Owner of Twilight Intuition – Chapter 184

After receiving the quest, I went around and eliminated all the mole-like monsters, so now all that’s left is to report back.

The problem was that even after doing all this, the fact that they only gave 150 Divine Contribution Points bothered me.

‘At this rate, when will I fill up the remaining Contribution Points?’

I need to collect roughly 100,000, which means I have to do this quest over 600 times. Thinking about it made me feel demotivated.

“Is there really no quest that gives around 10,000?”

Just as I sighed and was about to return to the Church of Light, a sudden message appeared before me.

[‘Aizen’ of the Emperor Guild has invited you to the guild chat.]

[Would you like to accept?]

“……?”

What’s up with that guy contacting me when he’s busy with the Main Scenario?

If it’s him, he wouldn’t contact me for something trivial, so I wondered if something had happened.

“Accept.”

Thinking that, I accepted the guild chat invitation and immediately heard Aizen’s voice.

━Rudin-nim. Excuse me, but are you in contact with your colleague who found the dungeon before?

“The colleague who found the dungeon…… Raz? Why Raz?”

━We need to find a sealed area to proceed with the Main Scenario. However, our guild members’ Exploration Skills are unable to find it.

Sealed area?

It seems like it needs to be found using an Exploration Skill.

They probably contacted me because they haven’t made any progress so far.

And since Raz had experience selling a dungeon to Aizen, he probably remembered that and contacted me.

However.

“Wouldn’t it be difficult for Raz too? Raz’s Exploration Skill is C-rank.”

━Is that so? We need at least B-rank…… It’s a shame.

However, judging by the timing of the contact, there was a high possibility that the Main Scenario hadn’t even properly started yet.

So, to enter the Main Scenario, you need at least a B-rank or higher Exploration Skill? The starting conditions seem quite demanding.

‘Wait, hold on.’

B-rank or higher Exploration Skill.

That phrase triggered a sudden thought in my mind.

The Gem-Eating Snake.

The item I received as a reward for Arnela’s quest could use an A-rank Exploration Skill.

Although it requires gems each time it’s used, it’s an item capable of using high-level Exploration Skills if given high-quality gems.

Thinking that far, I immediately replied to Aizen.

“Raz might have a hard time, but I think I can do it.”

Rudin-nim, you mean?

“I can use an A-rank Exploration Skill. There are conditions, though.”

━……

Aizen fell silent for a moment at my words about the A-rank Exploration Skill.

Perhaps he couldn’t believe I had an A-rank Exploration Skill?

Anyway, after the silence, Aizen spoke.

━You mentioned there are conditions. May I know what they are?

“I need gems. The better the gem, the higher the level it activates.”

━It doesn’t matter as long as the activated skill is A-rank. However, judging by the conditions, it seems to be an item, not a skill.

“Well, that’s right. How about lending it?”

Come to think of it, Twilight had a rental system.

If I lend the Gem-Eating Snake through this rental system, it might be helpful for the Main Scenario.

━I would be grateful if you could.

‘Or should I try the Main Scenario myself?’

Originally, I was planning to collect Divine Contribution Points, but I would have to do this kind of quest over 600 times to get the S-rank Skillbook I wanted.

So, I thought it might be easier to look for demons than do quests, and I wondered if I could find demons during the Main Scenario.

“Ah, I’ll just go there myself. Where should I go?”

━It’s the place we went on an expedition before…… It’s difficult to explain the location. I’ll send someone to the Guild Castle, so please come with them.

Expedition? Didn’t it end in failure?

The reason for the failure back then seems to be related to the Main Scenario.

It seems like the path only opens after receiving the Main Scenario quest. Anyway, I replied that I understood and used a Return Scroll to go to the Guild Castle.

Whoosh!

‘But who’s coming?’

As I waited in the hallway, I saw someone opening the door and coming out.

When I checked who it was, thankfully, it was Heron, someone I had some familiarity with.

“Rudin-nim. It’s been a while.”

“Heron-nim, you came.”

“More than that, I was surprised. To think you have an item that can use an A-rank Exploration Skill.”

“It needs gems, though.”

“Yes, but we have other guild members who came to purchase gems, so it seems like we can go as we are.”

It seems like they sent other guild members besides Heron.

Understanding that, I nodded and then left the Guild Castle with Heron.

“I heard about your achievements during the fight against the Demon King. I wish I had been there too.”

“Come to think of it, why didn’t you come?”

“Actually, we were preparing for a guild quest. If the Demon King hadn’t appeared, we would have been proceeding with the guild quest. Now it’s been postponed again due to the Main Scenario.”

Guild quest……

“Did you form the Allied Guilds because of that guild quest?”

“Yes, we made that decision to minimize losses on our side. Thanks to that, we were able to defeat the Demon King without much damage, so it was the best choice.”

Afterward, using a teleportation device, I moved to a certain village and then rode a carriage for an hour before finally reaching the destination.

“We’ve arrived. We just need to walk a little further from here.”

