Chapter 125: Sam and Biggy

Standing before the closed door leading to their room, Aiden had a small smile adorning his face. His eyes were plastered on the wooden door ahead of him, but in reality, he was focusing on the magical screen in front of him, that was visible only to himself. 

As soon as he verbally agreed for today's adventure, a system message popped up, giving him a new main quest! Not an optional quest, not a personal quest but a main quest. From his experiences with the system, whenever such a thing happens it was the precursor of something major, an important event.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly opened up the message and carefully read it through.

[New Main Quest: The Secrets of the Demon Grotto

Difficulty: A-S+

Remaining Time: 59 days 23 hours 57 minutes 43 seconds

Objective: -Find and Explore the Demon Grotto

-Uncover its Secret

-Earn its owners acceptance

Optional: ????

Reward: ????

Failure Condition: -Banished from the Demon Grotto 

-Failure to complete the quest in time

Penalty: Expulsion and Forceful Return to the Wheel of Life and Death]

From the difficulty, Aiden could guess that whoever was the 'owner' of this Cavern or Grotto, must be a terrifying existence if the difficulty would be marked to an at least A level. He wasn't sure what the S difficulty or even the S+ difficulty meant but he had a feeling it would border the impossible.

Apart from the difficulty, he got blanks on the Optional objectives and even for Rewards. Regardless, he was expecting that he would gain tremendous benefits from this adventure if he could complete it.

Additionally, for the first time, he had a timer for the quest. Judging from one of the failure conditions, he had to be able to complete it before the timer runs out, lest he wanted to leave this life behind!

Still, even with all this pressure, he was happy, he was excited. Being marked as the main quest meant that the findings in this cave would be important to him in the future.

His raging thoughts were interrupted when the door to the room flung open and Lily, now dressed in his usual attire, with a bow and a quiver filled with arrows hanging on her back stepped out. Behind her the two black wolf-like dogs silently followed. 

"Huh?" Lily looked quizzically at Aiden. "What are you standing here for, brother? Are you ready?"

Shaking his head, he silenced his thoughts and hid the notification from his view. He looked at Lily, and with a calm tone, he answered.

"Don't worry, I am ready." Looking at the two companions behind her he continued.

"Did you think of a name for these two? They seem to be keen on following and protecting you after all."

Hearing the question, Lily turned around to face his two large, wolf-like companions. Even through their black fur, you could still see the toned muscles. Their presence emitted a certain amount of power that was unlike the average watchdog. 

This was understandable since these dogs were raised to be merciless killing machines. Them turning so docile from a mere command of Aiden was a huge deal that was only recognized by Number 3 and Granny currently.

"I had a thought about naming them, but I couldn't come up with any names. What do you suggest, brother?" Lily asked thoughtfully while gazing at the dogs.

"Well…" Aiden replied with a sly smile. "Do you know their sex? Before you can name them, you need to know if they are male or females."

Hearing this, caused Lily to turn bright red from embarrassment and immediately hide her face behind her delicate eyes.

"Brooother! I… I… I can't possibly look back there... "

"Back where?" Aiden asked, clearly enjoying teasing her.

"S-stop it! Y-You know w-what I mean!" Lily replied embarrassedly still 'hiding' behind her palms.

Unable to hold back, Aiden erupted into a burst of cheerful laughter. Hearing this, Lily slowly removed her hands and look at her with a pouting expression.

"Mean brother! Nasty brother!" she exclaimed. "You only know how to bully me!"

"Okay, okay…" Aiden eventually stopped laughing and spoke with a bright smile on his face. "Sorry, but it was so funny… They are both males, I already checked. So, you only need to think about boy names."

"Hmm…" Although still pouting, she began to rack her brains for some fitting names for his two new friends. After a while, she looked at the left one and exclaimed while pointing at it.

"Sam!" 

The dog, as if understanding and accepting his new name, barked once and nodded. Then, Lily looked at the other one, and with a bright smile, she pointed at it and exclaimed once again.

"Biggy!"

The second wolf-canine hybrid nodded and barked once, accepting its new title. 

As the short naming ceremony came to an end, Lily crouched down and snuggled against both dogs. They looked like as if they had been together for years and not days, Sam and Biggy were happily licking her cheeks while Lily was giggling at them.

Aiden watched this scene with a happy smile on his face. This was what he was hoping for, after all. By giving names to these two pets, she subconsciously created a connection, a reliance on them. By accepting both of them, they became part of her family, they would be the best remedy to heal the scars left by last night's trauma.

Eventually, he still had to break them up, as they had to get going, otherwise, they wouldn't accomplish anything before sunset. 

Moments later, the brother and sister duo, -accompanied by Sam and Biggy- were outside the front door of the hut. Granny and Number 3 standing at the doorway, waving at them.

Before they could leave, however, Number 3 waved at Aiden to come. As he obeyed and leaned closer, she whispered.

"You still have the crystal I gave you last night, I hope. Do not hesitate to use it if you would like to reach out to me, okay?"

Aiden firmly nodded, as he curtly replied.

"Yes, Master."

Walking back, they waved their goodbyes and soon vanished in the thick shrubbery of the forest, heading towards their appointed destination, the North.

As the children left, Granny breathed a heavy sigh, continuing to gaze at the point where they entered the thick forest flora.

"I hope nothing will happen to them… That girl really needs this outing to get some of her lost spirits back…"

Number 3 smiled at her words and calmly added.

"You don't need to worry about them… Don't forget the time they spent in the Pocket World. That was much tougher, and that girl survived much worse than this. She is only disturbed because she thinks she is responsible for the tragedy that happened to that couple."

Then with a small cackle, she continued.

"Besides, there are not many beings that could seriously threaten that boy in this jungle, and none of them should be around the area where we sent them."

Granny could only smile helplessly at her words. She didn't refute her words, she only stared into the distance.

After a good while, did she mumble mostly to herself, although it was caught by Number 3.

"There's so much more to this place than you or that big master of yours knows… You don't know the terrifying history of this place."

As they turned around and walked back to the house, Number 3 couldn't help but ask.

"Why are you so disturbed anyways? You have sent them on similar trips multiple times already. What is different this time?"

"I was always there in previous cases." Granny curtly answered before entering the kitchen to prepare a pot of tea for them to enjoy.

---

Meanwhile, back in the city, the citizens were greeted with shocking news! During the night the city guards invaded the Slums district and after a gruesome and bloody battle, they closed down an illegal slave market ring, rescuing hundreds of people in the process! The implications of such a matter were incredible, it was rumored that several noble households were visited one after another in the morning. 

In some of them, they managed to reach a mutual understanding, while in otters fights erupted and resulted in the death of a few city guards and entire noble families to be wiped out. Even the ruling city lord was met with his own guards. While nobody was sure what did they discuss, but they seemed to have reached a peaceful conclusion as, after a while, they were seen leaving his mansion with him in chains.

Shortly thereafter another shocking announcement was made, that the patriarch of the Arcus family, the current city lord had abdicated his position and that his successor is to be announced in the coming days. In the interim, the city council will handle all related matters.

The source of these events, a pair of hooded youths, a silver-haired boy, and a fiery red-haired girl were no longer in the city. In the early morning, they left through the front gates and were seen heading towards the treeline, only to be lost from the curious eyes.