Chapter 140: The Dice Have Already Been Thrown Part 1
Strange. Why do I get the feeling it going too well for us?
「I guess splitting the party was a good idea, but still…… It shouldn’t go so well.」
This must surely be a trap. This was just too easy…… Too easy for a quest that could be received in the last town of this continent, even if you take into account that the possibility of encountering Unique Quests was already low to begin with.
「The way I see it, there are three possible explanations.」
One: this quest’s difficulty was stupidly easy, which wouldn’t make much sense.
Two: even the eel captain here was in fact a small fry here, and the true boss was yet to show itself.
No, while it wouldn’t be that uncommon of a situation, still……
And the third one……
「Y-You freaking monster…… Now I shall avenge my Papa!」
「Ahh, fuck me in the ass, I should have noticed that sooner!」
This quest is nothing more than a fucking Escort Mission!!!
Escort missions are the type of missions that are commonly hated by basically every gamer out there…… They have very specific victory and defeat conditions, but since they are easy to understand and tend to deepen the understanding of the game world they are a common go-to by the developers. You can find them in almost every RPG out there.
The missions themselves usually revolve around escorting a specific NPC to a given point on the map while keeping them safe all the time, since usually they are more than powerless on their own.
So the moment the designated NPC for this quest, the Self-Proclaimed Great Pirate Strude boarded the Flying Innsman, the situation changed drastically.
「Oi, oi, at this rate this fucking retard is going to aggro every single monster on this ship……!! You FUCKING SH*THEAD!!」
As expected, when Strude jumped aboard the Ghost Ship with nothing more than one poor-looking dagger in hand, all of the monsters suddenly turned towards him and rushed him in an instant.
「Br-Bring it on!」
「Bring it on MY ASS!!!」
「U, uwah!!」
Someone forcefully pulled on Strude’s body. It was Rust who was trying her best to drag him back to the Scarred Whale, but it looks like the fishmen were pretty adamant on making him stay on board the Ghost Ship as well. I rushed to his side as well, afraid that things might get ugly in here pretty fast.
「What the fuck are you even doing here……!?」
「I, I can fight as well!」
「A simple pebble laying at the side of the road would be more helpful than you right now!」
「Wha!?」
You’re only in the way! Making so much noise and not being able to fend for yourself!
However, even though we may dislike the idea, we need to make sure that this sh*thead will stay safe at all costs, so that we don’t fail the quest by accident.
It was good that we weren’t alone here. While Emul and I were making our way towards Strude, Mold climbed the broken mast of the Ghost Ship and started to observe the battlefield and fed us much needed intel.
「Rust, make your way to the right! Sanraku-san, I’m sorry, but could you take of that group on your left?」
「Leave it to me! Rei!」
「I’ll take care of this guy here! Keep him occupied!」
It was a tough nut to crack. We needed to make sure that Rust would be able to get Strude out of here to safety, all the while keeping watch so as to not get overrun by monsters.
「Emul, fight like you mean it! As if your whole life depended on it!」
「Ri-right!」
「See that point over there?」
「Yes, I do. What about it?」
「I’m going to throw you right there.」
「Excuse meeeeeeeee……!?」
I grab Emul from my back and take aim……
「Wait! Wait just a moment! Let’s not do anything rash, okay!? Let’s not!」
「Emul…… You said that yourself, didn’t you? That bunnies are pretty proud of their ability to jump, that can even rival the flight of birds.」
「It must have been Sickle! I never said anything like thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat……!!!」
Alright, fly away, my bunny!
Emul flew through the air, making a splendid arc over the horde of fishmen. He was shaking in mid-air so much that I was afraid he might go off course and miss its landing spot, but fortunately he landed exactly where he was supposed to: on Mold’s shoulder.
The reason for Emul’s relocation is that things might get a little hectic around here in just a moment, and I wanted him to be out of harm’s way Also, I think he would be able to support Mold quite nicely with his abilities.
「Alright…… Now go!」
First of all, let’s get all those fishmen off of Rust and Strude. I don’t know in what way their aggro tends to work, but I’ll think of something.
So I activated Riot Accelerator, a skill that boosted my speed but lowered my Strength in return, and started running. Kicking and punching any fishmen that came my way, I was successfully diverting their attention from Rust. It looked awfully cartoonish, but it was working like a charm, since now the fishmen’s attention was thoroughly at me.