Chapter 20: Story III / Part XVIII: Before The Red Dawn (VI) / A Ghost Request
"Gang it up! Activate your [One Hit Kill] skills!"
The battle last longer than we expected, it took almost a heverra to finish off two Soul Eaters. Nevertheless, since we cooperated with each other and assisted by Daendles and Hope who keep monitoring our status, we can finish two Soul Eaters at the same time. Now, we just need to finish the last Soul Eater.
"ACTIVATE [GUILLOTINE DROP]!!!" we activate [Guillotine Drop] together from four directions and it tore the Soul Eater's body into four parts.
We chose to activate [Guillotine Drop] because it is a [One Hit Kill] skill that can instantly kill the enemy if you are aiming at their neck, head or other vital spots on their body. If it missed or failed, [Guillotine Drop] will inflict very serious damage and debuff like [Bleeding], [Paralyze], or [Broken Bone] on the target. But even though [Guillotine Drop] is an overpowered skill, it can be negated by various [Anti-One Hit Kill] spells or skills or with few spells or skills that have protection effects. [Guillotine Drop] has higher chance of success if the target is unaware and if the target has lower level than the user. The chance of [One Hit Kill] will also increase if multiple people activated the same skill together.
"Oh My God, this beast kept avoiding my attacks like it was nothing. Thank the Maker for the Mages and Archer support, if they weren't here, I'd die from Soul Eater's claw attacks." Said Suzuka while sheathing her katana.
"Fortunately, The Soul Eaters' levels are below 100, so they didn't become a real problem for us. All right, we are done here Ishizaki-dono. Where should we go now?"
"Let's dive into this lake, I think we need [Britheir Aquires] (Breathe Underwater), [Itrevelien Aquires] (Talking Underwater) and [Novalvel Entpoullete] (Gravity Manipulation) Spell."
"I will cast it to all of you…wait a bit." Luna then casted three spells on us, making our bodies feels a bit light.
"Here we go!" I jumped into the lake and then swim down to the lake's floor.
Zack and the others follow me and they jumped into the lake. Then, we are swimming to the northwest area of the lake until found a cave, surrounded by huge rocks. I pointed my finger to the cave and gave Luna a signal to "analyze" the cave. Luna nodded and she casted the spell. After that, she signaling me that the cave is the [Istheris Sunaria]'s Basecamp. We entered the cave and swim inside the cave until we reached a dry place in the cave.
"Puah! Finally, we reached a dry place with air. I don't like swimming or diving…" Tim wipes his face.
"Activate [Destreis] (Area Dry)." Luna casts a spell to dry our bodies and armors.
"So, this is [Istheris Sunaria]'s Hideout Zack-dono? It's quite dark." Then, Kenzia casted [Light Ball] Spell.
"Yep, dark and damp, right? Unlike their name "Istheris Sunaria" or "Warm Light of The Sun"."
"You must be joking Zack-dono. I think this place is good as a Boss Room." Suzuka replied with mocking tone.
"Let's go."
I walked first from the entrance. On the way, I asked Julio to walk in front of me, as an anticipation if something happens. Well, I feel a bit guilty to use him as a shield, but because he is the only one who have shield here, it can't be helped. After a long time exploring this cave, I realized there are many tunnels that created to confuse the infiltrators but thanks to Luna's magic, we can avoid the traps and walk to correct path.
"Well…I think…Viorellia-dono has went too far? Her basement structure is quite confusing…" said Zack.
"If we ignore her, I'm sure that silly girl will make a [Demon God Class Dungeon] without being told. Who the hell put a guillotine on the cave's entrance?!" Kenzia shook her head.
"Wait…I felt something wrong right in front. Let's stop and see it." We stopped behind a large rock after Zikiya said that. When we took a peek, we saw a woman is crying in agony, but her body is transparent.
"…is that a trap?" Tim whispered to Luna.
"…who the hell put a real ghost as a trap, are you dumb fireboy?!"
A Ghost? What is real ghost doing inside secluded cave with nobody around? Normally it will appear on haunted places, abandoned places or places with high concentration of both demonic and natural mana.
"…indeed, it is a real ghost, from what I see with my [Miracle Mind] that is a ghost from a drowned woman."
"…then what must we do, Zikiya-san? Purify her or purge her?"
"…it's meaningless, Suzuka-san. If we do that, that ghost will come back as vengeful ghost."
