DRAGONBORN SORCERER-Chapter 17: The Quest in the Dark Forest pt—4
The explanation struck her heard as Hellen’s face darkened further. Frozen in her place, she stared at her father— Leonardo, the leader of the clan.
"So, what will happen to him, father?" Her desperate feelings wavered, blaming herself for suggesting Skyler the quest "Is he going to be alright? Tell me father."
The guilt crunched her from inside. Her composure faltered. Even forgot the boundaries between her personal life and working profession. Leonardo, however, being a good father and a responsible clan leader, patted gently on her head.
"Don’t worry, dear." He said, calming her down, "I’m not the kind of a person who’ll stand loosing our valuable assets."
’That’s right.’ He thought in his mind, ’If we manage to save him, he’ll feel indebted to us. We can leverage him against those Xions.’ A sly grin formed across his thoughts.
"I promise you, we’ll save him if it comes to that." He smiled, looking at his daughter with promising eyes, "Now, go and fetch McVill, Rose, Soniya and Kent."
"But sir." She said, regaining her composure, "They’re the elite troop for the raid tomorrow. Won’t it disturb their practice if we call them now."
"Tell them it’s an emergency." He instructed firmly, "Besides, they’re only practicing in the training ground. Don’t you think ’Dark Forest’ would be better place if they want an actual training? If they got injured, we’ve got Kent with us. A stage-9 healer as him can even regenerate the severed organs."
"You’re right." She replied, "I’m going to get them at once."
With that, she left for the training ground which happened to be just behind the clan building. Leonardo, the clan leader, went upstairs— to his office.
The office, elegant and well-furnished, resembled a private library with several bookshelf containing numerous books, files, scrolls and so on.
At the center, there was a table and chair probably for his work. On the left side, there were sofas that surrounded the low tea-table. It was arranged perfectly for the meeting.
Ignoring all the refined aesthetic of the room, he approached for a certain bookshelf. It slid leftwards when he pulled a specific book— the trigger to the hidden room. In that room, there contained, armors, blades, gears and so on.
He walked slowly towards a long-sword mounted on the wall and covered with a jade-black sheath that radiated brightly. Gently, he ran his finger through the sheath— from end to start, and observed for a moment. Lastly, he held the hilt, and pulled it out.
The azure blade was radiating, filling the entire room with its otherworldly dazzling shine.
"Stella!" he murmured, looking into the blade with admiration, "The Hero of Rosevill needs you once more and you shall serve him as you always have."
Putting back into the sheath, he took it away. Closing all the doors, he came downstairs where the members he called for, had already been gathered.
A young boy and a young girl, almost looked twins. They both had shiny blonde hair and captivating blue eyes. The boy, named McVill was a stage-10 fighter class adventurer. His outfit was pretty normal yet decent with a sword strapped across his back.
Standing next him was his sister Rose, a ’Guardian Class’— ascension phase of Tanker Class. But she didn’t had any shield.
Though her attire was the same as her brother, her long hair and radiating beauty set her apart. It was impossible to ignore her appearance. The curve of her form, and breast revealing slightly from her blue top, exuded quite a confidence.
The next person on the party was Hellen? No, it wasn’t her. She was similar to her but more matured. It was Soniya, first daughter of Leonardo. Her outfit clearly marked her as a mage— stage-9 to be precise.
Lastly, there was Kent, a young man with short-brown hair and green eyes. He, as mentioned earlier by Leonardo, was a stage-9 healer. With his stand, the party was now completed to face the direst situation.
The team stood silently, having several question but no guts to ask seeing the impression of Leonardo. Though they realised, the situation might be direful as they saw him holding the legendary sword ’Stella’.
Leonardo Andrill, the leader of Risers Clan, was not just only a clan leader but also a Hero class adventurer. Years ago, during the rebellion against the church by a rouge organisation, he wielded ’Stella’ to defend the church’s ideals and protected its order. As a reward for his bravery, the goddess granted him an ascension phase, transforming his ’Grace of Strong One’ into ’Grace of Divinity’; the ultimate blessing only reserved fore the Heroes. Thus, he gained the nickname ’Hero of Rosevill’.
