Chapter 60: [Arc 2] Chapter 17: To the Jungle!

In the dark office, a frail maiden was on her knees and hands while the wicked mastermind flaunted the weakness he had on her.

"Hey, you're thinking of something rude, I know it. So stop sulking and accept the damn Quest already!" - Carion

We're currently in the messy office of the Union Master. The rest of my group is busy checking out their new clothes.

I don't know how, but that damn elf has acquired a photo of me... during my time as a brat yesterday. I turned back after falling asleep, but if that photo gets spread around, my reputation's gonna drop like Heavymetal in the water! Heavymetal's a special type of metal that's damn heavy by the way, if you didn't get it from the name.

"...Fine. What do you want?" - Garami

"Glad that you asked! It's a simple thing of finding a lost pet... what's wrong? Your eyes look dead." - Carion

A lost pet? My reputation is worth equal to some hairball with legs? Are you f*cking with me?

"Let me finish before you lose your motivation. The person who owns the pet in question is a man with influence in this city. He's a Migrant, someone who arrived at Terra Sol from a different world. Details aside, this guy started to gain lots of influence with the Merchant Union due to his Extra Skill that he obtained when traveling through the worlds." - Carion

Oh yeah, the Kigal-Note also mentioned that under the "Migrant" page. Something about them obtaining 5 random skills, some that may even be Extra-quality. These are unique in that only Migrants can get them.

"Since the Merchant Union wants to stay on that guy's good side, they're paying a fine reward for whoever can bring the cat back safely. A reward big enough to hire both you, one of the few available and trustworthy Advance-tier Scouts in town, in addition to Mira Aureola, who is one of the best we have for finding lost persons." - Carion

Huh, so we're famous now. There's something that I got curious about there.

"Cat?" - Garami

"That's right. More specifically, the cat you encountered yesterday." - Carion

Now I see...

"That's the main reason why we're selecting you guys for the job. You've already encountered the cat and the villain that took it, so you have first-hand knowledge of what you're looking for. That, and I feel you guys are the best choice for this job, considering the direction that... card-human was heading towards." - Carion

The Union Master opened up a map of the region to point out the place of the job... that place? Hmm...

---

The next day, we went towards the harbor where the Union Master's supposed to have fixed a ship to take us to where the cats (hopefully) were kept.

Oooohhh... I just love the upgraded Dark Weaver set. Unlike before, it's a proper "Prototype" instead of an "Inferior Prototype". The rarity has gone from Rare (Ra) to Epic (Ep), it loses less Durability now, and it's so damn nicer to wear. Even the Durability increased a little. Not that it needs to~.

Other than that: NO CHANGES!

Even the design's the same. Neither I nor Waylin knows what the design is supposed to be anyway. Guess we need to search through some weaver-related Dungeons after the blueprints or something~. And additional materials. 

Ice-guy has the same style as before, but the color scheme is dark grey with streaks of light-blue as decoration. Looks kinda sci-fi, except the blue's matte and not glowing. The whole set's classified as light armor now thanks to the added leather protectors. He's a tank-type who needs movability to use his weapon after all.

The fallen angel looks not that different, but her outfit's radically changed. She's traded her one-piece dress for a silver vest with blue lining around the ends, detached sleeves with the same color scheme, a dark-grey skirt, and black knee boots. Her wings are sticking out from the gap between the vest and the skirt. She's got x-marks fashioned after crosses decorating parts of her outfit, such as on the sleeves and her boots and one on the black choker around her neck.

Mira's attire's basically the same as before, with some changes. Her "coat" has been traded for a revealing dress with the skirt-part separated into three clothes, one in front and two on each side. She's wearing a short skirt that's got more length than before (tch!), thigh-high armored boots, and fingerless gloves.

The whole outfit is black with white- and golden lining, the metal-armor pieces, and the short, dark-grey jacket, again with the golden lining. She also has several belts like Ice-guy. The difference is that hers are golden and black, as opposed to Ice-guy's dark-grey, and she's got three of them.

"Garami, shouldn't you walk in front instead of behind? You're the one with the map." - Mira

Whoops, she's right. I acted a little more like a leader and took charge leading them to where we should meet Carion.

And one lanky elf located! That was easy. And he's got some strange guy with him. Don't tell me...

Active Skills: Passive Skills: Resistance Skills: Perception Skills: Leadership Skills: Extra Skills: Status Titles:

This guy's the owner of the cat we're after. Marcus Pollen. A tall, lean man in his late twenties/early thirties, with dark-brown hair and lightly tanned skin. His name makes me think about that famous merchant/explorer from Earth. According to the rumors, he's only relying on special Quests and titles to get his EXP to where it is today.

