8. Another Mission

Without delaying more time, Clyde went to the designated location sent by Leon’s signal. Arriving there, Clyde was overwhelmed to see many players were joining this special occasion about the legendary dungeon. Everyone gathered in a wide area like plaza and right in front of them was a big white castle. Among the crowd of players, Clyde walked and searched for his team until he managed to meet them all.

“Good! Even though you were a bit slower than I expected. I almost called you.” Leon greeted the gambler. He thought that Clyde would arrive late but it seemed like Clyde managed to avoid being yelled by him.

“What’s with that attitude, buddy? It has not even started yet.” Clyde was annoyed to hear such statements coming from the knight. He thought that the knight job did not resemble well with his attitude.

“Shut up and listen to me!” Leon commanded his team to give their attention to him. “I know the leak info about this legendary dungeon from some old players. The quest will be rescuing a princess kidnapped by a dragon. There will some obstacles that may give us rare items. Let’s try getting them along the way. That is why it is called the legendary dungeon.”

“Sounds interesting. Is there any tips about how to get those things?” Lucielle looked interested. She hoped that she would find a rare item suitable for her.

“They just said that we can just go all the way and beat everything.” We will surely get the rare items if we are lucky enough.

“Wait, wait. You said that, man! And it sounds that simple? We don’t really know how strong the enemies are. Shouldn’t we prepare some strategies? Do you even have the leak info about the enemies?” Clyde was being cautious. He knew well that reckless move might lead them to defeat. Clyde thought that they should make a strategy first so they could clear the obstacles well.

“Are you doubting me? They did not give the details about the enemies since it tends to change over time. But the final stage is still the same, fighting the dragon to save the princess. The advice to go full power was valid and we have to do it too! Fast and clean!” Leon frowned while looking at the gambler. It seemed like Leon forced Clyde to agree with his idea.

“Alright, alright. I got it, leader.” Clyde did not want to waste his energy to debate with the rude knight. Even thought Clyde was a bit disappointed, he tried to keep his temper well. He did not want underestimate it because as the dungeon was named legendary, there should be a quest with higher level of difficulty. Fiesty Five might be strong and this team might be suitable to use that reckless full power strategy to clear the quest.

Clyde began to look around and saw some players were discussing about something related to the dungeon. There were also some people talking about random things unrelated to the ingame matters. But for Clyde himself, he took it seriously because Clyde was quite a game maniac. He loved playing many kind of games and to found out about this cool virtual reality game has made his excitement went wild.

At firs,t he thought that he could enjoy his adventure by joining a random party because he knew well about his awesome luck. But after knowing that he was accepted in this kind of party, he started to doubt his luck. But still, it was still better than not having him a team. Lots of people did not really put their trust on gambler job since it can be like a double-edged sword. This job could give big advantage or disadvantage at the same time.

“Everyone, look!” Lottie suddenly shouted out telling her team to turn their attention to a figure coming from the white castle.

The king has arrived. He was accompanied by some royal guards. All players began to keep quiet and gave their full attention to the King. Finally the quest will be given to the players.

“Welcome to Marshmellow Kingdom, brave adventurers! I am King Marshmellow.” The king introduced himself. He looked like an old man with silver hair wearing such luxurious costume and accessories. The base color of his clothes was white with some fluffy design attached. He resembled a marshmellow in human form. “I will declare a legendary quest for all of you. Please save Princess Marshmellow. She was kidnapped by a wicked dragon and imprisoned her in a Dragon Tower at Pudding Mountain. There will be some obstacles along the way. Please make your way to overcome each obstacles and save the princess! The reward will be money and you can choose a treasure from our treasure vault.”

After hearing that declaration of the quest, all players began to feel excited.

[LEGENDARY QUEST ACQUIRED : SAVE PRINCESS MARSHMELLOW FROM THE DRAGON]

[REWARD : MONEY AND CHOSEN TREASURE]

That short speech made by the King was more than enough to lit up the spirit of players who aimed to get the best rewards. Some players started to get moving and some were still staying at the venue. For Leon’s team, they were trying to figure out the simple details about the quest first.

“Leon, we can see the map of Pudding Mountain in the quest menu.” Lucielle told the leader to take a look at the map.

Leon quickly projected the map to share to his team. “Hmm, this area looks like a camp of monsters. After that, we will come into a Blackforest. Then we will finally arrive at the Dragon Tower.” Leon was confident and he believed that this quest would be easy.”There are three stages, I see. I bet this would be easy then. We can do it, guys!” Leon tried to encourage his team with his optimism.

However, just right after Leon tried to encourage his team, Clyde nonchalantly expressed something that disturbed his mind. “Guys, do you think it is kind of weird?”

“Weird? What thing is weird?” Ralph was dumbfounded. He did not get what Clyde was thinking about. The others were also confused.

“Well, I see those royal guards have such powerful vibe.” Clyde pointed his finger at some of the royal guards accompanying the King. “See those muscles? They do not like fr different from Ralph.”

“They must be well-trained.” Lottie commented.

“What exactly is wrong with those guards? Please elaborate!” Lucielle was curious and felt annoyed at the same time. She hoped that Clyde did not fool around and think about something pointless.

