Chapter 160 - Vol. 3 - Chapter 25

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[You gained a new quest 'Explore the Mysterious Cave']

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Quest: Explore the Mysterious Cave

Rating: A

From the moment the news about the failures of the adventurers exploring deep inside the Gravelmark Mountains reached the ears of the Kobold Elder Morlk, he felt a sense of curiosity to explore that news.

However, bound by the duty of protecting his people and home, he can't leave the Tribe unwatched. Such that, with the arrival of their human friend, he passed on the information believing that it might stir the curiosity he also had about those told monsters.

Quest Clear Conditions: Gain details about the Mysterious Cave on the Western Flank of the Gravelmark Mountain

Quest Rewards: Once informing Morlk about the details of the cave, gain 10x Random Precious Stones

Quest Failure: No Penalties

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"Does it matter when I return to you with the information?"

Giving Mathias a calm look, the old man simply shook his head. "Whenever you finished exploring the cave. Since it made me curious to see how other underground places might look, and maybe there is another Kobold Tribe.

If that's the case, I want to befriend them."

"I see. Then, it is all good by me."

[You have accepted the quest]

Mathias accepted Elder Morlk suggestion and in doing so, accepting his guests who didn't give much information about the existence of such a place, but offered him some decent rewards if he reported back to him about what he found inside the cave, the 10 pieces of precious stones couldn't be scoffed at since one piece could be worth 100.000 gold or more.

Nevertheless, in these moments it looked rather comic, as if the old kobold did a Reverse Card and threw a quest at his lap, even though he didn't need it that much.

'I got burned.'

{That's what you get for being a smartass and teaching people how to scheme on others.}

Sorting out the situation inside the Gravelmark Kobold Tribe he took off returning back to the cave lair chamber that was used like a trading center by the players, and noticing that Mathias returned from his visit, some of the players began asking questions about what quest he was doing.

"Hey dude, mind sharing with us some hints about how to deal with the kobolds? Especially the grumpy old kobold who is stingy as a beggar?"

"..."

Fully ignoring those players, he made his way out of the cave that no longer had an instance feature to access it, being available for anyone to step inside.

"What arrogant bastard. Hmph, it took so much effort or time to tell us some points in gaining quests from the kobolds?"

"Let's leave it. We are getting closer anyway to raising the affinity with the Kobold Merchant Azz to 10, then I bet we'll receive something."

"Hopefully."

Walking off from the settlement, Mathias climbed the mountain toward the Lake where he noticed the voices of discord and conflict, with some guys mentioning how "unfair" it is that they aren't allowed in this range.

Once he arrived at the scene, he saw a small group of 3 guys, being blocked by a group of 10 guys who had smug faces on their faces, especially the blonde guy who was at the front of the group, a person he meet in the past, it was exactly the Warrior he teamed up along with Vivian and Paula … Anjo.

When Anjo saw Mathias approach behind the group of 3 guys that were stopped from moving forward in the lake area, immediately reacted by pointing his sword and in a hostile manner, remark in a sarcastic manner

"Where have you been hiding those past months? I was looking around town to find you. Tsk, tsk, to think I can see you right here? Isn't it ironic? The exact place you killed me, now I can take my revenge for what you've done to me and Mike."

Mathias looks around for where the black-american guy, IronMike might be, but even after double checking around he failed to notice him, which in turn gets him asking Anjo about "Rusted tank".

"Ironic, heh? I don't know what to say old friend. What about your buddy? Rust Mike? Did he quit the game after what happened to him?"

Anjo scoffs at Mathias' attempt of making fun of friend, and ignoring the three players, he steps forward while the other 9 that Mathias could see were of the same guild with Anjo followed the blonde warrior who had expensive armor.

"You say that, but I bet you are nervous right now. Ten vs one, you can't run away from us."

On the other hand, Mathias out of curiosity seeing this familiar face opened the Ranking Ledger and searched directly for Anjo's name.

Using his thoughts to write on the search bar, he could see that Anjo reached level 58, sitting on a decent ranking on that ledger, being in the top 200, and after he found out the level he gained since that incident, he was pleasantly surprised, yet only for a brief moment.

"It seems things turned out well for you, reaching this state since that event between us."

"I can't say the same for you. What are those rags you are wearing? Is that your gear? Haha, don't tell me you've got PK-ed by someone and lost that nice suit?" commented Anjo, arranging his blonde hair a bit and staring directly at the crimson-eyed man.

