[Translator: Dawn]
[Proofreader: Karane]
[ Removal of the harmful animal colony in the mines of De Munt Hill ]
Commuds: 1586 / 1586
?: 1 / 1
As soon as the lord of the DeMunt castle had met his fate at the hands of Khea, the content of the quest window changed.
< Quest Clear! >
Golden letters filled my sight with trumpet sounds, and a moment later, Sharan, Guile, Swordsman, and I were all wrapped around by bright lights.
Guile was the first one to shout out loud as soon as the light disappeared.
"Oh my god…! I leveled up 7 times!"
"This quest truly was something amazing. I leveled up 5 times."
Both Sharan and Swordsman seemed to have a hard time concealing their surprised expression.
"I also leveled up 5 times."
And everyone looked at me, expecting me to say something.
"3 for me."
"Wow, you probably had the most contribution to the quest, and yet you only leveled up 3 times?"
"What level are you?"
Everyone showed their surprised expression at what I said. But that only lasted a moment. Soon, everyone started to pull out all the wooden crates they had from their inventories.
"We are ric—I mean, we've got 6000 gold as a reward!"
Sharan was stuttering because of how happy she was. Guile couldn't even keep his mouth closed and his face looked as if he was still dreaming.
And whilst we had all the crates out in one place, Swordsman pushed three of the crates towards me. Sharan and Guile quickly seemed to be convinced by Swordsman's action, and nodded with a smile.
"I mean, well. It was all thanks to Mose we were able to clear the quest."
I didn't really agree with that opinion. So I put the three crates I received back to where they were in the first place.
"I think it was all thanks to your exhilarating plan, Mister, that we were able to end this quest without a bitter ending. So I believe a reconsideration for this distribution is in order."
Swordsman finally chuckled at my words, Sharan and Guile also laughed out loud.
So each of us took two crates, therefore receiving 1500 gold per person.
Contrary to the huge reward that I got unexpectedly, this 1500 gold was very valuable because of the sense of accomplishment that I got after doing a real job.
"I never thought I could get my hands on such a huge amount of money…"
Guile's hands were still trembling so he couldn't even put his crates back into his inventory. After distributing all the rewards from clearing the quest, Sharan and Swordsman hurriedly began to take out various items from their inventory.
"These are the best cores we got from the Commuds. The best we got from them was the magic rank though."
Sharan said as she pulled out rusty blades.
Since there were too many of them, we decided that we should keep the money we get after Sharan sells them for another dinner.
Even before my excitement had enough time to fade away, Sharan carefully handed me a piece of paper from her arms.
"This is…?"
"It's a letter that the abandoned hunchback left for you, Mose. I found it while checking the mine out before getting the reward."
In response to my question, she showed a slightly reminiscent expression for parting away. And on the paper I received from her,
[ Dear my fiery friend ]
There were very clumsy, clunky, and scribbled letters that could even be considered a drawing stood out from it.
I carefully opened the letter and soon realized that there was a drawing on it instead of letters.
"…A ship?"
I couldn't help but spit out a question that came to my mind as soon as I saw the drawing.
In the picture that the hunchback drew, there was a wrecked ship at the bottom of the mines.
After examining those sloppy pictures for a while, I was able to find a specific part in the pictures that I thought were just drawings and didn't pay much attention to.
These were letters.
[ There's an abandoned ship. I never went there. I was too scared. ]
I was finally able to realize that after looking into it for quite an amount of time.
How strange to hear that there was a wrecked ship at the bottom, and in the middle of a mine!
And as I was thinking that this problem was all for me to solve, Guile knocked me on my side.
"Mose, brother! Look! Over there!"
With a blushing face and a strange expression on his face, Guile started sending me signs with his eyes.
"Hmph, do you have any idea how far this place is from my home?"
I didn't pay any mind to her blunt expression. As this was my first time seeing her in a few days, I walked up to her without realizing it.
"Hey, what are you…"
As Khea was trying to say something, I put my hands on both her shoulders.
"Long time no see, Khea."
Khea couldn't seem to find a reply to that, as she was too busy turning her head left and right, not knowing what to do at my greeting.
And a while later, she pushed me away and awkwardly exchanged greetings with my party members.
And in the end, we drank.
The city was almost in a festive mood, so the hall on the first floor of this inn was very crowded with people.
"So that's why you called me!"
Khea slapped her knee after hearing everything from Guile.
I feel like past Khea would never drink any alcohol, but for some reason she had already drank a lot of alcohol.
And Sharan sitting next to her silently sipped her drink with a frowning face. And with a decisive facial expression, she quietly asked Khea a question.
"What is your relationship with Mose?"
Guile and Swordsman looked at me, Khea, and Sharan as if an interesting scene had taken in place, and then began to focus on what I had to say.
"Hm, co-workers? Don't Players usually call it that?"
Khea answered with a cool tone, as Guile and Swordsman spewed out the drink they had in their mouths.
But in the meantime, I noticed Khea's strangely subtle eyes and Sharan's complicated eyes and soothed my burning uncomfortable stomach with alcohol.
Fruit-flavored black beer intruded into my body without any resistance. As the time entered the dawn and the atmosphere was ripening,
I bowed my head to Swordsman at the quiet table.
"I've learned a lot from you, Mister."
"What did you get to learn from me?"
Swordsman poured more drink into his cup with a chuckle. I carefully told him stories that I had buried deep inside my heart.
"Honestly speaking, I had some times when I had to make really difficult choices. And even now, I am not so sure if the choices I made back then were the right ones."
At my words, he opened his mouth to put a dumpling in his mouth, and spoke up.
"Mose, do you remember what I said back in the mine?"
"Of course."
"I told you that my wife and I ran from the girl as if we were being chased, and cried when we got back home, right?"