“Well, to give us this kind of quest. They might be able to do it themselves.” Clyde’s instinct got him really paranoid.

“Oh come on, buddy! What has gotten into your brain? We are in a game and this kind of quest is common, you idiot!” Leon tried to clear Clyde’s mind from his troubled way of thinking.

“But, instead of giving the quest and give the full duty to us, they should be giving a quest to raid the Dragon Tower together with them. It would be better and more efficient.” Clyde tried to explain his reasoning. As a game maniac, this kind of thing usually happened. Commenting and complaining about the system in the game.

“Clyde, I do agree with that… not fully, but we are in a game.” Lottie tried to give her support while trying to make Clyde get back to his sense.

“Enough, guys! Let him be with his useless thinking. We are moving!” Leon stopped the argument. He commanded the team to get ready and start to move their feet to the dungeon portal.

As for Clyde, he was still intrigued to know the real reason about this weird system in the game. The King’s expression. It looked unnatural. Well perhaps because it was a game and the expression from non player characters might be emotionless. But still, it seemed like the King did not really hope to save the princess.

“Come on, slowpoke! We are going!” Leon shouted at Clyde who was still standing in his deep thinking.

“Yeah, yeah, no need to shout!” Clyde responded with annoyed tone.

Lottie came closer to Clyde because she was curious about Clyde’s intuition. “Clyde!” Lottie called Clyde. Clyde put his attention to the little girl. “About your suspicion. What do you think is wrong with the quest?”

“Umm, well. It is just a game indeed. I don’t think this is important.” Clyde wanted to ignore his paranoid thinking because in the game everything unusual could happen.

“It is okay. Just tell me what do you think?” Lottie looked excited. Since the last time Clyde used his brain to overcome the crisis fighting the fenrirs, Lottie felt like Clyde could be a trustworthy person.

“Okay then. You know it seems like the King did not really give his hope to save the princess. I just feel it out of the blue. Judging from the expression and the situation. That’s all!” Clyde explained his suspicion.

Hearing Lottie and Clyde was still talking about that useless theory, Leon did not give his damn care to those nonsense. Lucielle and Ralph were also not interested to hear more about Clyde’s words.

“Only that? Don’t you have anything else?” Lottie looked a bit disappointed.

“Well actually there is something too.” Clyde wanted to share his thought but he was afraid the Lottie would not be able to grasp the theory.

“It is alright, tell me, please!” Lottie insisted.

“I eavesdropped some players back then. One of them said that many old players were unable to find the princess in the Dragon Tower. Most of them were defeated first by the dragon. I wonder if the Dragon is really that strong. I hope that we would be able to beat it.” Clyde explained to Lottie what he heard. Lucielle started to peek at Clyde once he talked about the strong dragon. Lucielle was excited.

“I’m sure we can beat the dragon. We have Leon as our leader and you have your great gambling skills!” Lottie tried to be optimistic.

“Well, yeah hopefully. But as you see the mission said, save the princess. I wonder if we could find the princess without facing the dragon. It would be more efficient and there won’t be casualties.” Knowing that the dragon was pretty strong, Clyde hoped that his luck would lead him to meet the princess without fighting the dragon.

“Tch! What a coward! I told you we are going full power! Beating the dragon may give us rare item too!” Leon suddenly joined in because he could no stand to give up on his intention to take everything from the legendary dungeon.

“Well yeah, as you wish, sir Knight.” Clyde responded Leon with his disrespectful voice. It managed to make Leon a bit angry but Lucielle told him to chill down.

Lottie could only giggle looking at how brave Clyde was in responding to Leon’s rudeness.

The gang followed the route given through the window of the legendary quest. After some time of walking, they finally arrived in front of the Kingdom’s gate. There, they could see a portal that would lead them to the Dungeon. There were some players forming a party and walked through the portal and vanished one by one.

The dungeon system allowed only certain numbers of players to get into the dungeon area. In this case, it was called the party dungeon. Once players create a party and went to the dungeon via the portal, they would be the only ones who will appear in that dungeon. They would not encounter other party. It seemed like each parties was sent in different dimensions but still in the same exact place. Different from Raid Dungeon that allowed all players visible in the area.

As the leader of Fiesty Five, Leon tried to make sure that his teammates were all ready. He remarked about his previous strategy to charge full power and try to find the rare items along the way. Everyone nodded in agreement to follow Leon’s command. But for Clyde, he was a rascal and he did not really want to be bossed by that rude knight. Clyde was thinking about his own way to reveal the mystery of this fishy legendary quest.

Once everything was all set, Fiesty Five embarked to go to the legendary dungeon.

[LEGENDARY DUNGEON : PUDDING MOUNTAIN]

[OBJECTIVE : SAVE PRINCESS MARSHMELLOW]

Once the notification appeared right In front of each players’ sight, they finally arrived at the dungeon. Leon and the gang arrived in a forest and not so far away from them, they could see an wide area like a camp of monsters.

“That must be our first obstacle. Get ready everyone!” Leon pulled his sword with might. He led his team to march toward the monster camp.