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Kugung… Kugung…!

“Sister… is this right?”

“…We have to try it first.”

Under a foreboding violet sky, purple lightning surged ominously.

According to Urov, Black Lily was said to be where the lord of the West resided.

She had shockingly blown away half of the land in the West to another dimension and even killed that demon before occupying the territory…

“Wait, how long have we been here?”

“…Are we all going to die at this rate?”

“Uhmm…”

No matter how I thought about it, heading to that place seemed like a death sentence.

But we had no choice but to go.

Neris recalled what had just happened.

‘Mission? What kind of mission?’

‘Nothing much. It’s simply absurd to ask you to handle the fragments with your current strength. Kekeke.’

‘…Were you just trying to mock us?’

‘Did you not come here? Anyway, it’s fine if you just want to run errands or beg. It would be better if you could actually do something about the fragments. Just make sure to take the ‘mission’.’

‘Why?’

‘That’s…’

Neris looked at the black tattoo on her wrist.

It was a symbol that could only be seen using the ‘System’—invisible to the eyes of others.

[?-Urov’s Transaction/?]

Objective-?

Reward-?

Neris smirked at the quest that appeared on her quest list.

What kind of stupid quest is filled with question marks?

The rank was a question mark, and the objective and reward were all question marks too.

Naturally, she doubted the demon regarding this ridiculous quest, but he shook his head while chuckling.

‘That’s no mission. Only angels would give you something like that. It’s merely a ‘connection’.’

‘Connection?’

‘You become connected with me, and then you become connected again with the fragments. Use your ‘great existence’ as a broker to create a connection.’

‘And what’s that connection?’

‘Do you think I’m going to tell you? You just have to go get the mission, receive some of that person’s power, and then sever the connection. You won’t lose anything.’

‘……’

“…I don’t understand.”

Demons are evil beings.

Everything Urov said could easily be a lie.

It could just be a trick to deceive users, and accepting that mission might lead to some bad outcome.

‘But…’

“The demons are affected too.”

Although he threw around impressive-sounding terms like “great existence” and “connection,” in the end, it meant they were operating within the ‘game system.’

Higher-tier demons were enemies that users couldn’t possibly handle, but if Black Lily operates delicately, there might be possibilities.

‘I had no choice but to accept. If I refused, I would’ve been killed 100%.’

The moment she fell in front of the mansion, it was a choice forced upon her.

Neris took out a white orb of holy energy from her pocket.

The pure white light of the holy energy enveloped Neris and her party from the Magic Tower, and they took a step toward the storm of purple lightning.

“Ugh… I’m glad I brought consumable shields. Sometimes when I see things like this, I almost want to make a contract.”

“Sister.”

“Yeah?”

“But can’t we just make a deal with the darkened Lady Lily instead of with a demon? Honestly, she seems much more reliable than a demon.”

“I’d rather do that.”

Of course, one would want to make a pact with the familiar Black Lily, who assisted them in the Empire, rather than an unfamiliar demon.

Black Lily was a being with powers opposite to Lily, skilled in magic, sorcery, and special abilities.

There wasn’t a better master than the one in the Magic Tower.

“But think about it. Black Lily ultimately acts and thinks similarly to Lady Lily.”

“Right?”

“But Lady Lily hates it when users contract with angels.”

Despite her odd behavior from the penalties, Lily had slaughtered thousands of users simply because they made contracts with angels.

Since then, she had recklessly destroyed shrines and statues that allowed contracts with angels and had killed numerous angels that came down too.

“Wouldn’t Black Lily do the same?”

“Ah.”

“She has already killed high-level nobles and has a reputation for slaughtering demons shortly after arriving in the Demon Realm.”

Considering that situation, would she even agree if they requested magic?

Neris didn’t think so.

“If it had been just Lady Lily, she might have given them out of goodwill. Lady Lily is on the angel side, but she also has her Progenitor status and that magic book? She could suggest ways to use magic without the power of demons.”

But Black Lily was different.

Unlike Lily, she loathed demons.

“Everyone remember. Black Lily is not a ‘user.’ She’s a boss monster.”

“Ah…”

“Still, act like you would with Lady Lily when you meet her. You never know what might happen if you accidentally tread on her nerves.”

“Understood.”

