Chapter 121 : Phantom Harpooner
Phantom Harpooner
Another new side quest?
As the voice echoing in her mind faded, Cecilia furrowed her brows and fell into deep thought.
Up until now, she had already received three side quests. The first two required her to visit the territories of Hanfu and the Japanese server respectively and were closely related to whether the Darkwing Demon Bat could unlock its mount feature. The third quest was to create a maid café within seven days and sell a specified number of coffees to truly complete the quest.
Just these three tasks alone were enough to leave Cecilia utterly clueless as to where to start. Now, a fourth side quest had suddenly appeared, which was truly a bit overwhelming.
The only thing to be grateful for was that this was only the first day of the new version, so the time left for her wasn't really pressing—she still had a little over six days.
However, the next week probably wouldn't be as easy as the first two days had been.
After all, ever since officially entering this game, Cecilia hadn't had a single day of leisure. She let out a light sigh and focused her gaze back on the dolphin monster.
As expected, this quest called [Phantom Harpooner] was definitely closely linked to the rusty harpoon head on the dolphin's back.
Cecilia reached out her right hand and gently touched the harpoon head on the dolphin's back. Her palm was met with the rough sensation of iron rust and a unique briny scent of the sea. It didn't seem to be particularly special.
Seeing Cecilia's strange reaction, Dawn's Light couldn't hold back anymore and spoke up first, "Cecilia, did you discover something new?"
"No, I just suddenly unlocked a side quest. It seems to be related to this harpoon."
Cecilia withdrew her right hand, still frowning as she responded softly.
"What? So this harpoon came with it? I thought it was you who stabbed it in!"
Dawn's Light's eyes widened slightly.
Because Cecilia had just used this harpoon head as a makeshift steering wheel, the wound that had already closed was torn open again, with lots of bright red blood seeping out around it. It didn't look like an old injury.
No wonder Dawn's Light misunderstood. Anyone seeing that wound would likely assume it wasn't old, but instead that Cecilia had picked up the harpoon head from the sea floor and casually stabbed it in.
"Don't slander me."
Cecilia rolled her eyes and ignored him. Instead, she opened her quest log to check the details of this side quest.
A translucent light blue screen slowly lit up and was displayed before Cecilia.
[(Optional) Side Quest: Phantom Harpooner]
[Quest Description: In the stormy Sea of Storms at midnight, ghostly green flames drift year-round. In life, he was a butcher who hunted countless dolphins; in death, he is a vengeful specter, holding a harpoon and slaughtering without restraint.]
[Quest Requirements: Arrive at the quest location after 23:00 tonight and, before midnight, kill the "Phantom Harpooner" together with the 'Wounded Saber-tooth Whale Dolphin'!]
[Quest Rewards: 'Wounded Saber-tooth Whale Dolphin' Favorability +1000; Harpoon of Resentful Specter; 2200 Experience Points]
[Note: You have healed the 'Wounded Saber-tooth Whale Dolphin'. Your current favorability has exceeded 300, so you have unlocked this side quest. If not unlocked within 15 minutes, it will be considered automatically abandoned and can never be unlocked again.]
.......
At first, Cecilia hesitated and wasn't sure whether to take this quest. After all, sea battles were her least favorite, and now she'd have to fight a fierce and brutal specter. Just reading the quest description, she knew the Phantom Harpooner would be tough to deal with.
However, when she read the last line, she didn't hesitate any longer and decisively accepted the quest.
It was just killing a monster anyway and wouldn't take much time. Moreover, she desperately needed experience and a mount that could freely travel the seas.
If she could really raise the dolphin monster's favorability, whether it was for subjugating the D-rank Boss Harpy or crossing the seas to raid the Japanese server islands, it would certainly be a great help for her upcoming plans.
After tapping "Accept Quest," the voice of System Miss once again rang in Cecilia's mind.
"System notification: You are currently in Party Mode. Do you wish to share this quest with your teammates?"
It was just an ordinary side quest, so there was no need to keep it secret. Without overthinking, Cecilia directly chose to share the quest.
In an instant, regardless of whether it was Gu Yanxi, Dawn's Light, Yuewu, or Little Persimmon Puppy, a voice from System Miss sounded almost simultaneously in their minds.
"Ding! System Notification: Your party leader Cecilia has shared a side quest—[Phantom Harpooner]!"
"It really is a new quest!"
Except for Gu Yanxi, who still looked completely bewildered, the other three all tensed up, then excitedly opened their quest logs to examine the details of the side quest.
Yuewu was the first to read the quest and immediately looked up at Cecilia to say, "After 23:00—that's 11PM—before midnight, I'll definitely be there!"
"I'm good too,"
Dawn's Light quickly replied.
"Tonight's auction ends at 9:30, so I'll have time as well,"
Little Persimmon Puppy chimed in too.
Since all three of the others had time, and Gu Yanxi had been sleeping in the same bed as Cecilia these past few days, there was even less concern there.
With the method of making ice blocks already confirmed to be unfeasible, over the next few minutes, Cecilia explained her subsequent plans to everyone.
Maybe it was because she had accepted this side quest, but the dolphin monster, which had been extremely irritable at first, was now floating obediently at Cecilia's side—no struggling, no resistance, a world apart from how it looked the first time they met.
Although the other three felt somewhat unwilling, they all knew that killing the D-rank world boss today was completely out of the question.
Thus, the group quickly reached a unanimous decision: they would come back at 11PM tonight to first complete the side quest and slay that so-called Phantom Harpooner.
After agreeing on the meeting time, there was no reason to linger on the barren beach. A few beams of light flickered, and Dawn's Light, Yuewu, and Little Persimmon Puppy logged out of the game, planning to log back in and return to Main City to save on travel time.
After all, it would take nearly two hours to return to Main City from here, even at full speed, and there was a chance of encountering other troublesome monsters along the way. Logging out and back in was a bit of a hassle, but it could save a lot of time.
Once the others were offline, Cecilia took out more than a dozen expensive HP potions from her backpack and poured them into the dolphin monster as if they cost nothing.
Although Cecilia's skills required her to sacrifice some of her own HP, they came with an extremely overpowered life-steal effect. With just a single slash, she could instantly restore two or three hundred HP, so she didn't need to rely on potions to maintain her status.
These potions had been saved up over time, but since she hadn't needed them, she didn't mind using them up now.
Once she'd restored the dolphin monster's depleted HP to full, Cecilia finally stopped and, together with Gu Yanxi, exited the game.