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Join the Server…Is this really going to be okay? Well, it’s not like anything drastic will happen, right? I tried to push aside my ominous foreboding with a layer of complacent denial.
<Wtf ‘That’ Angel Guild joined> Just checked, this is insane lollll. What’s even going on with that guild lately? Sephiroth, AngelA, and now Endless declaring war on them?
[Comments]
I poured my entire weekend into Zelpia. I was so serious about it that my past self, who insisted I’d never play such a game, would have been appalled. It got to the point where Seong-jin and Gyu-tae asked if I was grinding my actual life into the game.
The biggest factor in all this was Sephiroth. We spent nearly the entire weekend hitting the Battlegrounds together, and through those matches, I began lifting the curses on my attack power, defense, and recovery one by one. With the high weekend login rates and everyone’s skills sharpening by the day, our guild actually started climbing the rankings significantly. He was an arrogant, tactless jerk, but I had to admit: I couldn’t ask for a better partner to play with.
[Guild] JujiyukLim: Shall we call it a day?
[Guild] NasiGoreng: Ughhh I feel like I’m gonna die ㅠㅠ
[Guild] BuffNinjaPls: A Ninja can still run.
[Guild] BuffNinjaPls: The Ninja’s energy is overflowing.
[Guild] BuffNinjaPls: I feel so good I can’t even put it into words.
[Guild] ParkJinSol: Stfu.
[Guild] Ris: ㅡㅡ;; Let’s take a break though…
[Guild] VeggieSteamedBun: ㅋㅋㅋ Let’s rest, everyone!!
[Guild] VeggieSteamedBun: We’ve been going non-stop since yesterday ㅋㅋㅋ
[Guild] PungPungLove: Yeah, agreed.
[Guild] PungPungLove: This is straight-up labor exploitation.
The teammates who had been silently grinding event maps began to wail. As our active numbers grew, we’d even split into two Battleground parties. One was me and Sephiroth; the other was Gyu-tae and AngelA. Gyu-tae had begged not to be paired with her, but AngelA had insisted, “It’ll be better to have someone I know to adjust quickly,” so they became a team. Well, he’s the one who brought her in, right? Not my problem.
[Guild] JujiyukLim: Alright, the official party is disbanded for today.
[Guild] JujiyukLim: If you want to keep going, do it on your own.
[Guild] VeggieSteamedBun: Im Won-jae is a total guild leader now.
[Guild] Ris: By the way, how did everyone get so much better? ㅡㅡ;;
[Guild] Ris: I was genuinely shocked ㅡㅡ;;;
[Guild] NasiGoreng: Ah, that… Endless keeps getting on our nerves, so we refused to lose.
[Guild] NasiGoreng: Ris-nim, want to practice with us next time?
[Guild] Ris: No, I’m… ㅡㅡ;;
[Guild] NasiGoreng: Shame~ Let me know if you change your mind~~!
As I watched the party window dissolve, someone clapped a hand onto my shoulder. Previously, I would have jumped, but now I knew there was only one person who would do this. I turned around to face Sephiroth’s black armor.
“What are you going to do now? Keep hitting the Battlegrounds?”
Sephiroth shook his head. “No. Let’s clear a quest.”
“A quest instead of the Battlegrounds?”
Come to think of it, our Hidden Quest,
[Children of Ignas – 2], had another objective. I glanced at my log.
[Hidden] <Children – 2 Ignas of>
“Meeting Priest Delwing?”
“Yeah.”
Sephiroth nodded slightly. Every time he moved, the joints of his armor caught the sunlight, sending dizzying reflections dancing before my eyes.
“Do you know where they are?”
“No clue. Never heard the name.”
“Then what’s the plan?”
“Back to Doltec. He’s the one who gave the quest in the first place, right?”
True. Doltec was the one who told us to go to the Sea of Phantoms, which led to the curse. Looking back, this whole mess started because Doltec captured Ignas and misused the pearls.
“Is it okay to go back when we haven’t exactly ‘gained’ anything yet?”
“If we catch him and shake him down, something will come out, won’t it?”
“…Do you just never consider a peaceful solution?”
“The fist is always closer than the law.”
I let out a hollow laugh. Not because his words were particularly funny, but because they actually sounded plausible to me now.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
I think I’ve been a bad influence on myself—or maybe he’s just rubbing off on me.
Unlike our last visit to Hodelem, which felt like a “Walking Around the World” documentary, this time we arrived in an instant via the Warp Gate. The gate was a silver oval frame filled with a shimmering, bluish light like an aurora. The silver frame was exquisitely carved—flowers vining up from the bottom, and cherubs blowing trumpets at the top.
The view in front of the Warp Gate was also spectacular. A massive fountain sat in the center of the plaza, with four white marble statues—likely depicting beautiful mermaids—facing the cardinal directions.
Placing mermaid statues in a village that got rich off mermaid products… a bit macabre, isn’t it?
A circular path of grey octagonal bricks surrounded the fountain. Between the path and the fountain were well-tended flower beds. Red, yellow, white, and coral tulips swayed in the breeze in perfect rows. White streetlamps, also intricately carved with vine motifs ending in blooming flower-shaped bulbs, lined the outer brick path. Since it was daytime, they weren’t lit, but I stared at them blankly anyway.
“What are you doing?” Sephiroth asked, resting a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s just… pretty,” I answered honestly.
“Me?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Seriously. If he went one day without saying something stupid, he wouldn’t be Sephiroth. He’d be a rat in a Sephiroth costume. I brushed his arm off irritably and stepped forward. He followed right behind me.
“Do you even know where we’re going?”
“I don’t, but I’m walking anyway.”
“Are you embarrassed because I caught you thinking I’m pretty?”
He isn’t even Na Eun-hyeok; there’s nothing “pretty” about him. The only thing he does beautifully is fight.
“Are you going to keep talking nonsense?”
“Alright, alright.”
He finally declared a truce with a chuckling voice after I glared at him. I knew he’d just start teasing me again in a few minutes, which left me feeling like I had something stuck in my throat. He draped his arm over my shoulder again, this time pulling me into a side-hug-like stride.
“What are you doing now?”
“Acting friendly.”
Fine…
I was too tired to argue, so I stayed silent. Sephiroth, finding no reaction, eventually let go.
“Let’s go straight to Doltec.”
“We don’t need to gather info first?”
“It’s a problem between Ignas and Doltec anyway. The villagers won’t know a thing about Ignas, so it’s better to just settle it with Doltec directly.”
“True. Ignas’s name doesn’t even appear in the main story, right?”
“Nope. First time I heard it was from that quest.”
I nodded and opened the map to find the route to the Central Market. This plaza was located in the middle of a high-end residential area, situated on high ground like a summit. To get to the market, we had to pass through the wealthy district and past the government buildings. Once I set the waypoint, a blue path illuminated the ground.
“Then, down these stairs—wait, hey!”
Completely ignoring the stairs I was pointing at, Sephiroth marched toward the edge of the plaza where the stone railings were. Before I could say another word, he hopped over the railing and jumped straight down.
…Well.
I suppose that is faster.
It looks like the “shortcut” king is at it again! Do you follow him over the edge, or take the long way down?
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