As a great hunter once said, fear of the unknown was much greater than facing certain death. Johan felt that saying in his bones as he circled his farm. The system window kept blinking in his face, a constant reminder for him to make a choice.

  [Quest 1.3: Saviour]

  [Help the injured Guardian Beast, Cerebrious.]

  [Reward: Class Exclusive skill, Tower Farmer’s Sanctuary.]

  [Failure: ???]

  [Accept/Decline]

  What should he do? Knowledge of what the failure entailed would’ve allowed him to weigh the pros and cons. But this sadistic system flashed question marks in his face. It could range from as much as a slap on his wrist to death or even worse.

  Was the system trying to play with his psychological state with this?

  “You know how to rile up a person, don’t you?” Johan bit his nails while waiting for an answer he wouldn’t get. He liked it that way. God knew he would run away if the system actually responded.

  Maybe that’s why it didn’t respond? He kept digging himself into a deeper hole, didn’t he?

  Regardless, there was only one choice here. He didn’t want to go back and wait to figure out what the ‘???’ was. It may not be anything serious, but he wasn’t willing to gamble on the possibility.

  Above all, since it came as a quest to help the guardian beast, his safety should be guaranteed, no? Who would help the guardian beast, if not him?

  “What is a guardian beast anyway? Cerberious? Is this a Cerberus from temu?” Johan decided to find out for himself.

  Accepting the quest, he loaded the healing potions and the five detoxification potions into the sling bag across his shoulder. Just to be safe, he gathered all the vegetables and Nefel’s blessing in his storage.

  If he gets attacked, he planned to throw them to distract the beast. It might not be much, but it did give him a sense of security for some reason. As much security as a twig could give to a drowning man.

  “Eunally, can you lead the way for me?” Johan trembled more than the rabbit, but there was no turning back now.

  Nunally wanted to come as well, but Eunally talked with her. In the end, he convinced her to stay behind and guard the base. Following after the now resolute rabbit, Johan felt like Eunally’s back had become wider. He had this heroic look to him now.

  It’d be pathetic if Johan acted all scared now, so he firmed up his guts and exhaled. If push came to shove, he’d attract the beast’s attention till Eunally was out of sight. Then he’d get out by translocation. If only that skill allowed him to move living beings, he would’ve taken the rabbit out of the place by now.

  Another skill to grind if I survive this. Johan grumbled as they slid down a slanted cliff, fine crushed rocks clinging to his trousers.

  The trees around here looked rather ordinary. There wasn’t anything special to them, aside from their bright green leaves. And, leaving out the occasional ruby berry bushes, he didn’t find anything new as the fog border came into sight.

  Johan hadn’t ventured in this direction before, but it was the same 20-minute walk from the farm. But, unlike the grassy flat forest of the other side, this side seemed more uneven. The random rises and dips along with the loose soil did cause a bit of a problem, but they soon reached the burrow. He removed the small rocks that slipped into his now dusty white shoes and retied them.

  “Isn’t this more of a cave?” Johan blinked at the entrance carved into the side of a mountainside; the fog covered the rest of the mountain.

  Teeth marks and paw prints marred the grey rock. Chipped stones and crumbly soil littered all over the floor. The entrance was tall enough for Johan to walk without hunching over. With the flashlight on, he followed Eunally inside. Wondering how long they worked to create this.

  The soil seemed to crunch under his boots, each sound sending shivers down his spine. At least the cave was wide enough and didn’t feel claustrophobic. He did feel a sense of impending doom as the path lowered into a gentle slope and low rumbles came from the bowels of the earth.

  That was the guardian beast, no doubt. He could tell from the faint aura ruffling his hair. Eunally also trembled more with each step as wet chews echoed in the confined walls.

  As soon as the cave opened into a cavern, Johan gulped. The sound of trickling water rang in his ear. However, the waves of magik from the centre of the grey cavern dominated the space.

  Eunally clung to his leg, and Johan couldn’t even lift the flashlight. He could only hold to it with his sweaty, trembling palms. He could feel the fleshy, blood-laden lick of its tongue even from meters away. Even more so when six eyes gleamed in the dark.

  The growl he had heard in the cave separated into three: one sharp, one rumbling, and the last one blood-curdling. A huge pressure gathered in the cavern, pressing down on him. As a giant dog with three heads growled, saliva dripped from the long, sword-like canines.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  At least that’s what the aura felt like. When he lifted the flashlight at last and illuminated the cavern, Johan saw the Guardian Beast Cerberious.

  It was a three-headed dog like the Cerberus from the myth. It had piercing golden eyes that cut right through anything in sight. It had sharp claws that gleamed like silver with a snake for a tail.

  However, it was only a head taller than Eunally.

  Cerberious, the Guardian Beast, looked more like a mini rottweiler with three heads.

  “I feel scammed…” Johan wanted all his lost dignity back.

  ***

  Whoever said that humans suffer more in their imagination than in reality, did hit the nail on the head.

  Compared to the dread Johan felt entering the cavern and all the built-up pressure from the walk and system window, it all turned to smoke the moment his eyes landed on the supposed Guardian Beast.

  However, this little creature, with his majestic black coat and adorable three heads, was the definition of never judge a book by its cover.

  Name: Cerberious

  Rank: Unclassified

  Info: The Guardian Beast is afflicted with blindness, bleeding, and neurotic poison. Severely weakened.

