BOG! BOG! BOG!
BAM!
After a few attempts, Bannermanner smashed the sealed door open. The people inside couldn't help but cover their faces with their hands because of the sudden bright light. But they were glad as they were finally freed.
One by one, people that were locked inside went out and were escorted by Hallow's men. Across the prison cells were Boogie and her men shackled down in chains while being guarded by Herald Guards. Melo and his crewmembers were not exempted.
As the situation was resolved, Bannermanner walked away. But someone grabbed him in the arm. It was a prisoner with his face covered by a stained golden helmet that looked like a bird.
"You fought well. You must be a Paragon."
"I've heard that a lot. I'm not sure if I am really a Paragon, but may I ask what is a Paragon?"
"Your kind were powerful beings who looked like us, but different because of their unlimited capabilities. There is a lot of your kind around the capital."
"You seemed to know a lot about this."
"Yes. Forgive my rudeness. I am the Sparrowman. I belong to our late Emperor's most trusted and most powerful squad he created."
"What is a man with that status appearing on this island?"
"Since our Great Emperor was killed, half of the Empire has fallen. Sparrowmen like us were tasked to find out the usurpers in Arcadia to protect the remaining half. Most of us got caught, hunted down and imprisoned in places like these for the lack of proper support and resources. If it wasn't for you and your friends, I would never escape this place. But for my missing comrades, I only hope they're okay."
Bannermanner was utterly oblivious to what was happening in Arcadia because he skipped some crucial parts of the Tutorial Questline. Sparrowman noticed that the Paragon looked like he was unaware of what he was saying.
"For now, accept this as my gratitude."
[You received 1,000 Gold]
[You received 1,000 Gold (Locked to Valkyra37)]
[You received 1,000 Gold (Locked to Kane250)]
'Locked golds?'
[New Quest Received]
[Quest: Royal Knights (A)]
[Rewards: Conclusion of the Herald City Questline. You will be allowed to leave the island.]
[Penalty if failed: Cannot leave the island until the quest is completed.]
[You received a Centennial Boarding Ticket]
[You received a Centennial Boarding Ticket (Locked to Valkyra37)]
[You received a Centennial Boarding Ticket (Locked to Kane250)]
Bannermanner was flustered upon receiving the new quest.
"Boarding Ticket?"
"Yes. I hope that you will join me back in the capital. I believe the Empire needs your help. I will be waiting at the port."
Sparrowman bowed and walked away from Bannermanner without giving him a chance to reply.
Seeing that he was forced to take the quest, Bannermanner approached the resting Melodia on top of wooden boxes.
"I received some kind of quest."
"I also did. I was just watching the arrest of those thugs and then it suddenly appeared."
"I have something for you. I believe this was yours."
[Bannermanner wants to trade – ACCEPT OR DECLINE]
"What's this?"
"That knight gave me some gold, but some of them were locked. I guess I'm supposed to hand these to their rightful owners."
[You received 1,000 Gold]
[You received a Centennial Boarding Ticket]
"Owners? Who're the other owners?"
"Some Kane250. I guess that's the clown who ridiculously resolved this fight. I didn't know that we could finish the Questline this fast. I heard this was supposed to be part of the last stage."
"From what I heard, the Tutorial Quest had at least 40 hours of gameplay. Before we met, I already did many things more than the tutorial quests like raiding some caves, yet, in just 35 hours, I reached this point. It's obvious that we just did a speedrun on this quest."
"I was even worried because I knew this was supposed to be in the last phase filled with high-leveled opponents. But that guy resolved this easily and even took down both Bosses all by himself. I'm pretty sure that guy is just either one hell of a genius or a total nutjob who got lucky."
"Now, I have a problem."
"What is it?"
"I have Kane's 1000 Gold and his boarding ticket. I can't use them because they're locked for him, but I can't discard them either."
"Then let's find him. The boat is gonna leave a few hours from now. We don't have much time."
Melodia confidently walked toward the exit to find Kane. But she noticed that Bannermanner didn't move.
"What are you doing? I said we don't have much time."
"This partnership happened because I told you that I'm gonna help you finish your quest, and it's done. I even failed to protect you at all. I felt helpless in front of Boogie."
"Oho! That means your indebted to me! Follow me if you wanna pay for it."
"W-what?"
"Let's stop fooling around. I need you, and I want you by my side. I'm a healer, and you're a warrior. We need each other for better or for worse."
Melodia stopped wasting time for Bannermanner to move and continued walking forward. Hearing that, Bannermanner was glad and decided to follow the lady.
Melodia suddenly noticed Hallow commanding his troops.
"Detective Hallow, what will happen to those guys? They helped us win this battle."
The lady pointed at the shackled Melo and his goons.
"I heard about what they did for you guys. But they still did a lot of atrocities that they have to pay for. But of course, they'll probably get a lighter sentence than Boogie and her men."
Bannermanner took the opportunity to lessen their troubles.
"Detective, did you know where Kane went? He was the one with us last night. The half-naked guy."
"Ah, yes. I was there when he purified the vengeful spirit's soul. But after that, he disappeared in thin air. I believe it's a Paragon skill."
