Chapter 308

"Ashfall?" Red asked, his voice losing its usual lazy drawl. "Viper, are you joking? That's not an escort mission. That's freaking death quest"

"He's right," Haster said, his face turning entirely serious. "The Ashfall Region has a constant environmental debuff. It cuts your health and mana recovery in half, and every monster in there has a 25% boost in damage dealt. Getting a thousand credits isn't worth losing weeks of experience points if a boss wipes us out."

Viper adjusted the collar of his dark coat. He had expected this. They respected him, but asking two combat rankers to willingly walk into a nightmare zone required real leverage.

"If you get me there and back," Viper said, "I will exempt you both from production costs for your next three pieces of custom gear. You provide the raw materials, and I waive my labor fee entirely."

Red stared at the tailor.

Getting free gear crafted by the 1st ranked tailor on the server was an invaluable offer. Production fees for high-tier equipment usually ran into the hundreds of thousands of gold.

Red looked over at Haster. Haster looked back.

"Three pieces," Haster confirmed, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Three," Viper nodded.

"Deal," Red said instantly. "If a monster looks at you funny, I'll pick its eyes out and give it to you."

Haster let out a long, heavy sigh, picking his spear back up. "We're going to need the Guildmaster's food. We can't survive that zone's resource recovery debuff without a massive health regeneration boost."

"We'll need at least a month's supply of the triple-stack meat pies to be safe," Red agreed. Then, he grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck as he did the mental math. "Wait. Do you know how many credits that's going to cost us in the kitchen? Those ten thousand credits you just gave us are going straight back to Boss to buy the food for ourselves."

"Consider it an investment in your wardrobe," Viper said dryly.

Viper swiped a hand through the air, pulling up his quest log. He shared the interface directly to their party window.

"Just so you know exactly what you are investing in," Viper added.

[Quest: Kruger's Resting Place] 

[Difficulty: SSS]

[You have confirmed that the Ancestor of Fenner's bloodline is Kruger, the Legendary Tailor. Fenner has given you his family's only heirloom: a medallion passed down for centuries with the saying that the holder would be taught by their Ancestor. 

But Kruger's resting place, Velmere, once known across the continent as the City of Textiles has been turned into a forbidden ground, Ashfall region. 

Travel to Kruger's Gravestone and present the Medallion there.] 

[Objective: Reach Velmere's ruins and locate Kruger's resting place.] 

[Reward: ???]

Red stopped rubbing his neck. His eyes went completely wide.

Haster leaned forward, staring at the floating blue text. An SSS-ranked quest. In all their time playing Satisfy, they had only gotten a quest of that difficulty once before. But the difficulty rating wasn't what made them freeze.

"Legendary Tailor?" Red choked out.

Haster looked at Viper. The older ranker suddenly realized exactly what those three free pieces of custom gear were actually going to be worth. If Viper cleared this quest, he wouldn't just be the first-ranked tailor anymore. They were going to get free gear crafted by a Legend.

The annoyance over the food cost evaporated instantly.

"Viper, my man, my absolute best friend," Red said, his tone dripping with sudden, exaggerated gratitude as he threw an arm around the tailor's shoulders. "We will carry you to that grave on our own backs if we have to."

Haster gave a firm, deeply serious nod. "We will not let a single monster touch you."

. . . 

The sky above the Rotemon Kingdom turned a sickly purple as the trio approached the border of the Ashfall Region.

The lush green forests gradually thinned out, replaced by charred, blackened tree stumps. Grey ash fell from the sky like dirty snow, coating the rocky ground in a thick, slippery layer. The air smelled strongly of sulfur and burnt wood.

Viper pulled a thick cloth mask over his nose and mouth. He wore a sturdy, tailored travel coat that offered decent elemental resistance, but a single hit from a monster in this zone would still send him straight back to the respawn point.

They crossed a jagged line of dead, scorched earth.

Ding.

[You have entered the Ashfall Region.] 

[The corrupted ash chokes the life from the air.] 

[Health and Mana regeneration is reduced by 25%.] 

[Damage received is increased by 20%.] 

[Damage dealt is increased by 20%.]

Red stumbled slightly as the debuff hit. The dual-rapier user gripped his weapons tight, taking a short, ragged breath. "Oh, that feels terrible. It's like breathing underwater. My resource bars is barely increasing." 

Haster rolled his shoulders, wincing as his joints popped. "The air is incredibly heavy. The damage penalty is going to be a problem. If we get swarmed by a pack, we won't be able to heal through the damage fast enough."

Viper didn't look worried. He reached into his spatial inventory and pulled out a large, wrapped bundle.

"Sit down," Viper said.

He unrolled the bundle on a relatively clean rock. Inside were 9 of Rudra's [Genesis Meat Pie], kept perfectly hot by his cloth’s item effect. The rich smell of baked pastry and seasoned monster meat instantly cut through the sulfur.

"Eat 3 of them," Viper instructed. "Right now."

Red grabbed a pie and shoved it into his mouth. Haster took one and ate it quickly. They didn't stop until they had each consumed ten pies in a row.

The system alerts cascaded across their vision.

[You have consumed a 'Genesis Meat Pie'.]

[Satiety has increased.] 

[The [Layered Nourishment] effect has been triggered!] 

[The effects are stacked for the maximum duration!] 

[Stamina and Health regeneration is boosted by 75% for 12 hours.] 

[Strength and Agility are boosted by 45% for 12 hours.] 

[Focus is increased by 45% for 12 hours.]

Red let out a loud, gusting breath. The pale look vanished from his face. The crushing weight of the environmental debuff was completely swallowed by the ridiculous triple-stacked food buff. A 25% reduction to regeneration meant nothing when your base regeneration was inflated by 75%.