28 The Statue is trying to Cheat

"Boss, why did we have to bring me with you all and what's up with this useless spell?"

In the leader's tent, there were two guys sitting across each other as they talked. One of them had clothes similar to the people outside while other was wearing a peculiar purple colored robe.

The purple dressed person was a mage of the Eight Handed Iron Guild. He had been one of the few people to complete the class quest quickly becoming an important member of the guild. Just when he thought that his life was about to become easy, the boss dragged him all the way here for some monster hunt and even gave him a tracking spell.

The problem with the tracking spell was that it couldn't be used on humans, just objects. Since it was an easy spell, he learned it quite quickly but he wasn't able to understand its use. This spell used the smell of an object to track an enemy. It might be useful for hunting humans but it was pretty useless in the face of monsters.

The boss seemed to have expected his question. He neared the mage and started whispering something in his hear in fear that someone outside the tent was listening. As the mage heard the words of the leader, his eyes grew brighter and brighter and he was so excited that he didn't notice the gaze of contempt from his leader. Some people really are too easy to fool, he thought in his heart as he wondered how his boss would reward him for this task.

He had just moved away from the mage and was about to discuss the intricate details of the plan when one of his men ran inside without knocking.

The boss felt annoyed at the total lack of respect for his senior but his thoughts changed the moment the person finished telling the weird happenings outside. His plan needed to be changed a bit after this incident as he wondered what to do next.

"Come with me, we will track whatever stole those clothes down before moving forward with the plan. Also, leave some clues behind for those people bringing supplies to follow.", He said waving his hand at the mage and leaving the tent with him.

Meanwhile, Lin Fang had arrived at the end of the forest pathway. The cold was so much that he couldn't feel his hands at all. He wondered how those guys coming for this monster would deal with him with there frozen stiff bodies and thanked the Gods that he didn't have to do something like this.

There was a cave entrance in front of him which no doubt lead to the dungeon boss. See dungeons were better this way from free roam monsters who could hide and play tricks. These monsters were more aggressive and generally attacked from the front making them easier to hunt. Thus, Lin Fang didn't have to waste an eternity looking for the boss.

He jumped into the cave fully prepared for a blast of cold wind that never came. The insides of this place were actually a bit warmer than outside even though it still felt like he was walking in Antarctica. He looked around with curiosity at this place which looked like a King's courtroom of sorts. There were massive pillars of ice supporting the ceiling, a massive throne sitting atop a huge number of stairs looking down at the whole room.

To others, the throne would have felt majestic and priceless. To Lin Fang, all he saw was an uncomfortable chair made of ice that would freeze your b*tt. He found this throne nearly as dangerous as the one from the 'Game of Thrones' except that one would impale your bottom while this one would freeze it.

He had only walked a few steps when the ground underneath started shaking as cracks appeared all over.

"S*it", Lin Fang thought as he ran back towards the exit to save himself from falling into the water below the ice and freezing to his death.

Crash! Boom! Shatter!

Unfortunately, the above sounds were the sounds of the floor breaking, door crashing down and Lin Fang's hopes being shattered respectively. But the expected freezing water didn't appear like in his imagination. Instead, what appeared was a ten feet tall giant statue standing under the falling ice inside a room that looked like an upside-down dome.

Suddenly the ice stopped falling. Lin Fang stood in the same spot as before as he waited to make sure that nothing expected happened again. Well, the unexpected event did happen, the ice which had fallen from above started glowing a deep purple glow as it rose up into the air to its original position. The cracks started healing above as if they were never there.

First, Lin Fang found all of this very mysterious and beautiful until he realized with a sinking heart that he had been trapped in this upside-down dome by the self-healing ice with the statue. Lin Fang gulped as he looked towards the statue.

According to the cliched plots of games, the statue should be the boss in this ice world. Sure enough...

"HUMANS, FIRST YOU WAKE ME FROM MY SLUMBER AND NOW YOU SEND PEOPLE TO KILL ME", The statue opened its mouth and screamed on the top of its lungs nearly making Lin Fang go deaf.

"I SHALL SHOW YOU REALI-", the statue continued screaming as it waved a huge staff in the air.

"Shut up for a minute will you", Lin Fang cut him off rudely as he rubbed his fingers inside his ears.

"YOU DARE", the statue seemed to get angry and was about to use its staff against Lin Fang when he realized something and stopped midway.

"You, you aren't a human", its voice had reduced by quite a few notches now that it realized Lin Fang's identity and lowered its staff but the vigilance in its eyes didn't disappear.

"What is a demon like you doing in my territory?", now that the statue had recovered from the shock, it regained its haughty attitude as it looked down upon Lin Fang (Author: Literally not metaphorically, the guy is ten feet tall).

"Nothing much, just looking for a job.", Lin Fang replied nonchalantly, according to the guide, if you looked like you were desperate to get work, the demons would devour you without even leaving any bones. (Author: Now this is a metaphor for saying that the Demons would surely give you a deal that would favor them so much that you wouldn't get anything out of it.)

"Job?", The statue asked, confused.

"Yep, I am a demon mercenary, if you need anything done and it is within my limits, I would do it for you, of course, at the right price.", Lin Fang replied.

The statue realized what Lin Fang meant as a bright light flashed through its eyes. According to the game design, this monster had been stuck in this cave for centuries and couldn't leave so it would surely have a lot it wanted from the outside world.

The statue thought for a while before saying...

"Well, there is this one thing I want done..", it seemed to hesitate for a while before continuing,"..but it's not important so I don't think I am will need your services if the cost is too high."

"Well, then since that's the case I am leaving", Lin Fang turned around immediately to leave as if he didn't care for the work at all. The statue seeing him leave grew anxious but didn't say anything. It was hoping that Lin Fang would turn around or change his mind but when he was about to reach the edge of the upside-down dome, he couldn't hold himself back as he shouted," Wait! Wait! I need you for something."

But Lin Fang didn't stop as he used the hilt of his sword to start breaking the ice in the surrounding areas.

The statue couldn't hold himself back anymore as it shouted, "Fine, I will reward you well, just come back."

Lin Fang finally stopped what he was doing as he turned to return. His eyes flashed with bright light as he looked at the statue. You lost, it's time for this demon to devour you whole. He walked up to the statue waiting for him to continue what he was saying.

"A rare ice element sword and armour", he stated the reward first instead of the mission. Lin Fang frowned as he looked at this old fox playing tricks in front of him. The reward was great but he didn't want to make a decision in a hurry and be taken advantage of.

"First, tell me about the quest, then we will talk about the reward."

The Statue also realized that it wouldn't be easy to fool this demon in front of him as he grudgingly started telling his tale while thinking of other ways to cheat Lin Fang. Lin Fang was also doing the same. Both the old and young sly foxes were having a duel to see, who could take advantage of whom.