QUEST: Kill Confirmed
Confirm the BOSS' death and escape the DUNGEON safely.
Reward: ???
Failure: None.
Willow sighed in relief. Until recently, all the field quests that Jinyoung had discovered were “safe start” quests. That is, accepting a quest didn’t spawn a load of monsters in their immediate area or plunge them into imminent danger. The Black Shrine quest that Jinyoung had originally was… well, not a safe start to say the least.
“The walls of the cave are damaged,” she said. “We’ve got a while before there’s a cave-in, but we should get moving just in case.”
“How long do you think we have?” Hana asked.
“16 minutes 24 seconds, exactly,” Jinyoung interjected.
The two players looked at Jinyoung before focusing on the quest notification. It had been replaced with a timer.
[Quest Timer]
00:16:19
After a moment’s silence, Hana finally spoke. “Well then, we’d better get going.”
The rubble of the skyscraper was nearly inaccessible. It might’ve been easier had the structure stayed in one piece, but it had flattened and collapsed on one end, while the other was an inaccessible mess of concrete rubble and steel rebar.
But thanks to [scan+], Jinyoung could see a dim glow from the center of the chaos. Slowly, he picked his way through collapsed walls until the party found the remains of the emergency stairwell.
“This should get us closer to our goal.” Jinyoung tried to sound confident, but he wasn’t. The quest timer kept ticking away and there was no knowing as to what the quest reward was. But, at least until now, hidden quests had proven themselves to be worth the effort.
“This should be the last of it,” Jinyoung said, pointing to a narrow passage. “I think if we just move-”
Jinyoung pressed against the sides of the crevice and the building responded with a low screech and rumble as tons of rubble shifted around them.
“Let’s not do that again,” Willow whispered.
“Agreed,” Jinyoung answered.
Carefully, the three of them maneuvered their way through a narrow passage flanked by panes of broken glass and the delicately balanced rubble of the building. Finally, after being reduced to their knees and crawling underneath a collapsed column, they were through.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The body of the dragon lay under the rubble, lifeless. If the tons of debris hadn’t been enough to kill it, a large steel column had pierced its body like an arrow and nailed it to the ground.
“How do we confirm its death?” Hana asked.
Jinyoung approached and placed a hand on its scales. Whatever enchantment had caused it to have a slithering black visage from earlier was gone. Even upon [scanning] the corpse, he could see that the monster’s name had changed to “Draconis”.
“What is that?”
Willow’s voice alerted the others to the dragon’s glow. It started faintly and then grew to encompass the entirety of the fallen monster’s body. And as it faded, the dragon’s body disintegrated slowly into dust. Jinyoung pulled his hand away and came back with one of the dragon’s scales.
“That… was unexpected,” Hana said.
Before anyone could respond, the rubble started to shake. Without the monster’s body to prop it up, the remains of the building began to collapse in on itself.
“Move!”
Quickly, Jinyoung pocketed the scale which was roughly the size of his palm. No longer concerned with structural stability, Hana used [shield bash] to clear the narrow passage so they could sprint their way back. It wasn’t until they were completely clear of the building before they stopped to breathe.
[Quest Timer]
00:04:53
“The timer’s still going, guys.”
“Look, sunbae.” Jinyoung and Hana followed Willow’s gaze and their eyes landed on the walls of the cavern. The walls were glistening, but more than that they were drenched. Above their head, drops of water flowed freely from the ends of stalactites and puddled beneath their feet.
“Move.”
They ran, leaving ripped in their wake and the water pooled and flooded the ground floor. By the time they found a path up the way they’d come, the water had reached their ankles. Moving back up was hard work, especially after fighting off a dragon, but the alternative was drowning to death inside a cave. That was motivation enough.
When they finally squeezed their way back past the narrow passages, the roar of the water rushing into the arena was deafening. They moved quickly and eventually found themselves back in familiar areas. Soon, the crack of daylight greeted them as they walked out of the cave.
[QUEST: Kill Confirmed]
Quest completed.
Reward: The Dragon's Hidden Scale (item)
The notification reminded Jinyoung of their souvenir.
Whatever it is, it’d better be worth it, he thought. But as he reached into his pocket Hana put a hand on his arm. He looked up at her, but his sister didn’t meet his gaze. She was staring at the other parties who were seated at the edge of the riverbed which had already begun to fill back up with water. Some of the players were standing, but most were seated. Jinyoung recognized a few of them and could see the summoner was tending to another player’s wounds. But they were, all of them, surrounded by knights. Heavily armored and armed. Jinyoung recognized the armor and weapons from the first day he escaped the Black Shrine dungeon. Jinyoung’s eyes were still adjusting to the light, but she could see the Guildmaster Muho staring at him intently.
“The Society? What are they-?”
He didn’t have time to finish his thought before a familiar voice called out to them.
“It’s good to see you again, Hana. And this must be Willow, your new prodigy who I’ve heard so much about.”
She stopped just a few feet away from them. She was close enough that Jinyoung could reach out and touch her. Just to make sure she was real.
“Hello, Jinyoung. It’s been quite some time.”
“Yeah,” he breathed out. “Hello, Seah.”