After his comment he started walking forward, toward Mathias, then asked him in an arrogant manner, not viewing Mathias as "great" whatsoever.

"Do you still have that spear on you? Maybe we can trade something for the spear since I have a friend in my guild who uses a spear just like you, right Eregul?"

Mathias could see the guy wielding a spear that was your basic shape, giving off a cool aesthetic aspect, looked at Mathias with an observant look, but the arrogance in his face was still visible.

"This is the bastard who caused you to lose that achievement? The one those two sluts gained that are now with Red?" asked the one called Eregul, stepping forward.

"Hmph, I was weak at that time, trusting my back on some noobs who I recruited on the fly. This will never happen again."

"We know this, Guild Master." responded the rest of the members of the Ebonhand, the Guild initiated by Anjo after he was killed by Iljnoks being disconnected from the Raid and also losing his party with Vivian and Paula.

Hearing their arrogant words and how they badmouthed Vivian and Paula, it made Mathias to simply glance at them with an indifferent look, as if they were a bunch of idiots who didn't know what was good for them, and not spending more of his time around this range of the Mountain that was just the beginning of Gravelmark compared to the vastness of this place.

Finding their arrogant faces annoying, he asked them directly.

"Okay guys, do you have anything else to say to me? Or can I just continue my journey?"

"Using this lake path?" inquired Eregul, the guy with the spear who stepped forward to match Mathias, as if he was about to challenge him.

"Why not? Don't tell me it's private land?" inquired Mathias with a calm voice while sizing up this player [Eregul] whose level was 56, being 24 levels ahead of him.

"Indeed, this is the territory of Ebonhand Guild." said Eregul, who couldn't see Mathias's name to understand his level, but in his mind, there was no way someone belonging to the TOP 100 could be bothered with this bare mountain.

"Fuck you, this is not your territory, you are just like the rest of bastards who cancel hunting grounds, to monopolize all the mobs in the various spawning locations." replied one of the three players, someone with his level being 45 who turned flustered about the acts of those Ebonhand players.

The other two guys who were blocked also stood up and cursed Anjo and his guild members, who turned a deaf ear to their cries of injustice. In fact, Anjo was telling the guild members that were in a party to be careful of Mathias in case he attacked them because he wasn't sure if he grew in level or stagnated from that Iljnoks Raid.

Yet to their surprise Mathias shook his head and glanced with his crimson eyes at the group of players, he only told them in a cold manner.

"Such a waste of my time. I will let you guys mess around in this place. But be aware, this territory doesn't belong to anyone, until the legal acts coming from the Imperial House are in order.

You can bark all you want, and fight with whoever is dumb enough to entertain such ideas. So I will take my leave. Take care of yourself.

Ohh, also Anjo, it seems you've found your game style, congratulations, and see you at the top."

Saying that in his cold voice, which the players of Ebonhand interpreted as arrogance and sarcasm, prepared to fight seeing Mathias move ahead. Taking their weapons out and entering a fighting stance, they saw Mathias disappear from their eyes, as if all the conversation and interaction with him never happened.

"Did that arrogant fuck chicken out and logged out?"

"Probably."

Anjo, listened to his guild members conclusions, but he remained skeptical about this short interaction with Mathias, and turning around he watched over the precious lake he found that had events for whoever was staying a period of time inside.

Still, seeing that Mathias really disappeared from the region of the lake, what he didn't know was that inside the lake some waves and bubbles were exiting out, yet they chose to ignore this part of the lake.

"You three get the fuck out of here. This is the territory of Ebonhand, and only with a Guild War will we give up on our claim."

"... Damned bastard. Let's go guys, we'll find another hunting ground. Maybe go to the Kobolds and try to smooth out a quest?"

"Let's go."

Anjo, hearing about the kobolds, understood what those players referred to, and he ignored them, allowing them to climb down from where they got, turning his attention on the lake.

"Good, the region is clear. Let's take turns inside the lake and farm the Stamina stats. Also, Belt, it is your turn to dive down inside the lake and search for the treasure lurking inside the lake."

"Hah, it's my turn by now? This is the 7th try already and we still haven't found a thing."

"We have to try as many times as we can to control this region and take full advantage of all around us." mentioned Anjo, who took his upper body clothes, revealing an average body that had some muscles barely visible."

Once their got setted for their new search and stat's farming, the one called Belt jumped in the lake, and dived down after swimming to the center of the lake, murmuring some on his way.