“Yes.”

“But what quest do you think she’ll give us? I doubt she’ll hand out anything easily.”

“I have a good method.”

Neris opened her inventory and pulled out a rolled-up piece of parchment.

At first glance, it looked like a common scroll.

When one of the guild members saw the paper radiating a faint aura, he rushed over.

“Hey? Isn’t this that low-grade item?”

“That’s right. 35 gold. Forced quest request.”

A whole three years ago.

Back when Deoen had just opened about a year ago, hidden items or even legendary items were rare to see.

Most users were playing typical classes, with even the top rankers only reaching levels 60 to 70 at most.

Even a nameless knight from some kingdom could easily defeat them, and back then, there was a certain item that was quite popular.

‘Forced Quest Request.’

It was a consumable item obtainable from a now-fallen mage of the Ovent Kingdom, which allowed the user to obtain quests from any NPC by using this request.

As long as it was presented to an NPC, the user could get a quest, so it was colloquially referred to as a ‘hidden piece’ back then.

“I went through so much trouble to get this. But it turned out to be useless.”

“It really gives you just any quest, huh?”

It’s indeed a good item.

Regardless of level or situation, getting a quest like this is surely overpowered.

But the problem was that it genuinely could give you ‘any’ quest.

For example, one user rising to the ranker tier met a high-level dragon and presented the request.

He wanted to gain powerful dragon strength through the quest.

But the dragon, encountering a user for the first time, asked him to remove weeds from in front of its nest—an utterly ridiculous quest.

The reward was naturally paltry, just a bit of experience and a handful of gold.

The rewards were terribly proportionate to the price of the request.

“What a total joke. If your relationship level is low, it gives you useless quests, and of course, to raise the relationship level, you have to do quests, but then they just give you quests anyway.”

“It was quite perplexing.”

Whichever way you looked at it, it was an utterly unnecessary hidden piece.

Because of this, forced quest requests faded from memory after the Ovent Kingdom was destroyed.

Now, they sporadically appear in the auction house as ‘nostalgic items.’

“But this works.”

Any quest? I don’t care.

What the demon requests, whatever it may be, we just have to receive the quest and ‘connect.’

In fact, the more insignificant the quest, the less burden there would be—quite favorable.

“Let’s move in.”

Neris and her party began to step toward the center in earnest.

Kugung…!!

Kwagagagag!!!

“Ow.”

“Everyone stick together. We’re flying.”

“Yes, Sister.”

Every time they took a step forward, lightning crackled.

The terrain in this place had long been utterly destroyed.

The ominously flashing violet sky and the rough, pockmarked ground was all that existed here.

While it was a question how a party of Mages unable to use magic would break through this, surprisingly, they managed to easily enter the inner area.

Zzap…

The first reason was that the Angel Guild had given them plenty of consumable ‘holy shields’ beforehand.

Because of that, they could survive the magical onslaught filling the Demon Realm, and after meeting the demon, it seemed like he had taken some effort to help them endure the magic.

‘Not everyone has it, but the power of that white badge played a role too.’

The second reason was…

“…It feels like we’re curiously not being targeted, right?”

“Right?”

“It seems like we’re dodging the lightning… except for minor branches…”

The raging purple lightning roared, yet the thirty or so members of the Magic Tower party weren’t seriously harmed.

Sometimes, bits of lightning would strike their shields, but the major currents felt like they were avoiding them.

Neris swallowed hard but did not stop her footsteps.

“Let’s keep moving.”

‘They know we’re coming.’

Well, considering that they were approaching with this holy shield spread out, it would be strange if they didn’t know.

Could it be that it’s not hostile for now?

What kind of reaction would they show when the request was shoved in front of them?

How long had it been?

“Visitors have arrived?”

Finally, they could meet ‘her.’

She looked exactly like Lily, except for the hair and eye color.

Black Lily stood atop a massive mountain, smiling, while storms of lightning swirled around her.

They just had to go up and receive the quest…

“Play nice for a bit, okay? I have to finish this.”

“What?”

Caw caw~

Before her words even finished, a massive flock of birds soared into the air.

Those were crows larger than a human, and purple poison gathered in their beaks.

“Whoa?”

Pooaah!!!

The plague poison enveloped them.

 

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