960 < 957 Won 7. Fortress of Darkness (3) >

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- Tyring!

- You have successfully defeated the restored ancient machine monster, Machine Lukak!

- You defeated powerful boss type monsters.

-Kill contribution: 95.42%

…… approximate……

- You won the Blood Gear.

- Qualified!

- You can activate the gateway through the 'Luke's Chamber'.

Familiar machine sounds, flashing system messages in front of your eyes.

But even though the system messages were flashing in white light, they were never coming into Jonathan's eyes.

“Huff, huff…. ”

Jonathan was exhausted from all his strength just by standing still.

“Phew... I paid... ”

Contrary to Ian's expectations of about 30 minutes.

The time it took Jonathan to defeat the boss monsters was almost an hour.

It seemed that the attack was going smoothly until Ian left, but the last phase of the battle was an almost infernal pattern for the assassin.

As a result, I cleared it, but Jonathan wouldn't be so sure if he tried it again.

Even in the last minute, Ian comes and hits me.), you could imagine how devastated his battle was.

‘This madman...... He said he's going to strike, so why isn't he showing up?' ’

Jonathan, who has been breathing with a trembling body for a while, has barely regained his strength (?) and walked towards the corpse of the machine monster to retrieve the drop item.

No matter how low the stamina was, even the dropped equipment could not be recovered immediately.

“Hoo, but you sure dropped a lot of good stuff. ”

Fluffy-!

After collecting the item, Jonathan sits in a corner, slowly exhaling and quickly checking his condition.

Then I picked a breath that was filled to the bottom of his chin, and I looked around and saw someone (?).

‘Hmmm, this guy...... He just disappeared, so why isn't he here yet? ’

From Jonathan's point of view, Ian was a freak who only showed behavior he really didn't understand.

I had no idea what he was moving for.

‘If you complete my quest together, you'll be well rewarded...... You wouldn't have just helped me with this and gone off on your quest. ’

Jonathan knew.

The boss battle itself was almost self-inflicted, but Ian's help was quite impactful.

Had it not been for Ian in the first place, it would have taken more than a few times longer to get to the boss' room and he knew he would have lost a high chance in the boss' battle.

Chop-chop!

That's why Jonathan paused his hand holding the key to the chamber, the Blood Gear.

I was a little sorry to let Ian slip into the locker room by himself before he came back.

‘Hmm, let's wait about 10 minutes. ’

Of course, he did not wait for Ian in full favor.

To be honest, Jonathan was also eager for his quest to be shared with Ian.

Leaving all the other reasons, I've never seen a quest for ‘Unknown’ difficulty in Kailan's game life.

‘Besides, if you're that good...... there's nothing bad about being friendly. ’

However, Jonathan's idea of shattering the mountain did not take long.

As Jonathan turned his head, a familiar, disgusting voice dug into his ears.

“Friend, what are you doing without opening the door? ”

“What? When...! ”

“Phew, I almost fell asleep waiting. Hurry up and open the door. We have a lot of work to do. ”

Ian was stealing yawns right behind him when he showed up.

‘What the hell is this……. ’

Jonathan, who met him in the eye, had to tighten his facial muscles to manage his expression.

“How long have you been there? ”

“About 30 minutes ago? ”

“But you just watched? ”

“No.”

“ ……? ”

It was merely a misunderstanding that Ian's disgusting ambassador had adapted.

“I slept in that corner for a while. ”

“Someone came back from the dead, that's all. ”

“Ahhhhh, I'm so tired. ”

“You just slept to spread...? ”

“Because I slept for almost three days. ”

“Whew, another bluff……. ”

Jonathan shrugged his head and put the blood gear back into the mouth of the mechanical leopard that appeared on the wall.

Bloop, bloop!

Then the gears inside began to engage smoothly, and the iron doors that were firmly closed began to open on both sides.

Heh-heh-heh.

Kung-!

And in front of him, they paused as if they had promised and fixed their gaze towards the inside of the gate.

The place inside the Iron Gate was like a true reward for this Hidden Quest.

Whoo-hoo!

In a space that was locked in the dark, light slowly seeps in from outside the door.

The space that slowly revealed had a very unusual look.

A corridor where two adult men can walk at the same time and a small cubic space created inside.

Ian's eyes, which were watching the space, began to sparkle.

In the darkness beyond the corridor, we faintly found a bookshelf-like structure.

