Chapter 111: Save the White Tiger

“Lord Ursa and Taurus told me that because my soul capacity is lacking compared to, say, Dream Star here, I should only look at bonding with the most powerful beasts of the wild possible. Namely the direct offspring of the guardian beasts; unfortunately, that makes you one generation too late.”

“Ok, I’m seriously confused here,” Shelur remarked before asking. “Lord Ursa, who I’m assuming is the constellation Ursa Minor, and the constellation Taurus told you to bond with the direct descendants of the five guardian beasts?”

“Pretty much,” John nodded before adding. “I even got a quest related to it.”

Mel frowned before staring at the three women while saying in a tone of clear warning, “I trust this will stay between us, and you wont go telling anyone who doesn’t need to know.”

Shelur’s own eyes narrowed at the obvious threat before asking, “Who do you think you are to…”

However, her words were cut off by Emberslag, who covered her mouth and nodded while saying, “Of course. That’s the least we can do after you agreed to help us, right, girls?”

“No problem here,” Black Dragoon replied. “You're Alea’s friends, and so I’m fine keeping this quiet.”

Shelur tried to speak through Emberslag’s hand; however, Emberslag just glared at her friend while repeating in an even more serious and forceful tone, “Right?”

Shelur glared at her friend, but as she did, she noticed a strange look in her eyes that made her pause before nodding as she thought. {Why’s she so insistent on this? Whatever, I’ll ask her when we’re alone.}

“Good,” Emberslag said with a smile as she removed her hand from Shelur’s mouth before asking curiously. “What’s this about soul strength?”

“No idea,” Mel replied before gloatingly adding. “All we know is that my soul is stronger than Vincarna’s.”

John rolled his eyes in response to her comment before looking at the Jackalope, who he had expected to be even more downcast after his explanation, but on the contrary, it looked up at him and said, “Aww man, that sucks, but it’s not all bad.”

“What do you mean?” John asked.

“This actually works out great,” The jackalope replied. “I’ll go speak to my elders and see if there are any interested in bonding with you. That way we can really become bro’s bro.”

John tried to ignore Mel, who was doing her best not to laugh and instead asked, “Err, sure. So anyway, about this white tiger?”

“Yeah, bro, I was totally shocked when I saw her,” The Jackalope explained. “She looks pretty young, though not too young if you catch my drift?”

“You were planning to try and mate with her, weren’t you, ya perverted rabbit?” Mel asked accusingly.

“It’s Jackalope, babe, and so what if I was. Children from a union between two guardian species are always stronger than breeding with a normal beast of the wild. But anyway, I have no idea how she got to this continent and just as I was about to approach her, the bandits turned up and captured her.

Worse still, they had to knock her around quite badly in order to capture her and even slapped one of those nasty collars on her.”

“Collars?” John asked, to which Mel explained. “He’s probably referring to a collar of weakness. They're designed to severely weaken those there places upon.”

“That's not good,” The deer who had been listening from the side replied. “The White Tiger Empress is known to be very protective of her kin since she rarely breeds and births new ones. If something happens to it… well, you get the idea.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on NovelPhoenix.

John was about to reply when the entire party suddenly received a notification.

[Save the White Tiger. (Unique)]

[The White Tiger Bandit's Boss is very fond of tigers and will do anything to collect them, from capturing them to buying them and even stealing them.]

[You have learned from a Jackalope that the White Tiger Bandits have captured a rare white tiger that has grown very weak from its imprisonment and the effects of the Collar of Weakness placed upon it.]

[Kill the bandit's boss and save the white tiger before it dies.]

[Quest Goals:]

[Save the White Tiger]

[Kill White Tiger Bandits' Boss]

[Quest success reward:]

[Piece of Epic (Purple) Gear]

[5 Gold]

[???]

[Quest Failure punishment:]

[The White Tiger will die, and something far worse than the bandits will appear around Gar Lodir because of the white tiger's death, killing many innocents and destroying the city and much of the landscape.]

[This is an automatic quest which you cannot refuse]

[Quest Accepted]

"Fuck," Emberslag cursed.