"Yes."
He took a big sip from the cup and let out a huge sigh.
"Do you know what we did the next day?"
"What did you do?"
He placed the cup on the table, placed his chin on his palm, and began to smile with defocused eyes as if he was staring into the past.
"On the next day, My wife and I left diapers, and powdered milk we bought with the little money we had, and carefully placed it on that church's window."
He showed a relaxed smile with his eyes finding their focus back.
"And we left a letter. In the letter we wrote, 'Please take good care of the baby that was left here yesterday. Please raise the baby to become a good person.'"
Looking at me, who was speechless, Swordsman fixed his posture, sighing deeply.
"I believe that you don't have to mindlessly sprint towards the choice you have already made.
Sometimes, you should give yourself some time to look back at the choices you made."
Lairo's empty face before his death flashed over my sight at his words.
"And as my wife and I cried that night, we had time to look back at the choice we made to run away. And thanks to the next choice we made, we were able to relieve some guilt we had from the first choice we made. Mose, I'd suggest you do the same, how about it?"
"…Yes. I'll make sure to do so."
It felt like I had a lump in my throat. I wanted to whine like a child to the point that I wondered if this was okay as an adult in Virtual Reality.
Still, I was able to spend the rest of the dawn with a slightly relaxed mind.
***
Reaper Scans
[Translator – Dawn]
[Proofreader – Karane]
Join our Discord for updates on releases! https://discord.gg/reapercomics
***
The morning came. I found myself lying on the floor in the middle of the man's room. I woke up and looked around with a clear mind.
Guile was still hungover from last night, and Swordsman was already awake.
"Mister, you're awake."
"This is a problem."
"Yes?"
Swordsman hurriedly lied on the bed.
"I forgot to log out! My wife's gonna be very angry. Sorry!"
Then he disappeared as if he evaporated. After confirming that he had logged out, I was able to check the crystal ball-shaped clock located in the room.
It was still such an early morning. I took a step outside the inn.
I moved my step towards the entrance to the mine, breathing in the fresh air of the early morning. My objective was to investigate in more detail about the letter I got yesterday.
I noticed many things have changed since the last time I've been here as I slowly walked down the mine.
Candles that seemed to be placed not too long ago were gently illuminating the darkness in the spiral staircase, and there were white flower petals dropped on the floor here and there.
As I arrived at the place where we had a fierce battle, a heavy burden settled in the middle of my heart.
Numerous candles, paintings, pictures, and texts that seemed to represent the children were filled with the sorrow and farewells from the parents in this burnt plaza.
And among the pictures, I could see a very familiar face.
Although one of the eyes was smashed and the skin paler, it became immediately obvious that the face of the child in the picture was that of the hunchback.
"When we meet again next time, maybe I should at least tell him my name, huh?"
A quiet little whisper to myself leaked out from regrets.
[ To our beloved baby, We are sorry.
– To Firli – ]
The child in the picture was smiling very happily. So bright that the hump on the back was almost even covered by it.
After feeling the lingering emotions for a while, I started to prepare to go down again.
The bottom of the mine was covered in thick darkness and puddled in damp swamps. And in the middle of it, there was something huge.
As I approached the unknown huge object in the middle, a clear sound of a bell rang and a text passed through my sight.
< Ruin Discovered – Ship of the Sky Lord >
The thick darkness of the ruin soon faded away. Lights in the 'Ship of the Sky Lord' started to come up from various places.
When I turned on the generator, a heavy mechanical sound made my whole body tremble. A wave broke out at the shore of the swamp, which had accepted the vibration of that sound.
And soon after,
As the darkness completely faded away,
I was finally able to see.
Half of the gigantic ship stuck in the center of the bottom of the mine.
And at the moment,
< You are able to use the skill: Lucky Ruin. >
A window popped up with an alarm sound.
Lucky Ruin, it was the skill I received from defeating Lairo. If I remember correctly, the content of the skill was,
[ Lucky Ruin ]
Level: 1
Class: Active
Can be activated through consuming 1 luck stat.
Objects found in ancient ruins and dungeons can be turned into itemized cores. The rank of the items made into cores is increased depending on the level of the skill.
Cooldown: 72 hours
An amazing skill that makes artifacts found from ruins into cores. As I calmed my harshly beating heart down a bit, I placed my hand on one part of the gigantic ship.
And as soon as I saw the system alarm window that appeared after a moment, my heart almost skipped a beat.
Would you like to turn the Ruin : Ship of the Sky Lord into a core? >
I swallowed a gulp down my throat as I spoke out the initiating word for the skill after I felt a foreign feeling enter into my head.
"Lucky Ruin."
Everything around me started to dye in golden light with a huge vibration. Soon the buried part of the ship was surrounded by golden light, and as the light faded, it appeared in front of me as a gigantic core.
The ship completely disappeared.
In front of me was nothing but a huge golden sphere, like a golden star that came down from outer space.
I carefully placed my hand on the core.
However, the core did not break.
This must have been because of my other skill, Ruiner Mix.
As I stored the core into my inventory, I got a new popup window from the core.
[ Sky Lord ]
Class: Vehicle
Rank: Legendary
Output: 140000 magic power (2 squared super-giant gravitational crystal)
Maximum Speed: 861 km/h (The speed of Gainar chasing its prey)
Whirling Speed: 102 (Rain clouds that had met the goddess of wind)
Maximum Number of Passengers: 850 people
History: The ship of misfortune that fell from the heavenly civilization 'Skya'. This golden ship, which crashed due to an unknown incident, pierced the center of a huge mountain. However, this was a blessing to those who settled in civilization on the ground. Who would have known that the hole the ship had made when it crashed would soon become the largest mine in the world.
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