Extra And MC-Chapter 89 - 85 - Novier
A man’s hand was sticking out and emerging like the mythical Excalibur, out of a treasure trove of cluttered antique goods while the fingers which were adorned with various trinkets were wiggling, almost as if requesting for aid to get out of the weird situation he was presently in.
"What the hell…" Aiden softly muttered in bewilderment.
As if a trinket adorned hand sticking out of a pile of antique goods wasn’t enough, the store itself seemed to have been hit by a small earthquake.
Every single shelf containing various antique goods were on the floor and Flynn and Aiden couldn’t help but wonder if they had stepped into the wrong store.
The sight before them seemed more horrific the more they kept staring at it, partly due to how the blinds were still closed and no light source was spilling into the store despite it being mid-morning.
"P…leas..e he..lp…" the voice of the hand eerily spoke between gasps of air.
The two brothers, quickly shook off their startled states and swiftly, began to push all the fallen shelves away and began to declutter the floor, all in an effort to save the man drowning in his sea of antiquities.
After about a few minutes of clearing the store, Novier’s bald head finally came into view and following this, the man summoned all of his strength and forcefully pushed himself out of the pile of antique goods to sit atop it.
"Brrrr!" he shook his head rapidly, almost as if trying to regain his senses after being trapped for so long.
"Well, at least it didn’t take a week this time…" he audibly muttered to himself while patting and dusting his outfit, a checkered red and white shirt with blue overalls.
’What do you mean ’this time’ ?!’
’Is this a common occurrence for you?!’
Those were the questions circulating through Flynn and Aiden’s heads as they just stared at him, a baffled expression now painting their faces.
Novier was short!
Well, short might’ve even been showing him a huge favor but to put into perspective, if dwarfs existed in their world, then both brothers wouldn’t have hesitated to refer to him as one.
After completely gathering his wits, Novier finally spoke to both youths.
"Aye! Thank you lads for saving me from me treasure trove" he gratefully said.
’A pirate accent?’ Flynn asked himself while nodding his head in response to Novier’s words of gratitude.
"It was our pleasure… I guess…" Aiden replied, his head slightly tilted in confusion due to how the old man with long grey beard and a bald head spoke.
"So you’re Mr. Novier Chroxa?" Flynn asked dubiously, after which he then continued.
"If you are, which I genuinely hope you are, then we’d like to discuss about this" he said, his hands lightly tapping on his smart watch to display the details of Novier’s quest.
"Oh! Me goodness! After all these years…" Novier widened his eyes in surprise at the holographic quest log displaying his issued quest.
"13 years and no lad even bothered taking me quest… I almost gave up on it…" he added.
"So this ore…" Aiden began and then continued curiously.
"Just how rare is it to find?"
"Yer have no idea lad. I spent 9 years scoutin’ the caverns til’ I finally found it…" Novier responded with a thoughtful nod, after which he then continued.
"But aye, my luck ran out. A big ol’ bilge-sucking Kraugr was guarding the precious thing!" he expressed disdainfully.
"Big?" Aiden and Flynn inquired, confusion etched on their faces.
"How big?" Flynn asked again.
"About 35 feet tall! Biggest kraugr I ever seen in me life!" Novier responded, his eyebrows scrunched up into a deep frown.
"Was lucky to escape with me wits!" he further explained but instead, Flynn and Aiden just got even more confused.
The Kraugr Novier was currently speaking about, seemed like a boss monster.
’Now why would a boss monster be in the crystal caverns…’ Aiden pondered to himself.
Flynn just like his brother seemed to be deep in thought while thinking about the same thing.
Considering that the crystal caverns was a fissure outbreak that had previously been cleared, there shouldn’t be any boss monster present at any point in time in the cavern.
’Hmmm… this is certainly odd…’ Flynn mused to himself.
’That being said, we still need to get that ore so if what he says is actually true, then we’ll just have to deal with it… I hope we can deal with...’ he inwardly continued.
’Still… it’s so weird though… we’d best be completely alert from the moment we step in’ Flynn concluded with his thoughts.
