Chapter 172 Mission Start
Chapter 172 Mission Start
Hearing the name of the shopkeeper, Arthur was intrigued.
"Melcher is an old Adventurer too." Fredric informed thinking that Arthur didn't know.
"I see… its good that we have more strong people. We'll need as many as we can gather." Arthur nodded his head.
"The entirety of the Adventurer's Guild will be helping as well." Caleb chimed in.
"Of course." Fredric agreed.
By the time Arthur was done talking to the two, Alchemist Lugan had already returned.
"Here it is," The old man presented a box to Arthur.
Upon opening it, Arthur saw four balls inside it. Each of the balls was grey in color and was about the size of an orange. At the top of the ball, one could see a thick bulge that looked like a candle head.
To this a wick was attached that was nearly ten inches long!
"Isn't that… a little too long?" Arthur was surprised by the wick's length.
"I've kept it long to adjust the explosion time. You can cut the wick if you wish to reduce the time. Every inch that you cut will reduce the fuse time by 3 minutes.
If you keep the entire wick, the explosion will be triggered in 30 minutes." Alchemist Lugan explained.
Hearing that, Arthur was pleased.
"This is good. It'll give me plenty of time to escape." Arthur replied. 'They'll be more than enough too. I might even be able to keep the extras.' He thought.
>Player Arzhur has obtained Mid quality Incendiary Bomb! X 4<
He stored the box in his bag safely, hoping no damage would come to it. After all, if the bombs exploded in his bag, it would be quite fatal for him.
"Bring it," Fredric also asked the guards to bring the other item that Arthur had asked.
A minute later, the guards returned with a tube like object. It was made of metal and had a small wick at the bottom. Unlike the wick of the bomb, this was just an inch long.
At the top of it, there was a cap covering it that seemed to be made out of thick paper.
"Just ignite the bottom fuse and point it up. We'll be able to see the flare then." Captain Fredric explained.
>Player Arzhur has obtained a Signal Flare!<
"Thank you."Arthur also stored the flare in the bag.
With all the items gathered, Arthur was now ready to leave.
"If everything goes well, you'll probably see the flare at night." Arthur informed them.
"We'll be watching at all times." Fredric assured.
"Good luck!" Alchemist Lugan and Caleb wished him.
Having said his farewell, Arthur quickly left the town and went towards Trunel Woods.
'At least the Trunel Woods are closer. If it were Ocher Plains, it would take me several hours just to get there.' Arthur thought to himself.
The hideout of Dozla's Bandits was deep in the Trunel Woods. While getting there would still take a few hours, it wasn't as problematic for Arthur as he already knew where they were.
In the past, the players had attacked the hideout as a quest and thus it was rather well documented. But that wasn't the only thing that Arthur needed to do.
'Finding the Hideout is just the first thing. I also need to look for the Orcs… and to incite them, I need something else too.' Arthur went over the plan in his mind.
He needed to ensure that the Orcs attacked the Bandits and to do that; he needed something that they could focus their anger on. If Arthur just faced them head on and fought them, they would only end up targeting him.
While the Orcs weren't exactly smart, they could still differentiate between different foes. Things could go very wrong if he didn't do it properly.
As such, his first course of action was to first find the Hideout of the Bandits.
"Come out, Brambles," Arthur summoned his pet.
"Kriii~" Brambles looked around the forest and felt it familiar.
"Time for us to find some bandits. Can you tell me if you sense any of them?" Arthur asked.
"Kri!" The beetle replied in affirmation.
"Good! Now we just gotta kill all those that come in our way." Arthur said with enthusiasm.
After all, since they were in Trunel Woods, their journey wouldn't exactly be smooth.
And sure enough, just ten minutes later, they ended up coming across a familiar beast.
"Bone Blade Beasts again… Time to kill!" Without sparing a second, Arthur spurred into action.
His improved stats easily showed his superiority, and the Bone Blade Beast was barely able to react before getting hit.
[-70% HP]
[Critical Hit!]
[-30% HP]
[Fatal Hit!]
>Player Arzhur has killed a Bone Blade Beast!<
>Player Arzhur has obtained 1% Experience<
"Sure enough, the experience gain has fallen too." Arthur said as he looked at the notification.
He didn't mind it though as he knew he'll probably be getting a lot more later.
"Brambles, you kill all the foes that we come across now. It won't give me that many benefits." Arthur stated.
"KRRR!" Brambles was up for it and seemed excited too.
Since Arthur's Level was now at 18, the experience he gained from the Bone Blade beasts wasn't as good as before. Thus rather than him killing and getting a small amount of Experience, it made a lot more sense for Brambles to get it.
That way, the beetle would be able to level up faster too.
And sure enough, just an hour later, they had killed enough Bone Blade beasts that Brambles was already half way to the next level!
Along the way, Arthur hadn't been looting the beasts though as he didn't want to spend extra time on that. Plus, the extra loot he got from that would slow him down anyways.
'I'll always have time later, I suppose.' Arthur thought to himself.
By now, the duo of Master and Beast had reached the middle area of the Trunel Woods. This was about the same depth Arthur had come to find the Black Root Hemlock before.