1st Person POV (MC)-Present Time-

  “Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...”

  I let out a long sigh after clearing up the second purple dot.

  Each of these dots represents the source that causes the nd to be corrupted. So far it’s an elite monster or mini-boss kind of thing. It is not that difficult to beat since I have Siegfried and varying {Spell} to use.

  “Done?” -Siegfried-

  The berserker stood up and asked after finishing his loot collection. It is a hassle to pick these glimmering orbs one by one. I wish Devs give an update to auto-collect loot or something... but nah, I don’t think they will.

  “A-almost!”

  Finishing picking all of them up, I pat my hands and rested them on my hips.

  “Right, onward to the next spot!”

  “Heh! Yes boss...” -Siegfried-

  Opening my map and sharing it with Siegfried, he sees and nods before pointing at a spot in my map.

  “This one the closest.” -Siegfried-

  “I think so... Hm? Sieg, what are you doing?”

  I looked at Siegfried questioningly, who crouched down. His hands on his back and curling every so often... as if inviting.

  (“Is he asking me to climb on for a piggyback ride?”)

  “Hop on, it’s quicker than you walking.” -Siegfried-

  He’s got a point, and with a chuckle, I hop onto his back.

  Wow... Siegfried’s nky but he’s incredibly strong and capable of handling my weight like nothing!

  “I am not that heavy?”

  “You? I’m carrying grapes and I wouldn’t notice the difference.” -Siegfried-

  “Hahahaha...”

  “All right! Hold on tight. Heh...” -Siegfried-

  He mischievously smiles and his grip gets stronger as I sense some kind of shenanigans going to happen...

  “!!!” -Siegfried-

  *FWOOOOOSHHHH*

  He jumped, his momentum forward was intense as the wind brushed my face hard and my hair went everywhere including my mouth.

  “O-oiiii, bleghhhh. Ssiieegggg!!!!!”

  “Hahahahahahahaha!!!” -Siegfried-

  *BAMMMM*

  He nded nicely before dashing forward, legs already turned spindly and digitigrade boosting his AGI further as Siegfried's speed increases.

  I squint my eyes because of how strong the wind is while having my map open & shared.

  -Arriving-

  “Haaa... Haaaa... Haaa... Never again please...”

  “HeHehahehahehah...” -Siegfried-

  *BONK*

  “Ow! Ow! Hahahaha...” -Siegfried-

  *BONK!!!*

  “Ouch, hahah sorry sorry.” -Siegfried-

  My weapon already bonking his head and shoulders several times. It doesn’t deal damage because I didn’t want to hurt him.

  He still cackles a bit while being bonked before we finally settle down.

  “Haaa... Shall we?”

  He wipes a tear underneath his eyes before nodding and looking to the front.

  As per Tainted Wastend vibes, the entire area is barren with cracked earth and withered trees. I can see dust being picked up by harsh winds as the sun shines brightly above the skies.

  However, in this case, there is a bit of a difference compared to other pces in Tainted Wastend.

  Mainly...

  “It is so obvious.” -Siegfried-

  “Yep...”

  I emphasize the ‘P’ because right in front, not too far from us. There’s a cluster of dark purple mist slowly seeps into the air and nd. Tell-tale signs of corruption if I say so myself!

  Just like before, we march on into the mist after re-buffing. Thanks for all the [Oremus De-] {Spell}, it cuts our buff time...

  ...

  ...

  ...

  The purple mist obscures Siegfried’s vision but it doesn’t affect me since I see everything much clearer until...

  I saw something looming ever closer.

  “Wait... I hear something.” -Siegfried-

  “Yeah, I too saw something.”

  A lumbering humanoid figure, its features become more defined as it comes closer.

  If I am not used to Siegfried's body horror, I might vomit from this figure but at this moment I felt nothing.

  The figure is humanoid, approximately 3 meters tall and its body is swollen and riddled with growing tumours everywhere.

  Each of those bulges had silhouettes of a face trapped in agony while the ‘main’ face of the humanoid resembled that of an enrged toad.

  Its nky legs lumber over carrying the entirety of this creature’s body as it croaks.

  We are already in battle position...

  “[Extend: Fidus Animus]”

  *WHOOSH* *BAM*

  Siegfried’s gone in a dash, leaving behind cracks on earth as he delivered a mean flying kick. Even when it made contact, there was a resounding *SQUELCH* noise accompanied by groans echoing from those tumour-like growths.

