War Online

It made a cute inaudible sound while it rubbed Wil's cheek and sat on his shoulder.

"It's okay now. This little guy is our ally."

After reassuring them that everything is fine, Wil then thought of something and spoke, "Strix, go and check around."

As it's now a battle companion, it understood Wil's command and turned into a ball of light before disappearing from their sight.

"Let us wait for a while until it returns with information."

Everyone nodded and just sat on the grass, trusting him without asking how he managed to pet the monster even though he isn't a Summoner. As Royal Knights, they knew everyone has secrets and its best not to pry into everything they found curious. 

One hour later, Wil suddenly received a notification.

*Ding. You completed the Quest successfully. Receive your rewards from the King.

*Ding. You received a quest.

Description: Report to the King.

At first, Wil was startled to hear that he completed the quest but then, after seeing a ball of light suddenly appeared before him and buzzed near his ear, he understood that whatever Strix explored, the system considered as Wil explored the region too since they are companions.

"Yes, now, even if I don't get to kill the guardian, I can surely acquire the fragment after it is dropped and collected later. This is one good pet.

Sigh… Too bad that I'm giving all of these resources to the Kingdom but purifying those 3675 gold coins right now is more important." 

He patted its head, "good job, Strix." It made another inaudible cute sound and sat on the shoulder.

A big smile appeared on Wil as he pointed towards one of the suns, "in this direction, there is a valley filled with flowers with a strange aroma that gave this little guy a feeling of being healthy. It means a medicinal flower valley. There's a Giant sleeping there.

On our right, that far away Forest we are seeing seems to be filled with magical fruits. After crossing the forest, there is a volcanic mountain range with some kind of flowers floating on top of lava and there are crystals everywhere.

At the end of these endless grasslands, there's seems to be a deep abyss. It seems to be very dangerous.

If we walk far in reverse, there's a barren land and a desert filled with monsters.

I've done all I can. It's your call, Garvin."

Wil purposely held the info of a ruin that's in the desert because what he needed to go towards the Volcano and defeat the guardian so that he can claim the fragment. If he had told them about the ruins, Wil was confident that they would surely explore it first.

Just as he expected, Garvin pointed the forest on the right, "We'll go into the forest. If I'm not wrong, those crystals must be volcanic crystals formed by the lava over the course of years. They are highly valuable."

"Volcanic Crystals? I never heard of it. Is he perhaps talking about Fire crystals?

All Elemental crystals can give equipment, a special effect like elemental attack, resist. Although they are rare and valuable, they can be found in other volcanic regions too.

More than them, I'm interested in those flowers that can float on lava. I bet they can be used for potions."

The party of 5 started walking towards the forest.

"This is the first forest I've seen with no shades," commented Renart as they entered the forest.

As he said, even though the trees are thick and taller than usual, there wasn't even a shade of a tree and the environment inside the forest is bright as day.

After walking for a while, Wil saw short but thicker trees have bright yellow fruits that look like lemons. The only different thing is their size, which is as big as his head.

Looking at them, Gervas asked, "Who wants to take a bite?"

Garvin replied as he walked towards the tree, "I'm not taking any risks. You can go ahead."

After saying that, he cut a branch with the sword and put the fruit into the storage bag to take the sample back to the capital city.

Meanwhile, Strix already turned into a ball of light and sat on one of the fruits and started sucking the juice.

Seeing it action, Wil got even more curious and inspected one of them that is hanging on a branch.

Light Fruit

Description: A sour fruit that was infused with the light element. It is the favorite fruit of the light bees. 

Effects: Consuming the whole fruit will increase your agility by 100 permanently.

"Wow, 100 agility… I bet this is a onetime bonus. I guess I struck it rich. Once they are collected by the army, I'll get my one-tenth share. I can put one of them in an auction, later. Then, we can decide about it."

After putting the thoughts away, Wil raised his hand, "I'll like to try it."

After reading the description, Wil immediately volunteered for it, to which they didn't object as there are hundreds of fruits hanging around.

Wil flapped his wings and fly a little higher to pluck the smallest fruit he can find in the surroundings.

As soon as he took a bite, Wil coughed, which alerted the remaining but before they speak anything, Wil waved his hand, "don't worry. It's just sour. Not poisonous."

The remaining three except Garvin nodded in understanding and took a bite but immediately spit out and coughed.

"This is just sour? It's not less than any poison," commented Gervas who took the biggest bite out of them all.

Looking at him, Wil laughed inside, "serves you right. Unlike us, your pain and taste buds can't be adjusted to 10%."

They didn't try the fruits anymore and continued to move towards the other exit.

Meanwhile, Wil finished eating the fruit and received a notification.

*Ding. Your Agility increased by 100.

As they entered deep regions of the forest, Wil felt something amiss.

"The forest is too quiet. Are there really no monsters here? Should I re-summon Strix and let it scout deeply?"

Just then, he received a notification, disrupting his thoughts.

*Ding. Someone is calling you from the outside world.

As he clicked on the holographic message to see more details, he saw an unknown number.

Without thinking much, he just rejected the call.

Then, this time, he received a text from the same number.

XXXX: Hey Wil, it's me, Cherry. Your door is locked. Are you outside? Dad asked me to call you.

Wil: I'm in the middle of class. I'll return by lunchtime. I'm sorry that I forgot to inform you beforehand.

XXXX: It's fine. We can wait for another hour or two.

It was only then Wil looked at the time and nearly cursed out after realizing that it's almost 11:15 A.M., which means he hardly has 90 minutes to finish it.

He urged them, "let's increase our pace. I just remembered something important. So, I need to leave this place soon."

Upon hearing him, Garvin frowned, "leave? We haven't even started exploring it, yet."

Wil then replied with a serious look, "Well, that has nothing to do with me. After an hour, I'm returning to that light pillar and report to the King. You can continue to explore. It's not like I'll be of any use."

While the rest of the three frowned as they considered something his sudden actions is like deserting one's job and running away, Renart nodded, "it's fine. You have already helped us enough by not only opening the realm and scouting it."

Wil smiled as he looked at him and wanted to thank him. 

But before he did that, suddenly, Garvin shouted, "Halt" and they stopped as they saw a large pair of eyes in their path that seemed to open all of a sudden while the entire body seemed to be invisible.