"Hahahaa, what a touching play"
The silence was quickly broken by that eerie laughter. Ruminas turned around, the clown was sitting on an old cart and looking at this whole scene.
"What a filial son." He took out a handkerchief and wiped his tears even though Ruminas saw no tears.
"You're not leaving yet?" Ruminas asked.
"So you don't want the reward?" he asked back.
"Winner's reward," the clown said, snapping his fingers.
[Congratulations on clearing the game of the Evil Clown]
[Reward: 100 EXP, 5 Random Stat Points]
[Receive: +1 Intelligence, +1 Defense, +3 Endurance]
[Enough EXP to level up]
[Level Up Reward: 5 Optional Stat Points]
"There is still a reward?" Ruminas asked doubtfully.
"Of course, I told you this isn't a group game," the clown replied.
"Level up already… I guess I should spread it out a bit more evenly." She then chose to put 2 points into defense, 2 points into intelligence, and 1 point into agility.
"So what else do you want?" Ruminas turned to ask the clown.
"What do you want to do next?" the clown asked.
Ruminas shrugged. "Probably going to the first meeting point, I've been putting that off for a while."
"Oh, is that so. Then here's a piece of advice, you'd better get yourself a stealth skill."
"Why?"
"Since it's so chaotic there, having a stealth skill will save you a lot of trouble."
"It's not easy to get a skill though. I feel like getting a skill is harder than ascending to heaven," Ruminas said.
"I can give you my stealth skill in exchange for you doing me a favor. Fair trade, right?"
Ruminas looked at the clown suspiciously.
"Why are you helping me?"
"Because I like sincere people. Is this reason sincere enough?"
Ruminas was silent for a moment.
"Okay, go ahead," she smiled.
"Good." The system snapped his fingers again.
[Received a quest proposal from NPC Ghost Clown. Accept?]
Ruminas immediately chose to receive it.
[The Clown Mission: Part 1]
[Description: The evil clown likes sincere people and he was impressed with you so he decided to give you this quest]
[Completion conditions]
+Find the Evil Heart and give it back to the clown (Unfinished)
+Found the Sincere Heart and gave it back to the clown (Unfinished)
[Reward: 200 EXP, 5 Random Stat Points , 1 Skill, 1 Special Item]
[Note: This quest is a side quest, it may not be necessary to do it and whether the quest continues or not depends on the preference of the person who gave the quest. Try to gain their favor]
Ruminas frowned again as he looked at the quest request.
"Where did you get these two?"
"There will be instructions for you. Once you find all the requirements, the mission will be complete and I will know to come find you."
Ruminas nodded.
The clown then bowed and disappeared, while she turned back to collect all the food Akira left behind and carried his body to a flatter place to bury it.
Ruminas carefully filled in the dirt, creating a simple grave for Akira. She wasn't the type to care too much about burials, but he was the only one in this group who showed any sincerity towards her, even if it was probably just a facade.
As for Kazin's body, just leave it there, the monsters will take care of it themselves. Ruminas also took his axe, although it was a bit heavy, she could still use it, considering it an extra weapon for herself.
"We should leave," Ruminas muttered.
After finishing, she stood up, dusted off her hands, and turned to look towards the shopping mall. Right now, it was still dangerous there, but according to the clown, the meeting point wasn't any better either. So she needed to get stronger before she got there.
"The Demonic Heart and the Sincere Heart..." Ruminas muttered.
She opened her status panel and checked her stats. After leveling up, her stats were more balanced, but she still lacked a truly powerful active skill. Getting the stealth skill from the clown was a plus, but it was useless without a way to effectively attack the enemy.
She decided to temporarily move away from here, find a safer place to rest and think about her next step.
As it was getting dark, Ruminas found a small building that seemed to be in fairly good condition. She examined it carefully before entering, locking the door and pushing some objects to block the entrance.
She sat down in a corner, opening the quest board to see more details.
When you click on the quest request, a few lines of text appear.