So, why's he here, dressed up like an old-time archeologist, with a Boonie hat and vest? All he's missing is a comically large backpack of some kind to complete the look.

"Hey, who's that guy who looks like he would let loose the waterworks at any moment" whispered Mira to me, noticing the tears that's been gradually building up in the eyes of the man in his later twenties. 

"Garami, this is Marcus Pollen... but you probably already knew that. He's going to come with you on this Quest." - Carion

"...Why? Won't he only be in the way?" asked the fallen angel, which made Pollen turn even more depressed.

"I get what you are telling me, but is there someone else more fitting to find the cat than their own owner?" - Carion

"Even if you say-!" - Noire

"Maneko." - Garami

"-that, eh? We are going after one of those? Then he can join." - Noire

Hey, ain't you changing your mind a little too fast? I understand why though. Mira's in the same boat, considering her nodding along with the fallen angel's decision. Only Ice-guy looks confused over our attitude.

"Maneko. Super-lucky cat-shaped demon. And clever. Used me as a shield yesterday." - Garami

"Y-yes, that is Milo! He is always so kind and smart... oh, why did you have to walk so far on your daily walk around town, Miloooo!" - Marcus Pollen

Crap, he started bawling. Just how much does he love his cat... demon-cat?

"I-I see... Having the owner with us will make the Quest much easier. A lucky break for the cat would be to return home after all..." - Alf

You're not sounding confident there, Ice-guy. Cats are fickle creatures, gotta admit that. But I think even that guy will choose his old owner over some random card-soldier that kidnapped him. If not, then this Quest is gonna be a tough one...

---

Disembark! We've reached our destination! The wild, blood-tingling, nature-calling Tree Sea Isle! And boy it's overgrown! The trees are the size of buildings...

We said our farewells to the boatman who got us here. We can't have him die on us for waiting in a danger-filled area like this place. We've got our hands full with Marc. Ah, that's the Maneko-owner. He asked us to call him that.

So, where's Milo? This place's a big jungle, so the faster we find him and his 2-D kidnapper, the better. Not that I have anything against being here for a little while longer than necessary. A jungle's a treasure box of living creatures, meaning tons of new blueprints for undeads!

There's a lot of paths made by the adventurers that frequently visit the island and animal tracks, but the Union told us to stay clear of them as much as possible.

The inhabitants are at average rank-E, which is better when compared to the likes living on the Little Wasteland island (50/50 of rank E and D) or Mayhem Isle, which is a den of rank-D and above. Mira said she made her greatsword with materials from a D-rank drake she and a band of adventurers had killed on that island. 

Even if it's mostly E-ranks here, you'll never know when you're gonna meet the heads of the many herds. And we've got a deadweight to take care of as well. 

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"How are we supposed to find that cat? This place is the smallest island, but it is still too big for just five to search on our own." - Noire

Thank you for asking!

"Make a base, wait for the night, kill monsters in the meanwhile, then use the Skeleton Rats to map the forest. We will go to where the cat's likely to be with Marc when the sun rises again." - Garami

Mira and Marc looked a little confused when I mentioned the Rats, but Ice-guy and the fallen angel can fill them in. They're used to my mapping strategy from the time in the sewers.

He-he-he. Watch out, jungle monsters. You're soon to be part of my undead army!

We walked across the outskirts of the forest, looking for a smart place to place the camp. It didn't take too long, as there have been other adventurers who had similar ideas to us and made an area by the beach where anyone can make their camp there. It's guarded with walls made of solid wood and rocks.

Unfortunately, it's preoccupied when we found it.

"Gorillas?!" - Mira

There's a gorilla, gorilla, gorilla here. And I'm not using any scientific names here. It's literally three gorillas, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. After Identifying them, I found out they're called Gorilutangus, a Primate Beast-type monster.

They look like regular, old gorillas, but their arms are so overgrown and muscular that they're walking with their arms instead of their too-short legs. They feel like gorillas with the limbs of orangutans, then they went to a bodybuilder center that only focuses on arms. Like, for years without pause. They're even walking around on their knuckles instead of their feet. That's telling something.

Status-vise, they're around 250 on average, 450 if we ignore magic-related abilities. They also got some nasty and hard-hitting skills, plus some stamina-related ones. In other words, a hit-hard-and-endure-everything type.

"Mira, Ice-guy, take care of one each. I'll finish the last one." - Garami

"Sure... wait, what?!" - Alf

"Okay~." - Mira

Ice-guy's a little late in following the situation but Mira's happily charging forward to the gorilla of her choice.

