“WHAT!”

Feng looked thunderstruck at the title notification and Cythe’s words, his brain slowly trying to process what had just taken place.

‘… SCREW YOU ADMINS!’

Ticked off by the implications of the message, Feng glared at the bright blue window mocking him and closed it angrily. Turning his angry stare at Cythe, his eyes softened slightly at her confused look but the slight to his pride was simply too offensive for him to swallow it down easily.

“Let’s go back to turn in the quest.”

Feng barked out with simmering anger in his eyes as he stomped off, leaving the somewhat confused Cythe behind.

“What’s wrong Feng? Are you alri- Hey, wait for me!”

Cythe scrambled to follow after Feng who was completely oblivious to her words, stumbling to keep up with his quick long strides. Feeling a wet sensation on her hand, Cythe stopped panting from her efforts to keep up only to see Shaggy nudging her while bending his forepaw.

“Thanks Shaggy!”

Giving the large wolf a quick pet, she hopped on to its back and quickly caught up to Feng with the large wolf’s long loping stride though she pulled the beast back as they neared him.

“It’s probably best to let him calm down first…”

‘… Watch out all of you. When I get my hands on the shares of Apex, you are all going down with that asshat manager. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!!!’

Grinding his teeth in quiet fury as he mentally cursed the admins, a cold murderous aura emitted from Feng, sending droves of birds and other wildlife fleeing as they sensed him…

*DING*

‘F*** YOU ADMINS! I’m not going to read whatever troll shit you have up your sleeves this time.’

The cheery notification bell only fanned the flames of Feng’s rage as he clenched his fists to the point of all his veins straining visibly. Taking a quick glance backwards to ensure Cythe was not lost, he saw her resting on the wolf monster’s back and narrowed his eyes.

‘Tch. And I was worried about you… Whatever. Let’s just get this crap over and do with.’

Not wanting to waste a moment any longer, Feng channeled Chi towards his feet and activated his [Qing Gong], flying through the forest at immense speed…

Though with his still amateurish grasp of the skill, more often than not his straight line movements ended with him smacking into a tree… and felling it with a full-body blow.

With Feng’s brute speed and making a literal bee-line back towards the farmhouse, they reached in record time though even Shaggy with his long strides lagged far behind Feng.

“Done.”

Feng stared at the men quivering before him as they indignantly pointed at the large wolf sitting behind Feng panting with its tongue hanging out after the long run.

“But the monster is still clearly alive and behind you!”

“Not. Your. Problem. Done.”

Still seething with anger, Feng had absolutely no inclination to mince words with the cowardly men and ground out each word slowly and deliberately as he glared at them.

“Ahh.. Y-y-yes, I can see i-it will n-n-no longer trouble o-our flocks. I will send word to the guild about your success and to dispense your reward.”

Staring at the trembling spokesman for any signs of duplicity, Feng finally nodded before turning away and beckoned for Cythe to follow wordlessly.

The duo and pet prepared to depart only to be suddenly halted by a familiar voice.

“HOLD! FENG! It’s good that you are still here!”

Roth’s familiar voice rang out but the figure which was running at them with great speed was an unfamiliar one…

Clad fully in dull black armor with a long spear shaft protruding above his head, Roth cut an intimidating figure as he came to a stop and towered over them.

“Feng, I just got an urgent report from Kuron. The party Rania was leading to investigate if you were kidnapped by Redcloaks had vanished! I’m glad I caught you before you left to… complete your quest?”

Roth turned to stare at the ludicrous sight of Cythe happily waving at him on top of Shaggy who lolled his tongue out lazily… and blinked. Rubbing his eyes, he took a second look and sighed.

“… Right never mind that. Anyway, anything that can detain a Warden is probably at least a B-ranked threat… With all the other members out in the field, you are probably the next strongest combatant available, though you may not be in rank. We need to get to the area now, are you with me?”

Feng’s head swirled with the implications of Rania, the cute little cat-girl getting into trouble because of his mistake… and all the pent-up anger in him made him growl furiously at the thought of HIS friend being threatened and completely ignored Roth’s later words.

“Let’s go!”

Feng’s head paused mid-nod and turned towards Cythe who exuberantly declared her participation and glared.

“No. Too dangerous. Go back to the city first.”

“Meep! Okay…”

Cythe looked as though she wanted to protest but hearing Feng’s icy calm tone, she quietly acceded.

“Good luck dear! Stay safe!”

Giving him a quick embrace and a kiss on his cheek, Cythe’s loving smile couldn’t help but soften Feng’s harsh expression slightly and he quietly returned the peck and waved goodbye.

Turning away as the wolf loped away, Feng gestured at Roth to lead the way as his face turned grim, reflecting his understanding of the seriousness of the situation only after Cythe’s departure.

“Lead the way Roth. Tell me more while we move.”

“It’s further north from here, we should be able to get there within six hours of travel if you can keep up, otherwise a full day o-”

“Let’s go then.”

Cutting Roth off, Feng kicked off the ground with his [Qing Gong]. Roth swore as he belatedly remembered Feng’s new ability with Chi and hurried to catch up.

*DING*

Secret Quest Update: Eyes On You

The first blows have been struck, a missing companion… Will you be in time to make a difference?

