Chapter 04: The Special Quest

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EMPEROR'S PALACE, VELDRAN

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"Your Majesty, Meldine-sama wants to see you."

"Let her in."

A male imperial knight entered the throne room, asking permission for someone to come in. When the emperor allowed it, the door to the throne room was opened, and an old woman with long white hair, wearing a gray cloak, and holding a long wooden wand entered the room. She bowed her head to the emperor who was sitting on his throne.

"How is it, Teacher?"

"I beg for your forgiveness, Your Majesty. I also can't break the curse."

"I-impossible. Even the Great Sage Meldine-sama can't do that."

"What should we do now?"

When the emperor heard about this, he put his hand on his head and sighed. He couldn't believe that the Great Sage, who was also his teacher, also failed her task.

"Those dumbheads. They put up a curse, but they don't know how to break it. The execution should be done in two days, but because of them, we have a terrible situation here."

"Yes, Your Majesty. The people will protest us if we don't hold the execution immediately."

"But if we do that now, there will be a war with Heiligeichen if they know about this."

The two old men wearing red robes, who were the imperial advisors, were also confused about what they should do next. They just faced a situation that could bring Remantia and a nation called Heiligeichen into chaos.

"Your Majesty, may I give you a suggestion?"

"Yes, Teacher."

"Allowed me to bring her to my old house in Veldran. I will ask for help from adventurers in the guild."

"Why must it be done at your place, Meldine-sama?"

"That's right. We can tell them it's a request from the Empire."

"Are you serious? What if people know about our situation? Adventurers are closer to people than us. Things will get worse, and people will become worried."

As a former adventurer, Meldine knows the adventurer's nature.

They are a group of people who love to do things on their own. They trust the guild more than the empire because they believe the latter only limits their freedom.

So, if the empire was the one who gave them this task, and if they knew about the situation, it would be a talking point to them, and it would also be heard by other people.

"But..."

"I will take full responsibility for this one. Allow me to ask them not as an Empire's representative but as a former adventurer. Give me five days to do this, Your Majesty."

"Five days? That's too long. People will get angry at us, Meldine-sama."

"Even if it's only a day, people will still be angry at us. I believe five days is enough. I'm sure we can find someone who can do this for us at that time."

"And if you fail?"

"You can hand me to Heiligeichen, Your Majesty. I'll pay her life with mine."

Even though the people would protest if the execution was delayed, the emperor thought that Meldine gave him a good suggestion. If she asked that quest using her name, the already ruined empire's image wouldn't get much worse. And for the long-term effect, five days of protest would be better than a war, which would last not only five days but could be years. He also believed that his teacher had faith that this would work.

"Alright, you're allowed to do that."

"Thank you very much, Your Majesty."

"I'll prepare the payment. Also, tell me if there is someone who can do this quest. That person is allowed to ask anything else to me."

"Understood, Your Majesty."

"Bring that woman to her, and prepare the carriage."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

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VELDRAN'S LABYRINTH, FOUR DAYS LATER

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"Haaaaaaahhhh!!!!!"

"Guoohh!!!"

"Hah...hah...hah..."

After Motegi got promoted to F rank, he was allowed to take more difficult quests. He was able to enter the fourth floor of the labyrinth and go downward. And Freddy said, starting from the 4th to the 8th floor, there would be two monsters at once.

Also, after he got the [Copier] skill, he could copy the Fruit of Power and Fruit of Knowledge into any amount that he wanted. He ate them a lot until all his physical and mental stats were rising, except for his luck. It could be helped with his updated [Temporary Boost], which allowed him to max out some of his stats.

The monster on the fourth floor was a small tree with the same height as a human who wore boxing gloves on its boughs. Normally, it would drop a small branch, which was an ingredient for a strengthening potion. But, because Motegi maxed his luck, he got an ultra-rare item with a 25% drop rate instead.

"Hah...it was harder than I thought."

[Puncher Wood's Leaves] (Rare Item)

Ingredient for a strengthening potion.

"I think that's it for now."

He didn't use [Temporary Boost] to max out all his stats, so his power wasn't strong and his movement wasn't fast like before. It caused him to take a little bit longer to defeat a single Puncher Wood. After he killed 24 of them, he decided to go back to the guild and sell those items.

"But, before that. "Status Open"."

Motegi Sekino

Age: 24

Race: Human

Level 10

HP: 1890/1000

MP: 1890/1000

Strength: 2200

Durability: 2200

Agility: 2200

Intelligence: 2200

Willpower: 2200

Perception: 2200

Luck: 1

Elements: (Unlocked)

Fire

Earth

Lightning

Wind

Water

Cosmic

Light

Dark

Skills:

[Appraisal]

[Language Comprehension]

[Storage]

[Temporary Boost]

[Copier]

You have exceeded your limits, do you want to upgrade?

YES

NO

"Yes."

He saw his stats exceeded their limits, so he decided to upgrade them.

Motegi Sekino

Age: 24

Race: Human

Level 10

HP: 1890/2000

MP: 1890/2000

Strength: 2200

Durability: 2200

Agility: 2200

Intelligence: 2200

Willpower: 2200

Perception: 2200

Luck: 1

Elements: (Unlocked)

Fire

Earth

Lightning

Wind

Water

Cosmic

Light

Dark

Skills:

[Appraisal]

[Language Comprehension]

[Storage]

[Temporary Boost]

[Copier]

"Whoa...I have eight???"

