"What is this place?" August muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. The stench of decay mingled with the sharp tang of cold air, creating an unsettling atmosphere.
"It looks like a storage area," Harry replied, looking equally perplexed. "But why would Snow Vipers gather so many beast cores and carcasses?"
August reached towards the pile of cores, picking one up. He used inspect on it.
[Mana core of Rank 1 initial stage Long tongue toad]
"What should we do? Should we return to the shelter and inform the association?" Rina asked Harry.
"Let's take a picture with our devices for evidence so we can show it to the association," Harry suggested, pulling out a smartphone from his pocket and snapping multiple pictures.
After Harry took several pictures of the corpses and beast cores, August asked, "What are we going to do with the beast cores?"
"We found them, so we can take them, obviously," Harry replied, putting the smartphone back in his pocket.
"How are we going to divide them?" August quickly asked.
"We'll divide them after we get to the shelter," Harry said. "August, if your storage ring has more space, can you please store the cores in it? Our storage pouch is full of beast parts and other things. We planned to sell everything today, but we didn't expect to find so many beast cores."
"Don't worry, I have space for them," August reassured them, and he began to store the beast cores. There were roughly 500 cores ranging from rank 1 initial stage to peak stage, with no rank 2 cores.
After August stored all the beast cores in his storage ring, he said, "Let's head out."
"Okay, let's go, everyone," Harry instructed. "And be careful; the Snow Vipers might return this way to store their food."
Everyone returned to the forked path, carefully glancing around to ensure no beast could sneak up on them.
"Let's check this path too. We might find the cause of the problem," August suggested.
"Okay, let's quickly check this path and get out of here. I'm not getting a good vibe from this cave," Harry said, leading the way with a sense of urgency gripping everyone's heart.
As they walked slowly, Harry gestured with his hand to stop.
August looked around but couldn't see anything. He reached Harry and asked in a low voice, "Why did you stop?"
"Look there," Harry pointed at the ground before them.
"What's there?" August glanced in the direction Harry indicated and his eyes widened in surprise. 'Shit!' he cursed in his mind.
A huge slither track was left behind by some enormous beast, and August couldn't help but imagine how big it must be.
The others took a closer look, and their reactions were more bizarre than August's, their faces gripped with fear.
"W-we should return to the shelter and report this quickly," Rina said, her voice tinged with fear.
"Yeah, we should get out of here. I've had a bad feeling about this from the start," Carl agreed.
"I want to see what's there," August said firmly. 'I can't abandon this chance to complete the quest, and I want to see what's there.'
"Look, August, we know you want to know what's in there and so do I, but I can't get my team into danger because of curiosity," Harry said, taking a breath and composing himself. "So why don't we return and let the association handle this? It's not at our level to solve."
"I understand that. That's why I will go alone. You can get out of here with your squad," August said, smiling reassuringly at them. 'I might sound childish to them, but what can I do? I want to complete this quest.'
Harry sighed in defeat. "Then we'll wait at the entrance of the cave until you return," he said, taking some pictures of the trail.
"Thanks. I will return quickly," August reassured them.
Harry and his squad started to head out while August waited for them to get some distance. Then he sprinted inside. 'Let's quickly complete this quest and head out of here,' he thought.
He arrived at an opening and passed through it, awestruck by the spectacular view before him. "So beautiful," he murmured.
Before him was a cavern frozen solid, with deep blue ice walls. Glowing crystals in the ceiling bathed the cavern in a beautiful light.
'What is that?' As he observed the surroundings, he caught a glimpse of something in the distance.
He glanced at it carefully. In the middle of the cavern, a lotus-like flower was releasing waves of cold energy, making him shiver.
'Hm, there is no big beast here. It must have left or something else,' he thought.
'The quest completion hasn't triggered, so I haven't found the main cause of the problem.'
'I can't wait forever for the beast to return, so let's grab the flower and get back to the team,' he decided, wasting no time.
As he walked towards the lotus flower, he saw that the surrounding water was frozen solid due to the cold energy it emitted.
Near the lotus, the cold energy intensified, causing frost to form on his hands, but he endured the pain. He gently grabbed the stem and carefully cut it with a knife, taking care not to harm the flower.
In his hand, the lotus flower's petals appeared like white crystals, periodically emitting cold energy waves.
[Extreme Icepetal Lotus] (Rare)
[It is a lotus imbued with extreme cold energy. It can be found in an extremely cold environment with abundant cold elements.]
'Has the goddess of luck finally taken an interest in me? I can't believe I found another rare rank plant!' August laughed like a freak. How could he not? The lotus was at the peak of the rare rank. Given some time, it could have reached epic rank.
[Host, if someone sees you, they will think you're a freak.]
'You can't see me having a good time, can you?' August retorted.
[....]
He could almost feel the system rolling its eyes at him.
Ignoring the system, August thought, 'Let's get out of here.' He stored the lotus in his inventory and headed out.
As he exited the cavern, he felt two big eyes staring at his back, making him flinch. He glared in the direction of the stare but saw nothing.
'Let's quickly get out of here,' he thought.
At the entrance of the cave, he met Harry and his squad. They were huffing for air, as if they had fought a battle.
"What happened here?" he asked them.