Chapter 33 - Burning Lions
Elliot excitedly jumped out of bed. He got to his equipment and woke Connor up who was roomed a few rooms away.
"Connor?" he called out, knocking on the door.
"Excuse me," a boy about the same age as Midnight called. "If you're looking for the owner of that room, he's already at the guildhouse."
"Oh," Elliot pursed his lips. "Okay, thank you."
"You're welcome," the boy said and smiled.
Elliot bowed and walked inside the guildhouse where everyone was already set.
"Are you ready?" Lance asked from behind him. Elliot jumped in surprise but smiled.
"What's the Conquest anyway?"
Lance took a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Elliot.
'Upload quest?'
"Yes."
'Similar quest already in Quests tab.'
'Opening quest.'
[ A Lion?!?!
Mission: A pride of Burning Great Lions is terrorizing the hills of Porveida.
Reward: 5,000 Gold Coins
Creator Reward: Random Skill ]
Elliot was liking the odds. He could gain another skill after defeating the lions. They were Great-ranked, meaning the boss would only be at Grand-ranked. This wouldn't be as hard as Elliot first thought.
After all, he handled a Gamma Strike well. How will this Conquest compare to that?
"Everyone?" Frederick called his guild members' attention. "Good morning. As you all know, today we will start our Conquest. The Burning Great Lions in the hills of Porveida is getting bothersome. And to think that their boss, that is at least Legendary in rank, is trying to migrate. Their minimum rank is Great but quite a few had already reached Grand. The minimum level is 60 and the Lion King is 80."
Elliot gulped at Frederick's announcement. A Level 80 boss? So that's why this was a Conquest.
A Conquest is different from a Campaign or a Comet quest. If quests would be divided into a spectrum, the Conquest would be in the middle of the two. Its difficulty is similar to a Campaign but its time limit is similar to a Comet quest.
"For all of you who had already signed the contract and the waiver, pack up and we will travel in an hour. Those who wish to participate should go to Midnight and sign your lives there. A Level 50 boar is only a shrimp compared to a Level 80 lion. Be warned."
After Frederick had finished, no one even thought of backing out. After all, Frederick was the pride of the City of Alorde. His guild would be comparable to the top guilds of the continent in terms of strength.
"23 participants," Frederick said. "We're short of 2. Call them."
They were walking outside the city when two familiar figures walked up to them. "Yow!"
"Ripple and Frost!" Elliot cheered. "What are you doing here?"
"Your guild asked ours for help," Frost said. "A Conquest needs a minimum of 25 participants."
"Our guild is a mercenary guild. We also get hired by other guilds to participate," Ripple said. "Yours needs more women."
Luck walked up to her. "I get plenty of women at night."
Ripple kicked him in the face out of the blue. "And I kick plenty of perverts every day."
"Feisty," Luck jeered that made Elliot, Connor, and the girls shiver.
Midnight had to drag him by the ear and set him aside. He clapped his hands after reprimanding his bear-looking friend. "Now that everything's set. Let's start."
The girls walked beside Elliot, Connor, and Lance who were in the middle of the group. Their formation was Frederick and Sun would be in the front along with half the high-level Adventurers, Luck and Midnight would be at the back along with the other half of strong Adventurers.
Lance was in the middle in case any of the two sides needed backup. He switched with Sun so his four friends wouldn't feel so left out.
They did this because they would pass forests and valleys that were infamous for having beasts who often ambush Adventurers.
The one who told Elliot where Connor also participated in the Conquest. He waved a couple of times at Elliot but didn't actually go to him and talked.
After a day and a half, they have reached Porveida. A place where the only thing in sight was hills of barren grass and remains of beasts that were probably hunted by the lions.
"This did not look this worse a month ago," Midnight said.
"Lions are voracious beasts," Lance said. "Meaning, they would eat more than what is provided or what is available."
Elliot gulped in fear. He thought that this was going to be easy but he's so far from his thoughts.
Frost was talking to them when a sound of a breaking stick made everyone snap their heads at the direction where it came from. An injured deer was limping its way against two lions whose manes were burning with an orange flame.
<< Burning Great Lion >>
Great-ranked
Level: 67
HP: 65,000/65,000
<< Burning Great Lion >>
Great-ranked
Level: 63
HP: 60,000/60,000
"Watch out!" Elliot screamed but the lions were already in the middle of lunging for the deer.
"True Frost."
"True Ripple."
An arrow made of ice was shot twice and Ripple had successfully landed multiple slashes to the lions. The deer was surprised at the sounds that it ran away in full speed, seemingly forgetting that its hind leg was injured.
<< Burning Great Lion >>
HP: 34,000/65,000
<< Burning Great Lion >>
HP: 34,000/60,000
"Girl power!" Luck snorted. "Can't even half the HP."
Luck sighed and whistled.
'Spheres of Melody'
The lions mewled in pain after endlessly getting hit by the powerful spheres made of air. It continued mauling them until their HP became 0.
"We could've dealt with it," Frost said. "Show off."
"Ah," Luck bent to her level. "And your attack wasn't even that effective. I should've let the beasts feast on your body then."
Midnight scoffed and smacked Luck behind his head. "You're too rough on the girls."
"That's probably because he was rejected multiple times by a girl with the same blue hair as these two," Frederick snorted.
Luck narrowed his eyes at the guild master before sighing. "Whatever."
The group had a good laugh before continuing. Every step they take, the lands seemed to become more barren than it was. Life was void in here.
"This is so sad," Elliot whispered.
"We're here," Frederick said. "Everyone, prepare. The lions we faced before, that were soloed by Luck, isn't the same as the lions who lived beyond this hill."
"What do you mean?" someone asked.
"Those two had been banished by the lands by their king. Because they're weak," Frederick said. "I can estimate that no lion from this point on will be below Level 70. And a strong aura emanating from further down is at least Level 90."
"At least?" Sun asked.
Frederick looked at his teammates, "It had already gone through Carnal Breakthrough."
The members who knew what the term was gasped in fear. The others, which include Elliot and Connor were baffled as to why everyone seemed distressed.
Although it didn't take Elliot to figure out what it meant.
Carnal Breakthrough, like the Breakthrough of Adventurers, meant that the beast had already surpassed Level 90. If they survive this Conquest, they would be recorded as the 13th Conquest Completers with a Boss above Level 90.
"I didn't know that this situation had escalated like this," Luck said. "But it would be dangerous if we leave the others behind. So everyone, make sure y'all stick together."
Connor held Elliot's arm. "I'm scared."
"Don't be," Elliot and Lance chorused. They chuckled and chorused once more, "We're right here for you."
"That's some whole level of friendship right there," Ripple snorted.
They took a few more steps until they had heard a raging roar.
<< Burning Grand Lion >>
Grand-rank
Level 82
HP: 80,000/80,000
"That's not the boss, right?" Elliot asked. Lance looked serious while staring at the lion.
He shook his head, "No. This would be an average beast."
Sun had morphed into his other form while Midnight stayed on the rear. The sun was still bright, making it harder for him to morph.
Sun soloed the beast, attacking relentlessly with his white glowing greatsword and dashing into different directions using his large pairs of wings.
'Multiple beasts detected.'
Elliot gulped at the message.
<< Burning Grand Lion >>
<< Burning Great Lion >>
<< Burning Great Lion >>
…
"Can we do this?" Elliot asked.
Lance shook his head and brandished his sword, "Of course. Just trust our guild."
"Ours too," Frost said.
"Yeah," Lance chuckled and nodded. "Their guild too."
"Okay," Elliot said. "Let's go!"