Chapter 141: The End of Tranquility, Ancient City in the Depths Part 1
「…… Forcing the players to faint? That’s something new.」
When I log in again, I feel as though I’ve been asleep for quite some time.
As I woke up and started to get up, I realized that I was laying on the tattered deck of the Ghost Ship, all of my senses starting to get assaulted by a myriad of information…… As expected, the others were nowhere to be found. But somehow I knew that they weren’t dead.
And seeing that there were also fishmen here with me, picking up their weapons in a hurry, and that there were many more of them than before…… Like, MANY, many more.
「What the hell is going on here……?」
Half of the enemies around here were the fishmen I encountered before, but the other half looked more fish than humanoid. I pick up one of the swords the fishmen were using and try to add it to my inventory.
「Deep Abyss Moray…… Truly, a fish item through and through.」
Seriously, what the hell is going on here? Were the fishmen always like that? Or maybe they just transformed into fish just like that? No…… Somehow, I don’t think that’s the case here.
「We were just starting a Unique Quest EX without any right to veto before I lost consciousness……」
Sh*t…… As expected, there were too many assumptions here to be sure of anything. Surprise events like that are common in games, and they more often than not prove to be extremely difficult to clear right off the bat.
Looking up, I’m surrounded by something quite different from the darkness of the night, and there is some kind of glitter everywhere. It looked like a cave of some sort…… Then I finally start to understand my surroundings.
「I can breathe here, so is this a cave of some sort…… And above all else, this sight.」
Since we got dragged under the surface of the sea, was this supposed to be Atlantis of some sort?
It appears that the Ghost Ship was caught up in the tentacles as well, and now ended up stranded at the edge of the underground city, presumably suffering irreparable damages or maybe just waiting quietly for the next time it could set sail.
As for why am I the only one here…… Yeah, there’s no need to think about it all that hard for now.
「This area…… could it be that it is the same type as perhaps Thirdrema?」
What I mean by that is: a city built on a plan of the circle, with a huge citadel built right in the middle of it and surrounded by a web of streets and alleyways. From what I could gather from here, the city was indeed in a somewhat circular shape, but it looked to be more medieval rather than the Era of the Gods.
「I guess this must be the home of this Kutanid bastard…… Fuck, fuck, what the fuck was I thinking, bringing Emul together with me on a dangerous voyage like that!?」
Since the NPCs cannot respawn upon death, I didn’t want Emul to participate in a Unique Quest EX where the probability of death is extremely high. I thought that I could safely ditch him before the Unique Quest would shift into EX stage, but alas, I was wrong.
I know that it was not like that at all, but right now I was beginning to have some serious flashbacks from all of the sh*tty games I managed to capture in the past.
「Hmm……」
Either way, since I already started the Unique Quest EX, it was common courtesy as a gamer to finish it through to the end, and as I was checking and organizing my equipment I realized that there were a few new items added there.
「Special Item “Abyss’s Time”.」
When I see the words “Special Item” what pops in my head immediately is the image of Luukan. Thinking about it now, level restriction in case of Wezaemon might have been a special condition as well.
「These numbers…… It looks like there’s a limit of how long we can stay here. It looks like we have about seven days to get this quest over with.」
167:58:21…… These numbers are progressively getting lower, so it really means that the amount of time we can spend here is fixed. But it’s actually a good thing that we know we’re on a time limit here.
And judging by the fact that it is impossible to stay logged in for seven days straight, there must be some sort of safe zone around here somewhere. If that’s the case, then we’re all set. Also, if there really is a safe zone here, we’ll dump both Emul and Sickle there and be double safe from that point forward.
「With seven days’ worth of time, we don’t have to worry about clearing it right away…… So, for now I can focus my efforts on finding Emul and Sickle, and then discovering a safe zone where I can dump them for the time being……」