[The Clown Mission: Part 1]
[Demon Heart: An object that symbolizes deviousness and evil, which can be in the hands of a demonic creature or an evil-minded human]
[Sincere Heart: Can only be obtained from a person or creature with an absolutely sincere heart]
"Isn't there any more specific suggestion?" She frowned.
Just then, another message popped up.
[Reminder: Location instructions may appear if the player approaches the appropriate location]
"Meaning I have to find it myself..."
"He said I'm a sincere person, so can he take my heart? As for the evil heart, I can take it from him."
Ruminas sighed, but she wasn't too surprised. If this quest was easy, it definitely wouldn't be worth this much. Obtaining a skill was difficult, so if there was one, she couldn't miss it.
It was already dark so Ruminas decided to rest first.
She leaned against the wall, eyes half-closed. Her plan was still to go to the meeting point, but before that, she would probably need to investigate the other two hearts. And most importantly, she had to be careful—because if even the clown was giving her warnings, then it must not be a simple place.
She closed her eyes, letting her body relax, ready for tomorrow.
…
The next morning, Ruminas started his day with a normal lunch box.
"More than 600m is not too big of a problem if there is no more trouble, I originally planned to come here to get some food quickly and then leave, but who would have thought I would be here for more than a week. I can't delay any longer"
Ruminas finished eating and started moving at high speed, she easily passed the difficult roads because she was used to moving on this terrain. On the way, Ruminas noticed the damaged cars, she opened each one and checked.
Some of the cars still had gas in them, so Ruminas collected them all.
Gasoline is needed to make fire, and fire is the main weakness of monsters, so this is essential in her upcoming journey.
"I should have done this sooner, but I just remembered now. Better late than never."
Ruminas' progress was a bit slow because of this gas collection job. When she reached a gas station, she was almost overjoyed at her success.
"These gas stations still have plenty of gas." Not only gas, Ruminas also found cans with gas in them.
"Sweep it all"
In the end, she had collected more than ten large cans of gasoline, enough to last for a while.
"Okay, let's go"
Ruminas ran without stopping but her speed couldn't increase any further because there were sections where monsters blocked her way, forcing her to take detours. She noticed that the number of monsters was increasing even more.
Not only human-shaped parasites, she also saw animal-shaped parasites with many special abilities. For example, a cat-shaped parasite had the ability to jump very high, while a mouse-shaped parasite was small and could hide.
"We have to be more careful…"
By the time it got dark, Ruminas was already halfway there, everything was going smoothly as she actively avoided monsters so there seemed to be no further fighting.
She walked a little further to find a suitable place to rest, but at this moment, a notification from the system suddenly appeared.
[Quest item found in nearby area]
"Huh? That fast?"
Above Ruminas' head appeared a black arrow pointing in one direction, the arrow of the main quest was blue.
She immediately skipped resting and followed the direction of that arrow.
It eventually led her to a strange place, more like a tunnel that led down. It was dark down there, almost impossible to see anything.
"What is this cellar?"
[Explanation: This is called "Dungeon", which will appear randomly and is divided into ten types of dungeons from 1 star to 10 stars. The dungeon will usually be very large with many traps, monsters, resources and many other things]
"Oh, I see."
"So what kind of dungeon is this? Let me appraise it."
[Abalek Dungeon]
[Difficulty: 2 stars]
[Recommended: 2-4 people to participate]
[Total number of monsters: 142]
[Reward: Ghost Heart]
"142?!!" Ruminas was startled after reading it.
Just a few dozen of them at the mall earlier made her want to faint, let alone more than 142 of them here.
"Why does the thing I need have to be down there?!!" Ruminas stomped her feet a few times, but she realized there was no other way.
"What should I do…? If I let it go, I might not be able to find it again later, and right now I need it to complete the mission…"
Ruminas kept herself as alert as possible, after a few minutes of thinking, with all her wits! She chose to go down.
"Let's try it," she thought to herself.