"…are you sure it's not a trap, Erick-dono?"
"…it isn't. I don't sense any trap around her or in the room itself."
"…Kaichou?" Luna turned her head left and right to find me and she surprised after she saw me stood in front of the ghost already.
"…Edercves mey, Doug Myheriium Dracaen revev thou bask, ol'Naeg?" (Excuse me…Did Mythallia-sama revive you back, My Lady?) I asked the ghost with Undead Race (Ghost) language.
"Miista, miista…rebelum threider opelsairth! Un meridel azwerid dother etzerith!" (Mister, mister…my daughter has been abducted by a Demon! Please save my child!" The ghost stands up and she is crying onto my chest.
Luna chuckled, "Kaichou is amazing eh…even ghost has fallen to his charm…"
"You are exaggerating, Luna-san…" I scratched my cheek.
"Em…mil-eddier, castre ixarina dathe haelver icidena ter eliven-mi'esheer" (Umm…Milady, can you explain the whole incident to me? I'm all ears)
"Miista, yesfre sirrel…buverdo a mine preilcatre wez teinren bye a her batvar in dengrion cheinzlier!" (Mister, my gratitude for you…but there is a pearl necklace of mine that has been stolen by a woman inside this dungeon!)
"…bye a her? Whoevem her sicth it?" (…by a woman? Who is this "woman"?) I asked.
"Her fridneds cleal she "Velleronia", ez der an yeher akventainia?" (The woman's friends called her "Velleronia", is she an acquaintance of yours?)
(Damn…that woman makes nothing but trouble) We thought same thing on our mind.
A quest notification appears on my [Status Screen]. The quest tasked us to find the missing pearl necklace and the daughter of Rilea, the ghost who is standing in front of us right now. If we complete this quest, we will get EXP and there might be some special rewards as well. It's worth to try in my opinion, we can also use this chance to find the Guild Master too so it's like shooting down two birds with one arrow. I asked the others before taking this quest but they seem to doubt and unwilling to take this quest.
Most probably, they don't know what kind of opponent that we will face in order to complete this quest, so it might be dangerous. We also don't know if this is [Trap Quest] or not, but Zikiya erased our doubts after saying that Rilea isn't lying. She said Rilea really begged us to find her necklace and her kidnapped daughter. Zikiya is also suggested us to help this ghost, in order to make her rest properly in oblivion and won't leave any regret in this world. So, we decided to take this quest but before I pressed the button, Zack asked me to ask Rilea about the demon who kidnapped her daughter.
Rilea answered my question by giving the details of the demon. She said the demon has a skeleton face, large scythe, wearing black robe, has big red eye. I shared this information to the others and they seem to learn something by nodding their head. Then, Erick said the demon who kidnapped Rilea's daughter might be a "Soul Eater" but with ethereal body. That big ghost isn't hard to deal, but normally a special quest that you got from special person or people have higher difficulty and lower completion rate. But before I say my opinion, Luna is pumped up and she said she wants to subjugate that Soul Eater for the sake of EXP.
She also successfully hooked other people to hunt it except Luck, Hope, Daendles, Riona, Suzuka and me. Hope doubts the enemy that we will face isn't an ordinary "Soul Eater" since Rilea said the demon is "huge". Normal quest related Soul Eater with ethereal body shouldn't have more than 3 Me height and it doesn't use any weapon at all. I agreed with Hope, but since I have taken this quest, I can't simply cancel it. So, we agreed to make a big subjugation joint force to hunt this "Soul Eater". I glimpsed at Julio's worried expression when the others are busy discussing about the Soul Eater and this quest. Oh right…I remember.
"I think we must decline this task because our last encounter almost killed Julio…"
Zack grins, "Let me guess…he can't jump and he received the [One Hit Kill] blow, am I right?"
"Yeah…ahahaha…" I glanced away when I saw Julio's sad expression.
"Bah! That's why I dislike Knight-class, especially [Paladin]." He glanced at Julio.
"Hey, that's harsh Zack-dono. If there's no Knight, we will receive damage more frequently."
"I know, I know…sorry, I didn't mean the bad way."
"So, what must we do?" I feel bad for Julio.
"My Lord, I think we must help this lady and eliminate a threat that will cause harm in the future."
"Are you sure Julio? You have a right to refuse, you know. Don't force yourself."
