Demon Core Exorcist

4. Ruin Exploration

Right now, Nathan has a basic understanding of the system. The only thing he hadn't checked out was the system quests.

Very quickly, he opened up the quest tab.

[Available Quests]

[Exorcise 10 Lesser Demons(+ 5 Stat Points)]

[Reach Novice Grade 3 Before Entrance Exam (+ 1 Holy Skill)]

Nathan had two thoughts on this: all that he needed to do was to do what was assigned to him by the system.

With his situation understood, Nathan quickly stood up from his bed and went into the bathroom to freshen up.

Within a few minutes, he was done, and he headed to the living room.

Nathan and Jin were living in a two-bedroom apartment, the rent being paid fifty percent by each party. So Nathan had to take up a job working in a convenience store down the street just to pay his rent.

As for Jin, he was a successful Qtuber who talked about the supernatural and unsolved mysteries. He went for explorations in abandoned ruins. Most times, he found nothing, but the thrill of not knowing what happened next gave him some views.

Well, with his holy core, Nathan had other ways to make money, like fighting demons. This was is only reasonable source of income at the moment.

Nathan went out of his room and headed to the dining table, the aroma of roasted beef hitting his nose like a tidal wave.

"You are getting better and better by the day"

Nathan praised Jin's cooking as he sat down at the dining table. Without wasting any time, he dug into the roasted beef.

Jin just rolled his eyes. It seemed like Nathan didn't want to talk about what happened last night.

He could only imagine what Nathan went through from the sound he heard over the phone last night. If Nathan didn't want to talk bout it, there was no need to push it.

"By the way, the Military academy recruitment is coming up by the end of the month"

Nathan was surprised. He remembered the system quest.

"Why didn't I know about it?"

"You didn't ask"

Even though there was no penalty for not completing the quest, Nathan didn't want to find out.

But there was a problem. To increase the purity of his core, Nathan needed a purification technique, something available only to licensed exorcists.

And he couldn't become licensed until he got into the academy. Now, the system wanted him to become a grade three novice without a purification technique.

Only people of noble households had access to purification techniques before gaining a license, and he wasn't one of them.

He was in a dilemma.

"Oh, I'm going to explore some ruins for my channel, wanna come along with me?"

Jin had an expectant look on his face. He always kept inviting Nathan to come along with him, but Nathan always refused.

Nathan was initially about to reject, but changed his mind when a system tab appeared in front of him.

[New Quest Issued]

[Ruin Exploration]

[Explore the Neon Crypts (+1 Purification Technique)]

Seeing this, a smile broke out on the face of Nathan as his eyes landed on the confused Jin.

"I see no problem with that", Nathan said

A look of pure joy appeared on the face of Jin. He had been doing ruin exploration for some years now, and for the past two years, he had always invited Nathan to join him, but for one reason or another, Nathan always refused.

But now, hw finally agreed, maybe because he had finally gotten his core.

"That's great, we'll set out tomorrow"

Jin said as Nathan gobbled up his food.

****

The night went by in the blink of an eye, and very early the next morning, the two friends were already awake.

Nathan freshened up, wearing some casual clothes and a long black coat with about three glyphs on it. This cloth had some sentimental value to him because it was the last birthday gift his mother gave him before she disappeared.

Nathan never knew why, but he had a feeling that as long as he had this coat on, it would be hard for him to be inured.

He had no weapons, so he just put on some fingerless gloves and headed out of the room, the the living room where Jin was already waiting for him.

"You're ready"

Jin asked, with just a backpack on his back.

"Yeah, I am"

Nathan and Jin went out of the apartment and into a car parked in front of the apartment, waiting for them.

As they were headed to the ruins, Jin began to give information on the ruins.

"The ruins we're going to are known as the Neon crypts. It was said that these crypts were used by the humans of old to protect themselves from the demonic invasion"

"But a few years ago, the crypts suddenly collapsed, closing off the ancient heritage from the world. An entrance to the crypts was recently found two weeks ago, and I managed to get us some dibs for the exploration"

"Note, these ruins are unexplored, so while getting some views for my channel, I am also helping the government explore the ruins"

Nathan, listening to this, couldn't help but frown.

"Are we getting any protection?"

"We don't need that; we have holy cores, so we should be able to hold our own as long as we don't encounter any high-ranking demons"

Nathan's frown deepened

"Ok, are we getting paid for this?"

"No"

"So we are free labour"

"Well, it's a reasonable exchange, all the footage we take in the ruins will belong solely to us, and we won't have to pay the government any money for copyright"

Nathan most definitely couldn't understand a word of what Jin just said, but he knew that the system quest could be very, very dangerous if they weren't careful.

About thirty minutes later, they arrived at the outskirts of the city and could see a small mountain in the distance.

This was the --- mountain, a well-known landmark of the city, and a tourist site, usually teeming with cars and people taking pictures.

But since it was still a little bit early in the morning, there was nobody here.

The car stopped by the side of the road at the base of the mountain, while the driver came down and directed them towards the entrance of the crypts. One thing to note was that the driver never spoke to them.

It was only about six thirty in the morning, so walking through a forest with a stunch-faced man who refused to talk to them looked more like a horror movie than a ruin exploration.

And Nathan was having a bad feeling about everything. But he had to do this, since it was a system quest.

Before long, they were in front of a cave. There were about five men in suits standing in front of the cave with glasses over their eyes and serious expressions on their faces.

Jin walked up to one of them and showed them a card before turning to look at Nathan.

He said something, and the man in a suit nodded. With that, Jin and Nathan walked into the cave.

As soon as they entered, Jin dropped his backpack onto the ground and opened it, bringing out some kind of orb.

"I need to set up something"

He said to Nathan while opening a compartment in the orb. He tapped something, and the orb floated into the air, a camera lens opening up, and a weird silver glove on his hand.

Well, while the world wasn't entirely developed, it would be weird if there weren't any technological developments.

One of such was this orb, or rather camera. It was a remote control camera, coded with a glyph that allows it to float in the sky and record things from any angle.

"We're starting in 3...2..."

"1"

"Hello everyone, it's your boy Jin, and welcome to another episode of ruin chronicles. With me here is..."

The camera floated to the front of Nathan, making him confused, but a few seconds later, he was back to his senses.

"Nathaniel Reyes"

He gave a forced smile, and the orb focused on Jin once again.

"Today is a special episode as we are going to some unexplored ruins. This means that any footage found here can't be found anywhere else, at least for a month"

"Now the ruins we are exploring today are the Neon Crypts...."

Jin proceeded to start explaining the crypts to them as they gradually walked into the crypts, through the cave.

There was a system screen in front of Nathan, showing him the progress of the quest.

[Active Quest

Title: Ruin Exploration

Objective:

- Explore Neon Crypts

Reward:

- +1 Purification Technique

Progress: 0.01/100]

"This is going to take a long time"

Nathan whined, but he just had to do it; the reward was very much needed at the moment.