2.13 Ambush/Blackwell

On the next day, Scarlett was woken up by her adoptive father. "Scarlett, get up. There's pancakes for breakfast." Hearing this, Scarlett immediately got up and went to the bathroom to wash up. Looking at his daughter act like this, he was sort of speechless. 'Not even a good morning?' He sighed and went over to the living room.

30 minutes later, Scarlett came out of the bathroom and sat at the table eyeing the pancakes sitting on the table. Not caring for her appearance, she devoured the pancakes not leaving a single crumb remaining and burped in satisfaction.

"You have plans today?" Scarlett's dad asks.

"Yeah, me and my group of friends are power leveling today. I need to be there earlier to scout out the cave we are in."

"Make sure to drink those nutrient solutions before and after you play. I saw that you forgot yesterday." He looked at her sternly.

"Oh, I was a bit tired yesterday but was in a hurry to go to bed yesterday. Guess it slipped my mind. I'll drink one now." Saying this, she walked over to the fridge and took one out and chugged it down.

"Oh, I got a call yesterday from the Military Institute of Science and Technology. You were accepted and your semester starts in 2 weeks. They also know you are my daughter and want you to join some clubs.

"Not sure, I am gonna be busy with the game very soon."

After speaking to her dad for a while, Scarlett told him that she had to get on the game and went to her room.

Getting on the game, the cave was now filled with light but it was still as cold as it was yesterday. She decided to explore but the moment she was gonna move, everyone else came online one after another.

"Oh, you're on too?" Shirayuki and Dragon Fault got on at the same time.

"I was gonna scout out our position." Scarlett nodded.

After them, everyone else got on almost at the same time.

"Good morning everyone. Since everyone is here, I will head out and scout out our position." And with a flash, Scarlett dissapeared.

Running outside the cave, she was shocked that a thick fog was covering the whole forest. She called out to everyone and they came out and stared at the Misty Forest. When Scarlett turned back to the cave, she suddenly felt something staring at her.

"Dodge to the side, now!" An arrow whizzed past Scarlett's cheek as she had just narrowly moved her head out of the way. "Go into the cave, I'll handle them."

"Oh, you detected us. You are the first to dodge our Underworld's first strike. For that, you have my respect." A hooded figure appeared from the mist. He had a very sinister smile on his face as he looked towards the cave. "Are these your companions? Well, we weren't hired to kill them so, I won't waste my time."

8 more hooded figures came out of the fog. Their expressions were deadpan as they looked at Scarlett like she were already dead.

When Scarlett saw these people come out, she snorted. "You didn't bring enough people..."

"What did yo-" Just before one of the people could finish, his body was suddenly lit up with crimson flames. His body dissipated into ashes and behind him, Scarlett was cleaning off her dagger. "I said, you need to bring more people. Don't waste my fucking time!" Scarlett was very pissed off. She never thought that she would come under attack this soon. Apparently, UnderHeaven doesn't move slowly.

The members of Underworld were shocked. The job they took was worth too little. Underworld should've asked for more gold.

Just as the leader of the group thought of running, the area all around him and his group was suddenly engulfed in flames. Scarlett used World on Fire and sent them on their way. All of their gear melted as it was just waste anyway. The more important things naturally were left behind. Picking up the loot drops, Scarlett's eyes were filled with fire.

"You guys can come out now." When everyone came out the cave, there was no fog, or anything for that matter. The ground was grey and it was raining ashes at the moment.

Everyone else had already seen this move but Athena was stunned. "What happened to the forest?"

Scarlett looked towards her. She smiled but it seemed as if this smile was filled with blood, chilling everyone to the bone. "I cleared it." After this, she went back to cleaning the burnt blood on her blade. After 5 minutes, they continued on their way.

After passing through a stream, they found themselves on the outskirts of a strange ruin. This ruin looked like it was very large. Right at the entrance of the ruin was a ephemeral figure. A middle aged man sitting down on a bench looking at the forest. He was getting ready to get up when he spotted 8 people emerging from the forest.

"Adventurers..." He mumbled under his breathe.

Scarlett saw this ghost like person and when she felt its gaze, there were no intentions in it but curiosity. "Let's meet him." After saying that, she walked over and everyone looked at each other before following along.

"Hello sir, can you tell me what happened here?" Hearing this, the man couldn't help but sigh. He looked up with his clear eyes and asked another question back. "Do you want to hear this old man's story?"

Everyone nodded.

Heaving another sigh, the old man began to tell his story.

"I have been sitting here for the last 1000 years waiting for my time on this world to come to an end." He turned towards the gate to the city with a complicated look. "I was an engineer from what was known as the golden age of our history. I would invent things that would keep this city of mine safe from outside harm. One day, my friends and I found a tomb. This tomb contained a load of riches but everytime someone touched a treasure, their bodies would split open in various different ways and die ways, dying instantly. Seeing this, they thought that they would die horribly if they touched anything so they steered clear of the treasures."

