3 Parasites

Galaron was a fairly large town that was filled with what the newbie Adventurers needed in order to survive. There were instructions in the bulletin board as to what the Adventurers would do to earn money and level up.

Since these are all familiar to Glenn, he didn't need to learn all of these basic things. What he needed to do now was to start the quest, and the first one was the most interesting one.

"Hunting Iron Blue Bugs," Glenn read the title of the quest. For this quest, an Adventurer must hunt and gather three Iron Blue Bug shell which was a drop item by the Iron Blue Bug.

Of course, this quest was hard. This was the first actual quest to proceed with the main storyline of the game. Other side quests would help the Adventurer to level up just so they could take OJ this quest.

The level requirement for this quest was 3, but since Glenn was already at max level, he could easily take the quest and get on with it.

After he split with John at the entrance of Galaron, he hasn't seen the man since. He figured that John would collect more information just as they planned.

"I'll collect information later," Glenn said. "For now, I'll make time to complete this quest."

Immediately hunting the Iron Blue Bug would raise a series of suspicion towards Glenn. It would be a mystery how he was able to level up so fast that he could hunt the bugs immediately. For now, he has to lay low and pretend that he didn't know anything just like everyone else.

He decided to go to the market where he would try to find easy quests to do. If he could let people see that he was still doing quests, he wouldn't have time hiding his powers to the rest of them.

This was only temporary too. After the first few quests, it would be reasonable for him to complete the succeeding quests earlier. By this time, a lot of the Adventurers had already settled on their items and skills that the quests would get easier.

When Glenn reaches these quests, he could only glide to the next until he can find his way to defeat the dark that the old man mentioned. He thinks it's a long stretch, but he knows he can do it.

"Oh, young man," an old woman cried as she walked towards Glenn. "You're one of the Adventurers, right? You're one of the heroes? I need your help."

Glenn remembered this quest. This was a quest that was triggered only after the previous player completes it or fails to complete it. An old woman would run to you and ask for your help. She would lead you to a small room where her grandson sits.

The task of this quest was to remove parasites on her grandson. The parasites were small and weak, but were large in number. The hardest thing about it was when these parasites would get even an ounce of your blood, they could mimick your power depending on how much blood it took from the target.

This was a pretty terrifying scene for newbies, but the few who were unfortunate would experience this part of the game and never goes past this road ever again.

"Sure, I'll help you," Glenn said. He let the woman led him to the alley where her house was located. Afte the alley, they took three turns into more alleys until they reached a poor neighborhood.

This neighborhood was filled with poor poeple and the woman and her grandson were part of this neighborhood.

"We have no money, no job, no food," the old woman cried. "I tried to heal him with medicine, but it did not work whatsoever."

She opened a room and there it wss, the dark room from the game. It was essentially a room that was filled with barely anything, but a small dim lamp and a bed which the child lay on.

"Please take this staff," Glenn said to the woman and handed her the old worn staff. "This will be a pretty hard task since I'm going to face a pretty hard opponent, but please bear with me."

"I'll do anything," the woman said, gripping the staff in fear.

"Alright," Glenn chuckled. He fixed the sleeves of his shirt and summoned his weapons, a pair of hololiths on either of his wrists. "Let the games begin."

On his right wrist, a dark red gem was placed in a jadeite hololith. The gem was from a meteor that contained extraterrestrial magic with fire properties. This was red because of the intense flames it has been through before it reached the ground. The gem was then handed to a jeweler, the jeweler then crafted this band.

On the left wrist was a blue gem that was placed on the same type of jadeite hololith. This blue gem was stone that was from the deepest parts of the oceans, brought up by the merfolks as a gift for completing a certain quest.

These two were Glenn's weapons. He didn't use a staff, a wand, or even a sword. He used these hololiths because it adds to more versatility to him as he performs his magic.

Glenn first ejected a small amount of magic in the air, right above the child. A black smoke erupted from the child and the smoke formed a humanoid shape.

"The parasite," Glenn said. "I didn't think I'd find you this easily."

These types of parasites were highly sensitive to magic. They are attracted to strong magic or magic that were stronger than their hosts. In this case, since the child was a normal human, he didn't have any magical properties at all.

That was why when Glenn released even a slight amount of magic, the parasite showed its true form and was now ready to attack.

"Alright," Glenn said. "Since you're a parasite, I don't need to switch. All I need to do is…"

Glenn dodged the attacks of the parasite while he ran towards the child. When he got closer, he placed his hand on the child's forehead. "Tree of Life."

A sound of a drop of water echoed the room before a bright tree made of light grew from the child's forehead. The light from the tree was so blinding, that the woman had to cover her eyes.

This light also provided the reverse energy for the parasite. Glenn was healing its victim and was giving the child more life than the parasite could absorb. This overwhelmed it, killing it in the process.

"A parasite does nothing but take," Glenn said. "Control does not exist in these types of creatures."

The tree vanished after a couple of seconds and the dark room became dark again. The child fluttered his eyes opened, widening his eyes. "I'm okay?"

"Yes, you are," Glenn said and smiled. He ruffled the child's hair and went to the old woman. "My work here is done. I have no more reason to stay."

"Wait," the old woman said. She ran to the side of the room and took a book from a shelf. "This is the mao of Galaron and its surrounding towns and forests, even lakes and other areas. Take this as a token of our appreciation."

Glenn realized how much he needed this map. In the game, when he crossed a border, a notification will pop up and ask him if he would want to switch rooms. When he agrees, the game would instantly take him to the center of the next room.

"This would become very helpful," Glenn said. "Thank you so much."

The man left the house and planned his adventure. He finished more quests until it was two days later and it was time to finish the quest. There was still no one who could stand the Iron Blue Bugs, so Glenn might be the first one to finish it.

Geographically, Galaron was located in an area where only low level beasts roam. The city was built there after the heavens apparently sent the Adventurers nearby. Since the people here treated the Adventurers as heroes, they decided to built this town to accommodate the said heroes.

By the west side of the town, a thick forest lies. The forest was filled with bug beasts and one of them was a habitat where the Iron Blue Bug would spawn.

Glenn found his way into the habitat and saw the beasts roaming around the area. It was a large rock filled with moss. This served as the home for the bugs as they crowded all over it.

"Bye, bye little bugs."