Chapter 35: 1% Explored (2/2)

“As you command!” Boris replied, half-kneeling as he reveled in her might, and how she was slowly resembling their former king.

***

The Players of the starter village were not idle even as Leah defeated their pursuers and continued on their journey towards starter village.

When Eleena and the others were revived, they trained to level up, earned sufficient reputation to buy Miasma-Clearing Torches and simply formed a new party with the leader of the merchant escort team.

After that, they headed out to the Valley of the Tragic Dead once again.

Thanks to the experience from their last visit, their journey this time was much smoother. With the lowest level of revenants repelled by the divine power in the torches and the absence of high-level revenants in the outskirts of the valley, they fought enemies stronger than low-level revenants but not too formidable—just within their range of abilities.

Be that as it may, it still took them considerable time to finish their exploration quest. It was on their last torch that they finally reached the required 1% exploration, after of which the quest completion message they expected for so long finally popped up.

“It says we just have to stick the last torch in the ground.”

Edward, who was acting captain, did as instructed.

In a split second, the fist-sized flame over the torch instantly burst out and consumed the entire torch, before rising into the air to form a massive pillar of flame!

Their entire group jumped and retreated a step behind, startled.

However, the fire did not keep expanding. It descended instead, and turned into a bonfire as Eleena and the others watched, a long spiral sword of unusual design sticking out from it.

“What is it? Is that sword a quest reward?” Delighted at the sight of a prize, Marni went up to pull out the sword, but his entire body was immediately consumed by rising flames and vanished the moment he touched the bonfire.

“!!!”

The others were certainly stunned by the abrupt turn of events.

“I can’t revive him… could Mister Marni have died without a corpse left again?” Eleena tried to cast a revive spell at the direction of the bonfire, but nothing happened.

“Again, indeed.” The corners of Gou Dan’s lips twitched. “With the 30% loss of experience, it feels like his efforts in this dungeon are wasted.”

“It is really sad, but why do I want to laugh?” Warrior Joe scratched his face, slightly embarrassed.

“We don’t have to mourn him since he’s going to be revived anyway,” the escort captain and new addition to the party calmly suggested.

“No, you’ve got that wrong. It seems that Mister Marni is not showing up as dead in our team list.”

Edward the acting captain extended his hand towards the bonfire but did not touch it, and understanding soon showed on his fast. “I see… the bonfire is our god’s creation that could send us directly back to the Lifestone! Next time, we could directly resume our exploration deep into the valley!”