(Nero)
Our week break was over, and we are back on doing some adventure's quest and commission. Nothing much has happened during our break, except for one thing.
I don't know what happened to Amy, but the day after I rejected her, her Liking Rate dropped to 44%. And when I met her again at the Adventure association's guild, she was acting weird, as if I was a stranger to her. Not just me, but to Eilan too. It's as if she forgot everything about wanting to join our party.
Anyway, that's not important. What's important now is getting ready for the next main quest, the 5th Heroine quest that is.
During the past four days after our short break, me and Eilan did some side quests in some hidden areas for treasure hunting and artifacts. But we were actually waiting for the Heroine quest to show up.
In the game, the president of the adventure association guild will announce a new quest for the top rank adventures, and the mission is to clear an unknown area and investigate it, somewhere inside an old ruin city. The monsters that lives there were all above level 390, and there is alot of them. That place is known for being a Death zone, because anyone who steps there will never come back.
When the day of the announcement finally came, me and Eilan were both volunteered to take the mission, along with one extra member on the team, and that was the 5th Heroine.
Her name is Deya, and she is a beastmen cat. She is an S rank adventure, and her class is a berserker. As for her personality... well, she is a barbaric. She is like those female characters who loves fighting and likes to wear less clothes and have muscles and abs.
It was just the three of us who would be doing the mission, and that's because most of the adventures doesn't like to explore an unknown area that has high level of Death rate.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Deya Claw, and I came from the black claw clan!" She said with a grin.
"The name is Nero, and I am from the south"
"....Eilania. From the south too."
We all began our journey to the ruin city, and on the way, we all fought the monsters on the way together. I have already discussed with Eilan before leaving the kingdom about keeping a low profile, so that we don't show Deya our true strength. Because if we did, then she will ask us for a dual... Multiple times. That's exactly what happened in the game. If the hero accepts Deya's dual, they both will get Exp as rewards, but you will also increase her Liking rate too, which what I want to avoid the most.
'If her Liking rate reaches above 50, then it will be hard for me to get rid of her'
After experiencing what happened to Amy and the other Heroines, I realized that even if I reject them, they will keep coming and asking me again and again, since This world is not a game, but a real one.
We camp out during the night, and we chatted on our expedition. Most of the conversation was between Deya and Eilan.
Why? Because I told her to talk with. In order to make sure Deya doesn't get intrested in me, I asked Eilan to be more talkative to her, while I would be the quiet guy who sits on the side. And the result was, it turned out well.
"So Eilania, what kind of foods do you like? For me, I like anything that has meats in it"
"... I like eating something sweet... and warm... And soft... that's all..." Eilan answered with a stoic face. She was trying hard not to ignore her.
'Sorry Eilan. I promise that after we finish this quest, I will cook your favorite honey pie later.'
Three days later, we reached the ruin city. The place was completely foggy, and it was hard to see anything. The reason why this area has a high death rate is because whoever enters here, they will get lost and get trapped. Even in the game, the moment your character enters this place, the map will also get foggy, and you won't be able to know which direction is the correct one.
And what's more worse than getting lost in the fog is getting attack out of nowhere, by some undead skeletons.
"What the Hell! Where did those guys came from?!" Deya shouted as she slashed multiple skeletons with her large sword.
*SLASH!*
I looked at Eilan and gave her a nod. She nodded back at me and then we proceed with the plan.
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(3rd POV)
5 minutes later, Deya has finished clearing all the monsters around her.
"Hooh, that was tiring. Right guys?" Turning around to check on her two companions, she couldn't find them.
"Eilania?... Nero!?. Guys!?"
She didn't hear a response. Deya tried using her cat ears to find thier location, but she failed.
"Damn it! Did they get lost during the fight"
She then decided to look for her friends first. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't know that her companions ditch her on purpose. And because the fog is disturbing all of her beast senses, except for her hearing, she can not find them.
*****
Meanwhile, Nero and Eilania where standing in front of a large gate, which was the gate of a castle.
Before entering the ruin city, Nero told Eilania about his plan to get separated from Deya, after entering the fog, and using sound magic to cover their sounds, so that Deya doesn't find them, while they defeat the boss.
"Ready Eilan?"
Eilania nodded and then casted a large spell that creates a sound barrier around the castle that blocks all the sounds from coming out.
"Ready"
"Then let's go"
Nero then pushed the gate open and walked into the castle. After reaching the main hall of the castle which was the throne room, they saw a dead skeleton wearing a black armor, siting on the throne while holding a large dark sword with both hands.
The eyes of the skeleton began to glow purple, and the surrounding hall started to release a dark aura everywhere.
