Sky World Vol 2 Chapter 2.08

VOLUME 2

Chapter 2: The Curse of the Pyramid
Part 8

Running was a spell that allowed a group to move twice as fast. With movement speed increasing spells from rear line cla.s.ses like black magicians, white magicians, druids, and oracles, a group could continue moving quickly for a very long time, unless a member of the group took any aggro. Though summoners also possessed a spell with the same effect, other support cla.s.ses only had a few movement increase spells at their disposal, such as Marathon Song for bards and Polymorph, an ability of druids.

Jun’s group sped up their progress by Running. From afar, it looked as if they were speeding through.

It took them almost four days to reach the Pyramid of the Penglai Emperor from the southern tip of the city of Payang.

“First of all, why is there even an appraisal skill quest in a pyramid?” Eri tilted her head, perplexed, as they sprinted through the gra.s.slands. “There should be other hidden quests.”

The phrase “hidden quest” encompa.s.sed two meanings. One consisted in a quest that an adventurer could not receive easily because it was hidden on the island somewhere unreachable by normal means. Those quests were still shown in the quest list though, thus confirming their existence.

The other meaning was for a quest that was not shown on the quest list. These were quests that were not known until they were completed.

The quest Jun’s group had in mind now was a quest of the latter variety, at least until a flag got triggered. If n.o.body had reached the maximum level for the appraisal skill, the quest would not have even been discovered.

“Could it be that this isn’t the only appraisal skill cap increase quest?” wondered Jun.

The quest had an aura of mystery about it. It appeared magnificent. Jun trembled in excitement.

“Jun, you’re crazy…”

“Somebody is bad-tempered.”

Yukaria and Eri’s eyes met each other with scowls.

“Leave me alone. Hey, Ryuka, do you have any other information about the quest?”

“From what I heard, the ghost of the emperor should appear.”

“G-ghost?!” Kasumi raised her voice hysterically.

“Even if we say it’s a ghost, at best, it’s just some monster that looks like a spirit.” Eri chuckled, calming Kasumi down. Ryuka even nodded her head in agreement.

“It’s probably something like that. The ghost of Penglai seems like it’d approach you with something like ‘Grant my wish’ …”

“So the quest involves granting one of the ghost’s requests?”

Chain quests commonly had a lot of monster extermination quests in a row. Hidden quests shouldn’t have been too different.

“The people who discovered this quest brought the ghost of Penglai to the middle of the pyramid. If that’s how it happened the ghost could disappear at any time. Their message said that if we investigate quickly, we might be able to unlock a higher appraisal skill cap.”

“So there’s a flag somewhere in the pyramid that can be triggered by bringing an NPC to it… There sure is a lot I don’t know.”

“Uh, I’m sorry that you guys are coming with me for all this investigating.”

“No need to be sorry. We’ll definitely have fun in the process!” Jun made his hand firmly into a fist. “A mysterious quest… an unidentified flag… an unknown maze… I’m going to get a nosebleed.”

“You sure are a quest-maniac. Once you get like this, there’s nothing we can say to stop you. Ryuka, please be wary of this weirdo.”

“There’s no problem with that. Any weirdo that can be of use to me is a good weirdo.” Ryuka giggled. She was very excited about what would soon happen.

Undeveloped wastelands spanned across the northern parts of the island of Lao Thai. The monsters were all the more powerful. Back when Jun’s group had only consisted of three people, they surely would not have been able to survive long there. Either way, since they didn’t have any quests nearby, they traveled the area trying not to attract any monsters…

Since they avoided any monster attacks, they proceeded with their trip as planned. On the fifth morning, Jun’s group finally made it to the pyramid situated at the bottom of a deep valley on the edge of the wasteland.

At first glance, the structure, as big as any of the hills around there, was drowning in weeds. They couldn’t miss the fact that the area around the exquisite gates was all mossy.

Jun fiddled with his tablet in front of the gate. If this pyramid dated to the age of the ancient Penglai empire, the appraisal skill quest would be there. It had to be the Pyramid of the Penglai Emperor. For the time being, Jun explained how the appraisal skill worked.

“Having the appraisal skill is definitely useful.”

“But raising skill levels is a pain,” Yukaria said, echoing the popular opinion among adventurers.

“How long does it take to get a skill to level 100?” Kasumi inquired. Jun and Ryuka exchanged glances and tilted their heads thinking about how to answer.

“Hmm, maybe like 100 hours?”

“Yeah, sounds about right.”

“A h-hundred hours… I’ve definitely spent more time on it than that,” muttered Eri, chiming in.

“Me too…” added Yukaria.

It would only take twenty days if I were to appraise items for five hours each day before sleeping.

Adventurers could manage with holding back and only sleeping three hours a night, only being a little bit tired during the day. Perhaps they would keep on wondering whether that really was possible.

“By the way, Jun, your cooking and alchemy skills are also at level 100 right? Was the time well spent?”

“I’ve maxed out gathering, sewing, handicraft, and gem-working. But I haven’t done smithing yet.”

Skilling was difficult. It required a lot of monetary investment. Jun remembered. He had to buy tons of expensive jewels and use them up very quickly. It was h.e.l.l. He never wanted to experience that again. At any rate, expensive diamonds disappeared, one by one.

After he finished leveling up gemworking, he earned a considerable amount of money making enchanted gemstones for other adventurers.

“…Just as I thought. Jun, you’re a nutjob.”

“It’s natural. Nothing special about that. Everybody does it.”

“I don’t do it. I don’t.” Eri shook her hand back and forth, shocked.

“Really? But the time spent really isn’t that bad. You can use other skills while waiting for each skill’s cooldown to elapse. Besides, there’s no end to the knowledge you can get out of it. If you’re the type that can’t focus his or her energy just for that, then you really are a huge procrastinator.”

“That type’s also the kind that can’t stay holed up in a library… Your willingness is quite weird. In addition, in order to just get your alchemy skills to 100, you need your own private area to work…”

“Alchemy is necessary to complete a lot of quests. Won’t you be annoyed if you trigger the flags for those quests that you can’t even do?”

Though he was insisting strongly on his point of view, the prospects were not looking up. Kasumi and Ryuka stared motionlessly at Jun.

“My, my, you guys aren’t very cultured at all.”

“…If I responded to that with a witty retort, you’d be upset.” Eri groaned as she placed her hand on her eyebrows.