“I also think I’ll like it. Let’s hear it,” Almond said, smiling.
“So here’s the plan. Since I’m going to League of Firefly, and you will surely come with me to the same city, I’ll arrange for cheaper Rare-grade items with the guild’s help. We can live together in the new city,” Lily grinned. “The apartment I chose is big enough for two of us.”
“You will come with me, right?”
“I will come,” Almond grinned, his eyes hopeful and filled with anticipation about his future.
He had no one to call his own for a long time now. And no one to say farewell in this city. Living in academy dorms, he was a completely isolated student. He had spent most of his time with books and gathering information until nine days when he awakened and started training for Labyrinth, as he was already ready for a new, better future that he wanted to shape for himself.
“Hehe, for your information, I am also going with Lily,” Natalia said with a smug smile.
“Oh?” Almond was surprised.
“But she will be living with her grandparents,” Lily smiled as she patted Natalia’s head. “She can finally go there and live with her family.”
“Thanks to you,” Natalia side-hugged Lily, rubbing her cheeks onto hers.
“You seem happy about it, so all is well that do you well. Anyway, let’s start moving now. We’ll recover by the time we reach Briarwood Grove.”
“Yeah, let’s start moving,” Lily nodded.
The trio stood up and began walking out of the White Polan’s lair leisurely with Alfred at the back and Chimera Viperfiend at the front.
“Now I got three Boss Spirits, and there are only two more big bosses on the fairy mountain left, so that makes it five,” Almond smiled. “With these five, I’ll put the fifteen other Spirits in the Spirit Kodoku.”
“That’s going to be one hell of a crazy Spirit Wraith,” Natalia grinned.
“I am looking forward to it,” Lily said, nodding. “That said, you are sufficiently powerful to be recruited by top guilds. How about you join League of Firefly with me? I’ll talk to my mentor about it. Since we are going to live together anyway.”
“Guild, huh…I did plan to join one because having a guild could help me, but that was when I had that D-rank support class,” Almond’s eyes glinted. “I shouldn’t join a guild.”
Natalia blinked and asked as she raised her eyebrows, “Yo, boss. Do you want to create your own guild?”
“No, I have a better idea,” Almond smiled. “I can’t create a guild. You need to be a Platinum-rank Adventurer as the guild master and need at least five Gold-rank Adventurers as members to start a guild and register it to GAA.”
“What’s your idea?” Lily asked, curious.
“I am planning…”
…
The party eventually walked out of the White Polan’s lair right as Almond finished talking about his plan.
“That’s a good idea, huh…If I am not recruited in the League of Firefly, I’ll join your program,” Natalia said with a nod, her eyes glinting, “That’s seriously a good plan.”
Lily nodded. “True. It won’t be hard to find people who will ride on that program of yours. Especially in the current generation where youths want to become Adventurers, but not everyone gets a good start, either with a class or their background.”
“Yeah, the death toll is less than starting, but it’s increasing for those who graduated since last year,” Almond admitted, his fist clenching. “I had the worst category start, but it changed like someone flipped a coin in my favor. If I flip coins for others who had a bad start with my class, specifically the Spirit Forge Factory skill, I can get good soldiers.”
“Lord Almond, banzai,” Natalia cheered. “I am kinda excited since we are friends, but envious of your class, tsk, tsk.”
Almond lightly laughed in response.
Lily and Natalia could feel and clearly agree that it wouldn’t be long before Almond became a solid force of power at the front.
‘I won’t be left behind,’ Lily glanced at Almond as her eyes turned fiery, ‘I’ll make sure to keep up with you, daarling~ ‘
“Alright, time to get muddy again,” Almond said as they arrived at the swamp wall.”
“If only it was just mud,” Natalia gagged. “It’s disgusting and smells too.”
“Yeah, it’s a mix of mud and some aquatic plant growth that turned into a natural chemical of some sort, creating this green-blue swamp,” Lily wryly smiled.
“We’ll get out faster this time,” Almond smiled and commanded Chimera Archfiend. “Alfred, you go and take Chimera with you. Once you are at on the surface, hook your one snake hand at the edge to remain above, and stretch your three snake hands to here to pull us.”
Chimera Viperfiend’s four arms could stretch up to 20 meters, and the distance from here to the surface was merely thirteen meters.
According to Almond’s command, both Alfred and Chimera went up first before three snake arms entered the passage after a minute.
Almond, Lily, and Natalia grabbed an arm each before Chimera pulled them up as they swiftly tore through the mud pond and emerged.
After cleaning themselves again with the 1-ton water pouch, the party started moving towards Briarwood Grove.
They arrived there after an hour, and there were monsters on the way.
Almond killed two new varieties of wandering monsters of the mountain, but they were silver level 4 and 5, respectively.
‘Time to test Spirit Devour.’
[You have devoured Silver level 4 Blue Flame Deer Spirit.]
[You have gained 0 stat points.]
Although he expected that, he still felt a bit disappointed.
‘Next try.’
[You have devoured silver level 5 Green Flame Stag.]
[You have gained 0 stat points.]
‘Fuck.’
“It seems you didn’t get any from either,” Lily said as she saw Almond’s expression.
“Yeah. Geez, I want to see if I’ll get from level 6 and further. Briarwood Grove has monsters from levels 5 to 7, and there are no Boss-type monsters there like the previous three general areas. If I don’t get stats from level 6 or level 7 monsters there, then we’ll rush through it and go to Frostbite Cliffs.”
Almond opened his magic parchment and zoomed towards Frostbite cliffs.
***
[Fairy Mountain]—Major Location.
1. Nest of Willowbees—Bronze rank level 7 – 10
2. Cavern of Glassblaze Bears—Silver rank level 1-3
3. The Shimmering Fen—Silver rank level 3 – 5
4. Briarwood Grove—Silver rank level 5 – 7.
5. Frostbite Cliffs—Silver rank level 7 to 10.
-Secret Areas on the mountain:
—> White Polan’s Lair—Silver rank level 1 to 10.
-Field Bosses on the mountain:
—> Blade Mantis—Bronze rank level 10.
—> Maddening Beaver—Silver rank level 5.
—> Wandering Fairy—Silver rank level 10.
***
“Here, there’s a hidden boss in the Frostbite Cliffs. It’s been exposed for years, but due to the difficulty of getting there because of the risk of falling off to death, not many parties try to go there,” Almond said with a ferocious grin. “We’ll hunt it. That’s a must.”
“Of course. That hidden boss drops a random skill from rank D to A rank with a 100% guarantee,” Lily grinned back. “With our party, we can defeat it easily.”
“Damn, there’s a boss like that?” Natalia was startled.
“Yep, but people actually die before getting to the boss. That’s why it is a famous death trap. Usually, only high-ranking Adventurers go there. Even if they are suppressed to silver level 5 stats of their past self, their skills are not. So with some good skills’ help, they can reach there.”
“We can reach there, all thanks to Chimera Viperfiend,” Almond grinned. “And the boss is not even as hard as White King Manticore.”
“Yep. And…we have arrived,” Lily observed ahead.
Briarwood Grove stretched before them, dotted with yellow flowers covered in sharp spikes and trees bearing large, prickly yellow fruits that dangled from high branches.