QUEST: CRADLE of Ice (UNIQUE)

Destroy the research related to the gate, SIN, and the close the gate itself.

Reward: None.

Failure: Failure to close the gate will result in an outbreak.

Jinyoung’s eyes widened and he balled his hands into fists. The temperature inside the facility was at least 30 below zero, but he felt a cold sweat break on the back of his neck. Shortly after making it out of the Black Shrine dungeon, he had come across a history book in the library of the Academy. Since his initial disappearance, there had only been five outbreaks. Each one was responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths. Seorak alone was responsible for 10 deaths every year, and it was considered one of the safest ones on the peninsula.

Yet, here and now, there was the chance of another one. Unless they stopped it.

Hana’s voice broke through the silence. “Jinyoung?”

He blinked. Before he said anything, Jinyoung took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his brow. He turned to share the quest with the others when he saw the system notification.

[Share details of the hidden quest with nearby players?]

The system was known for many things, but it was never deceitful. Whatever it was, it served as a tool for the human race and, therefore, Jinyoung had no reason to assume otherwise.

[Confirm]

Youngho cursed audibly when the quest notification blinked into existence. The system was a part of his daily life, but, until now, hidden quests were a myth. A rumor. And yet, one was staring him right in the face.

He turned to the boy and grumbled, “What the blazes have you been up to, boy?”

He would have said more, but Hana couldn’t wait for another round of familial arguing.

“Wait, if we fail this quest… there’ll be an outbreak? How is that possible?”

The rules for an outbreak were simple. If too many monsters congregated in the vicinity of a gate, then the buildup of energy caused by their presence caused an excess number of monsters to appear in front of the gate.

“We’ve fought four wraiths here, not to mention the one we killed earlier with Seunghyo in the west,” Jinyoung recounted. “But we haven’t seen any other monsters around here and that’s nowhere near enough monsters to cause an outbreak. Unless maybe the monsters are about to break through the gate?”

Hana closed her eyes before responding, “That doesn’t make any sense, the monsters affect the gate from our side, not-”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Sunbae! Jinyo…! Can …one read me…?

Willow? Hana asked. Where are you?

The response was slow and it came in pieces, but eventually they could make out the response.

Seunghyo and I are coming to you. Halmae and Grim are keeping the ground level clear for when we head up, but we need to hurry.

Hana shook her head. We have bigger problems here, Willow. There’s a hidden quest here and it’s telling us that an outbreak is imminent. But there aren’t any monsters down here.

Even in the clan chat, Hana and Jinyoung could make out the panic in Willow’s voice. Well, that’s fine because there are enough topside, sunbae. The horde’s here and whatever we’re doing, we need to do it quickly.

“The horde…”

Jinyoung felt like an idiot. All this time, they’d been told all this time that there was a massive army of Frostbitten monsters wandering the frozen landscape. And now that they had wandered into town, the artificial gate was reacting to their presence and threatening to transform into an outbreak.

“Well, that’s not what I was hoping to hear,” Youngho grumbled. “But it is what it is. Take the quest and let’s go.”

“It’s not that simple, dad,” Hana shot back. “These hidden quests are deadly. The last one Jinyoung took nearly killed us.”

Jinyoung wanted to protest, but realized that Hana wasn’t wrong and decided to keep his mouth shut. It was the least he could at this point.

Youngho tried to soften his voice before speaking. “Darling, we’re in this whether you take this quest or not. The best we can hope for is that taking the quest gives us an advantage we don’t have now.”

Something about the wording of that statement bothered Jinyoung. It was as if the old man knew more than he was letting on, but this certainly wasn’t the time to be getting sidetracked.

“Father time isn’t right often, but he’s right this time,” Jinyoung offered. “The danger’s the same whether we take the quest or not.”

She couldn’t tell whether it was the prospect of a new quest or the fact that her father and brother were in agreement about something, but Hana felt like things were looking up for the first time in days.

“You’re both right, but if we’re going to do this, let’s do it right. Right, dad?”

[Youngho has joined the party.]

A dry laugh caught in Jinyoung's throat. Even back at the Academy, Hana had asked her brother countless times to embark on a short outing with their father. Just the three of them, like a real family. And now, after decades of waiting, her wish had finally come true.

Before he could react or say something snarky, Hana straightened up and faced her brother.

“Jinyoung, take the quest.”

He nodded quickly and accepted the system prompt. The updated quest prompt appeared for each member of the party.

QUEST: CRADLE of Ice (UNIQUE)

Destroy the research drive

Destroy samples of purified SIN

Destroy the CRADLE and close the GATE

Reward: None.

Failure: Failure to close the gate will result in an outbreak.

Youngho mumbled as he read the quest details. “Research drive, samples of purified sin, and the cradle. I guess the first thing we have to do is find all three, right?”

But while he was focusing on the quest menu, something else had caught Jinyoung’s eye. A faint glow in the distance far ahead of them. Almost like the light of a flashlight on the wall, except it was too far away and it seemed to mark a point in space somewhere ahead of them.

“Can anyone else see that?” he asked.

Hana’s eyes took a second longer to pick out the glow, but when her eyes focused on it, it was unmistakably something that hadn’t been there before Jinyoung accepted the quest.

“Yeah, I think I see it, too.”

It was Youngho’s turn to squint. “You think it’s an illusion?”

“No, I think…” he stumbled in his words realizing what it was. “I think it’s a marker and that’s our objective.”