Chapter 80 :

Episode 18 : A Father's Approval (4)

Upon going toward the grassland, we were expecting monsters to ambush us, however instead, none were to be found.

Despite secretly searching for a monster, I wasn't able to locate one nor did I manage to find a single passive creature.

I was planning to test out Mya's archery for a warm up as well as a first training for her.

But it seemed something like that couldn't happen as I had hoped. ‘How unpleasant..’

Without a doubt, I found it strange to believe that monsters suddenly vanished, since I saw it with my own eyes, I had no choice but to believe what I saw.

Still, I remained patient, waiting for a single monster to pop up out of nowhere, in spite of the patience I had put up with, not a monster in sight after arriving at the grassland.

‘Why have the monsters suddenly disappeared?’ I thought, observing the open plain.

Noticing players slowly arriving on the grassland, it was only a matter of time before the ‘Helpers’ appeared.

With spare time, I thought I should relax for a bit and so, I sat on the grass, surprising HwanGi, Alaine and Mya.

"Why are you so surprised? Do you wish to stand until the ‘Helpers’ show up?" I spoke to them while watching my comrades sitting down.

When HwanGi, Alaine and Mya saw how my friends sat down, they couldn't say anything and sat on the grass with us.

"Woah. This feels nice." Alaine said, laying her body on the grass and looking up at the sky.

While enjoying the relaxation, I could only think of one thing. ‘A place like this can only mean one thing.’

"W-What is that coming toward us?!" With a startled voice, Alaine shouted out of fear.

Swiftly as he could, HwanGi got up to get a closer look at the object coming this way. "It's.. it's an attack!" 

I also checked what was happening, discovering something that resembled a meteorite.

No, it wasn't just a meteorite, it was a meteor shower.

"What the heck.." I got up after knowing that the situation we were in, may be a bit dangerous.

Since we had Mya with us, it would be a lot more difficult to keep her safe.

"Mimi, put up a shield with your cocoon." I requested Mirai.

"Hai, Captain!"

It didn't take long for Mirai to create a large cocoon to protect everyone, be that as it may, the meteor shower appeared to have some other skills mixed in with it.

"What is going on right now?!" Alaine asked, holding onto her daggers.

I alerted everyone before having Lucifer morphed into a bow. "We're under attack." 

When I was moments away from letting go my bowstring to shoot, a thought emerged inside my head, making me look toward Mya who was panicking from the bombardment of attacks.

"Mya, this should be your training." Despite a loud bang coming from the top of the cocoon, it didn't faze me while I was talking to Mya.

Even though it didn't startle me, Mya was trembling from the attacks pouring down on top of the cocoon.

"M-Me? What can I do?" Mya asked me with a stuttering voice.

"Mirai's cocoon is strong but it won't hold up if we keep letting the attacks hit continuously."

"Then..?"

"You and I shall be shooting down the attacks to minimize the damages caused on the cocoon."

"W-what?! Right, I can do this!" Mya was frightened for a few seconds ago, but it seemed she had calmed down.

I warned the others. "Do not interfere. Mya and I can handle this."

"But I can help you, JoonChul-ssi!" HwanGi spoke before stepping closer to me.

Alaine also did the same thing. "Yeah! Why would we let you two work alone when we could help?"

To be frank, if I had asked Frostina and Raiden to handle this situation, we wouldn't have to deal with this.

But knowing this was the perfect time for Mya to practice her archery, I shouldn't waste it that quickly.

"HwanGi-ssi and Alaine. Like I said, do not interfere." I said to them before drawing my bow.

As I noticed more and more attacks kept targeting us, I could sense that Mirai's cocoon might tear soon.

I was in the moment of letting go of the bowstring when this happened..

..The endless skills that were raining down on us, had paused as if time had halted them.

‘..Tch. Not even giving me a chance to give Mya a practice?’ I gritted my teeth as I glanced up into the sky.

It was by then that I ordered Mirai to drop her cocoon, since I knew exactly why this occurred.

"What an unpleasant sight to see." A voice that belonged to none other than Turquoise.

‘Yeah, it is so unpleasant.’ I grasped my bow tightly, becoming irked by the thought of my plans not working out today.