Aiden who had also finished his own train of thoughts, gave his brother a slight nod and then, spoke to Novier again.
"Regardless of how true or false your words may be sir, we are still willing to take the quest…"
"…As long as it isn’t a volunteer job…" Aiden calmly added.
"Nothin’ of the sort fine lads! Yer bring the ore to me, and I’ll pay yer whatever price yer want!" Novier quickly eased Flynn and Aiden’s worries with his words.
Slowly, they were beginning to realize that information from the novel could no longer fully be trusted, but at least, to a certain extent, this was staying similarly true to what they knew.
Well asides the sudden revelation of a possible boss monster though.
Sure the butterfly effects were cooking up a gradual sea storm of their own and they had already resolved themselves to deal with it as it came but... that was that and this was this.
When even some of the information in the novel was beginning to seem quite inaccurate, they couldn’t help but be even more wary of how they approached various situations.
"Very well then. We shall take our leave" Flynn politely greeted and just as soon as he and Aiden were about to head out, Novier suddenly called out to them again.
"Wait lads!"
"I have… me map… of the... caverns… somewhere… around… here…" Novier searched for his map in the messy piles of antique goods in-between sectioned pauses of his words.
Flynn and Aiden watched the very short old man, search haphazardly through his pile of antique goods, even going as far as jumping into the very same hole both brothers had previously got him out of.
’Like a big fat worm…’ Flynn watched on as Novier frantically kept searching, a slightly puzzled look mixed with one of slight amusement on his face.
After about two minutes had passed, Novier popped out from underneath another pile of antique goods, spraying and scattering them all about the quaint messy store.
"Found me map!" he declared with a contented grin.
’Honestly, I’m more disturbed by how none of these antique goods, especially the ceramics and glasswares aren’t shattering despite being tossed around like a broken kite’ Aiden inwardly said.
"Here. Yer can have it lads! There’s also a picture of the ore in it!" Novier stretched his arm out while standing on the pile of antique goods, making him nearly close to the height of both brothers.
"Are you really sure you want to give this to us?" Flynn asked tentatively.
"Flynn’s right. It seems quite precious to you… and besides, our smartwatch should also have a detailed map of the caverns" Aiden added.
" ’Course lad! I guarantee it’d be far more detailed than that thingamabob on yer wrists" Novier answered with an honest grin, his arms gesturing to both brothers again to take the map off his hands.
"So take it! Just make sure to return me precious back in one piece" the short old man added.
"Well, we’ll gratefully accept it then" Aiden answered with a smile, his hands receiving the antique, cylindrically thin round case which had multiple gold engravings all over it.
Following this, Aiden and Flynn gave their goodbyes to the quirky old man and promptly left the store.
Quickly, they traversed through the bustling bazaar district, which was buzzing with various cadets, instructors, traders and workers alike, even on a morning weekend like this while heading straight for the Crystal Caverns district.
The cavern was situated meters away, directly after the magical engineering and alchemy departmental district and was present just before the Darkwoods region.
Even on a weekend like this, cadets could be seen running past the large entrance of the cavern and straight into the Darkwoods to hunt naturally mutated monster animals or fissure monsters left from a previous fissure break for credits.
Considering that mining ores from the caverns would probably give the same amount of credits as hunting monsters in the Darkwoods, it was particularly an odd sight that there were next to no cadets planning to go into the cavern’s underground depths.
On weekdays, one might find a fair amount of cadets going into its depths but on a weekend like this, everyone avoided it like the plague.
’Well… I can’t really blame them for avoiding it…’ Flynn thought to himself after noticing how desolate the cavern’s entrance seemed.
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Upon reaching the crystal cavern’s enormous crystalline maw that opened wide to give a kaleidoscope of colors just from the entrance alone, Aiden and Flynn moved over to a small building situated just beside it’s entrance instead.
Quickly doing all of the documentation and having themselves marked with a tracing and a protective spell in case things went awry, both brothers left the small office and stood at the entrance of the caverns, just taking in the sheer scale of its size that led into an even more crystalline underground depth.
Soon enough, they both took another deep breath and slowly, began to head into the underground depths of the crystal caverns.
