever since going here," I said to myself, remembering the time when I was studying the anatomy of the human body.
A bell from a distance rings seven times so I wore his usual clothing before leaving the room. Downstairs, the three women were finishing their breakfast.
"Mornin Himura, hey your eyes kinda look baggy." Astoria greeted me as I was ordering my food.
"I'm fine, just a bit tired besides my eyes have always been this," I respond automatically.
"Tired eh?" Astoria looked teasingly but I betrayed no emotion. Freya and Alice also looked at me teasingly.
"What are you talking about?" I said feigning ignorance. The trio's gaze didn't waver.
'''Your poker face will break soon.''' The three thought to themselves as I went to a table next to them and ate.
When we were about to leave the inn, the timid receptionist quickly called out. "Ummm, Kliyer currently is having a curfew for safety reasons so we'll close earlier than usual so-"
"Alright." I briefly respond before we leave.
We immediately noticed the ratio of artificials to humans is about the same and the patrol was more strict than usual but the citizens weren't bothered by it and continued their business and so my party did so as well.
We arrived at a rocky chasm only known as "The Chasm". It was about two hours away from Kliyer and the gorge itself spans over three continents. This part of the gorge was made as a mine for Kliyer and we were here for a quest we chose back in the adventurers guild.
*****
INFORMATION:
The green berry trading and mining company has requested a subjugation of the Stalus, rock golems with protruding rocks of various colors which are their weak points.
Destroying said weakness will drop shards of gemstones, ores, and other valuable geodes. The trading company will buy these shards based on quality and size.
REQUIREMENTS FOR COMPLETION:
- All 7 of the confirmed stalus.
Optional:
- Shards from the stalus cores
REWARD:
6 Gold
45 Silver
Coins from selling the shards.
DIFFICULTY:
6 Stars
*****
I was a bit worried about taking on a difficulty that was higher than usual but I didn't show it.
The sun was shining brightly and it was silent, looking around the area but there was no stalus.
"So what do we do?" I asked the three but then.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Astoria screamed loudly and I had a very bad feeling about this. It didn't take long for Astoria's scream to get a response. The ground shakes briefly and 3 stalus emerge from the ground.
"""GROOOUUUULOOOO!!"""
The three stalus let out a growl of some sort. I sighed silently before me, Astoria and Freya grabbed their pickaxe.
The stalus core was fragile no matter what material it was made of. This was due to their unnatural existence in nature which makes the core fragile but since it was still a rock, we didn't want to damage their weapons or waste arrows so we bought a good quality pickaxe to do the job.
Alice summons many creatures to distract the stalus so they run ahead of them. Observing Freya and Astoria, I ran to the one that they weren't targeting. Alice's summoned creatures kept the stalus at bay as I ran to it. The stalus punches the ground where a black hound was, crushing it.
Seizing the opportunity, I used the arm as a bridge to go into the upside-down cone-shaped body where the core was.
There was a small protruding rock made out of iron ore on the side of its shoulder and I quickly ran towards it and grabbed it for support. I raised the pickaxe with one hand, he started smashing the core.
Immediately the stalus tries to grab me while violently shaking its body but thanks to the eagles and hounds that Alice summoned, I managed to hold on enough to finally shatter the core. The stalus slowly falls and Himura jumps before it hits the ground.
Looking at the other two, it seems I was the last one to kill my stalus.
'This is easier than I thought.' I thought to myself though I realized it might be thanks to my party members and soon I felt sad and angry about it.
'I need to improve more!' I screamed to myself. Shaking those thoughts away, Freya then starts talking. "Well was pretty easy. Also please don't scream to attract them, we may attract more than we can handle." She said looking at Astoria with a troubled face.
"Relax we'll be fine, anyway let's attract the next one." As she said that, she screamed loudly once again.
"""NO!!""" We screamed at her bad idea as always. Suddenly a massive shaking occurred and another 26 emerged.
Once again, this quest has gone wrong. I sigh cursing this party's luck, looking at my group, Alice and Freya had a look of panic as they prepare themselves.
Alice summons more than triple or even quadruple of what she summoned earlier and Freya threw her staff to the side and readied herself to fight most of them. I betrayed no emotion while Astoria had a face like she was trying to say "Oops."
I was in the back of the carriage exhausted, my arms were sore from the number of rocks I'd hit.
Since Astoria and Freya were far stronger than me, they sat at the front and drove while
Alice was practically dead at the moment because of the amount of mana she exhausted, it was only thanks to Freya's occasional mana transfer that she didn't get sick
At the back of the carriage were various ores and gemstones that we got from the stalus. This also made the carriage cramp since Alice mistakenly took my thigh as a pillow. I didn't really care so I continued drawing.
Returning to Kliyer, the streets were empty with only a few citizens running here and there. We were told to head to the trading and mining company first to sell the shards of the stalus cores.
We were given about 6 gold and 46 silver coins for the shard and the quest rewards gave us 7 gold coins as compensation for inaccurate information. Compensation only works when a quest has definite information with no other variables whatsoever.
'Now that I think about it, all of the quests that this party has taken always had inaccurate information.' I thought to myself as we head back to the inn. Astoria asked why the streets were empty and apparently it was because of the so-called threat now being a concern that affects Kliyer as a whole.
The government officials were super vague about it so they don't know much. I marveled at the citizens and Kliyer in general for how fast they work as a city.
Not even a day and they were immediately taking action. Back in his world, it would take a week to a month for anything to be announced. Returning to the inn, inside my room, I enter a stance like I was training for an inevitable battle. I didn't return to the sewer deciding to leave it to Professor Likru and feign ignorance instead.