Chapter 28: Velmont Castle
There was no such thing as a safe or free island. Every island served the sole purpose of being a starting point for players, be they humans, mobs, or demons.
If an island appeared empty, then whatever had once occupied it had already been wiped out. Or it was an instance dungeon—a trap designed to lure greedy players with untouched resources. When they absorbed the entire island, they absorbed the instance dungeon as well. And when they least expected it, it exploded in their faces, unleashing its nightmares.
Veteran Earth players eventually coined a name for islands like that: Flytraps.
Jack hadn’t sensed any danger with his [C-rank Presence] Talent, and neither could Arc sense any active danger.
A cleared island wouldn’t have this many resources hanging around, and whoever cleared it wouldn’t just leave it like a "double it and pass it on to the next person" skit.
Arc suspected this was a Flytrap.
"Arc, aren’t you coming?" Joan’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
He put on a smile and stepped onto the island. He had no reason not to and was looking forward to finding out first.
The party spread across the island’s outskirts, inspecting unfamiliar fruits and vegetation while remaining within sight of one another.
Only Liz had learned about and knew the [Appraisal] skill, but she hadn’t mentioned anything about it to the others. She could easily tell which plant was which and wanted to take credit for identifying the resources for the party—that way, Felix would have no choice but to notice and acknowledge her usefulness over Joan. But—
There was something she wanted to achieve without exposing the nature of the skill yet. Something much more important than her celebrity crush.
Liz picked up a fruit and examined it absentmindedly before sneaking a peek in Arc’s direction, but he was gone.
She was certain he’d been there just a minute ago, but even after searching nearby, she couldn’t find him.
"Arc?"
Felix’s voice suddenly called out.
She turned to look at him, then in the direction he was looking, where there was no one. But Felix kept staring in that same direction like he could see Arc, when the latter stepped out from behind a tree.
’Are they marking me now?’ Arc mused unhappily. He’d tried to slip away while they busied themselves, but three out of the five party members kept stealing glances at him, making that difficult.
"All right. Gather around, everyone," Felix said, turning to the rest of the party, and everyone moved closer.
"I’ve spoken with Jack, and we now know this island is safe. It could easily be the size of ours, but I want us to explore it first before we absorb the island into ours." Felix paused to catch the positive reaction of the party.
"We’ll have to split up into pairs to cover more ground."
""I’ll go with Arc.""
Felix and Joan spoke simultaneously.
"..."
The others stared at both of them in surprise. The same Arc who was berated and had gone unnoticed was now being sought after by the two powerhouses of the party.
"I’ll go with Arc," Joan said again.
"I think it’s best if you stick with Rose. I’ll go with Arc," Felix said with a cool smile.
"Are both of you really fighting over Arc now?" Rose commented in surprise.
"Right?" Jack chimed in. "But I don’t think either of you should pair up with Arc," he added, then quickly explained.
"Since this is an exploration mission, overlooking the fact that the island is safe, we should be paired with someone who can cover our weaknesses and provide backup from a distance.
"Both of you are melee warriors, and so is Arc, whom I’d like to classify as a brawler. We also have three ranged classes here who, in my opinion, should be paired with each of you instead of having to pair two ranged fighters together because you decided to pair up with Arc instead.
"You saw how that went with me and Rose in the last battle."
Jack nailed his point, and the duo couldn’t refute his assessment.
"You’re right to tell Joan to go with Rose, Felix. She has lower defense than you do and has to get dangerously close to hit her target with her daggers. But you’re better off going with me, while Liz is the best partner for Arc with her AOE skills," Jack added.
"M-Me?" Liz stuttered, pointing a finger at her chest. She stole a glance to see Arc’s reaction, only to meet his bored gaze and quickly look away.
"We could swap places if you don’t want to go with Arc," Rose said innocently.
"No. T-That’s not... never mind," Liz quickly replied.
Felix exhaled. "All right. I guess it’s settled then."
"I just sent y’all a friend request. If you run into any problems or find anything unusual, message me immediately. We’ll meet back at this spot."
With that, the party split up and ventured down their respective paths, leaving Arc and Liz all alone in the clearing.
Liz remained silent and avoided eye contact, looking at random objects before her eyes fell back on him, only to see that he was distracted, navigating through a system only he could see.
She paused to take a good look at him for the first time, staring at his unique hair, his gray eyes, his nose, his lips, and back to his eyes, where she stopped to simply stare. Then they suddenly regained focus, and he turned to look at her.
She was stunned after getting caught and quickly tried to say something. "S-So, we’re together—"
Arc sighed. "Try to keep up," he cut her off and began walking down their designated path.
Liz pursed her lips.
"Yeah," she mumbled to herself and began trailing behind him, not beside him.
They walked in silence for a while, taking twists and turns through the forest while Arc kept an eye out for any signs of the dungeon gate, which could be anything.
Then Arc saw it.
It was between two trees standing close together and almost blended into its surroundings. Except the view between those trees was slightly different from the surrounding forest. Darker, as though the sunlight didn’t reach that part of the forest, and it shimmered ever so slightly, indicating that a portal was docked there.
[Valemont Castle | C-rank Dungeon]
’C-rank?’
Arc only spared it a glance and took in all the information, marking its location before looking away as though he hadn’t seen it.
"Wait, what’s that?" Liz suddenly called out from behind him, and Arc turned to follow the lady’s gaze to the exact same spot where the dungeon entrance sat.
"What?" he asked, feigning ignorance to be sure she had actually seen it.
Liz didn’t reply and simply stepped closer to it, pointing between the two suspicious trees.
"Look. The scene is slightly different if you look closely enough. Darker. And there’s that shimmering sheen to it, like there’s a portal between them," Liz said as she stepped closer to inspect it better.
"Don’t get too close," Arc warned with something in his tone that made Liz pause in her steps.
"You saw it too, didn’t you?" she asked as she turned to him.
"I can see it now. We have to contact Felix and return to the extraction point to wait for backup," he replied sharply and pretended to be navigating through his system.
"What? No," Liz quickly said.
"What do you mean by that?" Arc asked with a frown.
"So you can ditch me on the way and return here to check it out alone?" She wasn’t sure what gave her the courage to confront Arc, but she kept speaking.
"Let’s stop pretending for once that I didn’t see you beating the shit out of that goblin boss monster. I don’t care if you’re trying to hoard everything for yourself. All I’m asking... is that you take me with you."
