[Killed Vampire ×3, Contribution +150!]
"..."
Kurose Akira stared at the contribution increase that had popped up in his field of vision and fell into thought.
The demons inside the ancient castle were individually powerful, but their numbers were far fewer than in other demon lairs. It seemed that if he wanted to gain more contribution points efficiently, he would need to hunt demons above level 50.
"Let's keep moving."
The group advanced, preparing to pass through the long corridor and head deeper into other areas. Just as they were about to reach the end of the passage—
"Wait! Something's wrong!"
Suddenly, everyone halted.
At the center of the corridor ahead lay a cluster of adventurers' corpses, strewn quietly across the stone floor.
"Was this an area where another team fought earlier?" Shen Jun scratched his head, voicing a guess.
"Unlikely." Akira rejected it outright. "These bodies don't belong to the same team."
He was certain of it.
They were adventurers from different parties—and yet, strangely, all of their corpses had gathered here.
"Wait, doesn't that adventurer belong to the Lubo Guild?" Shen Siqi suddenly pointed at a beastman with cat ears among the bodies, her voice rising in surprise.
"Damn it! Did something happen to Lubo?"Shen Jun's expression darkened instantly.
Lubo's player evaluation was C-rank, and his guild even had a mage above level 50. On top of that, the two players who had accompanied Lubo were both from C+ ranked guilds, each with at least two adventurers above level 50.
If even they had met with disaster…
"This adventurer seems to have died after triggering a trap."
Akira crouched down and carefully examined the cat-eared adventurer's body. Multiple wounds pierced straight through him—injuries typical of spike traps or similar mechanisms.
The other corpses showed nearly identical wounds. There was no doubt—they had all died to traps.
What was puzzling, however, was why their bodies had all been transported here.
Before Akira could untangle that thought, the wall ahead suddenly split open—like a gaping, blood-soaked mouth—and several more corpses were spat out.
"What the hell!? The wall is vomiting bodies!?"Shen Jun yelped as another corpse rolled to a stop at his feet, his face full of disbelief.
Everyone immediately turned their attention to the wall, now disgorging bodies. Their expressions grew heavy.
Was this ancient castle… alive?
"The castle itself isn't a living organism," the mage Cairlin explained calmly."This is simply a method used by the castle's master to clean out internal trash."
She continued, "Apparently, the owner of this castle couldn't tolerate corpses scattered everywhere and had them all gathered here. As for the six vampires we encountered earlier in the corridor—they were likely responsible for cleaning or cooking duties within the castle."
"So that's how it is…"Shen Jun scratched the back of his head, finally gaining a new understanding of the bizarre scene.
"You seem to know a lot about vampires," Akira said, glancing at Cairlin.
"Not exactly," she shook her head. "But one of our guild members is a vampire. She's familiar with some of the habits of vampire nobility."
"Oh~"
Akira nodded thoughtfully. A vampire among the Immortal Consort Guild—that was rather rare.
"Let's move on. Let these adventurers rest here in peace," Red Lotus said.
A flame ignited in her palm, and she burned the pile of corpses to ashes.
The group pressed forward. Now fully aware that the castle was riddled with traps, everyone moved far more cautiously.
After passing through several areas and killing more than a dozen vampire thralls lurking in the darkness, they arrived at a strange room.
The room was lined with bookshelves—but instead of books, the shelves were filled with severed heads.
The grotesque sight caused everyone's expressions to change instantly. None of them could fathom the room's true purpose.
At that moment, Akira's gaze was drawn to a withered corpse.
It was a female body, completely drained of blood, shriveled and dry, sitting motionless in a rocking chair. In her hands, she tightly clutched a square box inlaid with a vivid emerald gemstone that stood out starkly.
Akira attempted to read the information of both the corpse and the box—
Only question marks appeared. No data. No hints.
"Akira, look! There's a treasure chest!"Shen Jun suddenly shouted.
To the right of the corpse, a golden chest gleamed enticingly.
"That's obviously a trap!"Shen Siqi shot her cousin an annoyed glare.
"Something feels off here. Everyone, be careful," Akira warned.
His eyes swept the room, searching for any hidden passage. This was the only direction they could move forward. Every other area they had passed through had already been fully explored, with no alternative routes found.
"There?"
Akira's gaze fixed on the wall behind the female corpse. A concealed doorway seemed to exist there—hard to notice, but unmistakably present.
One thing was certain: the area around the corpse was rigged with traps. If they wanted to move forward, they had to deal with them first.
"We need to find and disarm the traps around the corpse before we proceed," Akira said to Shen Siqi and the others.
"Traps? Should I just burn them all away?" Red Lotus suggested.
"No need for that."Shen Siqi shook her head and pushed a female dwarf forward."Leave the traps to one of my adventurers. Brook is an expert trap specialist among the dwarves. She can handle this."
"Don't worry—leave it to me!" Brook replied confidently.
She pulled out a specialized set of tools from her pack and cautiously approached the corpse.
After a series of deft, practiced movements, the trap mechanisms around the corpse were disabled one by one.
"Phew—done!"
The dwarf waved at them, signaling that it was safe.
Only then did the group relax and move closer to the corpse.
Akira's gaze lingered briefly on Shen Siqi.
It was obvious now—there was a reason the Immortal Consort Guild's leader had invited Shen Siqi and Shen Jun, both rated only D+, to participate in such a high-risk demon lair.
After all, a D+ guild attempting a high-risk lair on its own would be courting disaster. Without Red Lotus and the others, the Shen siblings' guild would likely have been wiped out completely.
