Starting from Zero

Book 3, Chapter 8

Quest of the Cave (Part 4)

------------------

"Monster! Monster attacked me!"

"Don't worry! Where is it? I'll take care of it!"

"Who dares to get in my way?? That's MY woman!" A giant monster about 3 meters tall appeared near the village.

"So you are the little trouble huh? I suggest you leave this matter, or else! Ha!" The monster waved his big axe and unleashed a blade wave, breaking a thick tree nearby.

I gulp. I calmed my mind and walked towards the monster, then stopped at about 10 meters away from it. The thing looks like a toad, with human-like limbs. It can walk, but that giant toad head looks really creepy!

"Hey you! Monster! How could you attack such a beautiful lady?"

But the answer is quite unexpected. "Ha-hahaha! Don't make me laugh! You're nothing better yourself, and you try to act hero? You're funny you know that?"

"Nothing better??" Now that made me furious!

"I smell strong demon blood on you, and part angel too. But the demon aura completely covered your angel blood, so I guess you're an evil force? Besides, that evilness...is a lot worse than mine! Actually this is the first time I met something emitting such strong evilness! Those monsters living in the Hell Swamp are saints compared to you!"

Listening to our words, the woman who hid behind me looked at me in doubt and began to crawl backwards.

The monster continued, "You only look like a human. That scent though, only poor humans are unable to sense that terrible scent of you!"

The woman got up on her feet and fled like a rabbit.

Crap, what just happened?!

My "Hero and Beauty" plot turned into "Beauty and Beast"!

"Shut your mouth!" I looked at the monster. With a swing of my arms, I shoot my two dragon wires at it. The monster tried to block using his axe. But after a flash, the top half of the axe came off, leaving a perfect and clean cut which shines with a metallic luster.

Ohh, these wires are handy!

The broken half flew away while spinning, and stuck into a nearby rock. The monster on the other hand, just stared at his broken axe, dumbfounded.

"Hey! Toad!" I'm wasting time here! "How long are you planning to stand there?"

"Master!!" The monster suddenly dumped his axe and rushed over. I quickly parried it using my claws.

Jesus! What is going on here?? I didn't save the beauty back there but surely I don't want to save a giant toad instead! The monster just leaned on me and cried, spilling tears and snot all over me. Ewwww!

"Master!! You got to help me!!"

"Stop!"

"Stop!!"

"Halt!"

"Hold it!!"

"Cut!"

"Stop now or I'll kick you!"

"Still not stopping??"

(Bruce Lee style) "AH-TAA!!"

Finally, I kicked the monster away. Now I'm covered in gluey stuff. Ughhhh.

It crawled back up, I quickly got into combat stance to prevent it from harassing me again. Good thing is it didn't this time.

"What's that all about? You were aggressive. But now you look like a coward!"

The monster is still running tears and nose. "Help me master!"

"Stop crying, tell me what's going on! How do I help if you don't say anything?"

"O-Okay, here's the problem:" It wiped its face clean and prepared to tell story.

But why am I getting a bad feeling about this?

(Four hours later)

Now I knew why I felt bad! This damn toad is even more wordy than a mumbling monk. It spoke nonsense for full four hours before he finally began to explain what's important! I figured out the situation after another terrible two hours.

Let me give a summarize about what he talked about in these six hours: The toad was once a handsome, he accidentally wandered into the Hell Swamp and got cursed, thus turned into a monster. The only way to lift the curse is to defeat the monster living in the swamp. But this guy is in love with that lady back there. He couldn't get rid of the curse so he just decided to take her by force!

Then he bumped into me.

"Stop crying again! Take me to that swamp!"

"Huh what?" The monster didn't catch with me all of a sudden.

"Lead the way already!"

"Oh! Thank you master!" He tried to hug me again but I kicked him flying. I don't think he will be any better even if he returned human!

I followed him for a while and finally reached that so-called Hell Swamp. There is a lone hill standing far away, and this guy won't move an inch forward. So I decided to go in and check myself, asking the toad to wait outside.

I walked for a while, and came in front of a cave, with a wooden sign nearby:

They even got a house number!

Never mind. I entered the cave, and it sure is dangerous. The road ended soon. A giant pit lies before me, I can see there is a tunnel on the other side, but the pit is huge, with bubbling lava at the bottom of it.

I remembered my dragon wires. So that's why brother gave it to me for this stage! I shot the two arrows into the ceiling on the other end, pulled to see if it's safe, and swung over. Easy peasy!

After three "Lava Pits", I arrived at somewhere flat. But I didn't get to feel relieved before the ground began to shake, something is booming behind me. I turned around and instantly freaked out. The smoldering lava began to flow towards me like water.

Run I gotta run!

And now I know why brother gave me the boots too. Without the speed bonus I'd already become part of the floor.

I stumbled and rolled to the end of the tunnel. The path suddenly got wider, a burning lava lake appeared in front of me. I quickly dodged sideways, the lava poured down into the lake.

Safe!

My legs almost gave out!

But my terrible fate hasn't decided to leave me alone. A huge vortex appeared on the surface of the lake, and the temperature began to rise. Obviously, some Boss is coming out.

