Decision Made, A Quest Accepted and A Bet is Made
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Kill the monster in the mountain terrorizing the citizens.
Location: Near the northern mountains in a cave
Time limit: None
Rewards:
• 150,000 Eris
• x 10 Gacha Ticket
• 50,000 XP
Failure: ? ?
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[Accept/Decline]
As I stared at the quest, a major part of me wants to press accept, just for the rewards itself, but I need to be smart about this, not greedy. This isn't a game even if it feels like one with this world leveling system and my own cheat system.
Even if this world has the ability to bring people back from the dead, it can only happen once if there's a somewhat intact body for a priest/priestess to use the resurrection spell on. Unfortunately, it wouldn't work for me, having died once already unless Aqua is there to cast the resurrection spell, completely ignoring the "can only be revived once in their lifetime" rule with her being a higher-level goddess.
Sadly, it wouldn't work for Celestine or anyone else I summon as they're bodies will disappear when they "die" and can be revived 24 hours after their "deaths". I can't be revived by them either since they're anchored to me. If I die, they will disappear. Although, once Celestine gets the resurrection spell, she can revive them instead of me waiting for 24 hours which was possible in the game, but later down the line.
Besides, I'm not arrogant enough to tempt Murphy or fate with how I have 3 women in my party that got bad ended in different levels of severity and being ambushed by the other two "heroes" that Aqua brought here certainly helped put things in perspective. Especially with the unknown consequences hanging over my head if I fail.
It could be anything, from simply losing most if not all of my summoned waifus, forcing me to wait for 24 hours with heavy injuries to the worst possibility ever, getting Bad Ended Lilith-verse style. I couldn't help but shudder in horror at the thought of that, which almost happened to Kazuma when he was surrounded by the female orcs from what I could remember. Even if this world isn't hard core like the Lilith-verse, where bad ends are so common it's expected, I would rather not risk it. I let out another shudder at the thought of visiting that world without any protection, or worse, Darkness finding out about it and would be constantly begging me to take her there knowing her and her fetishes.
It also helped that I know what happen to people when they don't have strong "plot armor" or take the threat seriously, even if it's supposed to be an easy goblin extermination quest. Even the weakest of monsters could be a threat under the right circumstances, as seen in the first chapter of the Goblin Slayer manga.
Besides, I can always accept it at a later date when we're at a higher level and it's not like it's going anywhere. Though, there's a possibility that someone else could come and complete it before we could, but I'm fine with that. Better to be safe and happy than filled with endless regret and hopefully killed soon after because there are some fates worse than death as seen in the Taimanin Asagi series.
After thinking it over for a few minutes, weighing the small number of pros against the huge number of cons, I decided to not accept the quest and simply closed the window.
"I don't think the guild will allow us to accept a quest like this since we're still new adventurers," I said, much to Darkness's not-so-hidden disappointed look causing me to roll my eyes. "Not to mention we don't have any supplies that'll last more than a few hours, at most. Nor do we know how long it would take to search the cave itself."
"I for one would rather not waste my time searching inside a cave for hours, only to find nothing out of the ordinary," Kalawarner added her input.
Yomi on the other hand, had a different opinion judging by the frown on her face as she took the quest from me before really looking it over.
"I don't see anything worth worrying over with me-, I mean us, by your side Ashikabi. With your love for me, there's nothing that can stop me from destroying all that oppose us," Yomi stated confidently with a smirk, grabbing my right hand with hers, and intertwining our fingers together as I felt her warm and unwavering love for me through our bond.
It didn't help, not from her lack of effort, but because of the proof that it's more than a simple extermination quest. Though, I couldn't help but wonder if this quest was completed before Kazuma and Aqua arrived or that I'm in some alternate universe with some subtle and not so subtle differences.
There's not much known what happened to the other heroes before Kazuma and Aqua arrived from what I could remember, other than most of this world's problems was caused by the people Aqua sent over. The prime example is the guy who created Megumin's clan and the spider destroyer thing.
Speaking of which, exactly how many people did Aqua bring here that either died or lost their cheat items? I know for sure there are a few from what I could remember. Something about a necklace that switches bodies that Eris and Kazuma stole, I think? Well, I know Eris is searching for them and maybe she could help us or something. I shook my head, pushing down that thought down for now, though I planned to get back to it later since it's a good idea. I should check if the Tiara of Treasures could be used to track them down so it wouldn't be used against us. With another thought pinned down for later, I focused back on to the conversation at hand.