"Sooner or later, we came across a coffin. In this coffin was what was probably a great engineer. Beside his coffin were books, books with blueprints that have never been seen before. The first book we picked up was called 'Introduction to Robotics' This was a book that went beyond imagination. Everyone that saw this book was greatly tempted but the fear losing their life kept everyone, including me, from taking it. We all thanked him for his insights and pressed forward. But this was when I heard a whisper drift in to my mind. "Don't you want this book? Here, I'll just do this..." Suddenly, a pain from the very depths of my soul took over my whole body as I crashed to the ground. I don't remember much about how I got back. I woke apparently 3 weeks after this ordeal. At this time, images flashed into my mind as I see blueprints and tinkering methods that I don't remember seeing before. I began to shiver in excitement and by the next day, I was working on bringing what was on the first blueprint to life. This creation was called a Basic robot. It was powered using a tier 2 mana crystal. It could follow simple voice command like walk forwards and walk backwards. It could pickup things heavier than it and take it to wherever you direct it. It was fascinating to me at the time. I inspired me to keep creating more. Day by day, month by month and eventually year by year."

"25 years go by in the blink of an eye and I was looking at a blueprint in my mind that was alarming to me. It was a way to bring the dead back to life. On this blueprint, there were notes written by someone in the corner."

'To whomever comes across my resting place in the future, At this point in time you are looking upon the last blueprint in your mind as if you are shocked to the core. This is besides the point. I hope you will fulfill my last wish. I wish to become a robot. Please take my cofin out of the tomb and place my brain, heart and soul into this cyborg suit. Hopefully you can do this for me' - Blackwell

"Reading this, I though that after doing all of this. I would obtain a great engineer's favour so I went back to the tomb where this all started. In a few minutes, I saw Blackwell's coffin lain before me. I took him into my inventory and took his books with me as well. after getting back to my workshop, I worked for 12 days straight before finishing the cyborg body. I carefully opened the coffin and cut his chest open down the middle before carefully retrieving the heart. My biggest surprise was that this body's blood still ran warm and the heart was beating. After controlling my shock, I carefully place the heart into the heart chamber. Then I placed the brain into the skull socket. At this time, I saw a ghostly like person float out of the supposedly 'dead body'. It's expression was cold as it looked at me.

"I suppose I should thank you for creating my new immortal shell. How about serving me for 1000 years as my slave, I could use those good pair of hands you have." When he entered the new body the body came suddenly began to glow as its aura gradually grew stronger and more stabilized and eventually becoming completely stable.

"When I heard thise words, I declined right away. If there is anything I will never do in this life, it is to form a slave contract. He then grew furious and unleashed his aura on me. This aura made me feel like I was suffocating. He then lifted my body up and told me. "I wasn't asking but since you don't want to, I'll take all of these instead." He looked at all of the robots and mumbled something in a strange language and the robot began to change. It began to roar and thrash about and then its eye color began to change from a deep blue to a bloody red color."

"I then heard screams coming from outside my workshop. I looked at him and asked him what he did but he looked at me and told me. That I wasn't needed anymore and took my life. When I became a ghost, the first thing I saw was a destroyed city with fire all over it. It was the first time I had ever felt so much regret. I killed... everyone..." He began to shake all over and his soul began to fluctuate in and out. Scarlett began to panic.

"Old man!" She tried to grab his shoulder but her hand went right through.

"I am the one... who killed them... it was my greed... I am responsible..." Scarlett was thinking of what to do and everyone else was kind of scared of the old man's eyes. They suddenly became tinged with blood like he stayed up all night for a month straight.

Scarlett suddenly thought of something and her hand began to glow with a white light. She then touched his shoulder and this time, her hand was able to grasp his shoulder.

"Old man, it's not your fault. No one would ever be able to predict something like this." With her hand on his shoulder, Scarlett looked him in the eyes.

With eyes full of shock, the man looked at her and mumbled "You're a light bearer..."

"Light bearer?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow. "You know about it?" She asked him.

She didn't get an answer but another question. "Lightbearer, will you go into this city and kill Blackwell for me?"

[Hidden Quest: Kill Blackwell.

Difficulty: Hell. Reward: Unknown]

Do you accept? [Yes/No]

Scarlett looked at her teammates for a minute and asked them. "Do you guys want to do a Hell difficulty quest?"

When they heard this, they were shocked.

"Hell Difficulty!" Storm almost broke down. While he isn't familiar with this difficulty, he knows that the word 'Hell' isn't just there for a laugh. This difficulty is supposedly able to make even the most hardcore soldiers cry blood. He couldn't help but shudder.

Seeing Storm break down like this, everyone looked very solemn. Tyrant spoke up first. "Accept it. If we die, it's just a couple levels. We can get those back."

Everyone looked at him. "What do you mean? This is Hell mode! The punishment for failing is no joke!" Storm said this and everyone agreed with him.

"Tyrant why do you want to try it out?" Scarlett didn't listen to him, instead, she asked Tyrant a question.

"Why not? If you don't want to fail the mission then just don't die. There hast been anyone that has completed a hidden quest as far as I know. We could get the rewards from the quest and also the system as well. Whatever the punishment was, I don't want to regret not doing it when the opportunity is right in front of me. Just accept it."

"Alright, If anyone doesn't want to stay and do the quest, you are free to leave. I will give all of you 30 seconds. If you don't leave in time, don't blame me." Scarlett made a declaration.

Everyone looked at eachother. Scarlett then said something. "All of these bombs and no one will be able to see them in action... what a shame." This made everyone's lips twitch and pissed them off a little. They looked at storm who Scarlett also looked at. "You have 10 seconds."

"Fuck! Fine, we will roll through whatever we see!" His face was dark. He wasn't happy and everyone knew it.

Scarlett then went up to him and whispered into his ear. "You get priority on the best magic staff we see."

His eyes suddenly lit up. "Really, you can't... absolutely cannot forget that you said that. Come on, lets go in already !"

Seeing that he was finally settled, Scarlett accepted the quest.