As expected, the vortex grew, and formed an empty area at its center. A bird's head emerged from it, then the neck, followed by the entire body.

"A...Crow? So the Boss is a crow?" I said that out loud.

The Boss was giving out some impressive poses. But upon hearing my words it fell back into the lava. Then it went out again faster than I can imagine, while bringing out some lava drops, one of which landed on my head.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH--"

I covered my now smoking head and dashed around at a speed I'd probably never reach in the future.

"Heehehehe!" A mild laughter stopped me. I looked around searching for its source, then realized it was that blackish crow who is laughing. But I thought crow cries are harsh and annoying. What I'm hearing right now though, is like when a little girl is giggling.

"Hey! That crow!"

"What did you say??" The "crow" flapped its wings, a layer of black flame suddenly appeared around it, and I can feel the temperature going up.

Weird, something smells good. Like barbecue.

Oh! I smell like barbecue!!

"AHHHHHHHHH"

"Hothothothothothothot--"

The crow put out the black flame. "Ha! Don't you dare call me crow again!"

Ugh. It sounded like a girl but now it feels like a girl too.

"I give up! I surrender!!" Wise man knows when to quit! "So I can't call you crow, what is your name then?" The Boss got insane damage, and highly intelligent too. I'll have to talk it over!

"Stop saying 'crow' already! I'm such a beautiful one, do I look like crow to you??"

Well that makes sense. She is black bodied, but she definitely doesn't look as boring as a crow. There are nine, colorful plume feathers on her head, and she has a long tail, also with several long silk-like lines of feathers.

A peafowl maybe?

No it can't be. Only male peafowls have such fancy tail!

"I'll tell you. Now listen! This young lady here is a mix blood! My father is a pure blood Fire Phoenix, my mother is the child of Aurora Heaven Bird and Inferno Eagle, so I inherited my father's shape and my mother's color!"

She seems a bit sad though.

I tried to comfort her. I don't want her to have another mood swing and roast me!

"It's alright! Your black feathers aren't that shiny, but overall you look good! You don't appear as soft as a phoenix, instead you look glorious with that strong and mighty feeling of you! And attractive too!"

I meant it!

"Really?" She circled around out of joy.

Sigh. Girls, they're all the same.

"Excuse me!"

"What?"

"You haven't told me who you are!"

"Me? I'm an Inferno Phoenix! Do I not look like one?"

Then she prepared to display that deadly black flame again!

"Stop! Stop!! I believe you!!"

She withdrew her flame under my screaming.

"Phew! I'm saved! You almost turned me into human barbecue!"

"What is human barbecue? Is it fun?"

"It's not!" You must be kidding me! If she believes it's fun, I'm finished!

"Um, sorry but, did you turn a human into a toad recently?"

"Now you mentioned it, I did! Why?"

"Actually that man asked me to come here to lift the curse! But now I don't know if I should ask you to do that."

Ugh. That toad...ughhhh.

"About that..." Phiona (She gave herself that name) considered. "I...could do that for you, but..."

"But?"

"You gonna do me a favor."

"What if I refuse?" I tried.

Then it just got hotter again and my skin started to burn. I immediately changed my idea.

"Sure!! Tell me what you need!!"

"That's more like it." She lowered the temp. "I will take off the curse on that guy, but you have to take me outside for fun!"

"Can't you just go out on your own?"

"No silly! I'm the guardian NPC of this quest, the system won't allow me to run about!"

"What can I do? I can't just tell the system to release you!"

"But you're a player!"

"What's wrong with a player?"

"Players can take monsters as Companions right? If you take me, I'll be able to follow you outside!" (*)

Ha! Fortune fell from the sky!

Still, I pretended to be reluctant about it. "But I got two Companions already! You may already know, that we have limited chances, if I take you with me I'll need to use one of them! That's not fair for me!"

I peeked at Phiona. She's considering it, which means I actually got a chance.

Then it seems she just made a hard decision. "Okay! Do you need a mount? I'll introduce my friend to you! He's fast mind you. I never managed to beat him in any races!"

My heart is already bumping with delight on the inside, but I still kept a stern face. "A mount is nice but that will take up another of my slot! I'll agree if you can juuust give me something else!"

"Sure. Wait here, I'll be back!"

Then she dived into the lava.

...I feel like I'm trying to trick a little girl into giving me her candies.

She came out not long after, and is now holding a bunch of stuff in her claws. "This is all I have! If they're still not enough then I can't do anything about it!" She feels a little depressed.

I checked over the goods. Most of them are junk, but I still managed to dig out a single outstanding piece. It's a gem which is meant to be inserted into equipments.

[Ultimate Fire Gem], 75% Fire resistance, skill [Summon Flame Hornets], summoned amount = player level x2.

Ah, I'm level 200 now so I can summon 400 hornets. They are only level 100 but that amount is enough to scare off people! It's a pity none of my current equipment got any gem slot, though.

"Alright! Stand--I mean stay still, I'll capture!"

"Sure thing!"

-----------

(*) ♪Gotta catch'em all♪