‘It’s certainly far.’

Until I was riding the carriage, I had thought, ‘Did I come here for nothing?’ But since I had come this far, I decided to at least see what the Main Scenario was like, so I followed Heron and soon discovered that there were other people besides the Emperor Guild nearby.

“There are quite a lot of people.”

“There are other guilds as well. There are easily over 1,000 people here.”

“The king must have given the location accurately.”

“Not exactly. He only left a vague message saying there might be a passage somewhere around here.”

‘So, it’s up to the players to find it?’

Even with so many people searching, the fact that they haven’t found it yet made me think it was hidden quite thoroughly.

While I was thinking about that, I saw familiar faces resting ahead.

“Oh? It’s the Vice Guild Master!”

“Everyone, get up!”

“……”

What is this, the army?

As I arrived, the guild members seemed to abruptly get up from their rest as if it had ended.

At the same time, I saw Aizen approaching me, looking quite tired.

‘Just how much did he wander around?’

“You’ve arrived.”

“Ah, yeah. More importantly, the gems?”

“They’re ready.”

Hearing that they were ready, it seemed the guild member who prepared the gems arrived before me.

How did they arrive first?

Then I remembered the Partner System.

A system that allows you to move to your partner’s side once a day.

If they used that, it made sense that they arrived before me.

Also, as I examined the gems Aizen handed me one by one, most of them were Magic-grade, but there was just one Rare-grade gem.

[Ruby Containing Brilliant Magic Power] (Rare)

Description: A ruby containing clean and pure magic power. Made of the highest quality ruby, it is valuable in itself. However, to utilize the magic power contained within the ruby, crafting it into a magic item is the most efficient method.

*Material Value: 45.

‘What level will it activate if I feed it this?’

I was curious, but I thought I would find out soon enough, so I decided to use the Magic-grade gems first.

“By the way, where should I use the Exploration Skill?”

“This way.”

Following Aizen, who guided me, he pointed to a place not far away.

A dead end with a cliff ahead.

Pointing at the cliff, Aizen said,

“Please use it here.”

Well, I guess we’ll find out if we try.

I took out the Gem-Eating Snake from my item window.

But how do I use this?

Since it was my first time using it, I tried to figure out how to use it properly and brought a gem close to it. The mouth of the rope-like snake opened and swallowed the gem.

[Gem consumed.]

[A-rank Skill, Exploration Wave (LV7), will be activated.]

‘It activated at level 7 even after consuming a Magic-grade gem?’

Kyaaa!

Anyway, as I waited, the Gem-Eating Snake opened its mouth and screamed as if roaring.

It seemed like the skill had activated, so I waited, but soon realized there was no change.

“There’s no change?”

“May I see it for a moment?”

At Aizen’s words, I showed him the Gem-Eating Snake.

After checking the item, Aizen seemed to have figured out what kind of item it was and asked a different question.

“What level was the skill that just activated?”

“It activated at level 7.”

“Then let’s move to a different location.”

Only after hearing my answer did he seem to realize there was nothing here, and Aizen moved to a different location.

Following Aizen, I activated the Exploration Skill several times at the places he pointed to, but the result was a failure.

All that appeared were junk items spat out by the snake.

“Are you sure it’s here?”

Did that Emperor guy give us the wrong information?

“I’m starting to doubt it too, but we’ll search as much as we can.”

“……”

For a moment, I thought I had come here for nothing.

I should have just lent the item. Now I’m going through all this trouble because I wanted to see the Main Scenario?

Still, since I had come this far, I decided to keep moving until I used up all the gems.

“But is there a reason why the location was set in a place like this?”

“This is the location given by the guild member who finds dungeons using Exploration Skills. Since they have experience finding dungeons so far, they’re somewhat trustworthy.”

“Hmm.”

Nodding at his words, I fed the snake another gem.

The Gem-Eating Snake roared again, and just as I thought there would be no change, a light lingered on the small cliff ahead, and then it slowly started to split apart.

Rumble!

“Huh?”

“We found it.”

I wasn’t sure if we actually found it, but the split cliff created a cave that a person could pass through. And hearing the sound, the guild members quickly gathered.

“We found it!”

“As expected of the Vice Guild Master!”

“Shh! Be quiet!”

Some people tried to quiet them down in case other guild members heard, but it seemed impossible to hide it.

With everyone searching like this, would they not find a single cave that opened up here?

Of course, if they tried to block it, something might happen, but even that would have its limits.

“Since we found it, let’s go in. It could be a dungeon.”

“Are we all going in?”

“I don’t know how wide it is, but I think it would be good for you and me, Rudin-nim, to go in first and clear the way.”

Come to think of it, he said there was a passage leading to the sealed area.

If this was the passage, we couldn’t expect dungeon-like terrain, and it might be good for Aizen and me to go in first and clear the way, just in case.

“What do you think?”

“We’ve come this far, so what choice do we have? Let’s go in.”

And so, I decided to enter the cave.