"Besides, there's six of us going up against one monster. It's not going to be much of a challenge, so there's nothing to worry about," Yomi said, with a dismissive wave of her hand, handing the quest to Celestine.
When she said that, I knocked on wood just as a safety precaution to make sure she didn't just jinx us. I even sent a quick prayed to Eris for good luck to counteract the bad that might be coming our way, ignoring the weird looks I received while doing so.
"I'm afraid I have to disagree," Celestine said playing Devil's advocate. "There's not much information on what we'll be facing if we do accept the quest. Nor do we know if there's more than one, or how powerful it is. There are some monsters I know that are smart enough to lay traps or disguise themselves as anything, especially as other weaker monsters to lure in the less experienced or overconfident adventurers before springing the trap. By then, it's too late to retreat or request help and they're killed."
"Especially those damn mimics. They are notoriously hard to spot with how they look exactly like treasure chests amongst other items found in the dungeon," Kanae said with a frown, stabbing her breakfast a little harder, bringing up a known monster she faced before as a thief. "Thankfully, they're pretty dumb and are mostly found in the dungeons since most of them aren't smart enough to survive out in the open. Most newbies and some more experienced adventurers still get killed by it when they let their guards down."
I blinked, surprised that she knew that and wondered if it's from the game itself, giving her that information for her thief class when she was summoned or from her actually playing games that involves mimics in her world. Which could be possible since there's not much known about her or anyone in the group really, other than the obvious few things that was shown.
"Are there any monsters that are smart enough to use other monsters as bait or cannon fodder to tire out the adventurers before attacking them?" Celestine asks, looking at Darkness since she's the most experienced adventurer in the group that dealt with this world's version of monsters.
I'm a little skeptical on Darkness's knowledge since she was shocked to learn that there's no more free male orcs around to rape female knights much to her horror, though it could've been some old information she learned it from. Still, being raised as a noble of a very prestigious house, she must have received a higher education than most people growing up.
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(Darkness POV)
Darkness puffed her chest out in pride and began to explain, "Well, there are different types of monsters that are smart enough to use other weaker monsters. Litches are commonly known to use the undead as cannon fodders and then there's the Zombie Maker that makes and controls zombies, but they're pretty weak."
"Wait a minute," Yomi said with a raised hand stopping Darkness. "What's the difference between a Zombie Maker and a Litch if they're both raise the undead?"
"Zombie makers are low level undead that takes time to raise a single zombie and can be easily killed by newbie adventurers, whereas a Litch is a higher class of undead that can raise multiple undead, cast curses and you need multiple teams of high level adventurers just to kill one."
Darkness paused letting what she said sink in before moving on to the other monsters. "The Rookie Killer on the other hand, is a well-known example given their namesake. It's a monster that mainly uses goblins as bait for the rookie adventures to hunt while it hunts the adventurers, which is why they're called the Rookie killer." Darkness said giving a few examples that she learned about thanks to her noble upbringing while fantas— studying to fight against the male orcs, the bane of all females, especially the female knights.
She couldn't help but rub her thighs together at the thought of all the depraved things they'll do to her once they defeat and capture her. S-she would end up being pinned down, d-dominated, r-r-ravished, be-being a b-breeding s-sow, c-corrupting her...
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(Yomi Pov)
The conversation slowed down as they watched Darkness trailed off panting, rubbing her thighs together, getting lost in thought for a few minutes, allowing them to eat and process the information before it was picked up again.
"It doesn't matter if there's only one or a hundred, they'll all die the same," Yomi stated arrogantly, believing it to be true because why shouldn't she? She's a Sekirei, who's more powerful than any human from what she's seen, and she'll grow even stronger with her Ashikabi's love supporting her. It doesn't matter if they have powers of their own, it's no match for her Norito, the power of her and her Ashikabi love for each other. Her tone shifting a bit into a more serious one as she squeezed her Ashikabi's hand again, "You don't have to worry about me, I'm not made of glass, Ashikabi. I'm a Sekirei, I can take care of myself."
Kalawarner couldn't resist the opportunity to mess with her and timed it just as she took another bite. "Oh really? I couldn't help but remember someone acting all cocky when she decided to fight the giant frogs by herself. And we all know how that turned out, don't we Yomi?"
