Chapter 129 Next Step

Next step.

[Ace POV],

"What is our quest in the first place?" I inquired.

"To solve the disappearance of the villagers", she said as I nodded before speaking again.

"True, but what is the title of this quest?" I questioned as Emma was about to respond when she abruptly came to a halt with a look of realization on her face.

Seeing this, I knew she understood what I was saying.

[Instant Hidden Dungeon: Cemetery Assault],

To think we would overlook such a crucial and obvious clue when it was right in front of us from the start.

The name of the quest itself was a significant clue that was also a shortcut for us from the beginning the quest was presented to us but unfortunately, we didn't realize it at all as it only appeared in my thoughts now that I was talking with Emma.

"To think we'd overlook something so obvious right in front of our eyes! How did we not notice it before?!" Emma exclaimed beside me as I turned to her and answered the questions she wasn't expecting an answer to.

"It's because of the quest," I simply stated, as Emma responded with a rather perplexed expression on her face.

"Quest? Why is it due to the quest?" She inquired.

"We were so concentrated on the content of the quest from the beginning that we instinctively missed the title," I replied, as Emma's puzzled expression vanished.

"It sounds reasonable, but what should we do with this new discovery?" Emma inquired.

I responded after hearing her query.

"We only have to see what the cemetery has to do with our quest," I remarked, pausing before continuing.

"Since the title of the quest is Cemetery Assault, that means that, aside from the quest content, which was to solve the disappearance of the villagers, our quest has something to do with a cemetery, and it is also very likely that the two have something to do together," I said as Emma nodded before speaking.

"That sounds reasonable," she remarked after a brief pause, adding, "I'm also quite interested in finding out more about the quest, but the point is, even if your assumption is true and a cemetery is actually relevant to our quest, where should you look for it and how long would it take?" She inquired.

"Why are you bothered about time?" I asked a question, and Emma responded in kind.

"Have you forgotten about Anna and Chris outside who are still waiting for us?" she said as I shook my head and was about to answer when she interrupted me.

"I know you haven't and must be relying on the dungeon time difference, but what makes you certain that there is a time difference between this dungeon and the outside world in the first place when you've only entered a dungeon once?" Emma inquired, posing a challenging question.

Because I could only refer to the one dungeon I had entered before this, I can't be certain that other dungeons have a temporal discrepancy with the actual world if I only have a single experience with dungeons.

But the thing is, even with this, I didn't feel pressured because I still had a total of seven days in this world, including today, to do most of what I wanted, and if it wasn't for Emma's strange way of letting us have a relatively easy time in this quest and the uses she could still provide if she decided to say, I wouldn't have bothered with her opinion.

'I guess I just have to compromise with her and lower the number of days I want to spend here,' I thought as I turned to Emma and attempted to convince her to remain a little longer because of the use she had for me to finish this quest.

I was curious to see how the rewards for finishing this quest in a different way would differ from the one I'll receive from the challenge trial.

Emma eventually consented to stay for another day because she couldn't keep her curiosity at bay.

Seeing this, I was going to close my eyes and take a short rest when Emma spoke.

"But there's something that makes me wonder," she paused before continuing.

"How did we finish the quest so quickly? "And although the primordial chronicle provided a summary of what happened, it was still too fast because the quest timer would not have been 7 Days if the quest was something easy to finish," she said.

When I heard this, I spoke up.

"It's because of you," I simply stated as Emma asked me to explain.

"For one, I believe that if the quest was going to progress according to the way it was planned, we shouldn't have found the oil puppet responsible for the disappearance of the little girl so fast.

We shouldn't have found the weird paintings so quickly, nor should we have been able to tie everything back to the merchant who arrived a few weeks ago.

In fact, I feel that if things had gone normally, the girl who was abducted today would not have been rescued, and even if she had been a few days later, she would have died.

You saw what that bag could do to her in less than a day.

In the end, it was because of you, or rather your sensitivity to the oil paintings offered by your element, that we made this kind of progress.

"It's not because the quest was easy, it's because you were an anomaly to the quest that you were able to disrupt the initial progress of the quest," I explained to Emma as she finally grasped what I meant when I stated we got to this point because of her.

In reality, if Emma hadn't been here with me, I might have gotten to this stage in the quest on my own, but I was certain I couldn't do it in a day.

I and Emma sipped our tea quietly while I considered this and other possibilities to advance in our quest.

Only when I heard the sound of footsteps approaching our direction did I emerge out of my thoughts, and as I turned to look at the owner of the steps, I saw a face I didn't want to see and also want to see at the same time.

Sir Roland.

....

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