Chapter 27 Crossing the Underworld (1) I miss you, Kelp...

“I know where Cerberus is trapped.”

Upon hearing this, Xia Ying immediately rushed forward, asking in quick succession, "Is he really trapped? When? Where is he trapped?"

“It has been a while.” Fenrir recalled the scene. “The last time I saw Cerberus was in the Hall of the Wilderness.”

####

On the third day of [Circle Internship], Fenrir entered the Wilderness Hall for the first time. The dense crowd in the hall made him frown, while Fenrir's mentor looked much more nervous than he did.

The burly troll said cautiously, "Lord Fenrir, once the initial exploration of the wilderness quest is completed, my role as your guide will be finished. I will absolutely not appear before you again after that..."

"You know me?"

This interlude did not cause any emotional fluctuation in Frostwolf until the teleportation circle lit up and a familiar figure appeared in the Wilderness Hall.

That was Cerberus.

The notification sound indicating the completion of the mission rang out as he appeared, but the demon hound, who had just returned to the lobby from the wilderness mission scene, had no time to linger and immediately rushed to the mission pick-up point.

“You’ve been working non-stop on six wilderness quests, Mr. Cerberus,” the goblin administrator said slowly. “Out of kindness, I advise you to take a break and come back tomorrow at least.”

Cerberus, completely ungrateful, grabbed the goblin by the collar and lifted him up: "Mind your own business. Aren't you the administrator? Don't waste my time."

“Alright, since you insist,” the goblin administrator sighed, “let go, or I can’t process your transaction.”

The demon hound released its grip abruptly. The goblin straightened its administrator uniform and pulled a document from a drawer: "Before that, due to the special nature of Mission 15, I must first inform you of the risks..."

"Hurry up!!"

"The Wilderness Mission No. 15 is a 'half-finished product,' with extremely high difficulty and strong spatial fluctuations. If you cannot complete the mission in time and stay in the scene for too long, there is a risk that you will not be able to return to Cocytus."

The goblin read the risk disclosure statement carefully and meticulously.

"If you are aware of the risks, please confirm them using the Magic Mark."

Cerberus ignited a cluster of black flames at his fingertips and pressed them heavily onto the risk disclosure form, searing a hole in it.

“Confirmed.” The goblin turned around. “I’ll start Wilderness Mission #15 for you right away.”

Cerberus was about to walk toward the giant silver tree when he suddenly stopped and glanced back sharply.

“Fenrir.” His gaze cut through the crowd to meet that of the Frostwolf standing silently in the hall. “When did you become so furtive?”

Fenrir asked, "Where are you going, Cerberus?"

The demonic hound turned its back to him and stepped into the mission space: "This is none of your business."

####

“But even now, the Wilderness Quest #15 is still not completed,” Fenrir said. “So I suspect that Cerberus might be stuck in the quest area.”

Xia Ying looked at the semi-transparent screen hanging high above the hall and found a line of text in the scrolling data that read "No. 15 Wilderness Mission is underway".

She started moving and involuntarily walked back into the crowd, but was quickly pulled by the arm.

“If this wilderness quest truly traps Cerberus,” Fenrir’s eyes were as cold as ice, “Xia Ying, even if you enter the quest, it will probably be of no use.”

Xia Ying slowly raised her gaze and fixed it on his face.

Fenrir remained impassive, already prepared to forcibly take her away.

“You’re right,” Xia Ying admitted. “Ker is much stronger than me. I really shouldn’t have taken the risk. Besides, I can’t be sure that the person currently working on the Wilderness Quest #15 is really Ker.”

Her tense body slowly relaxed: "Maybe he actually completed the mission a long time ago, but encountered other situations that I don't know about, and couldn't free up his hands to reply to messages... Anyway, thank you, Fenrir."

Xia Ying smiled at Shuanglang and said, "Thank you for telling me about this. I will investigate it carefully."

Her smile was perfectly normal, but Fenrir still felt a vague unease: "Don't take any risks, Xia Ying."

"I know, I won't do anything I'm not entirely sure about... Okay, that's enough for today."

Xia Ying half-forced Fenrir to walk outside with her, then let go of his hand at the entrance of the hall, took a step back, and said goodbye to him.

"I'll keep in touch with you. Goodbye, Fenrir!"

She selected a teleportation point in the map section of the Student Handbook, and her figure quickly disappeared from Fenrir's sight.

After that, Fenrir's gaze lingered for a moment at the spot where Xia Ying had disappeared before leaving the Wilderness Hall.

No one knew what conversation had just taken place in that corner. The Wilderness Hall remained busy and noisy, and within minutes of the two leaving, many more people passed by the spot where they had stood.

Just as a team of strategists walked briskly out of the hall, discussing the day's thrilling mission, a figure suddenly appeared from the spot, startling the abyssal creatures.

"Excuse me, please make way, I'm in a hurry!" Xia Ying said energetically as she returned, quickly dashing towards the center of the hall and arriving at the mission pick-up point like a flash of lightning.

The goblin administrator looked up, slightly surprised, and said, "Miss Succubus, it's you again?"

"Sir Administrator, I have something I'd like to ask you." Xia Ying gestured with her chin towards the large screen, "Who is the abyssal creature currently tackling Wilderness Mission #15?"

