Chapter 135: The Mysterious NPC
Chapter 135: The Mysterious NPC
'It's best for you to go with them!'
Bloom didn't accept her stubbornness, and he also didn't plan to expose himself to her so soon!
'Or what?'
He smirked before sending to her: 'Don't say I didn't warn you.'
'Will you run? I will follow no matter where you go!' she sent.
'Oh, this is love then, hehehe,' he replied.
'Don't use these cheap tricks on me, I won't change my mind.'
'Then it's better for me to log out of the game,' he teased her.
'And I will wait for you to log in again!' and she was really stubborn.
'As you wish, but don't say I didn't warn you.'
'Humph, you have nothing to do!'
He just smiled and didn't say anything back to her. He had already a way to escape her close eyes, yet he didn't prefer for her to stick her nose in his business like this.
"We are all cleared," after five minutes, and the loss of many monsters, the team had their red names cleaned.
"Alright," Bloom said, "go back now and do like I told you before," he added before turning to Nara who just ignored him and looked in another direction.
'I warned you,' Jeffrey sent to him with a smug smile over his face.
"Go before you know," and Bloom laughed while threatening Jeffrey in between the lines.
In front of his eyes, everyone used their tickets to return, and only he and Nara remained.
And the two returned to glance at each other silently again.
"It's time for you to let down that ego and go back," he said.
"I won't!" she replied, "I'm dead serious on finding out what you hide from me."
"Sigh, in time you know."
"This is time! Tell me now!"
"Tsk," he had no option but to mutter, "darkness nihility!"
The next moment he body vanished from her vision, greatly enraging her. "Bloom!!!" she screamed in anger, "I promise to repay this many folds when we meet again!" and she threatened while he just moved away leaving her ranting her anger over the rocks and the dirt.
'I told you before,' and he didn't let things chill out like this as he sent her this message.
'You be brave and come back to get your punishment.'
'I warned you,' he laughed to himself before adding, 'don't say I didn't.'
'I promise next time we meet I will make you lose a level.'
'Hahaha, one level is fine for me, when we meet I will be a couple of levels higher then.'
'You'
He then closed the chat while enjoying this sense of small triumph over her scheme to corner him. He knew his secrets would be revealed one day, yet today wasn't the right day for that!
"Now, I should go and look for that mine," he said to himself while the effects of his skill vanished. He kept moving further forward, while the number and the variety of monsters started to show some changes.
"Tsk, the more I went deeper the more it looked like the area adjacent to the tree line."
Monsters here were packed in larger groups, which left only small spaces for him to move at. "I should aim to the north east first, much closer to me," he said after examining the map and comparing his current location with the possible place of the mines.
The more he moved forward, the harder it got to avoid monsters. He didn't want to waste his time fighting monsters here.
Away from that, the place was strangely peaceful, with the absence of the noise caused by players.
He was alone, probably thinking he would be the first one to delve so deep.
"Is that a treasure box?" he suddenly noticed a glimpse of a shiny thing from far. The first thing that popped up his mind was the treasure box. "Hohoho, I think I might be lucky this time," he laughed while going fast towards the direction of the treasure box.
When he approached, he found it was indeed a treasure box, slightly larger than the one he found inside the dungeon. "Tsk, it's tightly guarded," he sighed as there was already a pack of monsters surrounding it.
And this pack consisted of two hundred lion head and bull body shaped monsters.
"They look unique," he glanced all around to see anything like them, but he never spotted a monster like the ones guarding the chest. "So they are here just to guard this treasure box? What's inside to make it worth all this?"
He muttered to himself, feeling the temptation to think of a way and take the box from these monsters. "That's not right, something seemed odd here," he said to himself.
If the monsters here were unique, then the rules applied to them might be different as well. "I have no time to risk dying and coming back again," he shook his head before giving this near yet quite far treasure box a final glance. "Till later then," he said before returning to his path.
According to the map location, this treasure box was located near the place where the mines were supposed to be. After ten minutes he reached the place of the extreme north east. After this point, he would get out of the village territory, which was marked by that big pink shield surrounding the zone.
"So it's empty!" he shook his head in regret. The place in front of him seemed no different than any place he passed by in the wilderness.
"But there is no monster in this area," he noticed this single difference, as there wasn't even a single monster in a radius of five hundred meters. "Could it be" he then moved towards this spot, trying to investigate it.
Just as he went to that area, he hit an invisible wall hard and without warning. "What the hell?!!" he shouted in pain, while standing from the ground before pointing his hand and touched the wall he just hit.
And he found a soft wall demarking the area void of monsters. "So it's here," his pain turned to joy as he finally found the place he wanted. "But why is it sealed?" he thought to himself before taking a tour around the shield.
"It has no opening," he sighed before stopping in front of this invisible shield thinking how to break it down.
"May I ask if you are interested in helping me?" and suddenly this sound came from his back, startling him.
The moment he turned to see, he found an NPC, in late thirtieth, with ragged looking and extreme horrible state.
Strangely, this vision of that man made him recall the status he was at before reborn again here.
"of course," he instantly replied, "how can I help you?"
"I have lost my precious staff inside this mine, and as you can see; it's sealed."
Bloom knew this was the place of the mine, yet he feigned ignorance as he asked: "What mine?"
"This isn't a normal zone, kid. It's a portal! If you manage to lift this seal, this portal will be opened to you."
"And?" Bloom asked for more.
"After going inside, you will find an entire world that you can benefit from. Ores and herbs, rare and precious. Even monsters with rare abilities and weak defenses. You can level up inside as much as you want, plus some good encounters as well."
Bloom didn't learn anything new, and his face showed his dissatisfaction. "And there is a place where you can obtain pet eggs."
Just as he lost any hope to know more, he heard this valuable new piece of information for the first time about mines. "Pet eggs? So many?" he hurried to ask.
"Not that much, only one egg for the first player to find it," the NPC shook his head before adding, "and it's you, if you are brave and lucky enough."
"Of course I'm!" Bloom didn't hesitate to shout out loud, "do you know the place of this egg?" he asked.
"Sure, it lies next to my stolen staff," the NPC said, before adding, "if you agree to help, I can gladly accompany you. But" he paused before adding, "as you can see, I'm weak and alone. You should go back and summon your friends here if you wanted to have this egg."
Bloom didn't bother with what that NPC asked, as he hurried to say: "I'm more than enough."
"Are you sure?" the NPC said, in much doubt, "if you accepted this help and failed, you won't be able to redo it again!"
Bloom knew what the NPC meant, this was a unique quest, extremely rare, only issued once for players.
The quest had a strict way to be triggered. He recalled not sensing anyone around the area until he touched it, examined it, and learnt its secrets.
It also required the player to be the first to find the mines. "Who was the one that discovered the mines in the first place?" he thought to himself yet his memories didn't help this time.
He just wanted to know the type of that pet, so he would determine if it worth the risk and trouble of helping this NPC here or not. "Don't worry, I can do this task alone."
"Tsk," and the NPC just shook his head, "players and their arrogance," and he muttered, words that Bloom said to himself countless times in his past life.
"May I know your name sir?" Bloom asked, while trying to get friendly with that ragged person.
"It's Bloom!"
And the name he just said made the mind of Bloom explode with endless questions!