Side Mission - a hunt under the threat of Retribution

As the salty wind whistled in Kai's ears, he gawked at the gray-colored Notification in front of his eyes.

[

You have triggered a Side Mission.

Main Mission: Transcending legacies

Side Mission: Feed Lethifold

Side Mission Summary: When Lethifold uses its abilities, it spends its innate essence for them to work. It can only replenish this innate essence by consuming the flesh of the magical creatures.

Side Mission Objective: Find at least 30 kg of fresh meat of a magical creature for Lethifold

Side Mission Time Limit: 30 minutes

Side Mission Hint: 50 meters

Do you accept the side-mission?

]

Kai's entire face contorted as he looked at the Side Mission. The consequences of failing this mission were obvious to him.

Lethifold would die, and he would transfigure into Darcie here, with no explanation, making his Comprehension shatter. Kai had been already counting on Lethifold to take him back.

This notification toppled everything.

Not to mention, there was an even bigger, and more hideous, matter that Kai was only now making a sense of.

Why had Lethifold brought him here? This question Kai had already asked himself many times. But only when he saw the mission's hint did he get an answer.

'Motherfucker!' Kai cursed through his greeted teeth. 'Chaos hinting that I should hunt at a depth of 50 meters in the sea means there's no other way. But…'

Then what about the Pokemon Random World Timeline's retribution? The effect of his minor epithet, the Unforgivable Cursed One, would definitely make him face a tsunami on the spot.

There was only one way.

Kai must hunt a magical creature with an unprecedented amount of speed, taking as little time as possible.

There was not even a single second to waste.

Kai let out Petyr, making him merge inside him, and then threw himself off the cliff. The wind rushing up the cliff hacked at his face, but Kai brutally ignored it. His entire figure blurred then, becoming hot.

In the next moment, Golduck-Kai appeared in the magical world of Harry Potter, wielding two swords.

Hisss!

A burst of misty breath escaped through Kai's mouth, and his entire figure got covered in blood flames.

Selfless Breathing Style!

With a splash, Kai tore his way into the sea.

At the same moment, the entire cloudy sky and the vast sea trembled. One could see a gigantic storm brewing up, coming towards the cliff with a grudge so vile that the very wind started to reek of blood, thunder, and retribution. [Image 1]

Kai buried the sense of doom within his heart.

Golduck-Kai, covered in blood flames, kept swimming down, his tail and legs flapping furiously, kicking at the water.

Suddenly, he noticed movement in the corner of his eyes.

It was a blue-red magical beast with the head and forequarters of a horse and the tail and hindquarters of a giant fish. Its various fins and scale-like body possessed hues of hundreds of colors, shining brightly even in the blackness. [Image 2]

It was a Hippocampus!

The moment it sensed Kai, the enormous creature beat its tail and galloped away. Kai's eyes had gone red with anger and urgency. He hacked Murasame at himself, bringing out the Skill, Little War Horn, and his Agility erupted like a volcano.

In one kick, Kai neared the magical creature, his figure covered in cursed runic marks, and thrust Afro's Tachi into its heart.

A burst of blue blood exploded out of the wound, and the Hippocampus whined before dying almost instantaneously.

[

Congratulations Contestant Kai Stormborn…

You have unlocked a Title

Title: Shady Hunter

Specification: Kill 30 Magical Beasts collectively at the behest of main-storyline characters. The magical beasts' grade must be equal to or higher than Contestant's equivalent floor number. Only 3 magical beasts out of the 30 can be of the same species.

Status: (1/30)

Effect:

1. Agility +4

2. Perception +2

3. Skill: Shade Scythe

Note: Only 1 Title can be equipped at a time

]

'What the actual fuck?!' Kai's red pupils, full of runes, widened. 'Do even other magical creatures count as main-storyline characters? Am I getting treated as a mere servant?'

And then a name appeared in his mind.

Dobby!

Even the house-elves were nothing but magical creatures, and Dobby was a main-storyline character. No wonder Lethifold became one as well, especially after coming into contact with Darcie.

