女神归来的夏天

~~~(POV: Marcus Adamo)~~~

~~~(Location: The City of Lequire, The Kingdom of Morvis)~~~

~~~(Time: 10:15 PM)~~~

It\'s taken a long time to get all the way across Lequire City. Millisa moves at such a slow pace since she\'s old, but it\'d be rude if I openly complained. Her body can\'t move like it used to, and it\'s not her fault. 

"We\'re almost to my home. Sorry that it\'s taken an hour to get here. I\'m not a young woman anymore, and I don\'t move like I used to."

She doesn\'t need to tell me that. But there has been a benefit to going this slow. It\'s given me time to think about the story she told me. I can believe some parts of it, but not others. She\'s probably changed it over the years to make it more interesting.

I heard that\'s something older people do to seem more interesting to their younger counterparts. It\'s quite smart, in my opinion, but it does have a chance to backfire if done wrong.

"You haven\'t told me why you\'re taking me to your home. I think that I\'ve been very patient and understanding, but I\'m getting tired of having my time wasted."

The words come out of my mouth with no filter, and I can\'t seem to stop them.

"If it turns out you\'re wasting more time, we\'ll cut to the end where you tell me where I can get my tier-up quest. I\'m sorry if this comes across as rude or inconsiderate. But it\'s really late, and I\'d like to get some decent sleep before having to start everything tomorrow."

She doesn\'t react the way that I would expect. You would think there\'d be some slight disapproval at my attitude. Or outright anger. But instead, she laughs and continues walking. She lifts her hand and points to a house that we\'re coming up on.

"Don\'t worry. We\'re almost done with everything. I live there, and when we get inside, I\'ll be giving you a choice. And it\'d be wise to give it some thought."

Why not tell me the choices back at the mountain? I could\'ve been thinking about them this past hour... Ugh... I wish it were easier to handle this old bag, but I\'ve been taken for a ride, it seems.

We make it to the front door, and she lets me in first. It has the typical smell that belongs to a house owned by an old person. There are specific and weird odors that are only present in homes like this. 

She indicates for me to sit on the couch, and she takes off toward a door leading into the basement. It takes about a minute, but after some crashing and banging, she comes back up, and she had an item in each hand covered by old cleaning cloths. 

"What I\'m about to show you should be kept a secret from everyone, Marcus. Even if you don\'t choose to take it, you can\'t tell anyone that it\'s here."

Her behavior has changed to a weird serious one. It\'s hard to see a feeble old person in a serious way.

She pulls up a chair and sits across from me. Placing the items on the table, separating us. She lifts one, and I recognize it as my tier-up item. But that makes me question what\'s under the other.

<br/>"This is what you\'ve come all this way for, and I have no doubt that you\'re ready to take it and be on your way. After all, you wouldn\'t have to do a quest."

If you tell a Player that they don\'t have to do a long and complicated quest for a tier-up item, they won\'t do it. That is unless you\'re offering something of great value in exchange for having to do that quest. Which, by my guess, is what\'s under the other cloth.

She places her hand on the cloth and lifts it. Revealing a purple, blue, and red egg. It looks like something you\'d see an artist make, claiming it\'s the egg of some mythical beast. Before she can explain what it is, I use Inspect on it.

[The Last Egg of The Legendary Phoenix]

[Description: The only egg that remains of the Legendary bird of Fire and Rebirth. It\'s impossible to hatch the egg without the power of Phoenix Flames. But if hatched, the bird inside will eventually become The Phoenix.]

[Grade: Divine]

[The anime hatched from this egg can become a pet.]

[You meet the requirements to start hatching the egg.]

"From your expression, you\'ve already checked its information. This is everything as you see it. This leads to the next topic. You\'ve got a choice to make."

I stop staring at the egg, and I look at Millisa. She leans back in her chair and takes a deep breath. It\'ll probably be a lengthy explanation.

