Chương 179: Hidden Quests

Damion's sword flashed through the air and buried itself in Lucas Fontane's chest before Mage Blanche could cast another Ice Wall. The look of rage on Mage Blanche's face told Damion he had managed to severely anger the B Rank mage. The team of eight, including three traitors from his original team, had failed miserably to kill one C Rank mage. Making no attempt to recover his Ice Sword, Damion cast several Ice Shards towards Mage Blanche but was not surprised when each of them was batted aside by the B Rank Mage.

The attacks did distract Mage Blanche enough that the B Rank goblin landed a blow on the rogue mage's leg. Forced to turn his attention back to the goblins, Mage Blanche did not notice when Damion jumped on top of the Ice Wall and dove off, crashing into Mage Grier who had just killed a goblin with a Whirlwind Sphere, leaving only three goblins. Damion and Grier rolled across the burnt forest floor, each struggling to pin the other. Unknown to Grier, Damion was just playing for time.

He had long since activated Mana Absorption to replenish his mana reserves to keep going in this fight and now that he had physical contact with Mage Grier, Damion was draining him fast. Not long after their wrestling match had begun, Mage Grier collapsed from mana exhaustion and a moment later Damion sucked him dry. Just as Damion had learned from the Magic System years ago, mages cannot live without mana. Once Mage Grier's mana was siphoned, the Wind mage's heart stopped.

Mage Blanche did not even notice Damion and Grier's struggle; he was too busy fending off the B Rank goblin. Now that he was injured, he was having trouble keeping up his defenses against a B Rank and two C Rank goblins. Damion knew that Mage Blanche might still be able to flee if he tried, so he acted quickly. Filled with confidence after killing Mage Grier with the spell, he launched himself at Mage Blanche, catching the B Rank mage around his knees.

The moment Damion made physical contact his Mana Absorption spell started draining Mage Blanche's mana, weakening him quickly. The force of his lunge had knocked the rogue Ice mage to the ground and before Damion's attack could fully drain him, the goblins stabbed Mage Blanche in the neck, causing him to bleed out almost as fast as Damion was siphoning his mana. When Damion felt the struggle fade from Mage Blanche, he deactivated Mana Absorption and rolled off the B Rank corpse.

Sitting up and taking a look around, Damion saw the B Rank goblin and the last two C Rank goblins looking at him strangely. He was careful not to make any sudden moves. Now that Blanche and the others were dead, he was not sure how long the unspoken alliance between him and the goblins would last.

"Grislan," the B Rank goblin said pointing to itself.

"Grislan." The goblin then pointed its long fingers towards Damion expectantly.

"Damion," he said tapping his fingers to his chest.

"Akin et tulongan mo kami?" Grislan asked Damion.

"I don't understand," Damion answered.

"Pinatey mo so dilin klase mo," Grislan said. Damion had no idea what the goblin was saying. But he felt it was likely either questioning why Damion helped it kill Mage Blanche and the others or why humans attack goblins as at all.

"They tried to kill me first and were not nice people," Damion told the goblin. Damion doubted the goblin understood anything he was saying, but there was always a chance. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"Mila ka ed inatey mo," Grislan said flicking his hand at Damion and the human corpses strewn about.

"You want me to take my dead?" Damion asked cautiously. Grislan nodded and then turned and leapt away before Damion could ask any follow up questions. As soon as the goblins were out of sight, Damion heard the Magic System alert him to notifications. Ding {Hidden Quest Completed} [Quest: Learn a new language] [Description: You have heard enough of Pangan, the goblin's language to decipher a few words and have been granted full knowledge of the language.] [Reward: 100 Experience, 1, 000 Store Credit] Ding {Hidden Quest Revealed} [Quest: Learn the Truth of Magic] [Description: Now that you have confirmed that the races found in Realm Breaches are intelligent. Search for the truth of the Realm Breaches.] [Reward: 1000 Experience, 100, 000 Store Credit] Ding [Spell Ice Sword mastery increased to E Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credits] Ding [Spell Ice Sword mastery increased to D Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credits] Ding [Spell Ice Wall mastery increased to E Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credits] Ding [Spell Ice Shard mastery increased to C Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credits] Ding [Spell Ice Shield mastery increased to C Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credits] Ding [Spell Mana Absorption mastery increased to B Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credits] As the quest completion notifications rolled through his head Damion felt a bit of a headache as it all crashed into him.

4, 000 Store Credits at once. Not to mention he had managed to Rank up Ice Sword twice from the battle.

'To think I was once worried about earning credits for the Magic System's Shop.' Damion thought as he added up his gains.

'Wait, System, what is this about hidden quests?' {Hidden Quests are only revealed once host has acquired enough knowledge to undertake them or has inadvertently completed them.}'I'd figured that much out myself thanks,' Damion snapped at the Magic System which remained silent.

'I've managed to learn the goblin language, but the goblins ran off and I somehow feel it wouldn't be a good idea to chase after them. Better to collect everyone's bodies and see if I can find where Blythe ran off to.' The first body Damion went to was Tray Fontane. He remembered well when they were in the desert dungeon in Saung, and the young man had stolen the corpse of a Scorch Asp from him and stored it in his spatial ring.

Damion had never cared about the value of the Demonic Beast; he cared about the spoiled mage's spatial artifact. Damion plucked the ring from the dead mage's finger and put it on his own hand. After channeling a bit of mana into the ring, He quickly understood how it worked. Focusing his will on the ring while channeling mana into it, Damion was able to examine the few items the mage had in the artifact.

A few healing potions and a few Demonic Beast cores, but otherwise the ring's three cubic meters of storage space was mostly empty. Damion began storing the bodies of all his opponents in them, but he left the corpses of the goblins. Now that he understood the language, he knew Grislan had said to take his dead and go, to him that meant he should take just the human corpses and leave the goblin ones. Damion did not know why, but he had a strange feeling it was important to the goblin, so he left their dead.

From Lucas Fontane's corpse, Damion took another spatial artifact. The brothers were so spoiled it did not surprise him that their father had to buy one for each of them. Inside Lucas' ring he found roughly the same basic adventurer items.

Mage Blanche did not have a spatial artifact, but Damion thought that was normal, such valuable items were usually reserved for A Rankers or the filthy rich, though Damion was surprised the Fontane brothers had managed to hang onto theirs for so long, he would have thought they would have lost them due to showing them off.