Chapter 75: Dark Arts (1/2)
'What's your thoughts about this whole affair?' Rakna asked as he sat upside down on the 'ceiling' of the underground village, his claws spiked to the stone. His neck was bent as he looked down, or up from his perspective, at the ancient-looking house that Vina had told him about.
[I cannot say. The System is vast and not everything happening inside of it is under control or even monitored. Locals and Hosts have their personal endeavors and activities. This is usually what is at the origin of Quests in the first place.]
'So, you're saying this might be a Quest as well?'
[Affirmative. Once you resolve this situation, the System will evaluate it and hand over proper rewards for your efforts.]
'I see. So there exist the kinds of Quests that I need to finish before getting them, huh?'
[Yes. Generally, Quests that require the initiative of a Host are called Hidden Quests. Just like what happened during your tutorial, Rakna.]
'Noted,' he replied shortly as his eagle eyes tracked the few dark elves roaming the street. He was waiting for an occasion to slip inside the chief's house without being seen. He could just walk up to it with Stealth but actually getting inside might give him away. There also was a pair of guards in front of the entrance.
'Why does he even have guards here? They're inside the village… Is it because they reported me?' He clicked his tongue internally.
'Should I use my mist?' He asked himself after waiting for nearly five minutes. He hummed and began to inspect the house he was targeting in more detail. Maybe there was some sort of opening that could allow him to enter, like an opened window among other things.
As he was doing that, an unfamiliar sound from the System echoed in his head. It was accompanied by a small prompt to the side of his vision with Allan's name on top of it.
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<Allan River> Hey, Rak? Can you see this? Our AIs keep telling us that we can't contact your HL because it's out of range or something. Where are you?
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Rakna blinked in surprise. 'Right, I added them as friends yesterday…'
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> I'm on the Fifth Plateau.
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<Allan River> …I don't even wanna ask.
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> More importantly, how come you're awake at this hour?
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<Allan River> Rak… get your priorities straight, man. And it's Nyx and teach's fault, they woke me up early. Then we tried to do the same with you but apparently, you were not even on the same Plateau as us. Now, can you explain how the heck you're on the Fifth Plateau?
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> I woke up early and finished the Trials.
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<Allan River> I feel like you skipped a lot of info there…
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Rakna snorted and took his eyes away from the text chat for a second. His eyes coincidentally fell on a small fissure on the house's roof. His mind then clicked with an idea as he glanced at one of the closed windows of the house.
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> Something came up, talk to you later. Just do the Trials and tell Flavia and Nyx to be careful in the Race Trial if they're going to fly. After you're done, you'll understand how I climbed to the Fifth Plateau.
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<Allan River> Sure… gl for whatever you're doing.
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> Thx.
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