Chapter 168: Chapter 110: What To Do, What To Aim For, What To Rely On, Part 1

「Haa……」

In the end, Fiddler’s Club was turned into a bunch of scrap metal in no time by Rust’s new frame and because of that Rust got that really nasty and self-satisfied smile on her lips right now.

「I’m counting on you from now on.」

「No, umm, how should I say this…… I’m sorry.」

「Aah, it’s alright, it’s alright…… Besides, it was my fault because I was being careless.」

Well, it is understandable that since Rust had motivation to win that she would go even that extra mile to make absolutely sure that she would win. So from now on I decided to play along with Rust’s request and promised her that I would return to a build that is more Kingfisher-like.

「I was able to do it just fine, but…… Is it really my favorite thing? Certainly it was fun, but if it wasn’t for other people I wouldn’t be able to gather enough equipment parts to do what I initially wanted. I could try to talk to some people and see if they could help again, but…… I can’t guarantee anything.」

Not to mention that since the core of the Mecha Armor wasn’t my thing to begin with, the decision to let Rust try it out was not my own to make. She would have to somehow convince both Katsu and Pencilgton to let her do it.

That being said, if we could in return learn something about the Unique Monster, I say it’s not that bad of a trade.

Katsu sure won’t be happy about that since he has that obsession about discovering things on his own, but he can get lost for all I care. This was our only chance to get our hands on some juicy info…… And what was the possibility that we would be able to find something on our own……? That’s right, less than zero.

Pencilgton was the real problem here. More often than not, if he spotted an opportunity for extracting some useful information out of someone and then using that information to his own gain, he would do that. Along with screwing over the people who got him the info in the first place.

So while the info on the Unique Monster surely sounded interesting, from my perspective……

「I have too little information to make a decision.」

「Decision?」

That’s right. Few people know about this, but there is always an EX attached to the quests related with the Unique Monsters. That is because I believe that in order for us to be able to locate the Unique Monster, we would need really specific information. Anything vague would simply not be able to cut it.

「You heard that right. Do you happen to know anything about the Unique Quest related to this “Kutanid of the Abyss”?」

「…… Mold.」

「Right, right…… Umm, the quest itself is named “Punching the Apostle of the Abyss”. It’s a Unique Quest that can be found in Fiftsia. It orders you to hunt down the ghost ship at the sea, which you can get by talking to the Self-Proclaimed Great Pirate Strude at the docks.」

「Oh, I already like the sound of that.」

「Ah, so how about that? We heard that at Fiftsia from the Great Pirate himself as well. Apparently the ghost ship is named “Crying Insman”. Apparently it is a ship that only shows itself in front of the people who are dedicated to taking on the “Lord of the Abyss”.」

Lord of the Abyss…… Indeed, it looks like there’s a high probability that this quest might be related to the Unique Monster after all.

But still, there were too many “maybes”, too many “if”. If we are to act based on this intel, we must be absolutely certain.

「I knew it, this won’t be enough……」

「So, what about your decision?」

「You see, scenarios directly related to Unique Monsters tend to have an EX at the end of their names. So if we want to use the info for negotiation’s purpose, we must use something that is related to those EX quests, not the Unique Monster probability.」

In other words.

「If we don’t activate an EX quest via clearing that “Punching the Apostle of the Abyss” quest, we can’t use that in negotiations. It will give us jack sh*t.」