Sandurk...
A place where you will see desert and oasis in the expanse of the land. Monsters that live in the desert dwell here and rain is something rare to see here. The continent was also dubbed the Sand Continent due to the large expanse of pure sand in the area. But that was until they discover the other half of the Sandurk continent.
In the past timeline, there are players who like to explore. They were also the people who discover the cave where I managed to rescue the two Merfolk Siblings. These people are known for discovering many things in the game especially in new areas. You can say that their profession is to map the uncharted lands that players rarely visit or explore.
After their exploration in Aquagius, their next destination is to map the whole Sandurk region. However, the result of the exploration was not expected by anyone even the community. Due to some series of events, the explorer party has discovered the hidden path that leads to the hidden half of Sandurk, the Frozen Desert. At first, the explorers thought it was another land entirely until they found out that the place is not another hidden continent that was released in the public and they only stumbled upon it.
The hidden land was home to the single city of Ice where the ruler was actually the twin sister of Queen Tanya. Not only that, the place was also known for having very harsh conditions and dangerous monsters, topping off some of the danger levels of some dungeons in their Abyss Levels. Not only that, but 5 of the strongest Raid Bosses spawns here from time to time, making it a place where players camp out just to kill it. Dangerous kills but very rewarding.
I have been to the deeper parts of Sandurk's icy depths and I still remember the ruler of that place, Queen Tori. Despite ruling the almost desolate city of ice, she is known to be a benevolent and powerful ruler that her people adore and love her. Despite the cold demeanor, she is one of the kindest NPCs, and you can say she is in rank 2 since she can't beat Lily on the first part.
Despite being in a very deep area of the world with very far contact with the outside world, her kingdom is one of the most advanced kingdoms ever seen in the game. Due to her kingdom's close vicinity to the dungeons and close contact with the dangerous monsters on a daily basis, they got most of the advanced resources that allows them to fend off monsters without the reliance on their Queen's power.
Queen Tori's appearance would have been revealed only once the Frozen Desert of Sandurk and the Kingdom of Ice is discovered so I was confused on why she is here right now. If I remember correctly, no one has yet to explore that place yet since the Aquagius area has yet to be explored yet and the Sandurk region's farther monsters are too much for the current levels of the players right now. If I count the timeline correctly in the past timeline, her appearance should be 7 months from now.
Curious about what they are talking about, I decided to approach them. If it was bad timing, Queen Tanya would just send me away.
"Oh, good timing Bladeheart, you came at the right time!" Queen Tanya smiled and beckons me to approach.
"Who is this Sis?"Queen Tori started to look at me from head to toe, sizing me up silently.
"Remember the time when the demons tried to invade my kingdom and destroy most of the surrounding areas by sending small demon mobs to invade the villages? He is one of the participants and is one of the main contributors that resulted in our overwhelming victory against the demons. He is also the one that I mentioned to you last time who owns the legendary gryphon."
"Oh? So this guy is the one you keep on praising to be one capable of becoming your rival?"
"He is nowhere near to becoming my rival just yet but he is growing much faster than I presume he would be. It won't take too long before he can be indeed become a rival of mine. I am already treating him as my ally and of course, I view him as a worthy guy to cross swords with me."
Queen Tori nodded without removing her gaze upon me. Oh, and it seems this is the first time I took a good look at her.
Compared to Queen Tanya's brownish-black hair and tanned skin, she has pale white skin and bluish-white color on her hair. And despite the color differences between the two, you can easily tell that they are twins. They might have different looks of this kind, but their faces are identical. If you tan Queen Tori's skin and let her have brownish-black hair, you can immediately mistake her to be Queen Tanya.
One thing that is a big difference between the two is that... compared to Queen Tanya's huge rack, Queen Tori... has plains as far as the eyes can see.
"Even though you are not speaking, I can feel you are thinking of something inappropriate," Queen Tori cracks her fists.
"I-I don't know what you are talking about though..."
"Hahaha, anyway, since this is the first time you guys have seen each other, I will be introducing you two to each other. Sis, this is Bladeheart. You already know him from my stories so I don't think a further elaboration about him is necessary. Bladeheart, this is my twin sister and a fellow queen who governs the other half of Sandurk, Queen Tori."
"I didn't know you have a twin sister, Your Majesty," I bowed to give respect to Queen Tori. Queen Tori nodded as a sign of acceptance for paying respects.
"It was already clear that she was busy lazing about in her castle, do nothing but eat. She rarely talks about me and I think she sometimes forgets me in the process."
"Hahaha, no way in hell would I forget my dear sister. I am your half and you are my half, naturally, we will stick together, and help each other!" Queen Tanya heartily started laughing.
"I am clearly not convinced..." Queen Tori sighed.
"Oh, that's right. Tori, perhaps Bladeheart can help you on this one. I think I remembered him saying he got a piece of info that seems to connect to King Arthur's relics."
When I heard the name of King Arthur, my ears quickly perked up. Although King Arthur in the real world is a famous person with still quite a few speculations whether he is real or not, in this world King Arthur is real, and just like in his real-life legend, he also did the same thing here in this world. After I got the skill, [Incomplete Rhongomyniad], it was clear that I needed to get in contact with the Legend of King Arthur to have some info on how to complete the skill and remove its big downside. Still, I don't know what is happening.
"What is going on? What's with this talk about King Arthur? Care to elaborate please?"
"Oh, I apologize for being not concise enough. But, Tanya, are you sure he can help me? I know that he helped you with the trouble you have before but this is much more dangerous and a bit of a troublesome thing and dragging someone who shouldn't be involved might become a big problem in the future."
"Ah, you don't have to worry about him. He is reliable, strong and if you are still not convinced, you can also employ some of his friends. I can confirm that his friends are also pretty reliable just like him. It doesn't hurt to ask for his help and I think he will also like to help you out too."
Queen Tori sighed and gives in to the nag of her sister.
"Fine, Alright then, let me fill you in on the situation, Bladeheart. Recently, the situation in my kingdom's borders has started to shake things up. It's not a good thing as some of the terrifying hell spawns that are sealed in the ice have started to appear one by one on the surface. At first, we can easily defeat them with our weaponry, but lately, they are now getting stronger and stronger so we decided to check out one of the Dungeons that we have not mapped before.
What we discovered there are some diaries of someone who stayed inside the dungeon for a very long time. Not only that but we gained a weapon that we believed to be one of the relics in the past. However, we realized that it wasn't part of the past relics of ancient gods, but a relic from a legendary hero. Here, check this thing out and see for yourself.
She handed me a blade fragment and I decided to check what it was.
[Carnwennan's Blade Fragment]
Info: The chipped blade of the weapon that King Arthur has wielded. Due to the extreme power of the enemy, a bit of its blade has been chipped off as a result of the battle. However, there might be someone out there that can repair the weapon and regain its lost glory.
Holy sh*t.... the Carnwennan! The Heroic Dagger that King Arthur wielded!