But after seeing the dwarf capable of disarming traps, Akira suddenly understood.
"Alright! The traps are gone—let's see what treasures are inside this chest!"
Shen Siqi eagerly stepped forward. The moment she opened the chest, the glittering contents made her smile widen.
"Wow! Dozens of gold coins!"
"We hit the jackpot!"
The Shen siblings excitedly pulled the coins out of the chest. Dozens of gold coins was a huge sum for anyone.
While they happily counted their haul, Akira's attention shifted to the small box held in the corpse's arms.
It emitted no magical fluctuations—yet for some reason, he couldn't ignore it.
And the corpse itself didn't look like a vampire. It looked more like a human woman who had been completely drained by one.
At that moment, Red Lotus walked over and said quietly,"Our guild leader says that box looks like a key to triggering an Opportunity Quest."
"An Opportunity Quest?"
Akira's eyes lit up instantly.
Up to now, he hadn't encountered a single Opportunity Quest. They were even rarer than hidden quests, appearing only to players with exceptionally high luck.
They weren't fixed quest types and usually didn't involve long chains—more like puzzles or unique events.
But once completed, the rewards were extraordinary.
"Well?" Red Lotus's lips curved into a teasing smile. "Want to try it? I can assist."
"Let's try," Akira decided, reaching out for the mysterious box.
The moment his fingers touched it, a brilliant blue beam burst forth, enveloping several of them at once.
Immediately, a notification appeared before his eyes:
[Opportunity Quest — Starbound Magic Box (Triggered)Relocating to quest area!]
Before he could finish processing the message, they were swallowed by blue light.
When the teleportation ended, Akira found himself in the quest area—along with Ivsha, Lucia, and Red Lotus. The reason was simple: all three had been standing close to him and were caught in the beam.
"Where are we?"Red Lotus looked around.
The scene resembled a vast, endless starfield—had they been transported into space?
Yet strangely, they weren't floating. Though nothing could be seen beneath their feet, they could clearly feel solid ground, as if standing on a transparent glass platform.
"Mr. Akira~ what are we supposed to do in this quest?"Ivsha asked curiously.
"Let me check…"
Akira focused on the quest details.
[Starbound Magic Box:Find the correct star among the countless stars.]
[Riddle Hint: Witch]
[Reward: A Thread of Stellar Power]
[Warning: If the puzzle is not solved within 30 minutes, you will be returned to your original location.]
Akira frowned slightly.
Was this Starbound Magic Box connected to the Star Kingdom?
Could it be a relic left behind by the Night Witch?
And beyond that—
His gaze swept the endless stars. Within just thirty minutes, he had to identify the correct one among countless stars, based only on a single hint.
This was no easy task.
Still, difficulty aside, he had no choice but to face it head-on. Akira quickly explained the quest conditions to the others.
"Find the right star among all of these? That's impossible," Red Lotus said, shaking her head. Puzzles weren't her strong suit.
Lucia, however, immediately focused on the key word."Witch…" Her eyes fixed on the starry expanse. Her first instinct was constellations.
But there was no Witch constellation.
"Mr. Akira, doesn't the starfield feel like it's moving?" Ivsha suddenly said.
"Moving?"
Akira froze—then realized she was right.
The stars weren't moving closer.
Instead—
The transparent, glass-like walls around them were shrinking, closing in.
And at this rate, forget thirty minutes—within three minutes, there wouldn't even be room to stand.
Akira urgently scanned the stars.
If the hint involved a witch and the stars, it was most likely related to the Night Witch—she appeared most frequently in the Star Kingdom's legends.
But—
"!!"
Before his thoughts could fully unfold, the invisible walls compressed further.
The four of them were forced into a cramped square space, bodies pressed tightly together.
The compression stopped—for now—but the situation was painfully awkward.
Since Akira had been standing at the center, he ended up squeezed in the middle, completely surrounded.
Right in front of him was Lucia. Under the pressure, her snow-white softness was pressed tightly against his chest, nearly deforming.
"Seriously…!?"
Lucia bit her lower lip, a strange glint flashing in her eyes.
She couldn't understand why this quest had such conditions. Was it originally meant for only one person?
"Hahaha! This is tricky indeed. Solving a riddle in such a cramped space won't be easy," Red Lotus laughed, deliberately pushing forward.
Her tall, slender elven body pressed her ample softness against Akira's left shoulder—so close it nearly touched his cheek.
On his right, Ivsha smiled sweetly."Mr. Akira, even though it's crowded…" Her voice was soft and alluring."Isn't it strange? This tight space makes my heart race~ I really like it~"
As she spoke, her heart-shaped tail emerged and gently coiled around Akira's arm.
[Ivsha's Current Desire: 366]
"???"
Akira frowned inwardly. Ivsha, now is really not the time…
But Ivsha believed that this kind of intimacy would help Akira focus better.
"Hah~"
She leaned close to his ear, her lips parting as she breathed warmly against him.
That sweet, seductive breath shattered the holy light's restraint in an instant—radiance surging as if urging Akira to stand and fight for her sake.
And that created a serious problem.
Because Akira was facing Lucia.
From the very beginning, Lucia had sensed the holy light hidden within him. Thankfully, it had been faint—through clothing, it only caused mild discomfort, something she could endure given the urgency.
But now, as that sacred light grew brighter and hotter, panic surged through her heart.
Because—
She could clearly feel that the blazing radiance was slowly, unmistakably spreading… toward a forbidden place.
..
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