Ji-ho stared at the notification in shock, his eyes darting to Hyun-soo. "Hyun-soo ... I accidentally accepted it."
Hyun-soo's jaw dropped. "Wait, what?! How did—" He stopped, noticing Ji-ho's slightly panicked expression and the subtle, pleading look in his eyes.
Ji-ho gave him a sharp, urgent nod, silently begging him to accept as well.
"No way!" Hyun-soo hissed, frantically shaking his head as his ears pinned back. "I saw that rowdy guy bump you! It was an accident! Ji-ho, cancel it! There has to be a way to cancel it!"
"There is no cancel button," Ji-ho said, his voice dropping into a sharp, urgent whisper. His eyes were wide, fixed on his friend with a intensity that bordered on desperation.
Hyun-soo continued to shake his head, his hands hovering over his own translucent quest window as if it were a live bomb. "I don't care! I'm not clicking 'Yes'! This is insane, Ji-ho!"
Ji-ho leaned across the table, "Look at the corner of your vision. Do you see the notification?"
[ The God of Magic, Albus, is watching with great interest ]
Hyun-soo froze, his eyes darting to the side.
"If I go through with this and you don't, what do you think Albus would think?" Ji-ho pressured him, his gaze never wavering. "If you decline the quest, what do you think the penalty will be?"
Ji-ho leaned in, his voice dropping to a freezing whisper. "A fifty-percent reduction in all stats."
"I... I can't," Hyun-soo stammered, though his finger was now trembling near the button.
"Hyun-soo, listen to me," Ji-ho said, his expression becoming terrifyingly firm. "I didn't choose this, but the variable has changed. I also don't want this, but things happened for a reason."
Ji-ho leaned in even closer, his voice dropping to a low, cold whisper that cut through the tavern's noise.
"Remember, who asked me to play with him? It's you, right?"
Hyun-soo froze. The guilt hit him harder than any physical attack. He looked at Ji-ho's unwavering eyes and then at the crimson Yes button hovering in his vision. He was the one who dragged Ji-ho into this world, and now his friend was trapped in a death-contract because of an accident.
"I... I did," Hyun-soo stammered, his lip trembling as the weight of Ji-ho's words sank in. He looked at the glowing crimson window, his mind frantically spinning into a dozen different directions.
"But Ji-ho, think about it!" Hyun-soo hissed, leaning in so close their foreheads almost touched. "If I refuse this, I can stay 'clean.' I can be the one who talks to the Guild from the outside while you're... you know, doing the 'shadow' stuff. I could be your inside man!"
Ji-ho's eyes didn't even flicker. "If you decline, the penalty with the Barony applies to you alone. You'll be flagged as a hostile element while I'm moving with the Baron's authority. You won't be an 'inside man'; you'll be a liability in a jail cell."
"Then—what if I just ignore it?" Hyun-soo whispered, his eyes darting around the tavern. "If I don't click anything, the window just stays there, right? I won't be declining, so the penalty won't trigger, and I won't be accepting, so I'm not gonna kill someone either!"
Ji-ho's finger tapped the table with a sharp, rhythmic click. "The system auto-declines at the end of the timer, Hyun-soo. You'd just be delaying the inevitable imprisonment and wasting the only window we have to move together. It's a logistical dead end."
Hyun-soo let out a small, pathetic whimper. With a look of pure betrayal toward the rowdy NPC who had started all of this, he finally let his finger fall. Hyun-soo had no choice but to accept the quest as well.
Just as the crimson windows vanished, Lyra stepped up to the table, sliding two steaming platters of the Adventurer's Special in front of them. The rich, savory aroma of roasted meat and enchanted herbs immediately filled the table.
"Everything alright?" she asked, her head tilting as she noticed Hyun-soo's pale, sweat-beaded face and trembling hands. "You look like you just signed your soul away to a demon."
Ji-ho didn't miss a beat. He picked up his fork with a perfectly steady hand, his expression as cool as ever.
"He's just overwhelmed by the smell of the food," Ji-ho lied smoothly, his eyes meeting Lyra's with practiced calm. "It's, truly impressive. Thank you, Lyra."
Lyra giggled, seemingly satisfied with the answer. "Well, make sure he actually eats it instead of just staring at it! You'll need your strength if you're planning to leave town today."
With a playful wink, she turned back to the other customers, leaving the two of them alone with their meal.