‘Now, somewhere inside... there must be a golden scroll.' ’

Jonathan's ‘Secret of Ancient Combat' Quest.

The last quest item required to complete this quest was the golden scrapbook Ian mentioned.

It must have existed in Lukak's locker room.

And finding an item called the golden archive wasn't hard at all.

The old bookshelf that looked like it was about to collapse was only left with a single book glowing in gold.

Jerk-jerk-jerk-.

Ian mutters in a low voice, as he goes into the hall and finds a book.

“This must be the golden archive. ”

“Maybe so. ”

Then Jonathan's face, answering Ian's muttering, was greatly reminded.

Once I got this book, the conditions of the quest were set.

‘Once this quest is completed...... I can finally try using a mythical grade transcendent weapon. ’

There was, of course, a final gateway to escape this fortress safely with the book, but I was confident enough.

There's never been a more advantageous class to pull out a body.

Besides, I thought it wouldn't be that hard being with Ian and not alone.

As Jonathan approached the front of the bookshelf, he slowly reached out to the surface of the book with a golden glow.

But next time.

“Wait.”

Jonathan, who was about to pick it up, stopped and turned his head.

All of a sudden, Ian called out to him with a very serious voice.

“Hold it right there, buddy. ”

“Hmm? What else do you want to talk about? ”

Ian's eyes meet Jonathan, smiling and opening his mouth.

“I'm going to give you a choice," he said. ”

“Choice…… volume? ”

Ian grunts and slowly opens his mouth again.

“As soon as you pick it up and get out of here, you'll be able to complete quests and earn mythological grade transcendent weapons. ”

“Well, it's a quest reward, of course. ”

Ian's voice was still a little childish, but it was not as light as before.

“But if you give it up and hand it over to me, I could get something bigger. ”

“ ……? ”

“While you were fighting that stupid hunk of scrap metal, I discovered the secret of that golden scroll. ”

“So you want me to hand over this quest item to you? ”

“That's right."

“Abandon my quest? ”

“Bingo!”

Jonathan is absurd, but he cannot be discouraged.

Since Ian has been showing unusual behavior and his unprecedented serious voice, something was messing with his intuition.

“That choice. Do we have to do this now? ”

Ian nods and answers Jonathan's question.

“Of course. If it weren't for that, you wouldn't bring it up now, would you? ”

“Why?”

“The moment you pick up that book, it will no longer be worth more than a quest item. ”

“ ……! ”

Ian reacquainted with Jonathan and opened his mouth with a smile.

“If you have to carry that book out...... I'm afraid I can't help but help you as promised. ”

“Mmmm... ”

“Giving up one book isn't very big when you look at the whole thing. ”

Jonathan, who was listening to Ian, became increasingly confused.

There was no way he could understand what he was talking about.

One thing was for sure: Ian wasn't talking nonsense.

Chuck.

It was said that Ian suddenly had a familiar object in his left hand.

‘This... is the key to the locker room, right? ’

Jonathan got it from a mechanical leopard, and the Blood Gear is the key he used to get into this locker room.

A cog with a blue glow looked almost like that, and it was in Ian's hand.

"Shit, you want to gamble? ’

And he opened his mouth again, whether he felt such a change in heart.

“I can't tell you any more, my friend. Because if you're not with me, I can't give you any information. ”

“ ……. ”

“But I can promise you one thing.... ”

Ian, who was talking to Jonathan, suddenly blurs his words and puts his right hand on his helmet.

Then, the golden helmet, which was covering my face, slowly lifted up and opened its mouth again.

“You can put my name on it and give me something much bigger than the reward for giving up quests? ”

And as soon as Ian's words were over, the intestine was completely silent.

Although he was a bit misguided by sweat and dust, Jonathan couldn't have recognized Ian's face.

Instead of answering Ian's words, Jonathan was completely stiffened.

“ ……! ”

Looking at him, Ian smiled and opened his mouth again.

“This is a rare opportunity, my friend. ”

“Oh my…… no. ”

“Quest with me, so no one has ever lost anything. ”

And with it, Jonathan couldn't think any more.

Even with the name "Ian," all the vainglorious dialogues he had been talking about had come true.

Chuck.

Then Jonathan, who held Ian's hand instead of the golden book, nodded and replied.

“Good. I'll... trust you." ”

After checking Ian's face again, Jonathan was confident that he would not regret the decision.

At least this time it was horses.