Nerine's Quest [3]

Caius effortlessly burned the Thornstalkers with his fire element magic, causing them to wither away into ashes. The creatures screeched in agony before their vines and thorns stopped moving.

Screech—

{You Have Earned 1 EXP!}

As the last Thornstalker fell, Caius earned another point of EXP and quickly deduced that the experience system in this world was identical to that of the game.

'Looks like the EXP function works the same way as in the game,' he mused inwardly realizing that in this world, low-level creatures were just as stingy with EXP as they were in the game - 1 EXP point per kill.

But as players leveled up, they had to slaughter more of them just to earn the same measly point. And once they hit a certain level, it was like banging your head against a wall trying to get any more points out of them.

'Well, it's better than nothing, I guess,' he thought while nodding to himself before turning his attention to Nerine, who was still clutching his arm tightly, he tried to reassure her. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Nerine slowly released her grip and looked up at him with a shy smile. "T-Thank you, Caius," she murmured.

Suppressing a twitch in his eyebrow at her innocent smile, Caius nodded. "It was nothing, really. Let's focus on getting those ingredients now."

With Nerine in tow, he led the way through the dense forest, pausing only to examine the many markings on the trees they passed. They were clearly meant to guide the way, but there were so many that even Nerine was starting to feel lost.

"Um, Caius. Are we going in the right direction?" she asked, her voice laced with nervousness.

Caius shrugged nonchalantly. "How would I know? I thought you knew where we were going."

!?

"Ah, y-yeah. My brother said he left markings that will lead to a hidden cave where I can find those ingredients. B-but the problem is there are so many markings here that now I don't know which ones were left by him," Nerine replied, her head hung low.

'Yup, I already knew this would happen. It would have taken quite a lot of time to find that cave if you were playing the game for the first time. But for a veteran like me, I see its location right in front of my eyes!' Caius pondered with a grin, his gaze fixed on the screen that had a small map floating in front of him.

[Move slightly left, and you will find a tree with a red cross mark and a dagger scratch on its center. Your destination will be just opposite to it!]

After arriving at the location mentioned by the Compi, Caius came to a sudden stop, causing Nerine to instinctively grab onto his hand again. "Why did you stop, Caius? Did you see any monsters ahead?" she asked nervously.

Caius was used to it by now and didn't push her away. He pointed at the tree with a red cross mark and a scratch in its center and spoke. "You see that? That mark is different from all the other marks we've seen," he explained.

Nerine turned her gaze to where Caius was pointing, and her eyes widened. "That's it! It's the mark left by my brother! That scratch is the proof of it," she exclaimed excitedly, circling the tree like an NPC.

"But where is the cave? I can't see anything," Nerine said, scrutinizing the surroundings with a puzzled face.

Caius teased "It's called a hidden cave for a reason, you silly loli. It's supposed to be hard to find."

"Hmm? Loli? What's that?" Nerine asked, question marks appearing on her head.

"...."

"Never mind," Caius said dismissively as he walked to the opposite side of the tree, where he spotted the pointy vines that blocked the cave entrance.

Without hesitation, he used his fire element magic to burn down the vines, clearing the path to the hidden cave.

"Ahh, Caius, what are you doing? What if the whole forest catches fire?" Nerine exclaimed as she hurriedly moved toward the fire, blowing on it as if she could extinguish them with her breath.

"...."

Caius just shook his head at her antics. "Women!" he muttered under his breath.

Soon, the fire automatically faded as the vines covering the cave burned to ashes.

"...If it were that easy to burn down this whole forest with just a spark of fire, don't you think our academy would have done that a long time ago?" Caius said, as he began to enter the cave.

"W-Whoa? So this is where the cave was? How did you find out?" Nerine asked curiously as she followed behind him.

"The vines had grown unusually large compared to their usual amount, as if they were trying to hide a pathway. So I figured this is where the cave you mentioned before was," Caius replied.

Nerine's eyes widened in amazement. "Wow! You truly are a genius! It's no surprise that you ranked #1 in the placement examination. I don't think I could have found this hidden cave without your help, whether I came alone or with someone else," she said, her voice full of admiration.

Caius waved off her praise. "Enough with the flattery, and go get the moonflower petals from there. I believe they might be one of the ingredients you're looking for," he said, pointing to a small alcove nearby.

!?

Nerine was once again surprised to hear Caius knew what ingredients she needed without her mentioning them. 'Is it just a coincidence?' she thought to herself, 'Perhaps he just pointed to the flower because it's rare.' Nerine assured herself and carefully approached the alcove and found the moonflower growing in a small crevice.

She deftly plucked five petals from the flower with her small dagger and placed them in her pouch. "Got it," she said with a sense of accomplishment.

Checking the Quest window, Caius nodded in approval. "Great job, Nerine. Now, let's move deeper into the cave. Stay close to me," he said, his gaze fixed on the task ahead.

[Quest Objective:

•Collect 5 Moonflower petals {Acquired}

•Collect 3 Firebug wings

•Collect 1 Crystal Mushroom]

Nerine nodded and hurriedly stood beside Caius again, eager to continue their adventure.