Chapter 531: Discovery of the Mechanical Civilization 5
Ralph and Chesk together with Inisco; Muel was sharing a common chat group and was feeling very uncomfortable.
‘I don’t think this is…’
Though it was natural for them, they were actually on a plan to drive the party of Ian into the fight.
Ralph: Was it the third cave after the gate?
Inisco: Yes, hyung.
Ralph: there was a golem-like guy guarding that thing, right?
Chesk: Right. We just need to remove him as soon as possible and then get the marbles needed to open the last gate.
Ralph: Kay, good.
Chesk: And then we can send Ian and his party to the last sixth cave, and we’ll flee from there with the beads.
Inisco: Right.
Chesk: Ralph’s head sure works in great ways. This way we won’t have to meet the monsters.
Muel wasn’t without greed to complete it.
Because she knew what a huge deal it meant to pre-empt a new content in the Middle-Earth more than anyone.
And whatever was the content, the smallest number of people would get the biggest reward.
So if Ian and his party had been from a competing guild—and was from a hostile guild, they surely would have joined the plans without hesitation to let them down.
But Ian’s party didn’t.
‘For them to go on until this…’
Muel was now thinking that the party of Ian was around 300 levels or such.
In the ranking level; they would have been in some 500-1000 position and that was their guess.
In other words, from the point of view of a 10th rank priest—he wasn’t a compet.i.tor of any kind.
In addition, she was feeling guilty as Ian and his party were innocent enough to walk into the trap laid by her team.
‘Yeah. No matter how much I think, it makes no sense.’
Muel’s heart was determined.
Just because of the interest of the guild; she couldn’t betray another party, and that too when the party of Ian didn’t even harm a single of them.
‘Should I let loose a little?’
And as she was thinking, the first Abyss Gate had appeared.
“Kay, this is the real thing. Are you all ready?”
At the words of Ralph, everyone looked at him. And then at the gate, the party which was being headed by Ian stepped into it.
Like a mirage, Ian and his party got sucked into the black abyss.
* * *
As soon as they entered the gate, system messages began to emerge in front of the party and Ian.
Tring-!
[You have entered the Abyss Gate.]
[From here, all the ‘abyss’ attributes will be amplified.]
[From here, all the ‘zion’ attributes will be amplified.]
Just as Ralph had mentioned before, the quest was being played.
[The winds will get stronger.]
[You have entered the dungeon ‘Gorge of Blasts’.]
[The quest ‘Into the blast’ has been initiated.]
-Into the Blast (Epic) (Hidden)
The Abyss Valley had been a very warm and cozy place for the abyss spirits.
The Abyss valley, where everyone could feel the safest feelings and warmth when compared to any other place, wasn’t just a haven for the abyss spirits but for many other spirits.
However, after the mechanical civilization’s invasion, the Abyss valley took a completely different change.
Most of the spirits in the valley had been contaminated and the valley, which had been a safe place was fortified to stop the enemies.
In the end, even the Abyss valley got completely encroached by the mechanical civilization and now only the contaminated spirits remain.
Well, you are brave, you have defeated the contaminated spirits and found the Abyss gate.
And now, if you can find the Abyss...o...b..which is somewhere in the gorge of the blast and bring it to the altar on the north, you will be able to purify all the contaminated abyss valley.
Once the valley is cleared, the blocked path to the Northern side will be opened.
Find the Abyss...o...b..and purify the valley, then follow the path on the north to the Spirit Sanctuary.
Find the guardian of the Spirit sanctuary ‘Syarlon’ and he will thank you.
Quest Difficulty: C+
Quest Condition:
User who has found the Abyss gate.
Time limit: None
Reward:
Obtain the t.i.tle ‘Keeper of Abyss’,
???
*As each minute of the quest increases, the agility of the monster regeneration increases by 10 percent.
*This quest cannot be refused.
The content of the quest wasn’t so difficult to understand.
The story surely was long, but there was just one point it conveyed.
‘So, we need to find the orb and take it to the altar.’
Ian’s eyes moved to see the altar which was at a distant view to them.
A magnificent altar of a mysterious atmosphere where purple haze flowed.
In the center of the altar was a rounded groove and no matter how it seemed, it was clear that it was the spot where the orbs had to be placed.
Ian’s gaze quickly followed the entire map.
‘So, around the altar, there are six caves…’
The altar was towering on a high ground in the north.
