Sofia read over the whole quest, it was not as bad as she feared. At least she had the choice to reject it.
[Sun’s ordinance : Meet Sun’s Oracle in Herzal; Defeat all monsters in the Orbital Sun Temple]
[Rewards : Sun’s Divine essence*5, Gold offering exemption for ‘Generosity of Sun’]
[Restrictions : No external help]
[Time limit : 3 Months (Time spent in Herzal does not count)]
[Penalty for failure : Death]
[Will you accept? Yes/No]
Five divine essences? FIVE?!
Can I really refuse this? It would instantly unlock the light forging realm of VVPV.
If VPPV’s has a third realm and it requires even more essence, then I’ll be glad I have those five. And with [Quintessential], that’s a very big upgrade to my mana perception too…But a three month time limit to clear a place of unknown strength and danger, with death as a penalty for failure… Can I take that risk? I would assume that she wouldn’t give a quest that’s impossible to complete. But who knows, maybe she’s annoyed that I beat Mornn in the spire?
“So, you will take them, right?”
I need to ask. “Is it really possible, at my level?”
“Of course! It won’t be easy, you know? The difficulty has to be proportional to the rewards! But it’s not impossible, the system would never approve that!”
Yeah right… I don’t know how much I can trust the system when it comes to Gods. Sorrow was able to just force it to give me a skill so it’s definitely not a guarantee that there is no foul play. What about the others?
Alith was also looking at her quest, she didn’t think for too long, “I accept.”
“Wonderful!”
I don’t know… “Can I see your quest, Alith?”
“Yeah.”
[Sun’s trial of valor : Defeat the plant hydra in the northern flower glades]
[Rewards : Skill fusion ticket; Specialization point(Free choice)]
[Restrictions : No external help]
[Time limit : 3 Months (Time spent in Herzal does not count)]
[Penalty for failure : Soul Death]
That’s almost the same. The rewards are crazy too, I get why she accepted. ‘Soul Death’ is a bit scary. I guess it means even my skill wouldn’t be able to revive her? It wouldn’t be a real penalty otherwise. But can Sun or the system really do that when our souls are protected by the [Mark of Aphenoreth]? I hope I’ll never find out.
On the floor, Ihuarah let out a long sigh, “I… I accept as well.”
After all that pleading and throwing yourself on the ground you’re going to accept when you have the option not to? You’re actually shaking! “You too?”
“It pains me so…” Ihuarah weakly replied, also sharing his quest.
[Sun’s second chance : Take the teleporter under Herzal; Activate the eight mirrors in the basin of spirits]
[Rewards : Locket of lost souls]
[Restrictions : No external help]
[Time limit : 3 Months (Time spent in Herzal does not count)]
[Penalty for failure : Soul Death]
Locket of lost souls? It must be an important item to him if he’s accepting even when he looks like that.
That leaves only me.
Sun stared intently at Sofia, which made it hard to think straight.
Five essences…
“Fine. I’ll do it.”
[Quest Accepted!]
“Hurray! Everyone’s aboard!” Sun happily exclaimed as she stood up. “My Saintess is also on a similar mission starting today. I will let you in on a secret, the one who completes their quest first gets a bonus prize!” She said with an exaggerated wink. “This will be all for me, have fun, everyone!”
“Wait, do-” Sofia started, but Sun interrupted her, bending down and placing a finger on Sofia’s mouth.
“So greedy! I’ll indulge you a bit because you all accepted. The girl you’re looking for is not involved with any Divinity. I won’t say more! See you. And let there be night!”
Sun disappeared.
Well. That certainly was an encounter…
Not involved with any Divinity uh. That means Scripture is not to blame for anything, for once. And it also means the Dragon we’re searching for is not the Dragon Saintess Valeure had mentioned. One less. There can’t be too many Dragons, surely.
“Say Ihuarah, do you know how many Dragons there are?”
The shadow, at long last, stood up from the floor, “Is this really what one ought to think about after what has transpired here?”
