Ultimately, Duanmu Huai accepted the quest. After all, he didn't want the newbie village to explode again. Moreover… Duanmu Huai wasn't entirely without a clue about how to solve this quest. In fact, during the game, mid-to-late-stage players had discussed many times whether there was a way to go back and complete the quest—if only they had realized the danger to the newbie planet in time.
The final conclusion was… it was indeed possible. Because during the entire End Times event, although Chaos ultimately emerged victorious, the Chaos legions were actually the least visible threat in the early stages. The main troublemakers were four other races—the Green-skinned Orcs, who loved to WAAAGH! all over the continent, the Skaven, who tunneled beneath everything, the Necromancers, who sought to rule the world through undeath, and the Vampires, who claimed to be the true heirs of the Empire.
This was also why players had let their guard down back then. Most of the monsters they encountered were these familiar enemies, giving the impression that it was just another series of invasion defense battles. For example: defending the Empire from Vampires, protecting Bretonnia from Orcs, defending Cathay from Skaven incursions… Who could have guessed that Chaos would suddenly crash the party and—BOOM!—blow up the whole planet?
What was the difference between that and fighting World War II on Earth, only to have aliens show up at the end and blow up the planet? Who would see that coming!?
In essence, all these foreign races had been stirring up chaos with the shared goal of world domination (except the Green-skins, who just wanted to WAAAGH!). The various order-aligned nations were stretched thin fighting on all sides. Meanwhile, Chaos secretly advanced their own plans, and in the end, they succeeded—opening the third Chaos Gate, tearing the planet apart, and dragging it into the warp, becoming the mantis that caught both cicada and bird.
So, looking back now, the most efficient strategy to stop it all was to crush those nuisances—the Green-skins, Necromancers, and Skaven—minimizing their threat, and then focus on preventing the opening of the third Chaos Gate… And most critically: stop them from obtaining the relic beneath the Temple of Ulric in Middenheim.
It was said that Chaos used that relic to conduct the ritual that doomed the entire planet.
So for players, the most cost-effective solution was to destroy the Temple of Ulric—and the relic—before Chaos ever reached it. If it couldn't be destroyed, then it needed to be secured first. That alone could prevent the worst outcome.
Although Duanmu Huai wanted to rush over and grab that thing immediately, unfortunately, the Temple of Ulric had not yet fallen, and its defenders were still strong. If he barged in now, he'd likely be beaten into the ground. So, he decided to hold off—power up first, then deal with it.
Thankfully, there were still a few years before the End Times officially began. At the moment, the countdown had not yet started, and Duanmu Huai still had time to strengthen his deck and level up.
In this regard, the Lady of the Lake wasn't stingy with information.
In the monastery of Montfort, a powerful necromantic artifact—the Skull Staff—was sealed. It could greatly amplify a necromancer's abilities, and rumors said that necromancers were beginning to covet it again.
In the ruins of Todheim, there was the Crown of Sorcery, said to contain the will of a powerful necromancer and tied to some dark legend of the past.
Anyone seduced by it would become a puppet controlled by the Crown of Sorcery. On the glacier in the Miragliano region, a powerful Chaos Champion was once slain by Sigmar himself, and his remaining Chaos Grave-digging Sword was still frozen beneath the glacier. This demonic weapon devoured the souls of its victims, binding them within—Hmm? Why did that sound so familiar?
Was that Chaos Champion named Arthas?
In any case, the Lady of the Lake explained a few things to Duanmu Huai—most of which… or rather, basically all of them, were the locations of Chaos- and evil-aligned artifacts. She stated that since Duanmu Huai had the power to completely destroy these artifacts (well, it seemed she knew the Holy Grail had been disassembled), she hoped to rely on his strength to find and dismantle the others.
And without these evil artifacts, darkness and Chaos would no longer be able to stir up trouble across the continent. How to put it… you're not even trying to hide the fact that you're tricking me, are you?
Though the Lady of the Lake phrased it grandly, Duanmu Huai understood that what she really wanted was for him to draw aggro. After all, if he seized these artifacts, it would inevitably provoke hatred from foreign races like vampires and orcs. At that time… hmm?
It didn't seem any different from now. As an Inquisitor, if he didn't beat those guys until their skulls cracked, would he instead become sworn brothers with them and drink ale together? No problem, then.
And so, Duanmu Huai and the Lady of the Lake reached a happy, mutually beneficial agreement—she needed someone to fight Chaos and evil, and for Duanmu Huai, it was already his sacred duty as an Inquisitor to combat and eliminate the forces of Chaos.
Besides, he'd already taken the Holy Grail, and the Lady of the Lake hadn't tried to take it back. He couldn't be too ungrateful, could he? More friends meant more paths. Of course, with native NPCs like these… he still had to be cautious, lest they stab him in the back while he was counting coins.
In return, the Lady of the Lake not only gave Duanmu Huai access to those artifact locations, but also specifically granted him the title of Grail Knight. Strictly speaking, only those who drank the Holy Grail's water could bear the title—but since Duanmu Huai was too cautious to drink it and had already taken the Grail, she had to bless him through other means. Consider it a small gesture of goodwill.
Duanmu Huai didn't mind. As long as it wasn't something he had to drink, he could rest easy. But anything entering his body? That required extra caution.
So… let's get started.
Duanmu Huai wasn't sure how many of the artifacts mentioned would be recognized as holy relics by the system, but it didn't matter. He had already accepted the quest, and there was no backing out now.
If even one of them was recognized as a holy relic, even better. That meant Duanmu Huai could upgrade his space station in the shortest time possible and then activate the "Heavenly Justice" mode. At that point, dealing with these bastards would be effortless.
In any case, now that he'd received the Lady of the Lake's quest, Duanmu Huai had locked onto the coordinates of the suspected holy relics.
And now, there was only one thing left to do—go and retrieve them!
(End of this chapter)