"Those fuckers, are relaxing themselves farming the Status Points, while I have to work tirelessly to find something that doesn't exist. Damn it! Why was today my day for searching when I took a day off from work?"

Nevertheless, once he dived on the salty lake that had a pushing force on his body, his vision was full of the salt bits, which caused a debuff that was eating on his HP, bits by bits, and beginning his job of finding the treasure lurking inside the lake, he saw a red light deeper inside the lake, which give the impression it was the treasure.

Activating his movement speed skills, Belt began swimming with an excited mind, but what he stumbled upon was a Mathias sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the lake, which was about 100 meters deep, giving off a red aura around his body, while his crimson hair shined with the same red aura.

Belt's body had a chill, where later on goosebumps appeared and trying to report what he found inside the lake with Mathias not being logged out, he noticed Mathias open his crimson eyes that gave off a dark-purple light.

A murderous look that made him shooked about how someone could look back at a human in such a way.

Before he messaged his guild members who were having a relaxing time inside the cold lake, farming the stamina points, Mathias pulled out Ragnius and in a flash appeared like a phantom piercing his heart with the menacing spear.

[Alert!]

[You've suffered a devastating hit!]

Shaking around to get freed from this disastrous situation, he even forgot to call out for help because of this horror scene, and while Mathias was holding Ragnius with two hands, his stance shifted.

Like a fisherman, his grip was secured by his right hand that was pinning Belt down, and from the left hand a sword appeared, where Mathias slashed the head of the player.

[You have died.]

Only when he died and appeared inside the Death Realm staged by the developers that Belt give off the alarm, telling that Mathias found the treasure inside the lake, and stole it from him, in doing so killing him.

@Belt: That fucker with red eyes, he killed me inside the lake. He found the treasure we were looking!

@Anjo: WHAT?? So it wasn't a monster who killed you, but that bastard? Let's not waste time and start chasing that thorn. HE STOLE THE TREASURE FOR FUCK SAKE! WE SPENT 2 WEEKS HERE, WHILE HE JUST COME HERE WITHOUT SPENDING MUCH TIME TO FIND THE TREASURE!"

The voice chat of the guild was ringing with the raging man, akin to the old days of the gaming industry where people would rage over insignificant things.

It was even unknown if Mathias found something deep inside the lake, or what his reasons for hiding there were.

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Back to Mathias who was annoyed that he was disturbed even in his meditative stance, where he tried to train his Arcane Magic using a magic crystal he found at the floor of the lake.

There he found a handful of magic crystals, but he was playing around with only a small crystal, the size of a large coin that was giving off rich amounts of mana.

He was using his "Forbidden" Arcane Spell, Mana Devourer to eat up the precious mana given off by this Mana Crystal, and the effects were visible to his Mana Core, but this too required him to be stable and be in a serene state, which was broken leading to the crystal to get destroyed by the shift in his state.

[Mana Devourer process has been canceled]

[User's progress to advancement has reached 6%]

'Annoying rats. I could have grown my Core to 8% with that crystal. Damn it! Can't they leave me alone for once? Are they really so dumb to search for me even inside the lake?'

'And I found such a good thing, that was of help in growing my Mana Core. Argh, so annoying. Also, old Hay, thanks for reminding me about that small light coming from the floor, I wouldn't have noticed in my passing.'

{'Yea for nothing, I initially thought it was a lurking monster that was using that light as bait to attract his prey, but I was wrong and we stumbled on small fragments of mana crystals. Don't be angry, little Mathias, you still got 2 more crystals with you.}

'Hah, I understand. Still, I gained a small piece of benefits, but there was more mana inside that could help my mana core grow.'

'Forget get it, I'll go out of the lake, and get away from those annoying idiots. I even got a PK mark on my head.'

Above Mathias's head, his name changed into red, from the white all the players would have, as being a signal that he was a bad person who killed someone without a justification.

{That PK thing you mentioned, is it a bad thing?}

'It means I killed someone from my world without honor, such as doing it inside a duel. But it will pass with time, the interesting part about this thing is the fact other people from my world can now attack me without even sending a duel challenge, regardless of numbers.'

{Damn, then that's rather tricky. You have a bright target on your back.}

'Don't bother about it, it is an insignificant part that we outlanders have to deal with. Besides, I am far stronger than those people inside the lake.'