Alith shrugged and answered in Sofia’s place, “Just say you don’t know if you don’t.”
“I couldn’t say, frankly. Perhaps twenty, perhaps thousands more. I only know of a few, but there are undoubtedly more.”
“That is not really helping. Oh, here is my quest, by the way.”
The trio tried to see if they had any information on the quests. It turned out that Ihuarah knew a lot about his own quest, he had heard of the Basin of Spirits and the locket was apparently a lost relic of Sorrow which he had been looking for when he was still alive. As for Alith, the northern flower glades was exactly where she was already headed, this was the breeding grounds of the rare plants she missed for the fabrication of the new stat candies.
Only Sofia was completely in the dark about what her quest really entailed, ‘Orbital Sun Temple’ was a weird name for a place. Was it a Sun Temple on the moon? If it was, how would she even get there? Even Ihuara had never heard of such a place.
We have all the time we need to prepare as long as we stay in the Elven capital. Better than nothing. Three months is still worryingly short though. If we fail then we can only stay in the city forever to escape the end of the timer…
Sofia fiddled with the system’s interface for the timer to be displayed in a corner of her vision.
[Remaining time : 104d 23h 41m 28s]
Now that it was there, not staring at it became hard. This was a timer until her death, so it wasn’t something she could afford not to look at. She lost herself staring at the seconds go down while the sandworm kept digging forward, she was quite surprised when the timer stopped.
Sensing her orders, the sandworm stopped too and slowly made its way to the surface.
“It seems we’re there.”
Ihuarah nodded, “It appears so. I will excuse myself soon, I hope you both will not mind it, I need to procure quite a few things before I attempt the quest.”
“Do what you want, shadowman, do you need money?”
“Thank you for the offer, Alith, but I shall provide for myself. It will not be an issue.”
“Aight’, I’ll go to the diviner with Sofia I think, then we’ll probably get on with our respective quests. I don’t really intend to wait, but maybe Sofia would stall to train for a bit?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t mind giving up on the ‘bonus reward’ for fastest completion, but I’m not too sure the elves would be fine with me spending half a year here throwing bolts around trying to replicate what the angel did.”
“Ladies, do not forget to get that dwarven mithril mail melted and reforged. Proper weapons, tools, and armor can only be beneficial.”
There was that. We can upgrade Alith’s Kamas. I don’t really know what I’d do with mithril at this point though. Maybe a shield? My dagger is still holding just fine. “We’ll do that. Oh, and let’s decide on a place to meet up when we’re done with the Sun quests. There has to be a good Inn or two in the Elven capital.”
“Yeah, just in case we should also explain to him how our kill-communication system works.”
“Good idea.”
The worm had reached the surface before the end of their talk. Sofia opened the bone capsule they were in, revealing the orange sand of that part of the desert. The sun was setting to the east, painting the sky in a similar orange that seemed to fuse with the desert. Not far to the northwest, the group could see the imposing multi-level design of the elven capital built on an oasis. The stepped pyramid-like city of yellow bricks and verdant trees seemed to float several meters over the oasis’ water, feeding it with multiple waterfalls.
Sofia was mesmerized by the allure of the great city, “Where is all that water coming from?“
“And where is it going?” Alith added.
“You should ask the elves, I am certain they will gladly answer you… Look, they are coming to ‘welcome’ us already. This seems like about twenty guards?”
Alith looked in the direction Ihuarah was pointing at, “They look hostile.”
“Well, we are still standing near a giant undead sandworm. This would not make for the best first impression.”
“Crap, I completely forgot about that.” Sofia immediately dispelled the sandworm. “Maybe they didn’t see it…” As if…
Well. I know their Saintess. And I have a quest from Sun. There’s no way we would be in any real trouble. How high-level can a few guards be anyway?
Sofia [Identified] the strongest-looking guard as they flew closer.
[Warrior - Lv.300+]
Ah.
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