"I don't want my existence becomes a hindrance to someone, My Lord."
"That's a Paladin for you! Their mental fortitude is really high! Bwahahahahaha!" Zack smacked Julio's back.
We fought again dozens Soul Eaters on a special event in [Land of The Dead]. For other members, defeating a ghost Soul Eater isn't really hard but since Julio was still under leveled and weak, he became a hindrance to others. Well, simply because his skills had long activation and cooldown time so many of the party members got badly injured because Julio can't fulfill his role as [Tank].
He still feels bad about that even though we don't mind at all. The ones who made troubles in [Land of The Dead] were the idiot trio, Luna, Tim and Toval. They charged into the enemies whenever they spot them. It made Julio's job became considerably harder thus he failed to protect others party member because he used his skills to protect those troublemakers. Well, I'm really grateful to the Gods since Julio has high [Mental Fortitude] and confidence, so he can raise from his defeat and grows stronger than before.
"Now, let's find her necklace first. I think we—"
"Miista, miista…tedh her het thousde weirel!" (Mister, mister…that woman went to that way!)
Luna glances, "What did she say, Kaichou?"
"She said Viorelle-san went to that tunnel." Zikiya pointed out her finger to the smallest tunnel from here.
"Let's go."
We are walking deeper to the cave. On the way, we encountered some underwater or artificial monsters, traps, and confusing tunnels. Thanks to Rilea, we can avoid them and head to the correct path. Meanwhile, Zack kept complaining about Viorelle's base that is almost similar to a high-ranked dungeon rather than "the usual and normal base" but Erick disagreed and said that he admired her creativity from the bottom of his heart.
We looked at him with disbelieve after Erick said that with a face that is full of satisfaction. Well, are you serious? Admiring a person that created many deadly pitfalls in front of the tunnel entrances and guillotines that fell down everytime Zack wanted to pee?! Truly, something is wrong inside your head, my friend. When I sighed heavily about Erick's silly character, Tim suddenly said that it's more fun if we put high-ranked explosion spells as a trap in every corner of our base. He said all of that with happy tone and gleefully expression on his innocent cute face. Meanwhile, I can't understand why is Tim can saying all of that that with such a cute expression.
Luna and Zack who heard that suddenly looked at Tim with disbelieve expression and then they smirked. They teased (intimidated) Tim by saying that we will put him in a dungeon with [Anti-Fire] mechanism and leave him there alone. Their tease (intimidation) made him really scared that he hid behind Erick's back. Looking at that, we laughed at his misery. Luna and Zack kept teasing (intimidating) him until we didn't realize that we have reached [Istheris Sunaria] Party's basecamp. Now, we are standing in front of a big and tall wood gate that had been enchanted with protective spells. There are two signs that written [Do Not Enter] and [Authorized Personnel Only]. I wonder who the hell will enter a base that is located underwater?!
"Hello…" I knocked the gate with my sword.
"WHO ARE YOU?!"
I am surprised when a pair of eyes suddenly appeared from the tiny door slide. Really, I think it was a mimic's eyes. They normally can be found in secluded caves or dungeons, the high-ranked one can even mimic a house.
"Oh, Viorellia-dono, it's me Zack, I am also with Ishizaki-dono and Rahealis-dono."
"I DON'T TRUST YOU, ESPECIALLY WITH THAT WOMAN IN TOW!" She pointed at the ghost.
"This woman is beyond hope." Daendles shook his head.
Kenzia crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Viorelle-dono, just open the gate! We must talk about some—"
"YOU ARE DEMONS RIGHT?! YOU ARE HERE TO ATTACK MY BASE AND STEAL THE NECKLACE I FOUND ON THE CAVE FLOOR!"
"...…." We looked at each other and then nodded in agreement.
"Tim." I glanced at Tim and winked my right eye.
"Well…."
Tim rubbed his head while walking on the front of the gate. Meanwhile we moved back, far, far away from Tim's location and stand in a big hole inside the tunnel. Then Zikiya, Julio, and Luna casted three protection spells and barriers to protect us.
"HAH! SO, YOU DEMONS HAVE GIVEN UP BECAUSE YOU ARE SCARED OF ME! HOW WE—HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WHY ARE YOU CHANTING?!"
