'Did the prince know about this? Was this why he sent me?' Jack wondered.
Haestus continued, "As you know, we use the mountain's inner fire to help us in our craft. If we lose access to our fire mana source, we will lose this place."
"This monster threatened that?" Jack asked.
"It does. It is a type of monster that eats fire elements. It somehow found its way into the place where we built the machine to harness a fire mana site within this mountain. It had been making that place its lair now. If he kept on sucking the fire element there, the fire mana site might get destroyed."
Jack heard a notification after Haestus' words, "You have been offered a quest, Freeing the Fire Mana Site. Do you accept?"
"What is the level of this rare elite monster that needed vanquishing?" He asked Haestus.
"We don't know for sure, but it should not be lower than level 45. When we are forced to leave the place with the machine, the workers there said it was at that level. We don't know if it had grown."
'Level 45 rare elite? The prince certainly doesn't know about this... But then again,' Jack looked to the side at Samuel. 'No, he was level 55 but one grade lower. The best he could do was keep the monster occupied.'
"Why aren't you sending your soldiers down? High-level guards were protecting this place, right?" Jack asked. 'Hell, you yourself can probably fight the monster,' Jack thought about Haestus.
"The soldiers were mercenaries. They had no obligations unless the monster attacked our facility. The place with the fire mana site was not considered part of our facility. We will have to pay more if we ask them to take care of the monster."
"..."
"Our members here as you see are mostly blacksmiths, we are not fighters. I can fight, but it will be a risk. Since the third prince is expressing goodwill, we are kind enough to comply. Please rest assured that we will officially support Prince Alonzo once this crisis is solved."
"..."
Jack stood up. "Where is the way to this monster?"
Haestus clapped and stood, "Hah! I know the third prince won't send a wimp. Come!"
Haestus took them to a room with a large round hole on its floor. There were winding stairs going down far below. Jack could not see the end of the descent. It was dark at the bottom.
"More monsters appeared down there after that rare elite appeared. Many of the lighting apparatuses were destroyed, so visibility should be low down there," Haestus said.
"You got a torch?" Samuel asked.
"No need," Jack said and cast the Illumination spell. "Let's go," he said and started descending.
Jack heard two footsteps behind him. He looked back and saw that aside from Samuel, Kirsi had also followed. The blacksmith woman was holding a large crossbow. Jack gave a questioning look at Haestus who was standing by the edge of the hole looking down at them.
"Kirsi used to be a skilled ranger before she learned blacksmithing. She should be of help to you down there," Haestus explained.
Jack had the urge to say, 'How about you be the one coming down with us instead of her? That will be a better help.' But he kept his mouth shut. He turned back and continued following the stairs down into the abyss.
"Good luck!" Grenmir shouted.
Jack simply lifted his arm as a reply.
They descended rather far. Jack looked up and the top was a tiny ball of light up there. It was very dark where they were, but the stairs continued to descend. Some of the stairs were damaged. Fortunately, Jack's illumination spell allowed them to see the steps clearly, so they didn't tumble down.
Kirsi wore a round helmet. She tap on the front part of it and a bright light shone. Jack was reminded of the caving helmet in real life which had a headlamp. He observed Kirsi's helmet closer and found the light source to be a gem that emitted bright light.
"I crafted this helmet myself," Kirsi explained.
"Awesome," Jack commented.
"I could have used one," Samuel said.
"Sorry, I only made one," Kirsi said.
When they arrived at the bottom, they saw there were three separate paths to take. "It's that way," Kirsi said and pointed to the rightmost path.
"Stay behind me," Samuel took point and readied his two tomahawk axes.
Jack also had his sword and magic staff at the ready.
The temperature when they were climbing down the stairs was rather high. However, down here, it was rather cold. Considering they were inside a mountain under a facility that utilized the mountain's heat to the fullest, it was strange. There were also flecks of ice on the wall. Why was there ice? And why didn't it melt? Jack touched the flecks and found them were cold.
"How far is the place with the fire mana site?" Jack asked Kirsi.
"If no interruption, we should arrive in less than an hour," Kirsi answered.
'Definitely will be longer,' Jack thought. Haestus mentioned other monsters had infested this place as well.
As if agreeing to Jack's thought, two large figures appeared on their path. They were humanoid with muscular bodies and bull's heads. Two large bent horns jutted out from both sides of their heads. Their skin was blue and smooth. Each of them carried a large hammer.
Jack used his Inspect. The two monsters were Snow Minotaur, level 35 elite humanoid monsters.
Since their levels were not too high, Jack said to Samuel, "You two stay back! Let me deal with them."
Samuel looked at Jack with a weird expression. 'Shouldn't that be my line?' He thought.
Jack, in the meantime, was already rushing forward and met the two minotaurs. Jack preferred to do the fighting if the monsters were still manageable. Samuel had proven to not be under his command, so Jack would not get any exp if Samuel did the killing. Kirsi also joined following Haestus' command. She never asked for Jack's order so it was clear that she was acting on her own. Jack would get no benefit from her joining the fight as well.
As if the two wanted to prove that they were not under Jack's command, the two still attack even after Jack asked them to stay back. Kirsi's bolts flew with fast speed and stabbed at the minotaurs' bodies. Samuel cleaved at one of the minotaurs and it was smashed to the ground. Their levels were too far apart, after all.
Jack focused his offense on the other minotaur. He hurried up by using all his strongest skills except Lightning God Barrage. He used the burst attack of his Formless Flowing Sword style. He shouted to the two, "Hands off from this one! This one is mine!"
Samuel and Kirsi looked at each other. "Outworlder," Samuel said with a shrug.
As Jack fought the minotaur, he could feel the cold aura from the monster. It was weird for a cold-type monster to appear in this fire-based location. Did it have something to do with the rare elite monster that was occupying the fire mana site?
Jack finally killed the minotaur while the two watched. He received exp points, some coins and mana cores.
"We are going to waste time if you insist to fight by yourself, you know?" Samuel said.
Jack thought about it. That's true. He then asked, "Well, I have no problem for you two to fight as well, but I have a condition."
"What?" Samuel asked.
"You two have to listen to my orders."
"Boy, even if you are a Viscount, I'm still more senior."
"I know. I never ask for your obedience the entire time. Just agree to listen to me for this current mission."
Samuel seemed to be considering. Kirsi said, "all right, I'll follow your order. However, if I think your order is putting us in danger, I won't follow."
Jack nodded. He was not actually going to give them specific commands. It was just a symbolic attempt to have this world system granting him exp points.
Samuel said, "Fine. I have the same thought as her. If your command is absurd, don't expect me to follow."
"Excellent. Follow me!" Jack said. He was eager to test if the system recognized this kind of party forming.
They encountered another two Snow Minotaurs. Jack gave his orders, "Samuel, deal with them! Kirsi, support him with your crossbow!"
The two were confused, what's different from before? Jack was not even moving this time. The two proceeded to engage the monsters. Samuel alone was enough already, he was too powerful for the Snow Minotaurs. When the two monsters fell, Jack saw his exp bar going up. Some coins and mana cores also fell from those fallen minotaurs.
'Hehe, success,' Jack thought with a grin. Now he had extra motivation to slay this level 45 rare elite.. An exp of such a high-level monster would surely elevate his level to catch up with the levels of other player experts such as Anotherday, who was already level 35 the last time Jack met him.
