Everyone has finally gotten a good rest after the combat and the look on their faces is now showing a refreshed and relaxed expression.
Sigma stood up and opened her quest tab and announced it to everyone.
"It looks like this next quest of ours is the last quest we will be undertaking for this chain. At long last, we are finally getting things done after this," Sigma smiled at everyone,
"If this was the last, does that mean this is going to be the hardest mission we will be undertaking?" Dolly rubs her chin even though she lacks a beard.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. All we can do is keep on guessing and hope things aren't going to be much harder than the last. But since this item is kept as the last one, the possibility is very high so we should always keep our guard up. Here, let me show you the quest."
"Can I look?" I asked Sigma.
"Sure. Since you will be tagging along with us, I think it is better to show it to you,"
Sigma swiped the panel and shared it with me, allowing me to view the current details of the quest they are currently doing.
[The Perilous Errand]
Type: Chain Quest
Info: You are all tasked by Almira to fetch some materials from various places and monsters. This time, the item that is tasked to be fetched is an item named "The Dead Man's Heart". Failing to obtain the item will result in the whole chain quest a failure.
Required Items:
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe Dead Man's Heart: 0/1
Reward: ???[Will be revealed after the current quest's success.], 1,000,000 gold and 500,000 exp
...
...
I frowned when a familiar item came up on my radar. And yes, that is "The Dead Man's Heart". I am very familiar with this item as Almira also tasked me before to fetch out this item. The only difference between before and the current quest is that the former quest did not occur here in the frozen desert of Sandurk but when I was on Aquagius. One of the bosses in Aquagius possesses the target item while the current [The Dead Man's Heart] is in this frozen desert causing me to have a bit of confusion. Does that mean there are multiple enemies that possess [The Dead Mna's Heart] other than the monster I killed in the past timeline?
"So where is the main location on where to find the item?" I asked Sigma since I don't have any access to the map's location since I don't have the quest shared with me due to the way it forbids me to join.
"It's called the Abyssal Depths of Ruins. It sounds like some sort of underground structure but who knows?"
Ah, the Abyssal Depths of Ruins. It's one of the places in the Frozen Region of Sandurk that contains lots of actions. In the past timeline, players who explored the Frozen Region of Sandurk encountered the place and explored it, only to be overwhelmed by a lot of monsters and undead. And since the item is [The Dead Man's Heart] which can only be obtained by killing an Elder Lich, it wasn't even a wonder why there will zombies and undead down on that place. I might not have seen it or explored it in the past timeline but I will try to use the small info I got to my advantage and help everyone to finish the quest as soon as possible.
Sigma then pulls out something and throws it into the snow, releasing a Snow Carriage mobile.
"Uh... Sigma-chan, can we still fit in here if Bladeheart is with us already?" Harmless Sparrow asked.
True, the space of the snow carriage might be big, but it was clearly enough for just them. There is currently no space for me to squeeze in unless I want to ride up on top of the carriage.
"No, don't worry about me. I will use one of my pets instead as my ride. That way, we also have some guards against monsters that will come to us and scare them away once they saw my pet."
"You mean Leona?" Dolly asked.
"No, Leona is vulnerable in the cold so I am against using her here. Instead, I would rather use the new pet that I just tamed last time."
I am currently looking for a chance to summon the other pet that I personally tamed before to see whether the pet has any changes in behavior or body structures that I needed to be aware of. And with that, I turned to look for a bigger space than where we are because the pet I am going to summon is a much bigger one compared to Leona.
"Come on out!"
Opening the summon's area, the Venomous Devourer that I tamed last time slithered out from it and appeared before us.
"Holy sh*t! That is a big snake! It's even much bigger and much fiercer than the snakes that Sigma tamed!" Hagane exclaimed seeing the big size of my pet.
After it came out, a prompt appeared and released the renaming section for me to put a name to my pet.
"How about I call you Mizuchi?"
The snake tilted its head, seemingly not knowing what that means.
"Isn't the Mizuchi a water serpent? Why did you decide to use that name on someone that doesn't seem to resemble a mizuchi?" Sigma asked.
"I s*cked at naming to be honest which is why I decided to use that name. Besides, it's not that bad of a name for a pet snake. At least I didn't call it, snakey or something similar."
"Ah, well, that is true."
"Then it is decided."
I clicked the confirmation and it officially renamed the Venomous Devourer into Mizuchi. I climbed into Mizuchi's head and it allowed me to go and sit on its head. Since Mizuchi is big, it was just like I am riding on top of a big train if Mizuchi walks on the snow with all of its body slithering on the ground or much better if Mizuchi slithers with a part of its head standing up just like how a cobra does it.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Should we go?" I turned to look at Sigma since she is the leader of this operation and I was just tagging along.
"Wait, let me summon my two snakes too. Maybe my snakes and your snakes can be friends or buddies. Alpha, Beta! Come out! You guys should have recuperated enough."
Sigma opens her Summon's area and releases two big snakes, a bit smaller than Mizuchi but still quite big for a snake. Did sigma call them Alpha and Beta huh? That's interesting naming. I hope one day I would be able to name my pets like that like a chad.
The moment they saw Mizuchi, the two snakes stiffened and Mizuchi looked at them with a questioning look on why they seemed to have stiffened. A few seconds later, the two bowed down to Mizuchi before they decided to return to a position like some sort of soldiers. That was very unexpected to me but that is something quite amazing indeed.
"Welp, that was unexpected, I thought they would be excited to see a new companion but perhaps they needed enough time to interact with each other. Now that we are done, let's go and prepare to depart. Is anyone ready to go?"
Everyone looked around to see if they have forgotten something before they nodded in confirmation.
"Let's go. To the Abyssal Depth of Ruins."
...
...
...
...
Back at the camp, Almira sat in front of the forge while holding a cigarette in her left hand. Almira didn't expect that someone would recognize her despite having already changed her hair color and change the way she moves around. Perhaps even if time has already forgotten, it seems her own identity won't just fade away as easily as she thought it would be.
Still, her objective is not going to change. For how long she has been living in the world, she never changed her decisions, not a single decision was revoked. And since she decided to do it, she will continue to do it and she will not just be going to stop just because of some slight mishap.
"Yes, I am doing this to save humanity from the danger that his existence possesses. It's only a matter of time before the same fate that happened before will just repeat due to him. Yes. That should be it."
She huffed another round of smoke before puffing it out and putting the last remains of the cigarette on the ashtray and extinguishing the remaining embers present on it. She picks up her forging hammer and grips it tightly before she throws another fireball into the forge and igniting it ablaze.
"As much as I don't want to do this, it is the only way to keep on going and nothing else will matter. Nothing else will. Even if this drags me straight to hell, if I can just put an end to it, then that should suffice."