"Heltrei on my praisth, Oh…mise Dracal Dragel ang Vinaelis, opasiall bestrigel el Gaia roteria…Aiplea mi as pagaleo too deimredel des geith!" (Hear my prayer, Oh…my Fire Dragon Gods, Draco and Dracovina who live in the Gaia's Core…Please bestow me a power to destroy this gate!)
"NONONONONO!!!! PLEASE DON'T! I AM JUST JOK—"
"[Flammash Elementalia Magicka Reign EX… (Fire Elemental Magic Rank EX…)
"PLEASE STOOOOOOPPPP…!!!"
…EXPLOSIVA!!!] (…EXPLOSION!!!)"
Shortly after that, the huge explosion occurred in the cave. Beforehand, Luna and Zikiya have casted their barrier to protect us as well. The explosion created a beautiful fire flower and fireworks. Truly, this is a magnificent work.
"A…a….a…a…" the black burnt Viorelle is laying on the floor, along with her subordinates.
"Fuh! Glad I can go all out!"
"Good job Tim!" I rubbed Tim's head.
"Ehehehe…thanks!' Oh my, what a cute expression.
"Then, where is the necklace…?" Kenzia looked around.
"Oh! There it is!" She walked to the necklace then picked it up.
"NO! IT'S MY NECKLACE—OOF!" Kenzia smacked Viorelle again and now Viorelle is completely fainted.
"Here you go." She gave the necklace to me. Then, I checked the item through [Appraisal] and it's written [Rilea's Pearl Necklace]. Wow, this is a pretty necklace with pearls lined up perfectly at its wire.
"Oh, good, this is the necklace that we were looking for."
After I returned the necklace, the necklace is shining brightly and it shows us the location of her daughter and a demon with appearance similar to a Soul Eater. When we are wondering whether it's a real Soul Eater or not, Riona asked about the quest location. Zikiya said that there is a ruin inside the jungle a little far from the ruined village. She explained that we must go to southwest a little after we passed the lake, then passing through the massive crack to reach the quest's location. Zikiya said, the quest might be located inside a secluded dungeon.
"Let's go there tomorrow, but what should we do to this woman?" Kenzia asked while kicking Viorelle's head.
"Hmm…let's write a memo and give it to Rudolph-san." Ayumi replied.
"Oh…I see. I know what you mean Ayumi-san…" Luna smirked.
Then, we wrote a note and placed it on Rudolph's bag that located in main tent. Well, it's quite easy to find it since it has "Rudolph Triseiorre" name written on it.
The cat woman woke up a half and heverra later, she rubbed her head while murmuring about those people who blow her up along with her base. But when she is mumbling something, someone smacked her head three times. She was angry and looked above, but what she found isn't [CST] Party's leader but a Cat Sith man with angry face, there are also many people behind him that looking at her with similar expression. Then, the man asked her whether she had a good night sleep or not, but the cat woman keeps glancing away while nervously sweating. Looking at that, the man got fed up and smacked her head again.
"Itai! (It Hurts!) Why did you do that Rudolph-chan?! I did nothing wrong here!" She covered her head with her hands. She also cried a little.
"I received a note from Party Leaders of [White Falcon], [North Wind of Liberation], [CST] and Vice Leader of [Easghervel] that said you stole a necklace from a ghost and you refused to give it back to them. They also said they needed to blow up the gate in purpose to make you return her necklace. Moreover, you also declared they were Demons…"
"MUUWAAAAAA!!! I'M THE VICTIM HERE RUDOLPH-CHAN! THEY BULLIED ME TO NO—OOF!" Rudolph smacked her stomach.
"I left the base for a moment you know, My Beloved Leader…and you turned this base into crisp under 30 minerval. Wow…this is a world record…" Rudolph is looking at Viorelle with his frightening smirk expression.
"Fuwwwaaa!!! I did nothing please believe me…! I-I—"
"…It's no use to show me that cute innocent kitty face and teary eyes, you know…" Rudolph is showing his frightening smiling expression while clenching his hand.
"FUUUUUUNNNNNNYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAA…!!!"
On another place, few people were discussing something seriously while walking to outside of the cave. But a man with black hair stopped chatting and moved his long, pointed ears up and down, like he heard something. After turning his head to left and right, the man with black hair glances at a man with white hair.
"Hey, did you hear a girl scream, Leader?" Erick glances around.
"Nah, it must be your imagination…"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
White_Falcon21
White_Falcon21 Did just Erick hear something off?
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