"Why, adventurers? Why must you add to my misfortune?"
A sorrowful cry came from Misortnimn. The devil landed on the ground and the card decks disappeared. Staring at the players it was as if he accused them for everything wrong in the world, a single black tear coming from his eyes.
"I somewhat feel bad for him…", murmured Quickstep.
"I know. Even after letting him win a round, it still stings…", sighed Cyclone, drawing strange gazes from everyone. She let the devil win one round? Was she just boasting or did she mean it?
Before anyone could ask another question, the world started to change. The entire domain trembled. Cracks filled the sky, allowing light to shine in. It became more and more intense. Suddenly A massive rift tore the border apart. Dark currents filled the domain. The friends were blinded, startling cries being devoured by the darkness.
However, it didn't last long. A second later the party regained their vision. They were back inside the hunting lodge. In front of them stood Misortnimn, skin pale, hands trembling.
"What a… failure…"
The Unlucky Jester spoke in a weak voice. He stumbled backwards until he leaned against the wall. His legs gave in, he dramatically slid down the wall, slumping on the ground. Finally, his eyes closed.
"Is he… dead?"
"At least this clone is…"
As if to confirm it, a notification appeared in front of the friends, rewarding them with a generous amount of EXP. Everyone made large strides towards level 69.
"Haha, we killed a devil!"
Balm couldn't help but exclaim in joy. She turned towards her friends, exchanging a series of high-fives.
"This time we couldn't have done it without Cyclone!"
"Totally! She is the star of the moment!"
"Worthy of a hero indeed!"
Everyone smiled at Cyclone and, noticing her embarrassed but happy expression, didn't stop teasing the mage for a while.
"Stop it, stop it! How could I have won without you? My damage was far from enough to defeat the boss."
Eventually Cyclone felt bad about taking the limelight. She simply turned around and reached for the boss, using the loot as distraction.
A bright light shone from the clone's corpse. Items gathered in Cyclone's inventory. After the light receded, the single most valuable item landed in the mage's hand. Unexpectedly it turned out to be a piece of paper.
"A recipe? What could it be to outshine all the other items?", questioned Balm curiously. Of course, she hoped for an alchemy recipe. Although her progress was not as fast as she would have liked, for a worthy item she would set some time aside to improve her profession.
Liam shared similar thoughts. His eyes were focused on Cyclone, preventing the mage from running away with the recipe. He noticed how brightly her eyes were shining and her fingers were twitching. The recipe was definitely not simple.
Cyclone took a deep breath. Realizing that everyone was staring at her she didn't play any tricks, directly revealing the item's description.
[Recipe: Myriad Elements Dragon Sword
Category: Unique
Effect: Teaches the crafting method of Myriad Elements Dragon Sword. This weapon bears the power of dragons, highly versatile and unbelievably powerful. Through the addition of suitable materials, the Myriad Elements Dragon Sword is able to attune itself to all variations of damage. Exceedingly precious materials have a chance of elevating the weapon to legendary level.
Restrictions: Advanced Blacksmith
The Myriad Elements Dragon Sword enjoyed great renown during the heyday of the dragonslayers. Today it is difficult to find the materials to forge this legendary weapon. Are you willing to give it a try?]
Ragged breaths could be heard. The word legendary stood out like a shining beacon, catching everyone's attention. Well, mainly it was still Cyclone. She glanced at Liam. Surely, the expert would try to forge this sword. With his knowledge it might not be difficult to gather all the materials. Only the advancement to advanced blacksmith still seemed far away. However, after all conditions were in place, Liam might be able to forge a legendary weapon!
No! She couldn't let this happen! How could the team's first legendary weapon be a product of forging?! The first legendary weapon had to be looted by her, Cyclone! This was a matter of honour!
