The Almighty Ring

Jiang Fei examined the progress of the construction for a bit and left crates of materials for the NPC builders to use. After he was done, he left for the Demon Flame Fortress.

Even though he wanted to do something, he dared not enter the Hall of Commanders. The Saint of the Light was sitting there waiting for Jiang Fei to come. She might have a quest for him and if Jiang Fei said the “wrong” thing, she might accidentally reach Infatuated. Isabella would be furious if that happened!

Just as he was standing outside of the hall, thinking of other things to do, a blue light pillar flashed.

“Who dares invade the Demon Flame Fortress!?” cried the voice of Knight’s Commander Heinz before Jiang Fei could even react to it.

After the blue light pillar faded away, Jiang Fei was hugged by a familiar face.

“Ariel? What are you doing here?” asked Jiang Fei as he was surprised to see the Merfolk Princess Ariel appearing in the middle of the Demon Fortress.

“Oh, Verdure Glider! Hm? Do you know her?” asked Heinz as he lowered his sword. He was the man in charge of the defense of the fortress. Naturally, when someone not affiliated to the Shadow Faction entered the territory, he would be the first on the scene to fend them off.

“Yes commander. This is the daughter of the Master of the Seven Seas! Princess Ariel!” said Jiang Fei as he introduced the princess to Heinz.

“Oh! Welcome to the Demon Flame Fortress, Merfolk friend. However, even though I may welcome you here, intruding the fortress without permission is not short of a crime!” said Heinz as he turned a blind eye. The Merfolk race was one of the neutral race that did not take any stance in the war between the Light and the Shadow Faction. Even so, intruding the Demon Flame Fortress and even appearing right in front of the Hall of Commanders was something unheard of.

“I have grave news!” cried Ariel, tears rolling down her soft pale cheeks. Incidentally, she had completely ignored Heinz.

First and foremost, Ariel was a Level 88 Higher Lord tier NPC, which was very much stronger than Heinz. Secondly, she was completely lovestruck and would not look at any other men besides Jiang Fei.

“What happened?” said Jiang Fei, worried.

“My father has been kidnapped and imprisoned by the Naga! I need your help!” said Ariel, crying at the same time.

“Ding! The Merfolk Princess Ariel has a Legendary Hidden Quest for you: Blitz Rescue! Will you accept it?”

“Ding! The quest has been automatically accepted due to the Love Contract between you and Princess Ariel!”

As soon as Jiang Fei was about to ask for more details, another system notification popped out.

“What the hell?” cried Jiang Fei. He finally understood the side-effects of Infatuated. All quests issued by a girl in the Infatuated status would automatically be accepted! Jiang Fei had no power to reject any quest she issued!

Quest Name: Blitz Rescue!

Quest Objective: Together with the Master of the Seven Seas, King Elric, break the barricade that was imprisoning King Elric and rescue him!

Quest Reward: 200,000,000 Experience Points, 5,000 Gold Coins, 1,000 Merfolk Race Reputation Points, Mysterious Equipment Reward!

Quest Progression: Save King Elric and defeat the army of the Naga.

Quest Reward: 500,000,000 Experience Points, 10,000 Gold Coins, 3,000 Merfolk Race Reputation points, Mysterious Equipment Reward!

Mission Impossible Challenge: Save King Elric, Destroy at least 70% of the Naga Army, Kill the Tyrant of the Ocean, Morgan!

Quest Reward: 1,000,000,000 Experience Points, 50,000 Gold Coins, 5,000 Merfolk Race Reputation Points, Mysterious Equipment Reward!

Quest Fail Condition: King Elric perishes in battle.

Penalty: 200,000,000 Experience Points deduction.

“What in the….” Jiang Fei was speechless as he read the entire quest description wall of text.

It was the first time he had received a quest with many different tiers of completion. The easiest one would be just saving King Elric and as the difficulty rose, the hardest would be to kill the Overlord tier Morgan.

Naturally, the reward was far more grander as the difficulty rose. Experience points and gold coins aside, the Reputation Points reward was luxurious! However, the cherry on the top was the Mysterious Equipment Reward!

As the name itself spoke of its own difficulty, the Mission Impossible Challenge was not something that could be easily accomplished.

“Please! I beg of you! Please save my father! My beloved!” cried Ariel as she held Jiang Fei’s hands to her face.

Ariel was desperate. Her palace was surrounded by the enemy and a barrier was erected to prevent anyone to escape. Ariel was only able to escape due to the skill of the Love Contract that ignored all restriction to teleport to the other partner. Desperate, she had no one else to turn to for help except the one that she was Infatuated with, Jiang Fei.

The one thing that Ariel had forgotten to take into account was the fact that Jiang Fei was only over Level 60. If she, being a Level 88 High Lord could not save her own father, what could Jiang Fei do?

The thing was Ariel had no one else in mind besides Jiang Fei. Naturally, she had placed her trust and hope in his hands.

‘Sh*t f*ck! Even if I wanted to ignore you, I can’t,’ yelled Jiang Fei in his mind. The bloody quest had a penalty for failing! Two billion experience points was so much experience points that if it was deducted from Jiang Fei, he would drop down to Level 59!

“*sniff sniff* I knew you wouldn’t leave me alone! Thank you so much, my love,” cried Ariel as she hugged Jiang Fei tightly. Poor Jiang Fei as he could not even say anything besides hugging the Mermaid Princess. The girl had nothing in her mind but to rescue her father. Jiang Fei had no say in it!

“Commander Heinz… I could really use a hand here,” said Jiang Fei after Ariel had calmed down and released Jiang Fei. Knowing that he could not face Morgan alone, he had resort to ask for help from the commanders of the Demon Fortress.

“My brother. It pains me so to say but no one in the Shadow Faction could lend a hand,” said Heinz as he sighed heavily.

“Why…?”

“You must understand the situation. The Merfolk race has never interfered nor participated in the war between the Light and Shadow. We, on the other hand, have good relations with both the Merfolks and the Nagas. No races will side with us nor go against us. Say we lent you a hand with this unfortunate predicament, the Naga will bear grudges against us and side with the Light Faction. It would tip the power balance greatly and sooner or later, the Merfolk race would inevitably be forced to join the war, whether they like it or not,” said Heinz, regretfully.

“I understand, Commander Heinz. I thank you for telling me this,” said Jiang Fei as he understood the explanation. He could see that even though Heinz wanted to help, he was bound to his duty to the Shadow Faction and could never do anything that would jeopardize the wellbeing of the faction.

“My love, what should we do?” asked Ariel as she panicked.

“It’s fine. I need to assess the situation before I do anything,” said Jiang Fei. By hook or by crook, he had to do something to complete the quest! Two freaking billion experience point was to die for! Hence, even though it would kill him, he would never allow the system to just rob him of his hard-earned two billion experience points!