"It seems that everyone wished to have JoonChul's team dead." Turquoise spoke, descending down toward the meteor shower of skills.

"For what reason did his team do to get this much hate?" 

Zircon being the last to descend, stretched out her hands to remove the nuisances which was the meteor shower of attacks. 

What looked to be tiny water droplets splashing from her hands, became an outpour of a tsunami.

As soon as the tsunami emerged, it had completely eliminated the obstacles without much effort.

It was a spectacular sight that could make anyone question themselves if they could ever defeat the overpowered ‘Helpers’, much or less even create a scratch on them.

"Now, shall we begin?" Zircon grinned after arriving beside her sisters.

[Stage #11 has begun!]

Accompanied with a message like that, another panel opened up right after.

[ Stage #11 : Quests Volunteer. ]

+

Stage Information: As your stay in this world is coming to an end, you must help those who need your help to give the people in the ‘Kingless’ Kingdom a good farewell.

Stage Task: Complete the quests.

Time Limit: 120 hours.

Reward: 550 coins.

Failure: A late entry and the people's wrath.

+

After understanding Stage #11, I exited out of the panel and listened closely to the ‘Helpers’.

———

"Do not be curious about Stage #11's stage information. For it is not what you should be focusing on." Zircon informed everyone before nodding to Turquoise.

Turquoise understood what Zircon wanted her to do, thus she created a quill out of thin air before using it to write on the book that was drifting in front of her.

Out of a sudden, another panel showed up in front of all the players, showcasing a list with a lot of the NPC's names.

"There are 7 quests as you can see. If you finish these in half the time given to you, you shall receive another reward which is the Fire Emblem."

Tanzanite continued on talking, looking as though she was pouting. "The Fire Emblem will be important in the near future, so better make sure to get it."

Zircon smiled at Tanzanite which caused her to pout even more and she turned her head away. 

Seeing as how Tanzanite was acting this way, Zircon couldn't help but grin, because she knew that Tanzanite was mad at her for being given a punishment.

"As for those who don't understand what the failure means, I shall explain it to you."

Zircon explained. "The late entry means you will have to wait a few days or so to get into Stage #12."

As soon as she finished that statement, she could know what some of the players were thinking already.

And so, Zircon had a wide smile on her face before she proceeded with her explanation. "However, do not think that you might have a peaceful time while having the late entry."

"The second failure is ‘The people's wrath’. For the punishment for not giving the people a good farewell, they will search everywhere for you and force you to do their bidding."

"You can't escape as well!" Tanzanite interrupted.

Zircon didn't mind her sister disturbing her and agreed with Tanzanite. "Indeed, you can't. You shall experience forced labour until you depart to the next stage."

"And that forced labour isn't something you should be glad about. It's worse than doing a quest." Zircon switched her smile to a menacing one.

Turquoise as if she felt left out, explained another detail that her sisters forgot. "Not to mention, to get the quests, you must need to ask the people with the names which were on the list shown to you."

"Oh. Thank goodness, you remembered that." Tanzanite hovered toward Turquoise while speaking in a cheerful tone.

"Since this is all the information we could provide you now, you ought to figure out the others by yourself." As Zircon let everyone know, she was ascending toward the cloud.

While Tanzanite smiled as she always did, entirely forgetting the punishment she got, she shouted to catch everyone's attention. "I wish you all luck on this stage!"

With the three sisters departing soon after leaving only vague information about the Stage #11, a couple of players couldn't help it but be puzzled about the Stage.

When most of the players thought the three sisters were gone, it was surprising to spot Tanzanite's head popping out of the cloud just to inform everyone of this. 

"One more important thing, for anyone who doesn't complete two quests until evening, you shall have 5000 coins deducted."

"Getting a negative number in your coins means something life-changing for you all. And those changes aren't pleasant." 

"Anyways, goodbye!" And with that, Tanzanite left behind a frightening message after saying farewell.

All the players fully understood it was outrageous for the ‘Helpers’ to take away 5000 coins when no one in this world has ever even obtained that much.

Not just that, with all their coins gone, it meant that they wouldn't have a place to rest nor food and beverages to eat.

And after coming to that conclusion, most of the players immediately rushed back in a hurry, sprinting toward the ‘Kingless’ Kingdom to start receiving their quests from the NPCs.