"Your first choice is taking the tier-up item right now. Avoiding the quest for it altogether. But if you do this, you\'ll not have the egg. You leave here without it and can never return for it."

I\'ll admit that I\'m tempted to just take the offer now. These tier-up quests are unbelievably annoying. But I\'d be passing up on something that no one else would have, and it\'d bolster my power severalfold in the future.

"The second choice is taking the egg now, and the tier-up item disappears to the location you\'ll actually have to go to get it, which is a Raid. You\'ll get the egg now, but you\'ll have to take on another Raid for the tier-up item."

I\'ve already done a Raid to get this far, and that makes the first offer that much more tempting. But the choice is obvious. Skipping out on such an opportunity to skip doing a Raid is the height of laziness. And I wouldn\'t hear the end of it from anyone I know.

"I\'ll give you some time to think about your choice, but don\'t take too long."

There is nothing to think about. I\'m ready to pick now. 

"I\'ll take the egg. I\'m not letting something like this slip by me."

A small smile graces her wrinkled features, and she picks up the egg and hands it to me. The second the egg touches my hands, the tier-up item disappears in a flash of light.

The old lady stands up from her chair and releases a long sigh.

"I\'m glad that you made the right decision... Now I can finally move on... Good luck on your journeys, Marcus... Just so you know, the Raid you need to find is called Nest of The Basilisk. I recommend getting some help. Even with your power."

She doesn\'t give me any chances to speak... She just fades from existence... Like she was a ghost or something. I look at the egg in my hands, and I smile. And I also get a quest.

[Hatch The Egg]

[Description: Hatch the egg of the Legendary Phoenix.]

[Objective: Pour your power over Phoenix Fire Magic into the egg every day for 1 hour for the next 14 days.]

[More about the quest will be revealed when objective 1 is finished]

[Warning: You only have 1 hour and 28 minutes to give the egg magic!]

Seeing the warning, I don\'t waste a single second. I sit back down in the now-empty house, and I start pouring my Mana and Fire into the egg. It glows with energy as I do so.

"Doing this first part of the quest seems easy, but I don\'t like how it\'s keeping the other objectives hidden from me... And it\'s not showing its difficulty to me... Nothing to indicate how hard this is really going to be..."

I know I made the right decision, but this could be way harder than any quest that I\'ve taken up to this point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Below this line, I\'ll be keeping Cera\'s player information. That way, I won\'t have to place it into the story above anymore. It takes about 180 words up.

[Slayer (Zern) Lvl.228][Tier-3]

[Exp: 42/100%]

[Title: The Son of Arch-Angel Michael (Hidden)]

[Stats] [Strength - 7095][Endurance - 7045][Dexterity - 7215][Speed - 8240][Focus - 19,660]

[Mana aura control: 6/100%]

[Health: 76,560,000,000/76,560,000,000] [Mana: 216,600,000,000/216,600,000,000]

[Stat Points: 350] [Armor rating: 500]

[Inventory] [Dice of Wayland (Divine)] [Hardened Tree sap Armor (Very Rare)] [The Witness (Legendary Sword)] [Fenrir\'s Whistle (Divine)] [Camping gear] [Food Rations 3x] [Dried meat 3x] [Fishing poles 2x] [Fish 8x] [Festival Garbs 2x] [4x EXP Boosts]

[Passive Perks]

[Inheritor of the Sword] [Son of Heaven] [Slayer of Evil] [Holy Willow Trees Savior] [Finder of Legends] [The Divine who has Legend] [Destined for Greatness] [Dungeon Diver] [An Overachiever]

[Active Skills]

[Heavens light Lvl.74 325/7400] [Protected by Heaven Lvl.74 225/7400] [Slash Lvl.92 4600/21000] [Parry Lvl.68 85/6800] [Double Strike N/A] [Kingslayer N/A] [Raging Machine N/A] [Winged Glory] [Angelic Flight] [Divine Pressure Exertion] [Divinity Pulse] [Controlled Fun]