Prerequisites:

*Hidden* Conditions

Difficulty:

*Hidden*

Objectives:

1) Discover more about the watchers and their objectives

2) Investigate the Red Cloaks *Unknown Faction*

3) Rescue Rania

4) *Unknown*

Rewards:

*Hidden*

Failure:

1) Death

*Hidden*

Quest cannot be declined.

The sudden notification caught Feng’s eye and only one phrase stood out and filled his mind.

‘In time…’

Glancing at Roth who was easily keeping pace after catching up, Feng caught his eye and arched an eyebrow questioningly. Roth nodded simply in response and the duo abruptly sped up in sync.

“Feng, stop! We are nearing the area they were investigating. The report mentioned this shrine marked the area.”

The duo came to a halt after a few hours of travelling north on the road and then several miles through unmarked grassy hills. The landmark which signified their arrival was a small but surprisingly well-kept shrine of Ralos.

It was a simple statue of Ralos with a small offering bowl placed before it. Roth had paid no attention to the shrine after their arrival and simply looked around the grassy area, hoping to find signs of the missing party.

Yet that innocuous shrine set off all the alarm bells in Feng’s head, especially since all his troubles started with him accidentally pissing off Ralos and the Church of Light…

Walking over to the shrine, Feng felt the sense of wrongness increase but could not pinpoint it… Until his feet crunched on the broken and scuffed grassy ground in front of the shrine.

‘… Why are there so many footprints in front of the shrine? This isn’t supposed to be a well-traveled area…’

His suspicions raised, Feng observed the shrine more thoroughly.

Statue of Ralos

Type: Statue

Description: A shining white marble statue of Ralos, the God of Light. Holding a scepter with a sunburst symbol at its tip and a falcon on his shoulder, Ralos looks like a human… except his face. Blank smooth marble was all that represented his face, yet you cannot help but feel an eerie sense of being watched…

Offering Bowl of Ralos

Type: Altar

Description: A small bowl sculpted from marble, it rests at the feet of the statue of Ralos. Light reflects off the polished marble, giving a sense of cleanliness and purity out of place in this nondescript place.

“Damn. The text mirrors my thoughts but there’s nothing new here I can use…”

Feng muttered to himself as he slowly circled the shrine, hoping to find some clues.

*Thud*

Feng came to an abrupt stop and tapped his heels on the ground.

*Thud*

‘… That sound. There is hollow space under here! A secret entrance!’

“Roth! Over here.”

Calling Roth back, Feng explained his findings and suggested they look for the opening mechanism only to receive an incredulous look from the half-troll.

Roth drew his long spear and smashed the butt end on the ground in one fluid action, causing the ground before them to throw up a huge cloud of dirt and crack…

*BOOM*

And give way beneath their feet!

Feng was caught off-guard and stumbled into Roth as the two fell… a few meters and crashed into the dirt ground.

“Ahem. Maybe you can stop clinging on to me now?”

Left mentally off-balance by the sudden fall, Feng looked up at a grinning Roth who managed to remain standing and abruptly realized that he was clutching on to Roth’s arm as he stumbled.

“…”

His face completely blank, Feng calmly released his grip and recollected himself before scowling and glaring at Roth.

“… Never speak of this.”

Stalking off ahead into the dimly-lit passageway before them as he strived to ignore Roth’s chuckles, Feng re-focused on the issue at hand and grimaced.

‘That would probably have alerted the Red Cloaks… ‘

Yet there was no sign of guards or noise signaling that their arrival has alerted the foes… Instead, there was only silence as they proceeded through a long downward sloping passageway with small mana crystals embedded in the dirt walls lighting the way.

Only upon reaching the first room or rather the remnants of what was likely a guardroom revealed the possible reason, the investigating team has created some massive damage…

The heavy oaken door was completely split in half and blown inwards into the stone room with corpses of Redcloaks and mercenaries strewn about the room.

The large square room was filled with corpses with more than two dozen scattered around and eight mercenaries’ bodies. Doors led off in all the cardinal directions, and it was obvious that reinforcements had streamed in for the fight, but one particular door was wrecked with more bodies lining the passage way down that way.

“Shit, that’s the entire team of mercenaries according to the reports. One of them must have been holding on to the communications mana stone. Only Rania survived and seems like she was forced to escape down that way…”

Roth pointed at the obvious signs of fighting through the eastern door which was chopped into splinters revealing the passageway beyond.

Crouching down to inspect the bodies, Feng touched the head and limbs of the corpses before speaking with urgency.

“The fight happened between four to eight hours ago! That’s probably why no one reacted to our entrance; they are probably still recovering if they haven’t even managed to clean up the bodies. We should hurry!”

Setting off at a sprint, they rushed through the winding passageway which traveled deeper and had countless of open doors revealing simple living quarters…

Redcloak corpses littered the ground with many a dismembered limb, head or severed torso painting the entire way red and slippery as the blood they encountered got fresher… and they heard distant sounds of battering and many feet rushing about.

Feng and Roth glanced at each other and increased their pace while readying their weapons and was not an instant too soon as they burst out of the long passageway into a large cavern that could easily fit a mansion… which was also full of milling Redcloaks.

AN: Sorry for the delayed post, last week's chapter was delayed as I was sorting out long-term plot which took longer than I expected. Hope you all enjoy this chapter and look forward to an increased post rate. Reviews and comments will be greatly appreciated and increase my motivation to write!