Chapter 58 - Cave of Wargs - 3 (2/2)

Quiet Fire and other immediately started firing attacks on the altar but they had no effect as he expected. When Tang and Blinding White used physical attack with their swords on the altar the felt like they struck some kind of thick unbreakable stone. Their weapons vibrated like a tuning fork. There was no HP bar on it either.

”I don't think that attacking that altar is the way to go,” said Merlin as they failed to damage the altar. Though the red altar was didn't get even the slightest scratch from their attacks, it glowed in a red light as the magical attacks hit it.

”Why don't some of us go check the cave for clues while the rest check the altar,” suggested Merlin. ”I will check the altar with Shadow, also I saw a few veins in the cave during the fight. Do you best to find all the ones available.”

Both Shadow and Merlin continued to examine the altar and also the portal above it, but they couldn't find anything even after 10 minutes. In the meantime, the rest also couldn't find any clues from the remainder of the cave. Shadow couldn't do anything and started to look at other thing apart from the altar when he noticed that the warg hadn't been looted yet.

”Hey, did any one loot the warg?” he asked as he moved towards it. On looting the warg, he got a slab of warg meat, a wolf shaped headgear and a quest item. His focus directly went to the quest item which was vial of warg blood.

[Warg blood] (Quest Item): Use it to activate the altar of blood and close the portal.

Seeing the description of the quest item, Shadow quickly moved toward the portal and poured the warg blood from the vial at the centre of the altar. The altar began to absorb the blood and started thrumming while it emitted a dark red light. The portal on the altar also began to vibrate and hum.

Looking at the portal vibrate, Balthazar thought he did the wrong thing. He couldn't see any signs on the altar that suggested they were interactive. He also tried to place his hands on the altar, but a mysterious energy held him back. Not only him, even the team began to feel uneasy from the red light and the humming which were increasing in intensity by the second.

Suddenly Rickard Holt ran into the cave and jumped on the altar. He quickly cut his hand and dripped the blood on the altar which allowed him to interact with the signs. The red glow covered him and a second later the sound and the light both stopped as the portal also closed completely.

Blackrock Village Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White, Merlin Grimlock and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Cave of Wargs. All players of the team will be rewarded with 50 Blackrock village reputation points.

White Heart City Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White, Merlin Grimlock and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Cave of Wargs. All players of the team will be rewarded with 30 White Heart City reputation points.

Human Territory System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White, Merlin Grimlock and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Cave of Wargs. All players of the team will be rewarded with 10 Human reputation points.

”Sorry! I failed to inform you of how to control the altar to close the portal. Luckily, I managed to come in the right so that we could avoid a disaster,” said Rickard smiling at Shadow. It was then that he had a thought of what might have happened.

In the game, the NPCs have been created to have different types of personalities. One of the rumored thing in his past life was the NPCs that were saved by the players tend to have a life debt. The system forces them to repay this favour by some way or other.

Some of them sincerely offer to guard the players, some would provide a method to contact or summon them in case of trouble to clear up this debt. But there were some tricky ones among these NPCs which would withhold information so that the player falls into danger and then save the player to clear up their debt.

”Oh god! I never expected this rumor to be true,” thought Shadow. ”And this fellow seemed to be so righteous and even belonged to the temple. Can't really trust even the NPCs in this world.”

”Well, thank you for your help. I am glad that you were close by, else I don't know what would have happened to me,” said Shadow to Holt. After learning Holt's personality, he didn't want anything to do with him much longer.

”Ah! It is nothing. I owed you one for saving me. Consider this as the debt repaid?”

”Sure.”

With that small issue of the debt being cleared, Holt went back to his post outside. Shadow looked at the other and explained that loot from the armored warg had a quest item which allowed him to complete the dungeon.

”Though the dungeon didn't give much equipment compared to the Corrupted forest. We did get a lot of resources from this dungeon,” said Quiet Fire as she checked the resources the team obtained from the dungeon.

”Yes, I am the only cook here. Give me all the meat we got from the dungeon. I will handle them all,” said Merlin. ”The blackrock crystals and ores to the blacksmith,” he continued pointing to Shadow.

”You know we can also become blacksmith or cooks,” piped in Quiet Fire who obviously wouldn't let her cousin get materials for free. So, started suggesting that they could also use the materials that they collected.

”OK. I got your point. We will buy them but at a discount,” said Merlin realizing that his cousin wasn't going to allow him to take the materials easily.

”Then, we would be expecting the finished products at a discount,” replied Quiet Fire and Tang in unison.

”OK,” agreed Merlin a bit reluctantly.

”So, what about the previous weapons and equipment I provided you,” asked Shadow joining in the conversation. He also wanted the ores from the rest of the team, but he already provided them for free. The girls were a bit ashamed and immediately traded their ores to Shadow.

”You can consider this compensation,” said Quiet Fire.

”Why don't we just play for now and later we could discuss our earnings once we setup a proper guild or mercenary group? It will be either me or Quiet Fire who will lead and decide on compensation and stuff. We can draw a proper guild treasury and points at that time,” suggested Shadow bringing their discussion to a halt.

”Merlin not competing with you two?” asked Blinding White confused. As much as she is concerned Merlin was more talented than Quiet Fire and maybe even Shadow. She didn't understand why Shadow didn't mention him.

”You want to be managing the guild?” asked Shadow looking at Merlin.

”Of course, not. Don't involve me in that crap,” replied Merlin. He never had any interest in management and that was clear enough to both Shadow and Quiet Fire.

”OK, now that this is settled. Let us exchange resources and get to the exit. We also need to take the first kill rewards from Holt,” said Shadow throwing the spectre he looted from Varthus to Merlin.