  “Enghhh...” -Siegfried-

  Even Siegfried expresses his disgust after kicking that thing. Not long after, he kicks off and the tell-tale noise of muscles ripping apart can be heard as he transforms his hands and arms to have bone bdes.

  “[Framen]”

  Uttering that keyword and extending my left hand, I unched a beam of golden light including the decor of angelic feathers fluttering about.

  In pyers' terms, [Framen] is just [Holy Light] of Inquisitor and I understand that as I spam it.

  “Oi!” -Siegfried-

  He shouted and curled his index fingers inward activating his making the mini-boss only face him as I took a good look at the monster’s {Status}.

  (“Fancy name, hahaha... Lucost, the Pguebringer.”)

  Its race is Fiend and so far the {Skill} it dispyed is dealing DoT dark damage in its surroundings.

  “Eughhh... It smells rank” -Siegfried-

  He gestures by pinching his nose before returning to his combat stance and begins dealing damage too.

  Ahhh! Siegfried has his passive {Trait} that works sort of like [Regeneration]. No wonder... it is gonna be an easy fight then.

  Not wanting to lose DPS from Siegfried, I conjured several fragments and assigned them to cast [Penta: Framen].

  In doing so, it’s like I’m shooting of ser barrage as we DPS this monster down. Same as other corruption spots spreading in Lowlight.

  The mini-boss is simply a damage sponge as we continue to DPS it down using Siegfried’s enchanted unarmed attacks and my unching sers.

  After a while...

  “Aaaaahhh...” -Lucost-

  Rather than the usual death throes, this creature simply lets out a sigh of relief as its body turns into tiny cubes and vanishes in the air like all defeated monsters.

  Leaving behind many glimmering orbs that we painstakingly pick up. It's all miscelneous items so can be sold to the adventurer’s guild for quick Zenis or maybe it’s used in crafting?

  I don’t know, haven’t unlocked the recipes that use this stuff.

  “Haaa... Done and dusted!”

  I cheerfully decre with a smug smile since I’m faster than Siegfried this time. Earning a gentle chuckle from the berserker...

  “Right, you won. Heh!” -Siegfried-

  He finishes him soon after but then he stares to the side bnkly for a second before...

  “Oh! The food buff almost ended. I’ll whip up something.” -Siegfried-

  “Sure. [Conjure: Dining Table]”

  I point at an empty spot where there’s no more of those dark purple mist since it’s dispersing away after we killed the one causing it.

  *POOOF*

  Like in a cartoon, all of a sudden appearing before us is a rather rge dining table complete with utensils and even candles to boot albeit outshone by the literal sunshine since it’s daytime.

  Meanwhile, Siegfried is mimicking the actions of a cook stir-frying something.

  Huh... I guess this is what other pyers see when I’m mixing ingredients/engraving weapons in public for alchemy or enchanting.

  Just like that, he finishes cooking and putting them onto the dining table like an expert.

  He told me that he’s working part-time as a cook in a family business restaurant so I kinda get his expertise in these kinds of things.

  “Hm~ as always whatever you cook tastes delish.”

  “Thanks!” -Siegfried-

  I complimented him while ravenously eating some kind of fried rice. I don’t know what he put but it’s savoury, salty, and rich in fvour.

  Finishing it off, the food buff replenished as I got increased max MP, MP Regen, and INT. All the things I need...

  “[Double: Reficio]”

  Uttering that keyword, all of our buffs have their duration refreshed and march on towards the next destination.

  “Oh... Mag, I have been meaning to ask you.” -Siegfried-

  This time Siegfried carried me on his back rather gently as he questioned...

  “Yeah?”

  “You know we’ve been party up and all for quite some time with Booba. What do you think of forming a guild?” -Siegfried-

  “A guild eh? Who’s the Guild Leader and their vice? And the name... we need to figure out the name too. Pochi has Squish Mochi / Mochi guild.”

  Looking from the sides, I can see a genuine smile appearing on Siegfried’s face.

  “I am not sure either but it would be nice to have a guild so we can have a base.” -Siegfried-

  (“A base... once you have a nd, you can convert it to your base of operations. You can do myriad of things there if I remember correctly.”)

  “But we need a nd first though...”

  “That’s the thing! I think this Personal Quest will permit us to own nd.” -Siegfried-

  Still being piggybacked by Siegfried, we talked about guild operations.