Startled by the question, Yomi started coughing and hastily reached for a glass of water to wash the food down that got stuck in her throat. After reassuring everyone that she was fine, she looked down at her plate, unfortunately remembering that horrible smell, and the sensation of being swallowed caused her to shudder in disgust, ruining what was left of her appetite. She pushed her plate away, looking faintly ill, and glared at Kalawarner for bringing it up, especially in front of her Ashikabi when they all agreed to never talk about it.
"Oh my," Kalawarner innocently said, moving her hand up to partially cover her mouth, even as her eyes danced with mirth. "Was it something I said?"
Yomi's eyes drifted towards her weapon, openly contemplating murdering her. She was about to reach for it when Celestine softly nudged her with her foot, and she reluctantly moved her hand away tsking in disappointment. Though she did get her revenge when she kicked Kalawarner's shin under the table, very hard she might add after Celestine looked away.
"Mother fucker!" Kalawarner hissed rubbing her shin as she glared back at Yomi. "What the hell was that for?"
"Bitch, you know why!" Yomi hissed back before she noticed her Ashikabi's inquisitive look. She coughed lightly, trying to compose herself even if her left eyebrow twitched a few times, and her smile was a bit forced as she reluctantly played with her food, changing the topic causally. "Going back on topic, I guess we could wait for a little while if that's what you desire, Ashikabi. I don't want to put you in danger if I could prevent it."
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(John POV)
"Did something happen that I should know about?" I asked, looking between the two of them wondering what Celestine left out, though it was pretty easy to guess what happened since the giant frogs mainly use their tongues to attack and swallow things whole. I forgot that Yomi is the type that likes to 'play' with her prey before finishing them off. One of the frogs must have attacked her while she was busy playing with the others and swallowed her up like a certain water goddess or the explosion Loli enthusiast. She is still very young, mentally that is. The fact that she's sticking her tongue out and pulling her eyelid down at Kalawarner when Celestine wasn't looking certainly didn't help her case.
Celestine hesitated for a brief moment, glancing at Yomi's pleading look before switching her gaze to Kalawarner who stared back unapologetically and decided to answer without giving out too much information. "There was a small incident that caught Yomi by surprise, but she easily handled it. I didn't think it was something worth mentioning since it worked out in the end."
"You shouldn't feel bad losing against the frogs Yomi. Most adventurers have trouble fighting them for the first time, too. Though, they usually go after the smaller ones unless they have more members to distract the bigger ones," Darkness said trying to cheer her up, but it was having the opposite effect if the way she broke the spoon in half, meant anything, much to Kalawarner's amusement.
"It was a fluke," Yomi said through gritted teeth, "Trust me, it won't happen again."
"Are you sure about that?" Kalawarner asked, her expression turning sly.
Yomi's shoulders shook before she slammed the table surprising everyone at how loud it was and watched as she marched over to the questing board snatching a quest from the wall after a few seconds of searching and brought it back before slamming it on the table.
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Extermination Quest
Eliminate the Silver Wolves
Kill the pack of wolves praying on the farmers livestock.
1,000 XP per Kill
1 Tickets per 5 kills
200,000 Eris
Time limit: 5 days
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"You and me. The one with the most kills win," Yomi said with a glare, pointing straight at Kalawarner who simply raised an eyebrow in response.
"While that sounds interesting, why would I even bother competing against you? It wouldn't be a fair challenge for you with my years of experience compared to your few days, I'm assuming from how poor your fighting style is."
"Hmph, it sounds like your scared to me. Worried that you might break a hip grandma?" Yomi asked mockingly, looking at her nails with a sly smirk on her lips.
Kalawarner eyes narrowed at that remark, obviously aware of what she's doing, but it still worked, "Fine, I'll take that challenge, but what will I get when I win?"
"Simple," Yomi said with smirk, "when I win, I will be able to order the loser, which will be you, around for a whole week, starting the next day after the quest is completed and vice versa if by some miracle you win."
"Can we join too? I wouldn't mind having servants do things to me," Kanae spoke up looking all excited as she licked her lips.
"No, it's between me and her."
"Too bad, it would have been an enjoyable experience for all of us."
'Hopefully this will settle the differences between them. I would rather not get involved unless it gets worse. Learned that lesson the hard way.'
After paying for the food along with the spoon Yomi broke, we left to do the quest.
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??? POV:
"Such a pussy," A guy in steel armor muttered with a scoff, picking up the same quest from the board. "I can't believe he passed up such an easy quest. Heh, I can use this to show those ladies what a real man looks like after completing this even if it's a little farther away than I'm used to. All I need to do is complete this and they'll be begging to join up with me."