บท 69: Strangeness in the Sub-quests

After Aizu woke up and Serka confirmed that she didn't have health issues, Yale lost one of the two main worries he had after the volcanic cave incident.

At that moment, he could finally focus on his other worry, his new sub-quest.

After finishing the previous one, a new one appeared as usual, but it was completely different from the other sub-quests he had in the past.

[Sub-quest details not available. Reward: Unknown.]

With that kind of description, Yale didn't know what he would need to do to complete the sub-quest.

The last sub-quest was easy to understand and very easy to accomplish in his current situation. The contrast with the one following it was too big.

The sub-quests had been quite normal before entering into the Special Realm, but the two sub-quests that appeared inside were different than usual.

After all, if Yale hadn't gone to the Special Realm, there was no way he could kill someone, even if that person were evil. The laws of the Nacesai Academy would restrict him.

Yale was starting to think that the sub-quests in the Main Chain Quest weren't fixed as he had considered initially, maybe those were like the Dynamic Quests and could adapt to Yale's situation.

He didn't have proof of that, but at least the situation would seem less weird thinking in that way.

"It seems that the only way to advance is climbing a mountain to reach the other side."

Kermu words stopped Yale's thoughts, as Kermu said it seemed that reaching another area without crossing the mountain range was difficult due to the shape of the zone.

"I am bad at climbing."

Serka complained because her climbing ability was almost the worst in the group.

The one who had the worst ability to climb was Aizu. After hearing that they would need to climb the mountain range, she started sweating, but she didn't dare to complain.

Nurvey had enough boost spells to make climbing as easy as walking if she used all of them on herself, and Hyrk had the best physical body and also knew a few methods to reinforce it. For them, climbing wasn't a big deal.

Yale and Kermu were the most versatile of the group and didn't have problems with climbing a mountain.

However, Yale knew Aizu's physical prowess, and he knew that she was the weakest of the group. On the other hand, Kermu was concerned by Serka, his fiancée, because he also knew that she was terrible at such activities, despite part of it being for her mental suggestion. However, he couldn't think of another method at the moment.

"How about starting to advance into a mountain and try to find some tunnel? If we fail, then we will need to climb the mountain, but as this Special Realm is something created by an elder, the chances that a tunnel exists are high."

That was Yale idea, and the girls who didn't want to climb had their eyes sparkling because if there were a tunnel, they wouldn't need to climb.

Kermu also agreed to the idea, they would need to advance more into the mountain to climb after all, so Yale's idea was optimal and wouldn't waste time while made Aizu and Serka happy at the same time.

Hyrk and Nurvey didn't mind about how they advance. FOr them, it was the same climbing or finding a tunnel.

However, they didn't know that Yale was sure about the tunnel existence because after hearing Kermu's words about climbing, the system had changed the sub-quest description.

[Find a tunnel that traverses the mountain range and exit by the other side. Reward: Vitality and Strength increase.]

That update in the sub-quest description and reward was enough proof to Yale that the sub-quests had changed their functionality since he entered the Special Realm. The sub-quests were really working like the Dynamic Quests, and Yale had no idea about the reason.

In only one hour the group really found a tunnel, Yale wasn't surprised by it, but the others couldn't believe their good luck.

Especially, Serka and Aizu were extremely happy about finding a tunnel. They had avoided climbing the mountain.

While the others were happy or surprised, Yale started to worry. Since there was a reward for reaching the other side, it couldn't be a standard tunnel with no danger inside. Thus, he decided to say a reminder in case the others were overconfident.

"We still need to be careful. The tunnel may have dangers inside."

Everyone agreed, they didn't forget that they were in a Special Realm where everywhere was a potential grave to them.

Indeed, traps were everywhere in the tunnel, without the nobles' trap detecting artifacts crossing the tunnel would only be possible with heaven-defying luck.

Most commoners would choose to climb the mountain instead of entering a tunnel, which seemed more prone to have traps, but to the nobles, the traps weren't a problem.

"Wait, do we need to only look for the exit? Maybe there's some legacy here!"

When they were walking in the tunnel, Hyrk had a sudden inspiration.

"You just noticed it? Of course, that could be a legacy here, but this is the only path without traps, it isn't like we didn't want to look for a legacy."

Kermu said it while laughing. Hyrk's track of thought was as slow as usual.

Hyrk didn't dare to open his mouth again, afraid of turning again into a laughingstock, although the only one who laughed was Kermu.

They needed four hours before finding the stairs that went down on the side of the tunnel, and they were without any traps on them.

The group descended slowly, they didn't dare to be careless, even if there weren't any traps, there could be other people, and they had tasted that other people could be scarier than traps, especially when those people use the traps against them.

After reaching the end of the stairs, they started to hear the sound of steps resonating in the area. There were other people there.

The other party also noticed that someone else was nearby, and after a few minutes, both groups met.

Five nobles formed the other party. They were the five members of the Larken Clan, the only clan that refused to cooperate with the others in the Special Realm and formed a group with only their own members. That was mostly because their clan ordered it.

Fortunately, the Larken Clan members weren't a shameless group because the Larken Clan was the one who valued honor the most among the noble clans.

There were stories of how they killed themselves due to tarnishing their own honor.

The Larken Clan was a bit peculiar because they didn't like to associate with others too much, but at the same time, they were the clan who accepted the most commoners among the noble clans.

They were freaks of the sword. Any clan member should practice swordsmanship, and their standing in the clan would rely only upon that.

For example, someone like Yale or Kermu, who reached the expert stage at such a young age, would have a better position than others with a higher level but lower ability with the sword.

In the past, the Larken Clan was the most interested in recruiting Swordmad. They loved sword geniuses more than their own bloodline.

The other clans had their special abilities, but the Larken clan was equal to them relying only on pure swordsmanship, the best swordsmen of the empire were mostly in the Larken Clan.

"Greetings Kermu, what a great coincidence. Are you also looking for a legacy in this area?"

The guy who spoke was called Durgan, he was the other party's leader and also someone who had reached the expert stage in swordsmanship at a young age, his status in the Larken Clan was even better than the one Kermu had in the Kurk Clan.

However, since Kermu was also a genius with the sword, Durgan always treated him as his equal, and both had a very good relationship.

In fact, if Kermu wasn't already engaged with Serka, Durgan was willing to let his younger sister marry him.

Durgan would only allow his sister to marry someone extremely talented as the latent talent with the sword she had demonstrated was even higher than his own.

It was even possible that she would manage to reach the expert stage before becoming ten. Since that wasn't practicing, it was possible.

However, her social capabilities were at Nurvey's level, but she was hot-blooded, so she always ended up fighting with everyone she had met due to being unable to communicate appropriately with them.

Kermu, being smart and a genius with the sword, was a good match to her in the Larken Clan's eyes, and Durgan would be happy to have him as his brother-in-law.

The Larken Clan wanted Kermu, but since Kermu was already engaged with Serka from the Zhan Clan, the matter was dropped.

The polygamy wasn't forbidden, but there was no way Serka or Durgan's sister would accept that. Of course, due to Kermu's personality, he wouldn't agree either.