"Disappeared in thin air? Log out. He logged out."
***
Detective Hallow told them everything that Kane did except for Kane freeing that soul orb because Hallow couldn't see it. Upon hearing the story, the pair ended up in front of the gravestone that Kane made.
HERE LIES THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN. MAY YOUR BEAUTY BE REMEMBERED.
Melodia started laughing.
"Aha! This guy wasn't so bad at all. To think he'll defeat a Boss this way."
"How did he know it was possible?"
"He probably found out its backstory. I heard this woman was enslaved like Maria and eventually took her life. She became a vengeful ghost that appears during the night, haunting old women that looked like Boogie."
"Now, we're back to square 1. Where the hell is that guy?"
"Can't you really just discard his items?"
"Aside from me getting guilty, there was also a timer when can I discard it. It was the same time as when we were about to board the boat. By that time, it will be unlocked. I can use the gold, and I can discard the ticket from my inventory."
"Good. Then let's just forget about him and kill time."
"Forget about him? But he saved us?"
"Knowing him. He'll probably freak out once he found out that he had no ticket and will track us down like hell. We're bound to meet him, trust me."
"Okay. What should we do?"
"Before we met, I already completed the Lakewild and Nightmouth cave. There's only one silver cave left. The Fruit Eye Cave. Apparently, it was a bit hard, like a maze. But I have a plan. We need papers. That way, we'll know that there will be some portion of the map that was left unexplored."
***
After a few minutes of buying paper sheets, armors, weapons, and they managed to reach the Fruit Eye Cave.
"Melodia, This is it."
"Yes."
Just like Kane, they were immediately attacked by wolves. Because Bannermanner was already level 21, he quickly culled all of them in only a few seconds.
Melodia looked around and drew on her paper what the room looked like and marked it as 1. Then she drew a circle on a different paper and also marked it with 1.
The rooms would always reset every time the players left it. Even if a player left a mark on the Cave pathways, they would disappear after the reset. However, the scribbles on papers, just like what Melodia was doing, would never reset.
There were four pathways available to the next room. Melodia left the decision making to Bannermanner.
"Where do you want to go?"
"Where should I go?"
"Anything will do. I just need to draw the map, and we're done."
Despite being a small woman with a powerless job as a Healer, she was not someone who people should underestimate.
Every newbie in the Herald City doesn't have any class until they get one starting at Miranda Kingdom. However, people could already decide what their future class would be.
For Bannermanner, he wanted to be a warrior that he spent his time on Herald City by enhancing his sword-fighting skills and STR. But only a few people decided to become a Healer at the starting island because Healers had to completely rely on their teammates to win fights. Not to mention that Healer's also needed a lot of expensive skill books to buy their skills.
Why would anyone choose to become a Healer when the only people they could rely on were their fellow newbies? And yet Melodia picked it and even managed to get many skills already despite only playing for 35 hours. She even managed to finish the Tutorial Questline in the island.
Upon entering the next room, giant mushrooms swarmed them.
SLASH!
Bannermanner tried to slash one of them but got his sword jammed at the mushroom's body instead. The mushroom body-slammed him in retaliation.
BAM!
Bannermanner managed to grab his sword before getting pushed away.
[Healing Grace!]
[Heavenly Blessing: Strength!]
White and red lights enveloped Bannermanner that healed him, and increased his attack damage. He looked behind and saw Melodia nodding at him.
Bannermanner tried it again and sliced the same giant mushroom.
SLASH!
It was sliced in two! Another mushroom tried to body-slam him, but Bannermanner stepped backward to dodge before cutting it down. While Bannermanner was killing them with ease, Melodia proceeded to write on her papers. She marked it with number 2 and drew another circle on the paper with a circle marked with 1.
The duo did this for an hour until Melodia informed Bannermanner that they already repeated the same room.
"What? I thought we're just going forward?"
"Then there's only one reason. It was not really a straight path but a crooked one instead. We encircled around. Nice try going to the sides."
Following Melodia's suggestions, Bannermanner took the right path and then straight. After a few minutes, they ended up in the same room. This time, Bannermanner entered the left and eventually reached the same place. On their fourth run, Bannermanner entered the rooms randomly. They stopped when Melodia informed him that they reached the same room.
"Damn it! Nothing is working!"
Bannermanner was annoyed how they already spent two hours but always ended up in the same rooms.
"Nope! We got it!"
"W-What do you mean!"
"Look at this paper!"
In the paper filled with connected circles labeled with numbers, there was one massive blank space in the middle. Melodia decoded it.
"This is the room. Come! Let's go back to that room!"
Bannermanner followed the map and swiftly killed the mob of monsters. Eventually, the final pathway was right in front of them. Both of them took a deep breath before entering.
GASP!
Upon entering, they saw a massive monkey sleeping in the middle of the room. Bannermanner and Melodia held hands while giggling. But they let go of their hands upon realizing that they're holdings hands like some typical stupid shit romance. Now the room was filled with silence because it became awkward. Bannermanner broke the silence.
"Now what? Nothing is happening."
"Ummm... let's come closer?"
