Chapter 125: Sam and Biggy (1/2)
Standing before the closed door leading to their room, Aiden had a small smile adorning his face. His eyes were plastered on the wooden door ahead of him, but in reality, he was focusing on the magical screen in front of him, that was visible only to himself.
As soon as he verbally agreed for today's adventure, a system message popped up, giving him a new main quest! Not an optional quest, not a personal quest but a main quest. From his experiences with the system, whenever such a thing happens it was the precursor of something major, an important event.
Taking a deep breath, he slowly opened up the message and carefully read it through.
[New Main Quest: The Secrets of the Demon Grotto
Difficulty: A-S+
Remaining Time: 59 days 23 hours 57 minutes 43 seconds
Objective: -Find and Explore the Demon Grotto
-Uncover its Secret
-Earn its owners acceptance
Optional: ????
Reward: ????
Failure Condition: -Banished from the Demon Grotto
-Failure to complete the quest in time
Penalty: Expulsion and Forceful Return to the Wheel of Life and Death]
From the difficulty, Aiden could guess that whoever was the 'owner' of this Cavern or Grotto, must be a terrifying existence if the difficulty would be marked to an at least A level. He wasn't sure what the S difficulty or even the S+ difficulty meant but he had a feeling it would border the impossible.
Apart from the difficulty, he got blanks on the Optional objectives and even for Rewards. Regardless, he was expecting that he would gain tremendous benefits from this adventure if he could complete it.
Additionally, for the first time, he had a timer for the quest. Judging from one of the failure conditions, he had to be able to complete it before the timer runs out, lest he wanted to leave this life behind!
Still, even with all this pressure, he was happy, he was excited. Being marked as the main quest meant that the findings in this cave would be important to him in the future.
His raging thoughts were interrupted when the door to the room flung open and Lily, now dressed in his usual attire, with a bow and a quiver filled with arrows hanging on her back stepped out. Behind her the two black wolf-like dogs silently followed.
”Huh?” Lily looked quizzically at Aiden. ”What are you standing here for, brother? Are you ready?”
Shaking his head, he silenced his thoughts and hid the notification from his view. He looked at Lily, and with a calm tone, he answered.
”Don't worry, I am ready.” Looking at the two companions behind her he continued.
”Did you think of a name for these two? They seem to be keen on following and protecting you after all.”
Hearing the question, Lily turned around to face his two large, wolf-like companions. Even through their black fur, you could still see the toned muscles. Their presence emitted a certain amount of power that was unlike the average watchdog.
This was understandable since these dogs were raised to be merciless killing machines. Them turning so docile from a mere command of Aiden was a huge deal that was only recognized by Number 3 and Granny currently.
”I had a thought about naming them, but I couldn't come up with any names. What do you suggest, brother?” Lily asked thoughtfully while gazing at the dogs.
”Well…” Aiden replied with a sly smile. ”Do you know their sex? Before you can name them, you need to know if they are male or females.”
Hearing this, caused Lily to turn bright red from embarrassment and immediately hide her face behind her delicate eyes.
”Brooother! I… I… I can't possibly look back there... ”
”Back where?” Aiden asked, clearly enjoying teasing her.
”S-stop it! Y-You know w-what I mean!” Lily replied embarrassedly still 'hiding' behind her palms.
Unable to hold back, Aiden erupted into a burst of cheerful laughter. Hearing this, Lily slowly removed her hands and look at her with a pouting expression.
”Mean brother! Nasty brother!” she exclaimed. ”You only know how to bully me!”