This feat, evaluated him to earn the leadership of the clan where he could manage affairs of the adventurers. However, he had a twisted personality. To him, adventurers were not individuals but assets, or tools to be protected only to utilize later. And Skyler was no exception to his perspective. Even if it meant to stand against a legendary creature such as ’White Serpent’, he won’t hesitate.
"You guys ready?" He asked, glaring at them, "Because we are about to go hunt the ’White Serpent’."
The group stunned into silent. But his mind elsewhere as he thought, ’I’m interested in the loots the legendary beast had.’
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Their journey began. Unlike Skyler who had no sense of direction in the that gloomy sinister forest, Leonardo was well experienced, so as his party-members. They had already completed countless quests in that same forest. They had more than enough experience to survive there on their own.
Running at top speed, with high detection of his appraisal skill, the clan leader took the lead, informing the party about the ambushes by monsters.
They countered several packs of Flame Wolves. While keeping their pace, Soniya took care of the long-range attack with her thunder magic. And McVill took down the ones which came closer to them.
Meanwhile, Rose focused on their defensives, casting her shielding spells. Kent, by the way, didn’t participate in battle. He had a different role to play.
After finishing the fourth pack of the wolves, McVill got a little carried away and missed flying gargoyle which came for him. With swift movement, Leonardo, dragged his blade— Stella, and sliced it into parts.
"Thanks for the hand." He said, focusing while running, "By the way sir. If I may ask why are we going to hunt a legendary beast while we have a raid to finish tomorrow?"
"It’s actually because my little daughter gave a quest to a strong individual." He replied, looking at him while keeping an eye on the surrounding, "And apparently, that quest involved the white serpent. Even though he doesn’t want to encounter it, it’s inevitable. So we’re going to retrieve him safe and sound."
"I see." He chuckled, "Though I highly doubt that we’re going only to save him. If that was the case, you could’ve asked any one of us to handle the situation."
"As impressive as ever, young prince. Haa-haa-haa." He laughed, hearing McVill’s words, "I may posses the ’Grace of Insight’. But you are capable of seeing anyone’s heart. Magnificent!."
"Isn’t that it amazing." Rose said, joining their laughter, "My brother is truly magnificent. No wonder, he’ll be an ideal King after our father."
"Indeed. Indeed." Leonardo chuckled, "Then let me share my honest thought. The thing is, I want to check how strong the legendary serpent is by myself as the hero. If luck remain on our side, we might even obtain the Sandrium sticking to its tail."
"I see." Other nodded as they almost reached the ’Muddy Swamp’— the lair of the serpent.
As they reached the swamp, they halter, shocked in utter surprise as they couldn’t believe what they just witnessed.
There remained no swamp. Only a giant hole filled with countless black serpent’s severed bodies— pile of corpses and disgusting smell of blood. The vapour from the blood was still emitting, drawing a creepy atmosphere around the dried swamp, now filed with blood.
The land where Skyler killed the victorious serpent and taken damage from the white one, was still there. However, several additional rocks were there, crushing the white serpent beneath it.
Few lances made of ice appeared to be stuck all over its body and a big one on its head. Some scales were burned while few were still sparkling in thunders. Countless scales of the serpent seemed to be torn apart as well. The body that once looked majestically divine, now covered in wounds and blood— lifeless as it remained cold and unmoved.
The dark aura surrounded a single person wearing a black torn rob and a mask without any scratches on it yet covered in blood. He appeared to be sitting one of the rocks that crashed the serpent.
Resting, putting his left hand on his left knee while blood dripped from his right leg. He was barely conscious, and didn’t get distracted by Leonardo’s party. He just kept staring at the system screen only he could see.
[Warning: Remaining HP: 01/12400]
