Chapter 353: Smus, the Second Test – 1
The dragon that Ian was stuck to, was literally soaring high into the sky.
And that brought up a surge of excitement that no amusement park could ever provide.
“Eu ahh ahhh!”
Ian was screaming in the middle of the air.
He was barely hanging onto the back of the dragon with his eyes shut.
If he didn’t do that, then he would’ve probably plummeted into the ground, which was why he was holding onto the dragon as hard as he could.
“How far up are you nning to go?!”
Ian asked the flying dragon, by opening his eyes due to the anxious thoughts that were growing in his head.
And soon regretted doing it.
The reason was they had flown past the clouds, and nothing could be seen beneath them.
Really high.
With that sight, sweat started flowing down Ian’s spine.
“This, this is crazy…!!”
Irrespective of the cry from Ian, the dragon still began to move further up.
Prrrng-!
Was it around thirty minutes or so?
By the times Ian’s energy was exhausted, the speed of the flying dragon began to slow down and then managed to stop.
Ian without letting go of the dragon’s back, opened his eyes to confirm the halt in movement.
And confirmed it because of the amazing sight that was spread in front of his eyes.
“Wha, what is this?”
It was natural for Ian to get flustered.
The reason was simple, till now he had been rising into the sky as if reaching out to heaven, and the sight that unfolded in front of him was like another earth.
And at the same time, a system message appeared making Ian’s curiosity settle.
Tring –
[You are the first to discover the Earths Sky, ‘Smus Inds’.]
[Obtained 150,000 fame.]
[The forgotten pets of Smus have started to look at you.]
Ian’s eyes went wide.
‘Earths Sky? So, is this a floating ind in the sky?’
Ian started toe down on the back of the flying dragon and turned his head in all directions to get a better view.
And was able to realize that…
Right behind was a sky full of white clouds!
If Ian does ten footsteps, then he could be falling down an endless cliff.
And the flying dragon who had been closely watching the movements of Ian rose its body slowly.
And once again the voice of the dragon could be heard inside Ian’s mind.
[Follow me from here. It will be nice if we aren’tte.]
“Huh…?”
And the dragon opened its gigantic wings atop Ian and rose into the air again.
And the confusion made Ian flustered once again.
‘What, what? How do you expect me to follow if you fly?!’
It could have been possible if he was able to summon his familiars like Pin or Karceus, but he couldn’t do that now.
“No way… shouldn’t I have gotten off?”
But Ian knew that wasn’t the case.
The flying dragon moved into the top floor of a tower in the middle of the Celeste ground.
And it would have been possible to move by foot if the tower was on the same ind, and not on a different ind.
And another message came up in front of Ian’s eyes.
Tring-
[The first test has been initiated.]
[Within the time limit, you must reach the top floor, the Dragon’s room on the 10th floor of the Smus Tower.]
[Time Left: 02:59:59]
[If you fail to reach the destination in the given time limit, you will fail the quest and the quest will end automatically.]
The moment he read the message, Ian started to run without any more thoughts.
It was a triple S grade quest.
And he was assuming that there wouldn’t be a time limit for it.
* * *
“Have you got everything?”
In the conference room of the Pyro Manor.
Guild Master Herz was sitting in the foreground, looked around and asked,
Fin who was right next him answered,
“Ian hasn’te yet.”
“Have you sent a message?”
“Yes. It has been rejected, maybe he is doing another quest or something of that sort…?”
Herz, after listening to it shook his head.
He was needed to rest for a day or so, but to go out for a quest?
He still wasn’t much worried.
He hadn’t talked in advance about the ns, but Ian was very particr about the promises he made.
And the huge strategy such as the distribution of troops before the remaining war was discussed in the presence of Ian, and his presence wasn’t needed immediately.
Herz who felt that something was empty, got up.
‘By the way, a few more people need to being… where are they…?’
And then.
The door of the conference room opened with a huge sound.
“…?”
The gaze of the head of the Lotus Guild immediately moved to the direction of the conference room door, and footsteps could be heard.
What was weird was only the sound of the footsteps—but no one could be seen.
“What, What is it? is someone sneaking?”
But Herz knew exactly who was the oneing.
“Hoonie, you’vee?”
At the question of Herz, a ck wizard made his appearance on the table.
“HuHu… The ultimate ck Magician, KanjiHoonie has finally joined the battle.”
After saying a dramatic dialogue by ttering his hands, Hoonie disappeared and sat down in an empty seat!
One of the guild member among the members present there, looked at Hoonie with an irritated expression.
“Master, we have a kid in our guild too?”
Herz giggled at that question, and Hoonie just red at the man.
“A kid…! I’m the strongest warlock. The Master of the Immortal Monarchs of the Dark!”
“…?”
The guild member was so embarrassed that he couldn’t answer.
No one could even be in the guild, there weren’t many people who were aware of Hoonie.
It was the first time for Hoonie to join the guild and the first time for him toe over to it in an official manner.
