#024
[Hidden Quest!]
[As a reward for conquering the boss mob, a secret space hidden in Wanderer’s Plains has opened.]
[Explore inside and obtain the additional reward that will be given to you!]
So hidden quests can be triggered like this too. Was something like this hidden in the game as well? But I’d never received one directly, nor had I seen anyone talk about receiving one on the community forums.
A hidden reward – if this were a game, I would have excitedly jumped in, but when it became reality, the story was different. How could I carelessly enter without knowing what was inside? The newly appeared cave looked quite narrow, dark, and eerie.
But when Carlisle stepped inside without hesitation and quickly disappeared into the dark cave, I had no choice but to follow him in. Either way, staying alone in this cave with no exit would only end in starving to death or encountering respawned mobs and dying.
Ku-ku-ku-kung!
After I entered and walked for some time, the cave door closed again behind me. When I flinched and turned around, an ordinary stone wall blocked the space as if there had never been an entrance. Anxiety grew and I sighed, but now there was no choice but to move forward. Carlisle was walking far ahead without looking back or stopping.
We just walked silently like that for a while. When I thought I could hear the sound of water flowing somewhere and catch a faint fragrance, a new space appeared as soon as we turned the corner.
“Wow…”
I unconsciously let out an exclamation. The interior was beyond expectations. The surprisingly wide and high space should now be called a plaza rather than a cave.
The air was filled with the first fragrant scent I’d smelled since entering this game world. It seemed like a mixture of fresh flower fragrance, sweet fruit scent, and the smell of clean, moist earth and trees. (Come to think of it, it was similar to the fragrance of the potion Carlisle had burst earlier.) Moss covered the floor and flowers bloomed along the edges. Wild berries grew on low trees, and various types of mushrooms grew on large tree trunks. It was the appearance of unpolluted nature itself.
Even though it was an underground cave where no sun could be seen, everything sparkled with mysterious light. I thought it might be fireflies, but it wasn’t. The flowers, leaves, stones – everything was sparkling on its own. The sound of falling water grew louder from afar.
My gaping mouth wouldn’t close. I couldn’t even think about gathering the daily provisions I’d finally discovered (wild berries and mushrooms) and just followed behind Carlisle, when something suddenly darted across in front of us, startling me into reflexively raising my hoe.
What had stopped mid-run and was staring blankly at me was a small rabbit with pinkish fur. Not a polluted monster that would rush at me to tear my flesh apart in the forest, but a real rabbit with gentle, round eyes and a fluffy-looking body that was incredibly cute.
Feeling embarrassed about being startled by a small rabbit, I glanced at Carlisle. His steps, which had been consistently fast without slowing down, had become a bit slower. He too was looking around like me, and I could see his eyes were a bit wider than usual. It was an expression I’d never seen before. He was clearly as surprised as I was.
‘So he’s seeing this place for the first time too.’
My suspicion became certainty. That was interesting in its own way. He must have lived in this changed world for at least several years, and he seemed to know about this dungeon and even the boss mob’s secondary mutation, yet this was his first time entering this space.
Looking at this, I could tell this really was a world inside a game. The game only runs properly when I, the player, start being active.
“It doesn’t seem dangerous, does it?”
When I spoke like a murmur, Carlisle seemed to think about something, then nodded.
“Still, don’t let your guard down. You never know what might jump out.”
He probably wasn’t really worried, but it was an unexpected line. Honestly, while it was true that this bastard had saved me, I couldn’t completely abandon my suspicion that he had pushed me into a deadly situation. And yet he was telling me to be careful.
Anyway, Carlisle’s words weren’t wrong. Wasn’t it a kind of genre cliché for S-rank monsters to pop out when you’re off guard? Actually, since this was a healing game, I thought it would be proper etiquette not to follow such backstabbing clichés, but after seeing the abnormal phenomenon of the mushroom mob undergoing secondary mutation, I couldn’t let my guard down.
I gripped my hoe and raised my scattered guard before starting to walk again. But the tension didn’t last long. As we went deeper inside with no danger appearing, increasingly dense greenery welcomed us. It was completely unpolluted, verdant trees. The sparkling grew stronger and stronger until the leaves glittered as if they were made of jewels. How could they sparkle in so many different colors when there wasn’t even sunlight shining on them?
