novelraw Chapter 150: One Month Ago
Chapter 150: One Month Ago
One Month Later...
"Remind me... which way did she say again?"
Ignotus stood in the middle of a deep forest; trees were around him like towers, their branches crossing above him in a seemingly endless green ceiling. It made him appear like an intruder in a place he didn’t belong.
’Go right after the boulder at the end of the path.’
Eris’s voice arrived in his head, soft as ever.
’We should see the mine there.’
He nodded while brushing a leaf off his shoulder.
"Right, the boulder. Got it."
’...You should try to remember these things.’
She nagged a little.
’I won’t always be awake to remind you what or where the quest is.’
"Yeah, yeah, if I could forget less, I’d do it more often."
Ignotus kicked a stone off the path and started walking again, humming as he went.
Because yes, he was on a quest.
Sort of.
For some reason, it didn’t even appear in his system log, the usual flashing notification and title, but he didn’t really care enough to think about why. He just knew that it was going to be fun... or well, a better way to pass the time.
Apparently, a horde of Cyclopes had escaped the zone before a nearby entrance to Hell. The Inquisitors stationed there killed most of them, but one survived and made it all the way to a nearby farmland, forcing the villagers to escape, leaving it to freely snack on livestock for days.
So, the job was simple: kill it.
But that wasn’t the only quest he’d accepted.
He’d also picked up another one from some nervous miner in town—deliver an explosive satchel to an old steel mine a few miles from that same farm. And because Ignotus was Ignotus, he looked at both objectives and said:
"Yeah, I’m not doing these separately."
So the plan was born.
Rage-bait the Cyclops away from the farm and into the mine.
Blow the mine.
Kill the Cyclops.
Get the Soul Fragments.
Two birds, one bomb.
Quite efficient, no?
"I try my best, you know."
He walked with his hands behind his back.
"It’s just that I’ve done these things too many times. It gets boring."
’You sound like an old man...’
Eris’s voice softened further.
’Maybe if you stopped turning every quest into a shortcut, you’d enjoy it more.’
"I’d enjoy it less."
His reply came without missing a beat.
"Efficiency is really fun, you know?"
She sighed.
’...do you ever slow down?’
"Hm. I tried once... It was boring."
’Of course it was.’
Ignotus grinned, stepping past the final boulder She’d mentioned.
Ahead was a thin dirt path leading downhill, and in the distance, he could already see the black maw of the mine.
"Alright, this must be it."
The mine was smaller than he expected, with narrow carts, rusty rails, and wooden beams holding the whole thing up... It looked like it could collapse if someone sneezed too hard.
"Well..."
He pulled the satchel off his shoulder.
"It’s a good thing I’m not staying."
Ignoring the shack next to the mine where the quest giver probably was, he went straight inside. The tunnels were tight, winding, and dimly lit with small lamps nailed into the stone.
Pickaxes and old helmets were scattered around, a barely managed workplace.
He found the back chamber easily, the one that reeked of steel dust.
"This feels deep enough..."
Ignotus set the satchel down in a corner near a pile of ore.
"Alright, step one done."
He dusted his hands, turned around, and walked out.
But just then, a miner ran up to him, sweating through his tunic.
"W-Wait! Are you the one delivering the—?"
Indeed, it was the quest giver Ignotus wanted to avoid.
"Yup, that is me."
"You didn’t even—wait, where are you going?!"
"The Farm."
Ignotus answered over his shoulder.
"I’ve got something to kill there."
The man froze up.
"Wha—kill what?!"
He didn’t get an answer.
...
When Ignotus reached the farmland, the air started smelling like blood.
This was obviously the right place, as before him, most fences had been torn apart, while many cows seemed to be missing from their herd. The main barn roof had quite a big hole in its side, quite indicative of a very dumb intruder.
"...Yeah, that’s about what I expected."
He looked around for a few seconds, and then he saw it.
A Cyclops. Huge, gray-skinned, and wearing only a torn cloth around its waist, its single eye burning red. It was crouched beside a broken trough, chewing on something that Ignotus believed was a horse.
"Well..."
Ignotus picked up a pebble...
"Let’s hope you’re still hungry."
And threw it.
Bonk!
The stone bounced off the monster’s forehead.
Gooooor...
The Cyclops blinked a few times before staring at Ignotus.
Perhaps it couldn’t fathom why someone would provoke it so.
Or most likely, its dumb brain was still processing what happened.
GRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Ah, it seemed like it finally did.
"There it is."
Ignotus grinned.
"I knew you were still alive in there."
He picked up another rock, threw it again, hitting the same spot.
That did it, the Cyclops bellowing and stomping towards him, its every step shaking the ground. Birds scattered from the trees around them while Ignotus laughed, turned, and sprinted off the farm road.
"C’mon, one-eye! Let’s go for a jog!"
The chase was fast and loud, with smashing trees, flying dirt, and Ignotus darting between trunks and fallen logs. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long, as the mine wasn’t far; he could already see the opening up ahead.
’Perfect.’
The same panicked miner stepped out into the noise, his eyes going wide.
"What—WHY IS THAT—?!"
"Inside!"
Ignotus ran past him.
"Package delivery’s ready!"
The miner screamed something about insanity, but Ignotus didn’t hear; the Cyclops was too close. He dove through the tunnel, sliding on the ground and coming to a stop near where he’d left the satchel.
Of course, the Cyclops barreled in after him.
"C’mon... just a few more steps—"
Reaching him, the creature swung, only to miss by inches, smashing into the stone wall instead.
That was close enough.
Ignotus grabbed another pebble from the ground and threw it at the satchel’s fuse wire.
Sparks flew.
"Bye-bye."
BOOM!
The explosion was enormous.
Almost immediately, the ground quaked loudly as dust filled the air, while the cave mouth blew out in a burst of flame and rock. The shockwave was so strong that it pushed Ignotus back and out, dirt raining on his head.
When it finally settled, silence remained...
"Hm."
And a very dead Cyclops was buried under a new mountain of rubble.
Two quests done in one explosion and half the effort~.
"Nice."
Ding!
Speaking of nice...
—
[SF = 160]
[You’ve Felled A Cyclops]
—
A notification came through.
Though it only made Ignotus sigh.
"One hundred sixty, huh? Still not enough."
He looked up at the cloudy sky beyond the collapsed mine.
"Three levels in one month... that’s too slow."
Eris hummed softly in his head.
’It’s still way faster than most. And... it’s been, what, two months since we met?’
"Feels longer."
’It does.’
She agreed.
One hundred sixty Soul Fragments and still far from a level up.
Yes, what he killed was a Cyclops, a Four Rune, Fiend Class monster.
Weren’t the Youngling Class simply two and four Soul Fragments?
So how come there was such a big jump?