Chapter 184 Under my Umbrella
"..Before I talk about my plan, I think I should get what should have been given to me now." Alex muttered to audibly as he stared at Asteria"s direction. "You there, cough it up."
"Cough up what?" The cheeky fairy actually had the gall to look confused as she stared at Alex.
"The Bonus Mission Reward." Alex said as he gritted his teeth. "Aren"t we supposed to get one Bonus Item?"
"Oh right, here it is." The dumb fairy mumbled as she touched Alex"s forehead. There was a slight glowing in the air before an umbrella appeared in front of Alex.
Alex stretched out his hands as he caught the umbrella, which was around 3 meters long. Its body and the cloth of its crown was black in color, making the umbrella exude an atmosphere of cla.s.s and elegance.
"…" As Alex received the umbrella, he stared at it for a few seconds before his gaze flicked back to Asteria.
"This is the bonus item?" Alex asked as he knocked against the body of the umbrella. "This is the only reward?"
"Yes, that is the only reward." Asteria said as she nodded with her tiny head. "Why, don"t you like it?"
Well, it"s not that I don"t like it, but.." Alex floundered a little as he started to open the umbrella. "What should this even do?"
"That item that is in your hand right now is called the Thieves" Umbrella." Asteria said as she let out a hmph. "That umbrella was made up from the skin, bones, and ligaments of a Void Rat. With that kind of materials, this umbrella will hide you and your Companions from any probing abilities by other people. Pretty neat, right?"
"Yeah, that ability is nice… but do we really need to use this umbrella?" The one who asked this question was Queen Mother, who was looking at the umbrella held by Alex with curiosity. "Can"t we just hide on a safe place?"
"I doubt it will work like that, Queen Mother." Alex replied as he shook his head. "You should remember that this world was ruled by Three Factions. With the appearance of the Red Moon, most of them will still continue looking for any possible member of the Fourth Faction. This umbrella will most likely be able to protect Kiera from that probing. Oh, and you must also remember that we just attacked an envoy of Symbolists earlier. I won"t be surprised if we will be wanted figures by the Symbolists…If that suspicion of mine is true, then this umbrella will make it easier for us to hide from them."
"Exactly!" That"s the reason that you obtained that umbrella!" Asteria declared merrily as she let out a laugh. "Without that umbrella, you will be easily detected by angry Symbolists later! So, you should be happy you were given that Bonus Mission!"
"…"
Alex does not know what to say after hearing Asteria"s boasting, as he realized that the only reason that the Symbolists will look for him right now was because of him doing the Bonus Mission.
Now that Alex looked at that perspective, he realized that the Thieves" Umbrella was given to him just to compensate for the increase in the Mission difficulty.
Now that just wiped away Alex"s satisfaction.
"What is the Main Mission anyway?" Alex said as he hid the Umbrella inside Alina"s storage. "Do you even know about it?"
"Hah? Of course I do not know anything about it yet." Asteria angrily replied as she placed her hands on her hips. "From the info that I have, I will receive the directive from the Main Mission after a month of our stay here."
"A month?!" Alex almost shouted out loudly as he heard Asteria"s reply. "We still have to spend 30 days here before we can even start the Main Mission? Are you telling the truth?"
"Hmph, of course I do, hooman!" Asteria replied angrily. "That"s the instruction that I received, so there is no way that I can just disobey it. Our Main Mission will start 30 days from now, so until then, we are free to do anything that we want here!"
"…"
Obviously, Alex"s mood darkened after he heard what Asteria just said.
Actually, he was not surprised that the Main Mission will be delayed.
What surprised him however was the length of the delay.
"1 Month, really?" Alex let out a sigh as he realized the implications of a delay that long.
"Only three days of delay were used when my group faced Professor Frances" group… This time, there is a 30-day delay. If the delay was that long, then does that mean…"
Alex"s eyes visibly widened as he realized a possible scenario on their Main Mission later.
If the length of delay was proportional to the amount of Traveler Teams that Alex will face, then a time of 30 days was obviously bad news!
From what Alex can see, there is a high chance that he could be facing at least 3 Traveler Teams, or at most even 10!
Now, that realization just dampened Alex"s hopes of steamrolling his way through this world.
"Asteria, do you know how many Traveler Teams are here in this world except for us?" Alex asked Asteria as he stared at the fairy directly. "Any input from you will be helpful…"
"I"m exactly not sure, since that kind of info was also hidden from me." Asteria replied as Alex let out a disappointed sigh. "But speaking from my experience, you can expect around 3-5 Traveler Teams that will compete against our team in this world..."
"Drats, that"s a lot of enemies." That was all that Alex could say as he placed a palm on his forehead. "How f**king great…"
As Alex started to feel somewhat discouraged, he started to see both Asteria and Queen Mother giving Alex some worried looks, as even they understood how difficult their current situation will be.
"Well, since we have a month left before the start of the Main Mission, then I guess that we should use all that time to prepare…" Alex said as he took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down right now.
Now is not the time for Alex to panic. He still had a lot of things to do, and worrying about the future was not one of them.
As Alex said these words, his gaze landed on the important-looking Symbolist, still captured inside Queen Mother"s special sacs.
"Of course that preparation has to start with this guy first." Alex said as he placed his hand on the Symbolist"s special sac.
"Sorry, but you have to be used by me." Alex said as Greed appeared behind him. "I know that this is a d.i.c.k move, but you look like an a**hole, so maybe you deserve this? I don"t know… Ah f**k it! Let"s just get this over with!"
Greed the Abyss Sprite then opened his mouth wide as he approached the Symbolist.
"Pillage him clean, Greed."
"Ok, master!"