Probably a minute had left before the start of the second quest; the shorter the time, the more unsettling his feelings were getting.
Once again, opening the status, he looked at the ticking clock, probably the last time…
[Time left before the start of the second quest: 00:00:50]
And he was right; there were only 50…48.. seconds left before the start of the quest. He looked at the clock, which began to tick slowly the closer it got to zero—Or that's how he felt at the moment. He kept looking at the slowly descending number.
Before long, the number reached…10
Then 9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1!
The moment the number hit 0, it seemed like the world had become dreadful. Dhruv only managed to regain his senses after listing the sound of the cosmos.
[The Second Quest had started.]
The moment he heard the notification, it was as if a strange but dreadful aura had spread all over the planet. Feeling a sense of dread, a chill ran down his spine.
Another weird thing happened, two pillars of light got shot up in the sky. Dhruv saw these pillars of light despite being surrounded by walls from all sides.
'It looks like they had some kind of glowing effect..' This is the only reasonable conclusion he could come up with.
These two weren't the only pillars, as he could see countless others ahead of him. He was so mesmerized by it that he forgot to look behind himself.
Dhruv knew the location of these pillars—at least one of them, as one of the light pillars was on the exact location where his cell was. The other one was on the far right of his cell, at the end of the prison.
'Perhaps that was the crack from which the warden had absorbed his power.' he thought.
He was indeed correct, and this is the exact crack from which the warden absorbed mana and became one of the chosen.
The pillar of light remained for a second, then disappeared, completing its duty.
He began moving out of the room and wanted to leave the prison so that he didn't have to face the monsters from all directions.
The prison is surrounded by probably 10 Meter walls from all directions, with only one gap in it's defense. And that gap was for the purpose of entry and exit.This is exactly what Dhruv was aiming for.
"Vexar and Azarex, let's get out of here." Exiting the room, he orders the duo.
All three of them began moving toward the entrance of the prison—actually, four.
While sprinting toward the exit, they began hearing growls; at first they were barely audible, but as time passed, they began to sound louder. Fearing the worst, Dhruv sprinted with all his might, which was quite fast considering his stats.
And not long after that, they got out of the prison safe and sound—for now at least. He didn't close the gate of the prison because being safe wasn't his goal. His goal was to hunt. And with the help of its narrow gate, he is going to achieve this. Because of the narrow space, they couldn't move forward together as it was only a two or three-man wide door.
Before they could even catch a breath, a bizarre monster poked his head out from the gate, looking for any prey...
Looking at the hideous monster, he thought...
'I swear to God, I had seen them before somewhere…'
The creature in question possessed green skin and stood at about half a meter in height. Its long, pointy ears and bulbous nose were noticeable features, while its small, beady eyes seemed perfectly adapted for nocturnal activity. For offense, it had a really sharp and sturdy claw on top of jagged and pointy teeth.
Before he could even remember its name, the monster got close enough. Thinking it could be dangerous if it got any closer, Dhruv was about to fire his spell when Vexar got in front of him and sliced the monster in half with just one swing of his blade.
And to his surprise, a sound was heard in his head…
[You have killed a monster: lesser goblin.]
[You have gained exp]
[You have earned 50 CC.]
'WHAT..?!!'
'Why am I getting the exp for vexar's kill.'
Dhruv also got coins from the kill but didn't think it was weird. And his reasoning for that was… as monsters, they can't earn coins, so he got them instead. But with exp, it was a different thing, as even after getting the exp, they could also use the core of this monster to upgrade them.
This could be huge in either case, whether there is a core left in the body or not. If the answer happens to be 'yes' then it would be a very big success, and he could use one monster for two purposes—leveling himself and then, with the help of the core, saturating the trios' cores.
And if the answer came out as 'no' then it would be equally disastrous. That means he could forget about evolving his guardians any further… not unless someone is willing to sell their core, which would be quite tedious at this moment.
"Vexar, quickly go and check if there is any core left in the monster's body." He cried out, eager to know the result, whatever it was.
But luck wasn't on his side, as the moment Vexar stepped forward, a wave of goblins began to pour out from the gate. A wave because, despite the narrowness of the gate, their small and nimble bodies could easily pass through them.
Dhruv looked at Vexar, who was probably thinking of fighting the hoard, and blurted out, "You continue, we will hold them off."
Listing the order, Vexar continued his step and walked toward the corpse.
Dhruv looked at the pouring monster from the gate. He lifted his staff and started firing metal arrows. He cast an elemental bolt, and instead of the fire bolt he wanted, a bolt made out of metal got fired.
Looking at the result, he frowns…
'Didn't the description say that I could use any type of element? Then why is it only popping out metal bolts?' He questioned and wanted to think more about the reason, as he sure was missing something. But couldn't ponder for long as the number of goblins was increasing by the second.
Azarex and Alaric were also helping him to thin out the number as much as they could, but it wasn't enough. He looked at the Vexar, hoping for good news, but the task was still in progress. Due to not knowing where and what he had to find, Vexar was making a mess of the corpse.
Dhruv began to worry and thought that the worst had happened…
He couldn't even properly look at the Vexar before the monster had already come dangerously close to the group.
Seeing the monster this close, Alaric dissolved into the shadow, then appeared in the middle of the hoard, capturing and dragging some of them into his shadow. He began to repeat this in the hope of thinning the numbers out.
Looking at the dragged monster he couldn't help but think,t 'For some reason, I could almost pity them… almost'
Azarex had also begun using his necromancy, as I could see one or two undead among the ranks of the hoard fighting against their own kin. But his skill wasn't at the level of the warden yet.
He could feel that between all four of them, Vexar was probably the most frustrated of all.
Vexar was frustrated because he couldn't find that damn core, but that wasn't even the main reason behind his frustration. He is frustrated because he couldn't use his dear swords to cut down these vile monsters who dared to threaten his master. And for him to join the battle, he had to search this corpse thoroughly to find the core, if there was any.
Noticing the distance getting further reduced, he dropped his staff and picked up the spear. Activating the [Tempest Charge] he charged into the ranks of the goblins.