{For sure, since you are my Successor and also my Disciple. How could someone mentored by me, Red Emperor, could suffer in defeat from some fools who don't even know how to control their two left legs?}

{Another thing, that Phantom Step that you did combined with Dehakel's technique 'Unleashed Storm' was to my taste.}

{That swift shift to getting your sword. Little Mathias, are you trying to please this old man by chance?}

Hearing those pleased remarks from the old man while he was swimming toward the other side of the lake while keeping himself inside the salty water, testing his breathing abilities and how long could his body keep underwater.

The way he killed Belt was more out of anger and he didn't think much about what tactic he should use, instead acting mostly on the instincts that he started acquiring from the relentless training he was doing in the time he could use it to level up his character.

Instead, he could see right now the benefits of his patience and ability to ignore the comments of others, especially those coming from his guild members who began complaining a bit with regard to his low level, since the Guild Leader should be the one leading the guild, by example.

The newer members who joined the guild were most vocal about this, but were relatively put to place by Red, Evan, Lane, and Malakai who were like Giants that no one wanted to mess with inside the guild chat.

Yet was Mathias affected by their comments?

Not at all.

He knew that his game style was a variant of playing and exploring the world of Satisfy. It might be a path with a slow start, especially when he lost about 3 months of time, that he could spend killing monsters and doing various quests that might land him experience.

However the way Mathias looked at things was different from the average players.

He understood that most hunting grounds were still unexplored and vast amounts of the Satisfy World remains unexplored even right now.

Such that in his mind was a question about "Time-Efficiency", why should he spend his time doing this search that might land him anything, when there are thousands of people, fully willing to do his job?

In this manner, he stalled most of his leveling since returning to Titan, focusing on himself, and acquiring more experience in his weapon mastery and beginning to acquire Haycien's knowledge, a legacy that required vast amounts of time to complete.

Still, from what conversation he had with Red, Evan and Lane, who were in top 20 respectively with Red being on 2nd place of the rankings, his power was close to a monster with a level 100-120 when combining all his items and buffs.

Just him revealing his Set, made them dumbfounded on how someone with such a low level could be able to use such a broken gear, yet Mathias was there, among the best players regardless of his level.

Rightfully, the leader of Leviathan Guild was building its story inside the Satisfy Community, having a high standard for its future members.

Inside the Forums, there was a story circulating that reached Mathias's ears from Malakai, with regard to how, there was no guild leader inside the Leviathan guild, instead being more like a council lead by the Big Four, that being Red, Evan, Lane, and Malakai.

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It was funny to think about all of those stories circulating, and how anyone regardless of level who showed great talent, could send their application to one of the "Council Leaders".

Yet, right now, Mathias was preoccupied in getting out of the unnamed salt lake, and being steps ahead of Anjo and his Ebonhand guild, got out from the part of the lake where the ducks made it home.

"Hahh. This air sure is salty. I have salt all over my body, even my balls have turned salty." commented Mathias after sticking his head out from the lake starting to swim out of the lake.

In doing so he took by surprise the birds when he exited with a big splash, however there were some ducks that didn't get scared by Mathias and approached him quaking at him while moving along their tails.

"You must be the little ducklings that I've spoiled in the past. Look at you.

You've grown up, good for you. However, not today, I am busy. Also, you should hide because idiots are following me, and they might wash their anger on you."

To his surprise, the ducks stopped and looked in the direction of the lake, and with some quacks, they started moving away from Mathias, continuing quacking, and right in front of Mathias's eyes the ducks, began getting out from the lake, and get to a marshy side of the salt lake, hiding there.

It made him smile, and continuing his journey, he followed the path to the inner side of the mountain, arriving at the calming forest which lead him to the hellish side of Gravelmark Mountain, where he would enter the territory of the Perython which in the past was an monster with a level of 175.

On the other part of the lake area, Anjo in his search for Mathias, arrived in the location Belt was killed.

As if he got to a checkpoint he told his guildmates to continue swimming toward the end of the lake, hoping Mathias would recover by the shore, yet when they got there nothing awaited them, even the ducks were intelligent enough to hide in the mushy area full of tall grass.

"ARGHH! GODDAMN IT! NOW I CAN'T GET MY REVENGE AT ALL SINCE HE PROBABLY WENT DEEPER IN THE MOUNTAIN!"

Flustered about the whole situation, Anjo started cursing, beginning to think about how Mathias stole another chance, after he was killed by Iljnoks, and to take his revenge, he planned rapidly with his guild members on how to deal with Mathias, making a post on the general forum, placing Mathias's on a bounty wanted post.

By doing so, he mentions how Mathias has in his possession a treasure of high value and whoever is able to kill him, will manage to gain possession of the treasure.

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