We're not gonna sell those, got it? They're for necromancy-related business. Those muscular bodies gotta give me a good chunk of material! If I find out how to remove the smell, then gorilla zombies are gonna make for a great meatwall.

Mira dashed and cut at the closest gorilla... which unexpectedly dodged the slash. She had chosen the sole gorilla with the [Evasion] skill, and at a high level.

She tried to strike the gorilla with her explosion-like attack, which is her using the [Lightforce Shield] in a shield-bash-like manner. The gorilla dodged. Damn, that guy's using the skill to its full potential.

"Grr, stay in one place, you mountain of meat!" - Mira

The gorilla did as Mira asked and stayed in one place... only to pick up one of the boulders making up the wall with one hand, then throwing it at Mira.

"What the f*ck!?" - Mira

I whole-heartily agree.

Mira stopped moving when she saw what the gorilla was planning to do and made a stance with the greatsword in front of her. The boulder hit the sharp edge of the sword and got divided in half. I saw that silver arm of yours right there, missy!

The boulders flew past Mira, with one of them almost hitting the gorilla that attacked Ice-guy while Mira was busy. The other half almost got Ice-guy, who dodged... only for the rock almost squashing the fallen angel and Marc. They had to jump outta the way.

"Be more careful where you pass those things!" - Noire

"Sorry, sorry~... Garami?!" - Mira

Oh, guess they noticed what I've been busy with.

The moment Mira dashed for the [Evasion]-gorilla, I did the same with the gorilla with the highest stats.

I nimbly jumped on the walls and boulders around the area and threw throwing daggers and broken glass that I had stored in the [Spatial Storage] to get the big gorilla's attention. It worked wonders. 

The big gorilla chased after me, so I tried to throw some webbing at him to trap him in place. I got his arms... or not. The big gorilla caught the threads with his hands and is using it, and me, as a flail now. If I let go now, I'll be sent skywards!

And we're back to the present. HELP MEEEEE!!

"Wait a sec! I'm coming now-, buzz off already!" - Mira

The [Evasion]-gorilla's in the way of Mira. And Ice-guy and the rest are on the defensive with the last gorilla. 

I tried to jump with [Sky Jump]... it worked?! The skill completely killed the momentum from the gorilla. I made a quick backspin and landed on my feet. Before the gorilla could start again, I closed the distance with [Blink] and used the Assassination Art "Backstab" on its neck, the place with the least amount of muscles. 

The gorilla made a scream due to the sudden (seriously sudden) pain in its neck. It's not only the dagger that's hurting it but also the poison on it, generated from the combo of [Poison Bite] and [Poison Coating]. Let's add some Aura, just for the kicks.

And... the gorilla's feeling more than a little kicked. The dagger could barely penetrate the thick skin and fur, but it still applied the poison and Aura to the gorilla. The gorilla's HP bar dropped visibly, but not dramatically.

When did my poison get so potent? Or is it that the gorilla's low RES is preventing it from doing a good job? Oh, crap!

I dodged a swing from one of the gorilla's long arms. This guy's not... monkeying around? Sorry for the bad pun. But hey, these guys are rank Ds at a field where rank Es are the norm. Them not going down that easily's something you can't count on.

His stats are going down nicely as well thanks to the Evil Eye. I wanted to root this guy, but the threads aren't working for some reason. Damn that [Oily Fur] skill! To think there was such a countermeasure against my threads!

I kept on parrying and blocking the gorilla's large arms when the opportunity arises. Mira said that having all three of [Guard], [Parry], and [Evasion] unlocks a new skill, but most people only take one or two of them. The plan's to get [Parry] at least to Lv.Max on this trip, then [Guard] back home if I didn't clear that one. 

Little by little, the gorilla's strength left its swings as the poison and curse sapped its stamina and will strength. Time to finish this?

Or, the poison does the job instead. And 2 levels? Ah, I was the last one to finish. Urgh, here comes Ice-guy. And he looks furious. As for the others... Mira tries to imitate the air. The fallen angel just looks exhausted. And that Marc guy's... already setting up the camp? 

Hey, Ice-guy? Shouldn't you take a page from Marc? No? This is gonna end in another scolding, right? Daaaaamn...

Description:

The Merchant is a class dedicated to the sales of items, no matter the kind. Merchants specialized in selling certain types of products naturally exist, but the only class related to purchases and sales is Merchant alone.

The class grants skills related to transporting wares, negotiations and deals, and skills for presenting their wares in a distinguished and positive manner. A Merchant must also have a good eye for both deals and wares, an ability the class owner needs to take of themselves.

Marc's comment: That last part is luckily not so difficult for me.

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