Six caves with tall cliffs on both sides of the altar.
‘We need to go through the caves to find those orbs.’
Reading the quest window, Ian nodded to himself.
It was because the contents of the quest didn’t seem to be much different from the regular instant quests in the general dungeons.
However, the special thing was that the agility of the monster’s regeneration rate would get faster with time.
‘This is like a time limit in a way.’
Even if it was Ian, the monsters that rose to infinity would be hard to overcome.
The key to clearing the quest was to complete it as soon as possible.
And while Ian was coming up with the ideas, the quest began.
[From now ‘In the Blast (Epic) (Hidden)’ quest will begin.]
[Time elapsed: 00:00;01]
Ian recalled what Ralph had told him before entering the gate.
* * *
“Listen carefully to what I have to say from now.”
“Go on.”
“Like I told you before, we’ve already been here. Before moving to the Frost Cave, we tried this place first.”
“yeah, you said that.”
“If we go inside the gate, there are six caves and one of which had a key to clear the dungeon.”
“Kay.”
“And we, we have been in the two of them on the left.”
“And you couldn’t find the orb in there?”
“Bingo. It is nice to have a friend whose brain works.”
“Continue.”
“As you might have expected, as soon as we enter the dungeon, we’ll start searching from the third cave.”
“Anyone would do that.”
“Yeah. But we are going to split into two teams. Four of us will be on one team and the three of you will be the second team. We go from the third cave and you will move from the last cave.”
“That doesn’t seem so bad.”
“Nice, then once we enter the dungeon, you three can run over to the left side.”
“Let’s do it that way.”
Ian hadn’t believed what Ralph had to say from the very beginning.
Ralph didn’t look like a bad guy, but because of the content pre-empt—a betrayal could have happened to anyone.
Due to constant suspicion, Ian could feel it.
‘Huhu, there is no way I can think this will be easy.’
The order which Ralph had given to Ian was reasonable.
In order to shorten the clear time of the dungeon, they were dividing into two teams to find the Abyss...o...b...
But in the very order, Ian could ‘smell’ the betrayal.
‘For starters the team configuration is wrong.’
In order to divide the seven members of the party in the best order, the members of both Ian and Ralph had to be mixed.
It was true; the ranking of Ralph’s party was high and the balance of power between the divided team was just too much.
‘Even if we aren’t mixed, at least our party should be given another member to have a certain balance.’
From another point of view, the power of Ian and the twins were considered to be half of the party of Ralph.
Ian and the twins hadn’t revealed theirs skills just yet.
And when the thoughts started to make sense, the doubts started to solidify.
‘If Ralph was indeed trying to make an effective order, he should have at least talked about the instructions after finding out the orbs.’
If it was Ian and not Ralph who had given the orders, then he would have given a detailed direction for the team which would find the orb first.
Ralph on the other side, didn’t even bother to comment on the situation after finding the orb.
It was as if, ‘I don’t care what the next situation was’.
‘This is suspicious. Very suspicious.’
Ian looked over at the sixth cave that Ralph had asked them to take.
Inferring the whole situation that had come, one conclusion had come to their mind.
‘Maybe they are planning on leaving us here and try to break the quest by themselves.’
It was a very convincing doubt, but he couldn’t afford to turn Ralph to an enemy.
It was stupid to follow an order which was suspicious.
So what had to be done now, they had to go even though there was a risk.
In the situation, even if the quest would fail, it was more important to identify who the enemy was.
Ian deliberately slowed down and watched the movements of Ralph’s party.
“Ian, what is it?”
“Why did you stop now?”
“Shhh!”
Ian put his finger to his lips; shushed them and turned back.
After those people entered the third cave, he was going to sneak back.
If he ran into Ralph later, he would say that it was impossible to clear the cave with three.
That wasn’t entirely wrong either.
But the next minute, Ian had to fold his plan completely.
It was because something unexpected was happening.
“…!”
Muel, whom he suspected to be with the party of Ralph was running in the direction of Ian’s party.
For the first time, Ian was shocked.
‘What? Didn’t Ralph just try to throw us away?’
If Muel joined their party, then Ian had to throw out all the a.s.sumptions.
Ian was getting much more confused.
‘Was my calculation wrong?’
While Ian was pestering his mind, Muel approached them.
Muel then spoke with a smile,
“I think it is a bit too much for three to handle. Is it fine if I enter?”
With a light face, Ian nodded without realizing it.