The Renown Almakhadie

Chapter 80 - Secret Quest Completed

A door opened, and a single man stood there, walking in slightly after. "Oh, I see that you've returned. Already back for another?" The man walked up to the counter, not caring for the people who were staring at him as he continued to walk forward. "Yes. I've already left the material for the butchers. Give me any slaying quest that you have." The individual wasted no time and grabbed multiple quest request papers before slowly making his way out again. "Please be careful! I know that you're strong, but what if the guildmaster sees what you are doing, Yotsuya?" Her voice sounded stern yet concerned for him. She had seen him come back and forth multiple times, each time with some kind of injury. "Just please... be careful..." She tried to sound as compassionate and empathetic as possible, but Yotsuya had already left.

The desert was still as hot and unforgiving as usual. Yotsuya had recovered from his fight with the dragon but had spent all his time since then fighting monsters, growing stronger yet weaker. Yotsuya stood in front of a giant horde of sandworms and two black scorpions. He was way out, and the city he had just been to was far out of sight. He stood in the sand, facing the enemy head-on with two swords by his waist. He had no support, and as every single monster started running towards him, he readied himself by pulling out both of his swords. As the first monster arrived, it came up from the ground, just a few meters away from swallowing Yotsuya whole. It was only a mere second before he would have gotten eaten that he covered his body and sword in a faint aura.

The giant sandworm had accidentally disrupted its own vision. It thought that it had eaten Velios, but it could not see that he wasn't where he was supposed to be. Instead, Yotsuya had come out behind the giant sandworm, leaving a giant wound that spiraled from the top of it all the way down to where it had come out of. In the span of 0.7 seconds, Yotsuya had spun multiple times around the giant worm, leaving a deep scar that spread the pain equally throughout its whole body. It died almost immediately from the deep wounds and blood loss, and as a result, a few of the monsters had stopped completely in their tracks out of pure fear, but it was too late. It would only save them a few seconds of their lives. "You have no idea how dangerous hungry beasts can be!"

Yotsuya eventually returned, completely covered in blood. The city guards were left completely speechless as he was carrying multiple dead monsters on his back. Eventually, he dropped them off just outside the walls that protected the city. "I'll leave them here. Get someone to come and get them. Make sure it is written off as 'Yotsuya's properties' or else..." Yotsuya left to get the rest of the corpses of monsters as he eventually dropped off all of them before heading back to the adventurers' guild. But on the way, Yotsuya had been stopped by someone that even had authority over him, the only person that he could trust and the only person that was even a little bit similar in the case that both of them saved his life. "Yotsuya. What are you doing?" The voice was serious.

"I'm just doing what I'm best at. The only thing I'm good at." Yotsuya was brutally honest with his reply. "Yotsuya... You're completely covered in wounds, and we've only just returned from fighting that giant dragon. How are you still able to fight anymore?" Arthur was concerned at Yotsuya's expression. "Your expression... it reminds me of the time we first met. Do you still remember?" Yotsuya had stopped walking completely. "Yes, I do remember. I was about to be killed in a dungeon, and you came and saved my life." Arthur now tried to lighten the mood. "Yeah, and do you remember why you almost died? Because you went and tried to solo it, you idiot." Arthur hit him lightly on the head. "Cheer up a little. The past is the past, and you can't change it. You can't revive the people that you've lost, and you can't change events that you would rather forget. At least let me tag along if you're going monster hunting." Arthur put his hand on Yotsuya's shoulder and let out a smile directed at him.

"You really do have a way with words... Fine, you can come along. Just don't be in my way." Yotsuya's mood had finally lightened up as he started making jokes himself. The two of them were walking together back to the adventurers' guild building as it was obvious that Yotsuya found it relaxing and stress-relieving to fight monsters. "Is it still on your mind? The tournament incident?" Yotsuya had jumped up at hearing those words. "Can I be completely honest with you?" Yotsuya obviously had something on his mind as he was unsure if he could tell him, but Arthur responded with a simple nod, knowing that Yotsuya knew that he would believe him. "Did you see what defeated that dragon?" Yotsuya asked an unexpected question and Arthur simply said that he couldn't see what it was. "I couldn't see either... but I got a flashback during that massive explosion." Arthur looked at Yotsuya in confusion.