  “What about the budget? I’m sure we needed Zenis to do those things.”

  “Well... we can grind monster mats? It is not a big guild like Mochi’s so the amount of Zenis needed will be lower.” -Siegfried-

  “True...”

  (“Making a guild isn’t a bad idea.”)

  “Okay, you roped me in!”

  “Fuck yeah!!!” -Siegfried-

  He clenches his fist and fshes his happy grin while we beat the fourth cause of the corruption. With that, the progression of the corruption bar has been reduced to only a fifth of it.

  “Last one!” -Siegfried-

  “Onwards!!!!!!!”

  I am already on his back pointing to the direction of where to go as he chuckles and dashes.

  -On Our Way-

  “You know Sieg?”

  “Hm?” -Siegfried-

  “I was thinking of an appropriate name for our guild.”

  “And...???” -Siegfried-

  “What about... U.W.U?”

  Instantly, Siegfried snorted holding back ughter.

  “Geheheheh, you straight up get the idea from O.W.O, did you?” -Siegfried-

  I stayed silent for a second or two... earning another snort from Siegfried.

  “A-at least, we can have awesome abbreviations like...”

  “United Workers Union? Hehehehe~” -Siegfried-

  “Heyyyy!!!! I was thinking of United We Unbroken.”

  “Haha, that is much better.” -Siegfried-

  -Arriving-

  With that, we arrived at the st corruption spot. I dare say it was the biggest of them all.

  “*WHISTLE*... That is a massive mist.” -Siegfried-

  The tell-tale dark purple fog can be seen but in this distance? It makes me worry about what ‘mini-boss’ we’re going to face at its centre or maybe it’s a ‘Boss’...

  Nevertheless, taking a deep breath and calm myself. I gnce at Siegfried and say...

  “Shall we?”

  He chuckles and nods in reply.

  --

  Entering the pce, it feels... disgusting like the area itself is repulsive to me. Thankfully, I have had experience in powering through something repulsive after all I handle a lot of biological materials...

  Looking at the party system, Siegfried’s HP decreases and increases as the berserker seems fine with it. Kind of the terrain effect that we’re already familiar with...

  (“We already refreshed our buffs so we’re in tip-top shape!”)

  Just in case... I squint and in doing so, my field of view zoomed in like watching through telescope lenses.

  On the cusp of my eyesight, there’s a huge dark purple cluster of crystals with one big one in the middle of it all.

  I told Siegfried all about it while we continued to march on as he too saw the crystals emanating this dark purple fog.

  Arriving at the outskirts of these crystal clusters...

  “Wow... Damn, it is huge!” -Siegfried-

  What we’re seeing is a crater and we are standing at the edge of it.

  Leading downwards, I can see countless crystals in varying sizes and shapes each emanating ominous dark purple fog everywhere.

  “Huh... No boss’ HP bar.”

  “I guess we need to come closer?” -Siegfried-

  I slide down as a de-buff is added towards Siegfried’s party icon.

  (“Eh? [Corruption]??? Ohhhh... It deals DoT damage.”)

  Looking at the numerical value right beside the de-buff icon, I guess it’s stacking and it’s not in red so this can be dispelled...

  For countermeasures, I lightly touched Siegfried’s shoulder and cast...

  “[Extend: Sanare Votum]”

  From my touch, silvery glimmering lights and navy blues exude and engulf Siegfried. In his {Status} panel, a buff is added.

  This {Spell} is a more powerful version of [Grand Regeneration] because of it, the de-buff doesn’t do much...

  Approaching even closer, the OST in the background changes into a more ominous sound...

  *CRACKLE* *CRACKLE*

  “Huh???”

  I quickly face the noise as one crystal vibrates and cracks, crumbling to pieces revealing what’s inside including the music gets intense.

  It’s a pitch-bck quadruped animal with strange serrated teeth and two horns on its head radiating a dark aura as its eyes glow bright red. To be honest, in my eyes, it looks like a horse... a demonic one.

  “*NEIIIGHHHH*” -Bicorn-

  It thunderously roared cpping its hooves looking quite angry at us as two bars appeared on the right corner of my view.

  A big bar named ‘Corruption Shard’ and below in much smaller font size is ‘Bicorn’.

  Battle music began upon seeing the creature lock its sight on us.

  “Ready?” -Siegfried-

  “Uh-huh!”