"A legendary weapon…"
"Damn, I wasn't prepared for this. Who would have thought that devil would be so generous?", spoke Quickstep, her eyes shining brightly. From the item's description the sword could be forged to fit the various elements. What did this signify? It meant Liam could forge a version of the sword suitable for her! A legendary weapon might soon be in her hands!
"Calm down, guys.", chuckled Liam. "It's only a recipe. Who knows how long it will take us to gather the materials? And I still need to increase my blacksmith profession."
"Well, then you better hurry up. Or should we give the recipe to the guild's blacksmith?", laughed Silver Blade, prompting Liam to shake his head lightly. It wasn't that he looked down on the guild's blacksmiths but as mentioned in the recipe there was only a chance of elevating the sword to legendary level. Many little details had to be completed perfectly. Thus, Liam still felt more confident doing it himself.
The excitement caused by the recipe still help on for a while. Eventually Cyclone handed the recipe to Liam and revealed the rest of the loot. It had to be said that the devil was really too generous. The next item drawing Cyclone's attention was a skillbook. It taught the skill 'Will of Immortality'. Essentially, the skill could be used on allies, allowing them to trick death once, albeit with an exceedingly high cooldown.
The skill obviously went to Balm. With another layer of safety, the friends could be even more confident in their battles.
"Hehe, looks like we will have a big surprise for GalanTen! I can't wait to see their faces!", chuckled Cyclone. Quickstep nodded at her:
"Right! Talking about GalanTen, they are really too slow! Are they still stuck in the dungeon?"
"Should we go for a second run? If we clear the dungeon twice before they even complete it once, it would be too funny."
"That might just crush their morale. Perhaps they would cancel the PvP challenge."
"Ok, ok. Let's not underestimate our opponents too much."
Silver Blade served as the voice of reason. She could feel that her friends were rather irritated by GalanTen. The team came out of nowhere, boasting about being the best, calling themselves the new number one. And all of that after probably never grinding for their own gear. There was no way the friends could develop any goodwill towards GalanTen.
As Silver Blade spoke up, the friends dropped the topic of GalanTen and put their attention back on the loot.
At this point the most valuable items were sorted out. What followed was a unique glove equipment, not suitable for any of the friends, set to be placed in the guild treasury. A few even weaker pieces of equipment followed. At the end Cyclone showed various materials. Those weren't entirely useless but there was nothing suitable for the Myriad Elements Dragon Sword, thus they were unable to garner any excitement.
"Alright. I think we're done here."
Silver Blade took a look at the updated quest. With the descent of the devil's clone interrupted, the party had done a great deed. The quest asked them to return to Therim.
"Wait, let's look around here. Weren't there those two cloaked figures who summoned the devil? I want to see if they are still here."
As Balm said so, everyone agreed. There was no harm in doing this, after all. The friends took their attention away from the devil's body and observed the room. Light was shining through the windows and the former cold atmosphere was somewhat suppressed, although the bloody runes on the wall still existed.
The friends found nothing new in the current room. Thus, they split up to search the hunting lodge. The entire building was not extremely big. After a few minutes the friends regathered in the room.
"Didn't find them?"
"No, they must have escaped while we fought."
"Cowards! At least Cyclone and I discovered a treasure chest…", said Balm, unable to hide her grin. Cyclone proudly stuck out her chest as she handed Silent Acacia the unique version of his boots. It was only a small upgrade, but the hunter would naturally not despise it.
"I made an interesting discovery as well."
"Oh?"
All eyes fell on Radiant Shield. The tank flicked his wrist and a white rose appeared in his hand. Puzzlement could be seen in everyone's eyes. They asked Radiant Shield to share the item's description, but this didn't really clear anything up as other than declaring the item as a quest item, the description only showed question marks.
"Well, perhaps we will find a use in the future…"
The friends didn't care too much. There were so many quests in Fate of Crunaboul, it was impossible to complete them all. Maybe they would find out more about the white rose, maybe they wouldn't. It was all up to fate. Or perhaps to Liam's mood.