He noticed that he just unlocked elements. He was surprised when he knew that he had eight elements in his status. He wondered if having elements that many would cause him a problem.

"Well, I'll think about it later. Now, let's get back to the guild."

**********

"Hello, Freddy. I want to sell these leaves again."

"Wow. I can't believe you get them three days in a row. Your luck is exceptional, Motegi."

"Hehe, thank you."

"Here you go. There are 6 leaves, so it's 1,200 ginks in total."

"Thank you. Oh, can I order a beer?"

"Of course. It's 5 ginks."

"Here you go."

"Thank you. Please have a seat."

"Yes."

As usual, I didn't sell all of the leaves because I didn't want to stand out and cause a problem.

"Here's your beer."

"Thank you."

Gulp...gulp...gulp...

"Ahhhh...so tasty..."

I drank the beer immediately, and the sweet flavor, with a bit of bitterness, had already passed through my mouth. The beer in this world was mixed with honey, and it had a slightly unique taste compared to the beer in Japan. After a tiring day, that glass of beer made me feel so refreshed.

"I'm sorry. Can I sit here?"

"Um...yeah."

"A beer, please."

"Yes, Gerritt-san."

A young man with glasses and a book in his right hand suddenly came to me and sat in front of me. When he ordered a beer, the waitress called him Gerritt.

"Um...who are you?"

"Ahaha, sorry. I haven't introduced my name yet. I'm Gerritt, an A-rank wizard. You must be that new adventurer, right?"

"Yes. I'm Motegi, an F-rank adventurer."

"I heard a lot about you. I haven't seen anybody who can get as many ultra-rare items as you did."

"Hehe...thank you."

He put his book on top of the table, and then the waitress came and served his drink.

"What is that book?"

"Ah, it's a book about curses. I've been learning a lot recently because I want to take that special quest."

"Special quest?"

"You don't know about this? It's a quest to break someone's curse."

**********

A quest is a task given by people to assist or help them do something. The guild determines the levels of each quest based on its difficulty and the levels of the adventurers who are allowed to take the quests. However, when the guild determines a quest as a special quest, it means that all adventurers, regardless of level, are allowed to take it. Special quests are usually related to emergencies like monster strikes, natural disasters, or any situations that threaten people's safety.

However, the special quest that Motegi and Gerritt were talking about wasn't related to any dangerous situations like that.

On the same day as Motegi came to Acrusse, a noble family in Remantia was arrested due to the crimes they had committed for years, from corruption, money laundering, kidnapping, illegal slave trading, and assassination. The emperor stripped off their noble title and was going to execute all of those noble family members in two days, but because of a problem, the execution was delayed until five days. As the empire had predicted, the decision was protested by a lot of people. What the people didn't know, there was something that could put the whole country in danger.

**********

"Um...why is breaking a curse a special quest?"

"At first, I also didn't understand why they issued it as a special quest. But because many people failed, I became curious about it. Then, when I tried to connect it with the person who tasked that quest and that news five days ago, I think it all makes sense now."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know about the Visto family?"

"Yeah. I saw it on the news. The empire delayed the execution, right?"

"Yes. And the one who gave the quest is Meldine Ferner, a great sage and the current empire's teacher."

"Okay."

"It's a secret between us adventurers, don't tell anybody about this. I hear from the people who failed the quests that there is a cursed elf slave. They told me that her curse couldn't be broken by Meldine-sama itself, so she asked for help. She also told them that the elf slave would die if her curse was still there."

"Then?"

"I assume that the delayed execution has a connection with this. That elf may be the Visto family's slave, and maybe the emperor wants to save her to avoid conflict with Heiligeichen. But actually, I doubt if a curse that forces the slaves to give their lives to their master exists."

"Ah, I get it."

Like in the other fantasy stories, there are many races in the world that I live in now. Humans, elves, dwarves, mermaids, kijins, beastkins, demons, and other races live peacefully in this world. They live in their own countries, and the relationship between them is very warm, with almost no conflict since the war between demons ended 400 years ago.

The place that I live in, the Remantia Empire, is where most of the humans live. In the west of Remantia, there is the Heiligeichen Union, countries of elves, dwarves, kijins, and cyclops.

So, I think it would make sense if the emperor chose to delay the execution rather than execute them immediately. Because in this peaceful era, a small crime would cause an international problem.

"Did you say, elf slave?"

"Yeah. What's wrong?"

When Gerritt told me about an elf slave, suddenly I remembered something. Four days ago, when I was on his way back from the labyrinth, I saw a woman being taken into a house by two knights. She had long blonde hair, but I didn't see her face. I noticed her left ear was long and pointy, which was a characteristic of an elf. I wondered if the elf that I saw was the slave that we were talking about.

"Um...nothing."

"Ah, okay."

Actually, that special quest looked interesting to me. But unfortunately, I couldn't take it because I didn't know how to use magic.

Also, the labyrinth quests of those three days cost me a lot of energy. I wondered if I could use magic, maybe it would ease me for the next quest. I also started to think maybe I would face an enemy that required magic to defeat it. So, learning magic would be very important.

"Hey, Gerritt-san."

"Yes?"

"Can you teach me how to use magic?"

Since there was a wizard in front of me, there was nothing wrong if I asked him.

"Ah, of course. You don't know how to do it?"

"Yeah, I don't."

"Basically, magic is made when you combine your element with the shape that you want. The power of your magic depends on the shape that you create."

"Ah, I get it."

"What is your element?"

When he asked that, I was thinking about what I should answer to him.