"Dragontear… even more wonderous than expected!"
Therim standing next to Liam and his friends sighed in admiration. The players were also watching curiously. Their thoughts fell on their own Dragontears. Perhaps they should also eat it? Give it a try? Who knows, they might just unlock some secret.
"Alright, this will take a while. Adventurers, you have done a great deed this time. You shall not go without a reward. Here, take this."
Before the friends could act on their strange ideas, Therim distracted them. He wore a kind smile as he produced ten small leather pouches, sending them to the players with a flick of his wrist.
As soon as Liam and his friends touched their respective pouches, the latter disappeared in a brilliant light, and the players were granted their rewards. The first thing everyone noticed was their levels abruptly advancing to level 68 as the successful quest awarded a rich amount of HP. Next, there was a reward of ten gold for everyone and an increase in relationship with all guardians, something which had never appeared before.
But the players were obviously most interest in items. Everyone was presented with three unique-quality necklaces, able to choose between them. Accessories were rarer than armours and weapons, thus this reward was quite generous. Even Cyclone didn't complain for once.
After making their choice and equipping their new necklaces, Liam reminded his friends that they still had to allocate their attribute points. For a few seconds there was silence. Afterwards the friends looked at each other with meaningful smiles.
Everyone felt the strength brimming within their bodies. The had gone through a small transformation compared to before the dungeon. Multiple level ups, all kinds of equipment, even legendary items in their possession. Then there were two achievements they didn't even check out yet.
One, for being the first to clear a hell difficulty dungeon the party was awarded an achievement which increased quest rewards for evaluations of S and above. Two, for finding the first legendary item the friends gained an increase of two percent to the chance of a legendary item dropping from boss enemies. Two percent might not sound like a lot, but these were after all legendary items. They were not supposed to be easy to obtain.
"Haha, feels great! Level sixty eighty! Let's see if those GalanTen villains can catch up!", laughed Cyclone. But Silver Blade immediately chided her:
"Don't underestimate your opponents. We don't know if this Henragon was just rash or if they have an ace up their sleeves. Perhaps they can really win a PvP match."
"Silver, you know I usually agree with you, but just let me be proud for once."
"Well… ok. Some pride won't do too much harm."
"Exactly!"
The friends talked among themselves as they left the temple and returned to Svebrial. Coming to a stop in front of the magnificent auction house, amidst a crowd of busy players, they contemplated their plans going forward.
"What should we do now?", asked Fortune.
"I think we need to hone our PvP skills. Let's visit the arena."
"Haha, of course this would come from you, Acacia."
"He does have a point.", agreed Radiant Shield.
"I thought about doing a quest.", said Liam, drawing the attention of his friends. They were curious to know which quest could grab the veteran's interest. After Liam explained, the discussion kindled anew. Part of the group were eager for some PvP, while some were interested in the quest. There was an easy solution. They were just about to split up when Fortune made a good point:
"Is it smart to go the arena now? Wouldn't you be giving GalanTen a chance to find out our information?"
"Don't worry.", responded Silent Acacia. "The arena offers anonymous matches, without spectators, everything kept secret. Even if your opponent recognises you, they wouldn't sell your information or risk getting a penalty from C."
"Still, that's not entirely safe. What if GalanTen sends some spies, taking the risk of a penalty?"
Silent Acacia wanted to say something, but Quickstep blocked him, staring at Fortune with some annoyance:
"Isn't this a bit ironic coming from the one who records everything we do? If GalanTen really go so far and take the win because they spied out our information, so be it. Such a win doesn't matter anyways. But I won't refrain from going to the arena just because of some slight chance of being found."
"Hey, hey. Don't argue…"
Cyclone tried to calm Quickstep down. Fortune was taken aback. She thought about it for a moment before nodding apologetically.
"You're right. Because of me, a lot of our information is public anyways. Sorry. You should go to the arena. And… if we suspect any foul play in the match against GalanTen we can always bring out our Dragontears. That's something I will never show in one of my videos. I promise."
"Alright. I was also a bit harsh. I'm sorry."
Quickstep softened her stance and the tense atmosphere disappeared. The friends didn't hesitate much longer as they split into two groups.
Liam, Silver Blade, Radiant Shield, and Balm made one group. Liam was confident about the upcoming match while the two tanks and the healer wouldn't fight without a group. The rest of the party went to the arena, honing their PvP skills.
Liam and the other three saw them off before strolling towards the teleporter. Glancing at his team, Liam couldn't help but feel strange. Initially he thought about completing the quest for the challenge and to perhaps improve his gear. But now he had an entire support team with him. Two tanks and a healer. If he managed to die with this lineup, it would be a miracle.
Well, whatever. Liam would take it as an outing with friends. It might be quite enjoyable.
The group of four conversed casually on the way until they entered the teleporter. The scenery changed and they arrived in the familiar city of Brobrity, capital of the Southern Light Kingdom.
Observing the city the players felt that it was surprisingly peaceful. One might have thought that with the order faction weakened, the Southern Light Kingdom would be among the first to be attacked but this was far from the truth.
Although the order faction was weakened, the chaos faction was as well. They couldn't muster a coordinated attack and instead spread chaos throughout Crunaboul in smaller groups, appearing wherever the order faction had taken the most damage, making use of the opportunity.
The Southern Light Kingdom, though, still had Therim Riverbell guarding it. The powerful mage earned himself a lot of respect during the war. Even with only a single arm his deterring force was stronger than ever. The chaos faction didn't dare to appear here.
And exactly because of this, Liam was quite curious about his quest. He thought back to a few weeks ago. Everything began when the party fought their first world boss and Liam found the leg of a void dweller. He brought it to Therim, who entrusted him with the task to find the one who would dare to use the void dweller to sow chaos.
Liam found out who placed the leg, a bandit group called the Seven Crows. From them he learned how to contact their employer. Liam followed the clues and tracked down Viscount Swordfur, a minor noble. On his way back to Therim he was attacked by a masked mage. Liam won the fight, but the mage managed to escape.
Afterwards the only clue Liam had left was a name: Dusk. This was the mysterious mastermind standing behind the viscount. Liam returned to Therim and relayed his findings. The powerful mage was thinking about how to uncover the identity of Dusk when Liam decided to shorten the quest. Thanks to his experience he recognized the masked mage. It was Autumn, a somewhat famous mage of the kingdom.
Thanks to Liam's knowledge, the quest had changed a lot, skipping several steps. Suddenly it had been marked with a skull, indicating that its difficulty increased a lot, too much for Liam back then. Liam didn't mind and paused the quest for a while. But he didn't expect that so much would happen before he would continue.
Even the 'War on the Void' had already happened. After this big event, Crunaboul changed a lot, and many quests diverted from their original tracks. Some could not be continued at all, while for others the story was almost as if rewritten.
Liam's quest belonged to the latter category. Thus, he was quite curious. In his past life this quest took a different turn. As a unique quest it was completed before the 'War on the Void' and thus no one ever saw the changes which were supposed to happen afterwards.
"Let's go."
With a light sparkle in his eyes Liam led his friends down the streets of Brobrity while explaining to them everything there was to know about the quest. Soon, they arrived in front of a magnificent mage tower. The NPCs walking in the surroundings couldn't help but slow down, staring at the tower in awe, for this was the place belonging to the kingdom's mighty guardian Therim Riverbell.