28 Lost Palace of the Ashen Elves

"What? I think that it's a lot of time for a quest like this?" Urie pondered.

"I think it might be reasonable since we don't know how much time will it take for the crystal to be revived and add the time that we need to travel!" Arie informed them while they were walking out of the cave.

As they walked up the way, Arie saw a strange plant at the side of the way, which they didn't notice earlier because of the awkward atmosphere after they argued.

Arie tried to pick up the strange plant when a notification ring echoed inside his head.

[Warning!]

[You lack the (Forage) skill to harvest the item!]

"Brother! Do you have any forage skill?" Arie asked his brother, but Urie only replied with a shrug.

"How about trying some of your beasts to do the work? Maybe some of them have the (Forage) ability?" Urie suggested as Arie took out his compendium and summoned all the beasts he had, hoping that one of them had the ability.

All of Arie's beasts were summoned as they all gathered around Arie, waiting for his order.

"Everyone! Try to pick up that plant and see if you have the (Forage) ability! We might need that plant someday!" Arie ordered as all the beasts take turns to pick up the strange plant.

All the beasts tried, but Arie only received a bunch of warning notifications about the beasts being unable to pick up the plant due to them lacking the (Forage) skill.

Arie sighed in defeat as he gave up his thoughts about the strange plant.

"Come on, brother! We need to hurry or you might end up being unable to finish your quest due to time constraints!" Arie called out as they continued to walk out of the volcano.

An hour passed when the two reached the Obsidium town from the volcano. They bought some supplies that they might need during their trip toward the Ash Forest.

As soon as they finished preparing, they continued their journey towards the east of the town, also known as the "Mysterious Home of the Late Ashen Elves".

The surroundings of the forest were quite gloomy because of the ambience emitted by the trees with pitch black trunks and ash leaves. The ground was as hard as concrete, but it didn't even block the growth of the strange plants.

There were crimson red flowers that looked similar to the plant that the two saw within the volcano.

Some ash colored grass patches were scattered all around the forest.

Some Fire-Grass class beasts can be seen loitering around as Arie didn't let this chance slip for him to catch a beast that had a Fire class as a primary or secondary element that was compatible with his clan affinity.

They walked for another half an hour deeper inside the forest when they reached the center and saw an enormous Ash Tree, but it wasn't as big as the Corrupted Ashen World Tree that Urie burnt down.

At the bottom part of the tree where the roots and the ground connected, a large hole could be seen, as if screaming that their target could be found inside.

The two walked inside the trunk of the tree through the hole as they saw a staircase leading deeper below the ground.

It was a long walk downwards, but they reached the bottom in just a few minutes and a large stone door welcomed them.

The door was well-decorated with images of elves holding flames on their hands as the flames were bursting towards the crevice at the center of the door. The shape of the crevice looks exactly like the shape of the Embers of Life.

Urie took out the crystal and put it inside the crevice. The eyes of the elves carved on the door brightened as the flames on their hands glowed and rushed towards the crystal at the center.

The door opened, and the two were amazed at what they saw behind it.

There was an ancient city, ruins to be exact, behind the doors which looks like it existed over a hundred years ago.

The structure of the buildings looked the same, and they were uniformly aligned. At the center of the buildings, there was a building that stood out among the others because of its size and grandeur that it emitted.

" Is that the place that we need to go to?" Arie asked his big brother as he replied with, "Probably?"

Arie shrugged when he heard his big brother's reply as they looked around the city, which seems like it experienced a devastating calamity that destroyed the buildings of the city.

"I wonder what happened in this place?" Arie thought while looking at the ruins in front of him.

"Let's head towards the biggest building around which seems like a castle!" Urie instructed.

The two head towards the castle at the center of the city while riding Alpagon. They passed through a lot of ruined houses and shops as they reached the majestic castle in front of them.

"Now, where should we find the target of the quest?" Arie asked, but Urie didn't respond because a notification ring caught his attention.

[System]

[You have discovered the Lost Palace of the Ashen Elves.]

"Lost Palace of the Ashen Elves? So this is what this place is! But, how can I find the place where l can replenish the energy of the crystal?" Urie murmured, but he was heard by his younger brother.

" If I'm a secretive person who likes to hide things as important as this? I assume that I'll hide it somewhere extremely hidden, like a hidden chamber or an underground treasury!" Arie suggested.

Urie nodded in response to his brother's suggestion as they started searching around the palace for some place that might have a secret passage.

The castle's interior was elegantly decorated as well as the furniture all around the palace looked like it could be sold at a high price.

They tried everything that was needed to be done in order to open secret passages like pulling some candelabras, flipping some books, pushing strange things, and many more, but they failed to find a trigger or switch.

An hour was wasted finding the switch when Arie gave up and slumped his back on a chair near a fireplace.

The chair was pushed down because of Arie's weight as a mechanical sound ticked and the fireplace moved backwards and revealed a hidden passage with a staircase going downwards.