'No.' Kai instantly rejected his own guess. 'It's not like Lethifold has become a main-storyline character. Otherwise, I couldn't have remained alive in its presence after revealing the connection between me and Darcie. Instead, as Familiars assume Magical Creatures' forms, the character Lethifold is also assuming the form of a main-storyline character.'

This theory looked a bit complex to Kai, but this was the only one that fitted the scenario.

Suddenly, Kai's mind trembled as if he had stumbled upon something very important that he must not let go of.

But his instincts were roaring, desperately reminding him of another form of death that was coming for him.

Putting everything aside, Kai grabbed the giant beast and swam up. The moment he reached the surface, he became Dementor-Kai and flew up, leaving the sea.

When Kai landed on the cliff, the effect of Little War Horn had run out, making him pant in weakness. He lifted his head and looked at the sea. It was as if he was seeing the Valley of Endless Rumbles materializing into the real world.

Yet, with Kai now out of the sea, both the sense of doom and the thunderstorm, accompanied by a world-ending tsunami, vanished gradually.

Kai fell on his back, sprawling on a bed of wet rock and moss with icy gusts of wind as a blanket. To his left, the magical creature, Hippocampus, lay, bleeding, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth. Its body was slimy and its tail was still beating, hammering on the rocks as if it had some life remained about it.

Lethifold flew toward its food with one flutter, stretching and shrinking simultaneously.

Kai saw the most baffling scene, then.

The black cloak hovered above the dead body of the Hippocampus, stretched like a carpet. From its bottom side, thousands of black string-like tentacles wriggled their way out and coiled around the dead body.

With a jerk, these tentacles pulled the beast into the black cloak.

Crunch!

With his already stumped gaze, Kai saw a mist of blood bursting out of Lethifold along with expressive crunching sounds that sent a shiver running down the spine of the very wind.

Kai then saw the lace-like black cloak gaining thickness in seconds, becoming as thick as a woolen cloak. The Hippocampus must have weighed over 100 kg, but now not even its bones were left.

[

Side Mission: Feed Lethifold

Side Mission Status: Success

Side Mission Rewards:

1. 1100 Mission Credits

2. +3 Attribute Points

]

Kai couldn't even say something, but he knew he must.

"Take me back to the library," Kai almost begged, hoping that Lethifold wouldn't refuse him. "Beware of traps, though. Don't let me out if you sense HIS presence. OK?"

Lethifold fluttered in silence.

Kai pushed his weak figure up and staggered toward the magical creature.

Lethifold's woolen cloak-like appearance wrapped itself around Kai from head to toe. When it coiled one last time, Kai had already returned to the place he called Absolute Dark.

In the next moment, Lethifold threw itself toward the sky, stretching like an incomprehensible long rope of silky and woolen cloth.

Then, it shrunk into a black point and vanished.

This time, when Kai came out in the open, his expression wasn't so listless anymore.

Kai's mind was alert, but only a few minutes were left. He must tidy up everything before becoming Darcie again.

Kai had just thrown himself towards the hearth, trying to replace the chairs and table at their original position, when his sight landed on the two nail-sized crystals, shining like blood.

Kai instinctively took several steps back.

'This?!' He thought, his mouth gaping at the scene. 'Death didn't take them?!'

Reluctantly, Kai used Telekinesis to bring a crystal near him and observed it. It seemed authentic enough.

A deep frown settled on his face because of this inexplicable phenomenon. The answer came to him like a strike of a thunderbolt.

'Fuck!' He cursed, almost throwing the crystal into the fire. 'Death is goading me into using the same method again. HE knows I didn't fully see into the mysteries of the legendary-graded Item before HIS arrival. Damn! HE must have tampered with them already. I think even using these crystals to heal my soul in another Random World would be of no use to me now. Tch!'

Kai fumed in helplessness. What else could he do?

With a flick of his hand, he put both crystals into the box and threw them into his MRB. There were still many ways to make use of these crystals, he knew. After all, they were Philosopher's Stones, costing him 33 million Mission Credits each.

'I just hope everything goes well with Jack Sparrow's Compass,' Kai thought, seeing into the fire.

He didn't know why, but with so much happening today, he was having a terrible feeling about the upcoming jump.