"The explosion that almost blew up the whole city... Are you implying that it wasn't caused by the dragon but by the person that defeated it?!" Arthur himself had a questioning look on his face. "I couldn't see who it was... or what it was, but I'm certain of something. The thing that killed the dragon was stationary in the air, and all I could see was a blurry figure in the air. And..." Yotsuya didn't know if he could finish his sentence. The sheer thought of the thing he was saying being real was terrifying, and he didn't want to believe it either. "And I'm almost certain that the thing that defeated the dragon was human... or at least that it had the exact same body of a human." Arthur suddenly stopped walking, and an expression of fear riddled over his face. He didn't know what to say or think even. If what Yotsuya said was true, that would mean that there exists a human or a monster that looks like a human, powerful enough to kill a dragon on their own. Either of the ideas were equally as terrifying.

The two had eventually arrived at the guild. The two had not spoken since Yosuya had brought up the topic of what it was that killed the dragon. But as they arrived at the guild, it was not the same calm place that they had been in earlier. Instead, what they saw was a place full of chaos. A singular pair of adventurers had come running in and were completely out of breath. Their facial expressions clearly showed unprecedented fear, but the reason was still unknown. It looked like they had seen a ghost. "What's happening?" Arthur looked like he himself had just gained consciousness. It was as if his own mind was somewhere completely else for a moment. "We just got a report that a giant-" She herself was extremely flustered as if she had been the one to witness it. Only the two of them had actually seen it, but they looked like they had been running for days. Their bodies had become small, and they were obviously dehydrated.

"Preparing world announcement..." A robotic female had spoken loudly enough for it to have attracted everybody's attention. All of them had heard it before, and every time they had, something big had happened. It was also a way for them to gather important information and to get even closer to the truth of what's happening. What no one was, however, was that not a single person was prepared to hear and see what was about to happen. "Secret quest: The Strong Rule: No mercy, has been completed." A virtual screen had appeared in such a way that it was impossible to miss it. On the screen, there was a picture of a massive hole that reached down at least a couple of hundred meters. The hole was cylindrical, and the picture itself was incredibly zoomed out. It was easily multiple kilometers wide, and the only things that could be seen from the distance the picture had been taken from were the trees that remained somewhat unharmed just outside the zone where the hole was and a bunch of ruins, as if there had been a secret civilization.

"I-isn't that... the Forest of Death?!" Yotsuya didn't know if what he was seeing was true. He had only been there once, and even then, he couldn't even enter it. It is said that most who get even close die excruciating deaths. There were even multiple missions to retrieve dead bodies in the desert that had been too close to the forest. The closest you were actually allowed to go was just before you could see where it was just because of how deadly it is. That just made the whole situation more frightening. What had happened for there to be a massive crater that had destroyed the whole forest along with it? And now there was something about some secret quest, and the more the robotic female voice talked, the more confusion spread, which left everybody with devastated looks on their faces, just imagining what could have caused something like that.

" ...New World Quest, The Rulers Interests, has started. The rulers of this world have taken an interest in the player, ???, the player that completed "Secret quest: The Strong Rule: No mercy" has received the interest of a few specific individuals." The voice hadn't spoken for all too long, but it felt like it lasted an eternity. The virtual screen continued to last for a few seconds, making sure that the picture was etched into each and every single person's mind. The more time passed, the further the picture had zoomed in, and the further it did so, the more destruction could be seen. Blood was scattered everywhere, and signs of an intelligent civilization became all the more apparent to all of them. As the screen in front of all of them ceased once more, uncertainty and chaos spread amongst the people.