"That's a lich king" Eilania said with a frown.
The Boss's name was called The Pride Lich King, and he is the king of this ruin kingdom.
The short story is that the last king of this kingdom was searching for Immortality, so he can keep ruling over his people forever. The king wasn't a bad person, he was just afraid that after his death, one of the future kings might become a bad ruler or a tyrant to his people, because of the pressure from the nobles and their bad influence.
The king then found a sorcerer who knows a way to Immortality, and made a deal with him. But it turns out that the sorcerer has ticked him, and turned the king into an undead servant using dark magic curse.
Fortunate, the king was strong enough to resist the brainwash and was able to kill the sorcerer, but the consequence was the dark magic corrupting his mind and body, making him kill all the people he swore to protect, and turning them into an undead.
"Eilan. Just like we planned."
"Roger"
The Lich king then summoned hundreds of undead soldiers to attack the two. Nero then unsheathed his sword and dashed towards the king himself, while Eilan was dealing with the undead soldiers with her scythe.
Their battle created alot of noises from weapons colliding and magic explosions, but because of the sound barrier that was placed around the castle, no one can hear it. In the end, they were able to take down the undead king and his army easily, because of the differences in their status.
After the Lich king's defeat. His corpse vanished into dush, leaving behind a letter and a treasure chest. Nero took all the treasures inside the chest and the rewards, and left behind the letter, because it wasn't worthy to him. Just a letter written about the king's sad life and regrets.
Nero then went to explore the castle with Eilania, finding many hidden treasures and some skill books to upgrade their skills, and some low and middle grade artifacts which are useless to them, but Nero still took them all so that he could sell it for money. And finally, Nero was able to get his hand on the 5th legendary artifact, the Boots which increase the agility and speed by 200%.
After collecting everything that's inside the castle, Nero and Eilania left the place to look for Deya who they left behind.
*****
Meanwhile, somewhere in the ruin city. Deya was walking around aimlessly with a frown.
"GRAAAAAAAA! Just what the heck is wrong with this place! I can't see anything and I don't know where am I! These annoying stupid fog!"
Just before she was about to punch a wall, she noticed the fog starting to disappear, and everything started to become more clear. Because of the Lich king's death, the curse that was placed in this ruin city is gone now. Minutes later, Deya was able to find Nero and Eilania. The barbaric cat ran to them and hugged Eilania with a tearful eyes like a little girl, happy to see them again.
"Waaaaa! I thought I was lost and you guys left me"
Deya kept crying on Eilania chest, while Nero was looking at her with a twitching eye and death stare as he watched Eilania patting her head with a confused look.
___________
(Nero)
After we went back the Guild and reported our mission success, our ranks went up from S to SS.
[Heroine Quest: Join Deya on an expedition quest!]
[Quest completed. Result: S]
[Rewards:.....]
I checked all the rewards, then looked at Deya who is chatting with Eilania. I checked her Liking rate and it was 51%.
[Deya's Liking Rate: 51%]
I frowned when saw it. Dispait I haven't interact with Deya alot, it still went above 50%.
"*Sigh*
'Whatever, I will just reject her like the other Heroines'
I walked towards them and called Eilan.
"Eilan, come on. It's time for us to leave."
She nodded as then said goodbye to Deya. But as we were about to leave the Guild, we were stopped by her.
"W-wait!"
I sighed as I turned around and looked at Deya who looked nervous.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Um... can I join you?"
"Sorry, but I am not interested in having another-" as I was about to reject her, she interrupted me.
"What are you talking about? I was asking Eilania, not you" Deya gave me a weird look when she said that.
I looked at her dumbfounded as I watched her grabbed both Eilania's hand while begging to let her join us. My heart was beating hard as I stared at Deya with a cold eyes.
"Sorry, but I can't do that" Eilania answer with a troublesome look.
"Why?"
I kept watching them until Deya finally gave up and left us after she said goodbye to Eilan, by giving her a big hug. My eyebrows was twitching when she did that to my girl.
"That was... kinda awkward" Eilan responded as she watched Deya walking away.
I grabbed Eilania's hand and pulled her as we walked out of the guild. Right now, my expression was very cold as ice-hell.
"Um, Nero? Where are we going?" She didn't resist my action for taking her hand.
"Back to the inn. I want to go to sleep"
Right now, my mind is think on increasing her Liking rate. I was planning on going by the normal way, but now, I changed my mind.
[Liking Rate: 79%]
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*******
Sorry for the late update. totally forgotten about it cause I was busy and lost.
anyway, please help me by giving motivation to continue... odiss~😣