"Shit," Shelur cursed.

"Aww, come on," Black Dragoon complained.

“Are you fucking serious?” Mel asked in complaint.

"Fuck," Jackrabbit cursed.

John stared around at his party in confusion before asking, “What?” However, instead of immediately replying, Mel looked at the Jackalope and asked. “Why are you cursing?”

“I felt left out and wanted in on the fun.”

“That’s a good idea,” The boar replied before saying. “Fuck.”

Mel rolled her eyes before turning back to John and explaining. “It’s like the deer said. The White Tiger Empress is very protective of her kin, and the quest clearly states what awaits if the white tiger dies.”

John’s eyes widened in realisation as he asked, “You're saying that Bengal will appear and attack Gar Lodir?”

“Most likely,” Emberslag said with concern. “And considering that she has the existence wipe ability, it will be carnage.”

"Do dungeon quests normally have such high stakes?" John asked.

"No, it's strange,” Emberslag replied. “Normally, their quests might affect the surroundings slightly, like having increased bandit or monster attacks, but I have never heard of a dungeon quest failure leading to a world boss rampage.

Though honestly, I highly doubt Bengal herself would turn up as the punishment; I mean, this is only a rank one dungeon, the more likely event is that it will send one of its subordinates… I hope.”

“You hope?” Mel asked.

“Look, I haven’t exactly done many dungeons, okay?” Emberslag retorted. “And this is my first time seeing such a high-stakes quest from one.”

"That's fine and all, but can I suggest we don't fail the unique quest so we don't have to find out?" Shelur suggested, to which the others all nodded except Black Dragoon.

“What's wrong?” Emberslag asked upon seeing her friends' lack of reaction.

Instead of replying, however, Black Dragoon turned to stare at John before saying, “It’s you.”

“Me what?” John masked in confusion.

“You're the reason this whole dungeon is going off script,” Black Dragoon answered. “Or more precisely, your strange, unique class. Your presence here has somehow altered the dungeon's expected route.”

“Is that possible?” Mel asked.

“I mean, it’s not unheard of,” Shelur replied thoughtfully. “My teacher told me that in higher-level dungeons and raids, having a certain class that matches the dungeon or raid's setting can alter it in ways that are beneficial to the group.”

“True, but I’ve never heard of that happening for lower-level dungeons, let alone the starter ones,” Black Dragoon replied.

“Why are you so sure I’m the cause?” John asked. “M… I mean, Dream Star’s a druid, so isn’t it possible for it to be reacting to her class?”

“Don’t try to pin this on me,” Mel retorted. “Druids are native to the Essnoris continent; they should have no influence in the Himgulir Continent at this early stage.”

“That was before you unlocked a race-specific class,” Shelur countered. “Things might be different now.”

“It’s got nothing to do with my class,” Mel said adamantly, resulting in the others giving her puzzled looks and Emberslag asking. “How do you know that for certain?”

Mel opened her mouth to reply but then closed it again and shook her head, indicating that she wasn’t prepared to explain. Shelur scowled at this before saying, more aggressively than normal, “Well, until you can give us a valid reason as to why that is the case, you're just as much a suspect as your boyfriend here.”

“Boyfriend?” John and Mel said simultaneously. And while Mel blushed at the accusation, John said, “It’s not like that; we’re just friends.”

“Uh huh,” Shelur replied while all three women gave them doubtful looks before Black Dragoon looked at Emberslag and asked. “This is your dungeon run; what do you want to do? The difficulty level of this dungeon has gone up, as indicated by that failure punishment.”

Emberslag fell into thought, and as she did, John asked, “What would happen if the timer ran out and other parties entered? Would they get the same quests?”

“The main quests we received upon first entering, they would, but I doubt they would receive the new one,” Black Dragoon replied. “I’m guessing that the time left before the white tiger dies is linked with how long's left on the exclusivity timer.”

Upon hearing this, John nodded and glanced at the exclusivity timer.

[Time Remaining until exclusivity expires and continental announcement occurs: 10:19:47]