The pair slowly walked forward by taking one small step at a time. But even when they got too close, the Monkey was still not moving. Bannermanner raised his sword and then slammed it on the Monkey's massive toes.
The Fallen Monkey Lvl 15
HP: [1425/1500]
The Boss awakened. The massive health bar appeared on their screens.
Suddenly, the Monkey leaped in the air and then dived down on Bannermanner and Melodia.
[Holy Barrier!]
BAGAM!
They both got hit. Bannermanner was pushed to the left edge of the room while Melodia was moved to the right. They could've died if it wasn't for Melodia's quick thinking.
Bannermanner quickly stood up upon seeing that the Monkey was heading toward Melodia. The lady created a barrier to protect herself despite not knowing if her barriers could handle the Monkey's full swing.
Bannermanner assumed that her barrier couldn't take it that he ran to her rescue. The Monkey raised its staff and was about to attack Melodia.
BAM!
But it swung its staff downward, hitting Bannermanner instead, as he was really the Monkey's target and not Melodia. Despite only LVL 15 and not LVL 40, unlike Boogie, the Fallen Monkey was still a Boss that Players shouldn't fool around with.
Bannermanner was hurled to the center of the room while his sword was blasted away. The Monkey leaped and smashed its staff downward on top of him.
SLAM!
CHING!
However, Bannermanner was protected by Melodia's barrier. Immediately, the Monkey hurled its own staff to Melodia like a Javelin.
PAK!
Melodia got severely hit and banged to the wall. Bannermanner was confused as the Monkey looked like it doesn't even have any attack pattern.
The young man ran toward Melodia instead of grabbing his sword. The Monkey leaped once more and dived down at Melodia.
BAM!
It dealt additional damage and regained its staff. Melodia banged to the wall once more because of the impact.
[Status: Fractured]
In just a few attacks, Melodia entered fractured status because of her low max HP. Despite being level 26, her health was far lesser than other level 26 players because she invested all her points mostly in INT.
[Healing Grace!]
But low HP meant that she also needed only a few mana to restore her HP. Investing in INT also allowed her to heal people with ease. She could even block attacks using her barriers even against a boss like the Fallen Monkey.
However, the Fallen Monkey took advantage that there were only two of them in the room, and one of them was even disarmed.
The Monkey faked its attack on Melodia once again before bashing its staff at Bannermanner instead.
POW!
"Ack!"
Without his sword, he was defenseless.
[Hasting Grace!]
Melodia buffed her own movement speed and ran toward Bannermanner's sword. But the Monkey stopped her by diving down at her. But Melodia successfully managed to throw the sword toward Bannermanner before getting pounded by the monster.
SLAM!
[Status: Fractured]
Once again, she entered fractured status. The Monkey continued smashing her staff on Melodia, but she was holding on with her barriers.
BOG! BOG! BOG! BOG!
Bannermanner reached the Monkey's legs and attacked it. But the Monkey didn't care.
The Fallen Monkey Lvl 15
HP: [1345/1500]
HP: [1268/1500]
HP: [1151/1500]
HP: [1071/1500]
The barrier eventually started cracking. And in a few seconds.
CRACK!
It was destroyed. Melodia ran out of mana.
The Monkey rammed its staff on the floor once more. Bannermanner managed to leap and pushed Melodia away.
SLAM!
Bannermanner was squashed on the floor. Thankfully, because he invested his points on STR, he still has half of his max HP.
The Monkey frowned upon seeing that it was Bannermanner that was crushed. The Monkey ignored Bannermanner and leaped toward Melodia once again.
Seeing that she couldn't outrun him, Melodia stopped running and focused on healing Bannermanner instead, depleting all her mana.
[Healing Grace!]
With her intellect and quick thinking skills, Melodia could've defeated the Fallen Monkey all by herself far better than with Bannermanner. However, her lack of offensive skills made it impossible.
As her mana got completely depleted, Melodia just looked up at the freefalling Monkey on top of her.
[Sword Throw!]
SHING!
A sword pierced through the Monkey's left shoulder that it missed its landing and saved Melodia. The hero finally appeared. Bannermanner and Melodia looked where it came from.
The fully equipped Kane appeared at the entrance with his newly acquired leather clothes. This time, there was even a legit wooden club behind him.
"Sorry for the wait, guys. But it took me a little bit over 30 mins to find this room."
Bannermanner was surprised.
'30 mins?! Is this guy for real!? It took us 3 hours with a map to find this room.'
Kane proudly stood up in front of the newbies after he cleared the maze for only 30 mins. It was only possible because Kane already cleared this cave before, and he only had to memorize the paths.
The Monkey turned around and gazed at the man who pierced his left shoulder. It leaped up in the air to make his signature dive attack on Kane. The Paragon grinned as he remembered this moment.
"Did you remember me?! Because I did! I've been waiting for this moment for a very long time! Now, let's see how much I improved."
Kane jumped upward, took the club behind him, and clashed with the Fallen Monkey.
[Metamorphosis!]
[Club Smash!]
KAPOW!
A loud slap was heard as Kane's club hurled the staff away and banged straight at the Monkey's chin.