Without hesitation, the goblin replied, "It's an abyssal creature called Cerberus."

"..." Xia Ying leaned closer to the counter. "Are you sure? Don't you need to double-check?"

The goblin pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time: "In a little over two hours, he might never be able to escape the 15th Wilderness Mission..."

Before it could finish speaking, Xia Ying leaned her upper body behind the counter and reached out her hands to the goblin. The goblin immediately recalled the experience of being grabbed by the collar and lifted up, and hurriedly protected its collar.

The goblin, seeing the hands stop in front of him, belatedly said, "...Ah, could it be that unfortunate Mr. Cerberus is your friend?"

“That’s right. Did he get violent towards you? Then I apologize on his behalf.” Xia Ying smiled and moved her fingers. “I just hope you can hand me the risk disclosure form for the No. 15 Wilderness Mission as soon as possible.”

"You also want to take on the Wilderness Mission #15?" The goblin hesitated for a moment, but still handed over the risk disclosure form.

Xia Ying quickly skimmed the text on the notice, skipping directly to the last line:

If you are aware of the risks involved in this mission, please confirm them using the Magic Mark.

Next to the line of text was a charred hole, and Xia Ying knew at a glance who had done it.

She thought for a moment, then gathered a tiny stream of air at her fingertips and left a wind mark next to the hole burned by the black flames.

After listening to her instructions, the goblin looked puzzled, but still nodded: "I promise you."

Immediately afterwards, the notification sound for the Wilderness Mission was triggered.

"Wilderness Mission #15: [Crossing the Underworld] has officially begun."

Challengers: Xia Ying, Cerberus.

####

Because the interval between the last two wilderness missions was so short, Xia Ying felt she had become quite used to being thrown into mission scenarios.

Based on her previous experience, she waited for hints about the mission background and objectives while getting up from the ground and trying to observe her surroundings.

"Beep! Wilderness Mission #15: [Crossing the Underworld]: Cross the Underworld, do not look back."

...Is that all?

Not only were the task prompts very brief and vague, but the surrounding scenery was also shrouded in thick fog.

Xia Ying tried to summon a gale with the [Wind God Earring], but this only made the thick white area flow slowly, and the objects within it were still indistinct.

"Is anyone there?" Xia Ying took a few steps forward and shouted, "Cerberus! Can you hear me! Cerberus!!"

She received no response, but judging from the speed at which the sound dissipated, Xia Ying could roughly confirm that she was in a vast wasteland.

Perhaps this is the "underworld" mentioned in the mission?

Xia Ying could only continue walking aimlessly forward, and gradually began to feel like a dead spirit wandering in the underworld.

"puff."

Xia Ying was amused for a second by the lame joke that suddenly popped into her mind, but just as she was distracted, a weapon suddenly pierced through the thick fog, and a skeleton demon wielding a bone knife pounced on her.

Xia Ying quickly jumped back to avoid the blades, only to find that a group of skeleton demons had also rushed out from behind her, surrounding her menacingly.

Xia Ying held the [Kusanagi Sword] horizontally in front of her, feeling extremely troubled due to the overwhelming disparity in numbers between herself and the enemy.

To Xia Ying's surprise, when she suddenly lunged forward, the [Kusanagi Sword] easily cut down a group of skeleton demons, shattering their sluggish skeletons into pieces, and their weapons clattered and fell to the ground.

Xia Ying rushed out of the rift and looked back. She saw the shattered limbs of the skeleton demon twisting and reassembling, and she quickly realized that although this abyssal creature was fragile, it could not be killed easily.

Don't get entangled with them.

Realizing this, Xia Ying sprinted forward, smashing monsters that blocked her way along the way, trying to shake off the skeleton demon as quickly as possible.

Just when she thought she could break through the encirclement smoothly, a scorching stream of fire erupted from somewhere, turning all the skeletons in its path to ashes.

Even though she was still some distance from the flames, the surging heat still made Xia Ying stumble. She knelt on one knee, propped herself up with her sword, and looked up at the distant waterfall of flames.

That wasn't golden-red dragon fire, but pitch-black hellfire that Xia Ying was extremely familiar with.

Xia Ying immediately stood up and ran as fast as she could towards where the black flames had come from.

At first, she ran on her own two legs and instincts until she was so breathless that she remembered she could still use magical artifacts.

The Spring of Persephone made her as light as a swallow, while the Wind God's Earrings made the wind her wings. Looking down from above, Xia Ying finally saw the source of the flame she had been so desperately searching for in the center of the skeleton demon's encirclement.

Cerberus tore through another wave of skeletons with his scythe, when he suddenly felt a gust of wind brush the back of his neck. He instinctively turned around and saw a black dot on the horizon that was growing larger but still indistinct.

Even so, it was enough for him to recognize who it was.

The flames of hell suddenly burst forth from his body, and Cerberus transformed into his beast form, desperately chasing after the wind.

As the two trajectories drew ever closer, Xia Ying finally leaped into the air, plunging like a meteor into the dark fur of the demonic hound.

For the first time in a long time, she hugged Cerberus's neck tightly and pressed her cheek against his ear.

I miss you, Kel.

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Author's Note: Even the dog misses you.