  Reading the window, Johan could only gulp. His eyes went to the only wound on the beast’s underbelly. A deep gash that had turned a sickly purple. It spewed golden blood that bubbled on the floor like magma.

  In that moment alone, it had lost a litre of blood. Wasn’t this critical for his small body? Scared, but also worried that he might fail the quest, Johan approached the growling beast on his tiptoes.

  “Don’t eat me, I am here to help.” Maybe his pitiful laugh worked, or because Cerberious understood him, the beast stopped growling for a moment.

  Even though the window said the beast was blind, Johan could feel the three pairs of eyes burning into his skin. Still, he placed the uncorked purple detoxification potion near the beast. He almost jumped back when the snake's tail hissed at him. It was as fast as a whip.

  Unlike the three heads, the snake’s eyes were a clear green. Its forked tongue slipped into the potion and tested a drop, then hissed twice.

  Hearing that, Cerberious stepped forward, the head in the middle lowered, and ate the potion, along with the glass bottle. As it moved his mouth, Johan flinched at every crack and crunch of the glass. He had to endure that for a full three minutes before the beast swallowed.

  However, this time, the heads on the left and right growled.

  “You can have one as well, of course.” Crying tears of blood, Johan placed two more detoxification potions. These were twice as expensive as the healing potions, but what could he do?

  The other two heads ate the potion along with the bottle as well. Was this a new trend? Johan watched them swallow the potion, hoping they wouldn’t blame him later if it caused a stomachache.

  Would normal glass even survive in this beast’s stomach acid?

  Considering the gash on Cerberious’s underbelly, which closed slowly, and spotless maw, Johan thought the chances of that were low. Soon, the light in their eyes returned as well, and the intense gazes landed on him.

  The left head had soft rose gold eyes. The right one had bright yellowish eyes that flickered with green. However, it was the middle head that made Johan gulp. Its eyes were like smouldering coals, but not intense. They had a calmness to them, an intelligence that he couldn’t put a finger on.

  Since the beast had lost a lot of blood, he placed three healing potions near it. Each head bit into the potion, the same thing they did to the previous ones.

  After they swallowed that potion, a wave of magik burst forth from the beast. It stood there, the left head licking the healed underbelly as the other two seemed to growl in acknowledgement.

  Eunally had calmed down too; the little one had stopped shivering once it realized that Cerberious had withdrawn all his aura. The rabbit rushed to the far end of the cavern. Johan saw a chamber there, probably the storage room. It was about half the cavern’s size.

  Considering the rabbits had moved an entire harvest, and what they saved before, the place should’ve been full.

  However, there wasn’t a morsel of food in there. Eunally glared at the culprit, Cerberious. Although he showed bravado, the rabbit hid behind Johan when the beast’s stomach rumbled.

  Fearing that it might take a chomp out of him, Johan decided to feed Cerberious the vegetables he had in his storage. It’s what zookeepers did to lions, keep them fed, and they’d take you off the dinner list. Still, would this one be ok eating so many vegetables?

  The beast, however, had three stomachs to match the three heads, or so it seemed. It ate ninety kilos of the vegetable in a matter of an hour, and wasn’t even satisfied.

  Johan would’ve turned tail and ran if not for the system window.

  [The Guardian Beast of the ■■■■■■■ Tower, Cerberious, wants to repay the favour.]

  [Accept/Decline]

  As the feeling of déjà vu took over, Johan pressed accept. At least Cerberious had some sense. He wondered what the beast could do to repay the three Detoxification potions.

  However, the Tower’s mention crinkled his brow. The redacted words were one thing, but the word tower sent a chill down his spine. Johan couldn’t shake off this bad feeling that gripped his heart.

  The only tower he knew was the Black Tower. That tower marked the start of the Hunter world. It was the first otherworldly phenomenon to appear in the Pacific Ocean, right between the Empire of Japan (former Japan) and the USAN (former North American continent).

  How many floors the dark spire had was still debated over. However, everyone agreed that it was the root of all the changes that struck the planet. Changes that brought destruction and death.

  Johan’s mouth ran dry as the system window flashed. His danger sense flared so much that a headache pierced through his brain.

  Even as his legs slipped on the loose soil, nothing could stop the system window.

  [Quest 1.3: Saviour. Completed.]

  [Reward: Class Exclusive skill, Tower Farmer’s Sanctuary.]

  Tower Farmer’s Sanctuary: Creates a barrier around the Tower Farmer and defends against aggressors. A small chance of increasing the rank of the growing crops.

  Additional note: Can only be used inside the Tower.

  Inside the tower, he could only use this skill inside the Tower.

  Johan’s lips trembled, but he clenched his fist. Magik stirred in his core and gathered on his tongue. This was as good a moment as any.

  “Sanctuary.” A low murmur left his mouth, his eyes slammed shut as the magik shot out. Cursing under his breath, he opened his eyes, wishing that the skill didn’t activate.

  However, a golden dome 10ft wide in each direction hovered over him, and a shower of gold dust drifted down, caressing his hair. But, even as green grass and flowers bloomed around him, Johan couldn’t calm down.

  The space he had likened to Phantasia.

  The place that Translocation, his class-exclusive skill, sent him.

  Even when the fact screamed in his face with the class name, Johan had tried to avoid questioning it.

  “Fuck me sideways.” He could only curse now that he couldn’t run away.

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