So the guild members were looking at Herz and Fin, waiting for their answer about the kid, to which Herz smiled and nodded.
“This is a bit unusual, but he is definitely in our guild. And he has enoughpetence to attend the meeting.”
And someone from the hall mumbled,
“Oh, I get it… I think I’ve seen the name KanjiHoonie somewhere in the guild members list. I thought that he was a guy who uses two ID’s…”
Talks broke out in the guild members, which made Herz need to exin.
“And it is still unofficial for our Hoonie, but he is the 1st ranked user in the Warlock Ranking.”
“…!”
* * *
Kwang- Kwakwang-!
Inside the huge stone pagoda, a sound of something beating was being heard in session.
It was like a drum, was being split open.
“Get out of the way you bastards! There isn’t enough time!”
That- thatt-!
Ian waved the Judgement of the Spirit King and broke off the cobbles that were in front of him.
To be precise they weren’t cobbles, they were the guardians who were guarding the Smus Tower.
They were the Level 200, Forest Golems.
Kwang-!
Ian was shattering the heads of the Forest Golems and running straight ahead.
‘Okay, the cooldown time in back…’
Ian was checking the only skill that could be used, the skill of Smus Warrior.
As the test of the Smus tribe had begun, all the other skills except for the Smus skills had been sealed, so only one skill was avable.
However, that skill wasn’t enough to take care of the situation.
‘What kind of Triple S quest is this? Is it because it is still in the start?’
The monsters on the ground were all of level 200-210.
They were fragile monsters that fell down with a single strike from Ian.
As evidence of their weakness, Ian was already near the top of the tower, and it was just 30 minutes of the 3-hour time limit.
‘Or… the quest was limited to the level 200, maybe the level 300 wille in the end…?’
However, Ian wasn’t ready to rx until the end.
Whenever the quest was easy, it was always better to be full alert as the test could change.
[You have seeded in causing lethal damage to the Forgotten Guardian of Smus ‘Forest Golem’.]
[The vitality of Forest Golem has decreased by 497098.]
[You have seeded in defeating the Forest Golem.]
[Exp has increased by 879500.]
Kwong-!
Ian who moved past the golem had reached the 9th floor of the tower—from golem that was guarding thest floor and stepped into the stairway.
Intense sunshine was pouring down from the top of the stairs.
And a string presence could be felt, something that couldn’t bepared with what he had felt till now.
In that ce, Ian saw the face of the flying dragon.
* * *
“It has been a while, Ian.”
Ian’s eyes went big at the familiar voice.
And Ian immediately identified the owner of the voice from his memories.
“Eclipse…! It has been very long.”
There was an elderly gentleman with long white hair.
The short elderly man who was in the room wasn’t exactly a visual in the Kan world.
As soon as Ian found Eclipse, Ian instinctively checked the information that was floating on top of his head.
[Eclipse / Lv 285 / The summoner of the Smus Tribe]
And heughed.
‘What’s this, my level is higher now?’
The reason for Ian tough was that the level written was 285.
When he had first met Eclipse, the difference between their levels was more than 100, but now Ian’s level was higher.
Meanwhile, the level of Eclipse increased by 35, while Ian’s level increased by 150.
Which made Ian assume that the quest would be much easier than expected.
Eclipse stroked his beard and spoke,
“By the way… you’ve taken longer than what I thought. I thought that you would challenge the dragon right after the first one.”
Ian nodded and then opened his mouth,
“I waste as I had to prepare. As the sole sessor of the Smus, I shouldn’t let the tribe ancestors be disappointed.”
It was a bit different than what had happened, it was because he had way too many quests to do, but he couldn’t say that.
Eclipse nodded with a pleased expression listening to Ian’s answers.
“Indeed… I believe you, you’ll never let down the expectations of the ancestors.”
“Thanks, Eclipse.”
At that moment, a system message appeared in front of Ian’s eyes.
Tring –
[You have sessfully cleared the first test of the Flying Dragon’s Altar.]
[Duration: 00:39:27 / 03:00:00]
[Clear rating: SSS]
[Since you have cleared the quest with SSS, you will be given the right reward.]
[Obtained the item ‘Smus Skillbook’.]
[You have earned fame of 250,000.]
As expected to the clearance rating of the quest came out with a MAX, and Ian’s mouth turned to a smile.
The fame too was huge, but the obtained item provided brought Ian way too much satisfaction.
The Smus Vision Skillbook was an item that had already been obtained from the previous quests.
The item that the skill book had given to Ian was a legendarybat skill of ‘Smus Warrior Will’.
But the happiness of Ian couldn’t be continued.
[You’ve done more than the needed standard.]
[The ancestors of Smus praised your potential.]
[Smus Tribe (Hidden, Connected) quest evolves to the top tier.]
[The quest of ‘Smus Tribe’s Absolute’ was created.]
Ian’s grinning face immediately hardened.