After the meal, they slipped past the town walls and began a relentless, high-speed grind. They moved toward the Whispering Thicket, a dense, eerie forest bordering the western edge of the Sahara Plains.
To any onlooker, it was a pitiful sight. Ji-ho and Hyun-soo fought like madmen, their movements a blur of calculated violence. The forest monsters; the shadow panthers and thorn-beasts didn't stand a chance. They were being harvested rather than hunted.
Under the effects of a Medium EXP Potion, the golden bars of their level meters surged constantly. For hours, the only sounds were the crack of Hyun-soo's musket and the whistling of Ji-ho's spells slicing through the humid forest air.
As the last monster dissolved into pixels, Ji-ho finally called for a halt. They were deep within the Thicket, where the towering acacia trees blocked out the sun. They had been battling for hours without a single second of rest.
Hyun-soo collapsed against the rough bark of a tree, his chest heaving. "We've been at this for hours. I think my fingers are actually fused to the trigger."
Ji-ho leaned against his staff, his Butler's Vest slightly dusty but his eyes as sharp as ever. He pulled up the quest log, the crimson glow reflecting in his pupils.
[ Slay the Silestal Guild Master (A) ]
[ Time Remaining: 26 Hours, 10 Minutes Remaining ]
"We're done for the day," Ji-ho stated, his voice raspy from the dry forest air.
"Ten levels, we actually gained ten levels in a single sitting," Hyun-soo muttered, staring up at the canopy. "That medium EXP potion was the best. I've never seen a level bar move that fast."
Ji-ho didn't respond immediately. His eyes were already scanning a translucent blue interface of his profile.
He looked over at Hyun-soo, "Did you already allocate your stat points?" Ji-ho asked.
Hyun-soo jumped slightly, startled by the sudden question. He hurriedly pulled up his own profile. "Wait, I was so busy not dying that I completely forgot!"
He began mindlessly scrolling through his profile, his finger blurring as he flicked past each of the primary stats. One moment he was hovering over STR, thinking about the heavy recoil of his musket; the next, he was staring at DEX, wondering if his speed was the real issue and then his gaze drifted to CON, worried about his low HP.
"If I put it all in DEX, I'll be fast, but what if I get hit once and die because my CON is low? But if I put it in STR, my bullets hit harder, but I might be too slow to dodge..."
Hyun-soo's breathing became shallow as he stared at the primary stats. To him, it wasn't a menu; it was a headache-inducing puzzle. After three minutes of aggressive scrolling and incoherent muttering, his shoulders slumped. He let out a long, defeated groan and swiped the menu away.
"I give up," Hyun-soo said, flopping back onto the dry leaves of the Thicket. "Ji-ho, my brain is literally starting to smoke. If I pick the wrong one, I'll ruin my build forever."
He looked over at Ji-ho with a look of pure, helpless reliance.
"You do it. Just tell me where to put the points so I don't become a glass cannon that can't hit a barn door."
Ji-ho didn't even sigh. He had already expected this.
"Oh, same with mine. I didn't use them yet."
It was a surprise seeing that they finally had something in common.
"Right now I got 78 stat points and 85 skill points. I really don't know where to invest these points."
Denver lay down and gazed at the sky. Jaycee on the other hand, remained seated as he silently browsed over his own status. They were both doing their own thing under the calm and soothing silence. A faint noise of the wind breeze can be heard. Though that silence didn't last that long. It was suddenly broken by a sudden pop up screen appearing in front of the both of them.
[ There are '2' players who have accepted the quest 'Slay the Silestal Guild Master (A)' ]
[ Updating the quest 'Slay the Silestal Guild Master (A)' ]
"Updating?" Jaycee whispered.
[ Update Successful! ]
[ The quest 'Slay the Silestal Guild Master (A)' was changed to 'Baron Rael's Personal Request (C)' ]
[ Baron Rael's Personal Request (C) ]
Difficulty: C
Baron Rael Graciano was once a high-ranked hunter before he became part of the Afruvite nobility. In fact, Baron Rael and the Silestal Guild Master were both members of a legendary party and were closed to each other more than just members in a same group. For whatever reason, the Baron assessed every player's bravery and courage to take on such difficult challenges by giving them a nearly impossible quest.
*Congratulations! You have passed the Baron's test.
*Visit Baron Rael's estate for further instructions.
Quest Clear Condition: Unknown
Quest Clear Reward: Unknown
Quest Failure Penalty: None
Denver jolted up in surprise.
"What the hell? That quest itself was a dud all along?!"