Thud.
“Ugh.”
Walking half-entranced by the surrounding scenery, I bumped into Carlisle’s back as he had stopped right after turning the corner.
“Why did you suddenly stop…”
With the intention of getting angry first before Carlisle could say anything, I rubbed my stinging nose and protested, but my voice was already barely audible even to my own ears. The surroundings were filled with the sound of cascading water. A refreshing water scent rippled around us.
“A waterfall…”
I had already expected there would be a waterfall from the growing sound of water, but for a waterfall inside a cave, it was excessively wide and tall. Wouldn’t it easily exceed the height of a 10-story apartment building? It was a large, mysterious, and beautiful waterfall. But what made Carlisle stop and my mouth fall open wasn’t the waterfall itself.
‘What is that…?’
In the middle of the falling waterfall was a small tree. Not a tree planted in the ground, but one floating in midair – in other words, a levitating tree. It floated serenely and proudly even within the violently pouring stream of water. It was a mystical sight.
‘But is that really a tree?’
It looked more like a cluster of light in the shape of a tree. The light might be so strong that the main body was obscured, but either way, it was difficult to confirm accurately from where I was standing.
‘That seems to be the additional reward.’
The problem was that the location was too awkward. The tree was right in the middle, which was still the height of a 5-story building. Usually when there’s something inside a waterfall, there should be a cave or something leading into the back of the waterfall, but no matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t find anything like that.
It wasn’t like I had martial arts protagonist skills to run up walls, and my meager toolkit didn’t contain things like ladders or ropes. I tried picking up and throwing stones, but with my stamina, they didn’t even get close to the tree – the innocent stones just bounced off the waterfall and flew far away like bouncy balls.
I thought about using the mushroom fragments again to chip at the rock face and climb up, but when would that ever work?
‘Besides, with my current stamina and skills, that’s impossible.’
There was even a whirlpool churning white with rough eddies at the bottom of the waterfall. Despite the water being so clear it was almost transparent, the bottom wasn’t visible. If I fell and got swept away, I’d die immediately. Just looking down quietly gave me chills. I hated water.
I was just circling around, unable to find any method and just staring up, when Carlisle, who had been silently watching what I was doing while thinking about something, finally showed movement. He took off his trench coat and jacket, loosened his tie and threw them aside, then unbuttoned his shirt and rolled up his sleeves. My eyes unconsciously turned to his firm yet lean physique.
‘Wow, even from another man’s perspective, it’s art… huh?’
I was unconsciously scanning his appearance that exuded elegance even in just a dress vest and shirt, when I discovered something new on his muscular, firm arms.
‘A tattoo?’
Like the cigarettes and piercings, this was also the first time I’d seen it. He always wore black or white gloves, but above those gloves, something like plant stems climbed up his forearms. The black color with red stains didn’t look aesthetically beautiful at all. Why would he get something like that tattooed?
Whatever he tattooed was his business, but somehow I felt complicated that the perfect appearance of a character I used to like kept getting damaged.
‘Well, appearance isn’t the problem. What’s more seriously damaged is his personality.’
Swoosh, thunk.
While I was distracted by the tattoo and briefly lost in other thoughts, Carlisle took out something and threw it upward. The small pebble-sized item reached the target point cleanly (perfect aim, unlike me) and stuck to the rock face like suction rubber. Hook-like legs emerged as if it were a living insect, digging into the wall while a long rope came down. Carlisle wrapped the rope around his gloved hand and tugged to check if the item was firmly fixed to the rock face.
‘Is he going to get it himself?’
Since Carlisle could see it too, it seemed to be a reward that applied to NPCs as well. Until now, he had been indifferent to all other rewards, but since this was a first, it would be different for him too.
‘It seems important, but is it okay for me, the player, not to receive it?’
I felt a bit uneasy, wondering if missing that might cause problems with my path back to reality. But since I had no other method and couldn’t win against Carlisle in a fight, I had no choice but to quietly watch him grab the rope and leap into the waterfall.
His shirt instantly got soaked and clung to his arms. Carlisle swept away the water flowing down his face. His smooth collarbone and firm muscles stood out. It would have been even more worth watching if he’d worn just the shirt without the vest, I was thinking.
“Come here.”
Carlisle extended his hand toward me.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
