Chapter 54: Wyvern

| A/N: Sorry for the recent slow uploads, I got a fever and just so many other urgent business to cover that I had to prioritize.|

Perseus POV

[Side quest: Help clean up a small wyvern herd at Ruth Village.]

What a time. After stealing from the treasury, now I had to go help the hero. Anyway, after our recent heist, there was coincidentally a horde of wyverns that attacked a village that goes by the name of Ruth, since most mages are occupied with investigating the royal treasury heist, they can't attend to some non-important village.

Cedric took it upon his own hands to go save the village, and he succeeded, apparently some thief stole the wyverns egg and angered them, and since he couldn't outrun them, he just quickly sold it to the village people as some cheap and exotic eggs, the wyverns detected those eggs and attacked the village.

And reading the description of the quest, Cedric defeated a few of those wyverns but figured out why they were there and prevented further bloodshed. Now, since most of the village was destroyed, he helped hire a small crew to salvage those corpses for loot and scales to make money for reparations.

But the wyvern corpses turned out to be a poisonous kind, even with magic to delay its rotting and decomposition, a few of the salvaging crew got injured, and it wasn't long before they left due to it being dangerous. Removing the magic of delaying the decomposition in the process.

The corpses that were left behind released dangerous fumes and only attracted dangerous creatures to come and feast on them, endangering the village, my job was to essentially get close to it, remove it, and defeat all the nearby monsters as Cedric was busy with other matters.

So for now, I can file for a leave of absence, but that would affect my position and earnings within the organization, and that would also impact my reputation, so I had to go for the other route, which was proposing to go to this place as a part of the job, because there's definitely some scales that would be leftover and useful enough for this organization.

I submitted my proposal and Lind accepted, but she ordered one of her men to accompany me as well, a higher expert mage that goes by the name of Terrence Herbert, age 49, bald, blue eyes, brown skin, and a well-trimmed beard.

"Do you not trust us or something? I accepted the tracking implant."

"More like I'm worried about your safety." Lind replied, "Unfortunately, the views on all descendants of Sam Wyatt are not easily accepted, Terry is a good talker, you should be able to clean the area up and salvage parts of the corpse without much difficulty. Also, take some poison antidotes with you. Just in case."

"Sure."

*****

Cleaning up wyvern corpses was never a task I relished, but it was part and parcel of the job as the assistant hero, we took 3 days to arrive at the village and the poisonous fume can be sealed from quite far away. Elpis and I were immune to it, while Terrence had to drink a poison-resistant potion.

I made my way to the outskirts of the village where the wyvern corpses lay. The sight that greeted me was grim.

I approached the nearest wyvern cautiously, and the stench was overwhelming, and I had to fight the urge to gag as I donned a mask. The fumes emitting from the corpse became this fog that is so thick, the closer you approach it.

Even though I was immune to the poison from this wyvern particularly, I also put on some gloves and activated my eyes of Horus for constant healing, just in case. Now both my eyes are glowing silver.

"Kid, what's with the glowing eyes thing?" Terrence asked, "It's not your regular eye color and I remember you having a gold one too, is it something only your people have?"

"Well, something only I have, don't worry, it's harmless, besides, it helps me see better, this poisonous fog is so thick."

"What about the gold eye?"

"Helps me see weak spots."

"How so?"

"I don't know? I just see it glowing and I'll just aim for it, it never usually works, but it's still useful."

I don't really trust the people of this organization, I know that they treat me well, but as an assistant hero...I'll have to take them down sooner or later, giving away too much information wouldn't be too good.

"Fair enough." he nodded

"Why are you in this organization, Terrence?"

"I want to see the end of the dungeon, why it's here, and...well I hope that it explains why we have to continue raiding it." he answered, "Personally, I would the one-wish theory, I would love to be able to make a wish."

"What would you wish for?"

"To restart my life."

"Why?"

"My parents were pretty much very shit to me as I grew up, I spent too much time trying to appease them, I wish to spread the truth after it happens...this abyss took way too many lives and I want to personally know why, I lost my best friend to it after all."

"I see."

Carefully, I began to search the wyvern's body, my gloved hands probing for anything of value. I avoided the areas where the flesh had started to rot, focusing instead on the intact scales and other materials that might prove useful.

To my relief, I found that many of the wyvern's scales were still intact and in relatively good condition. These scales were prized for their durability and resistance to heat, making them valuable commodities in the crafting of armor and weapons.

I took many scales since the village no longer wants them, I do plan on leaving some, it should help in their reparations a bit. But I don't think most of them will accept it, on our way here, Terrence asked the few who still remained, the wyvern caused them more misery than anything, so we'll be paying them enough just by removing it.

We should also be giving this credit to Cedric, saying that he sent us, it would help cover for our identities on behalf of the organization, and as the assistant hero, helping his reputation is my job, so it's a win-win.