Chapter 188 -188-Supreme Staff, I Choose to Play Dead

"Let me tell you something interesting."

"Back then, Dark Titan Volibel spent a full three years before finally completing that task."

At this point, Supreme Staff seemed to recall something that made it happy.

Even its flight path became noticeably livelier.

"You simply can’t imagine how ridiculously twisted the difficulty of that quest is."

"Let me put it this way. It possesses all of your skills, yet at the same time, it may be your complete opposite."

"Whether it’s skills, personality, gender, or even body shape, it could all be completely opposite to yours. So... you’d better be prepared!"

Hearing Supreme Staff’s words, even Caelan’s expression stiffened for a moment.

What exactly did that mean?

Did it mean he might even have to defeat a gender-swapped version of himself?

No, seriously—who designed a quest like that?

Were they really playing that wildly with the rules?

On the other side, Evelyn also frowned.

"This quest gives people a very unpleasant feeling."

Especially when she thought about the possibility that someone else might see a darkened version of herself, Evelyn even felt that she would need to be extremely cautious when completing the [Star Ascension Quest] in the future.

After all, she did not want to damage the image she had in Caelan’s mind.

However, faced with Evelyn’s complaint, Supreme Staff immediately shot back.

"Evelyn, what exactly do you have to worry about?"

"Don’t forget, this kid is ahead of you!"

"Relax. You’re still a hundred and eight thousand li away from reaching 6-star!"

Hearing that, Evelyn unconsciously clenched her little pink fists.

Why were this staff’s words so infuriating?

Meanwhile, Caelan was pondering the difficulty of this quest.

With his current strength, defeating a mirror image did not seem especially hard.

Leaving everything else aside, his swordsmanship alone—and the enhanced longsword he carried—were things his mirror image would not necessarily possess.

But still... he kept feeling that when Supreme Staff brought this up, it was actually implying something else.

Caelan thought for a moment.

Then he glanced to the side, only to see Evelyn sulking in silence at Supreme Staff.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

Wait, I get it now!

Supreme Staff had not revealed all this because it wanted to tell me.

It actually wanted Evelyn to hear it!

It was probably hoping that I would help Evelyn.

However... this matter was probably not going to be that simple.

Because my own mirror image should also be quite troublesome to deal with.

Just as Caelan was sinking into thought, Supreme Staff suddenly spoke up from the side.

"Caelan, how about making a deal?"

"The terms are simple. When you’re preparing to undertake the [6-Star Star Ascension Quest], Evelyn and I will actively help you complete the task."

"Although I can’t say for certain how much we’ll be able to help, I think it should still be extremely valuable to you."

"But in return, at some point in the future, you’ll also need to help us."

Caelan responded with a noncommittal smile.

He did not agree right away.

Instead, he deftly shifted the topic.

"Compared to that, what I’m actually more curious about is what Volibel experienced in his final moments."

In truth, even now, Caelan still did not know what Volibel had gone through at the very end of his life.

The only thing that could be confirmed was that Volibel’s death had not been peaceful.

Someone with ulterior motives had made use of his corpse.

That was why Caelan wanted to ask what exactly Volibel had gone through in the last stretch of his life.

Yet when faced with that question, Supreme Staff gave only an ambiguous answer.

"To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what exactly happened back then either."

"After all, I’m just a staff. I’m not nearly as incredible as you think I am."

Supreme Staff’s answer seemed to be hiding something.

It clearly seemed eager to avoid that topic.

It even stopped flying altogether and, with a swift whoosh, plunged straight into Evelyn’s arms.

Evelyn froze for a moment.

Then she turned toward Caelan and revealed a helpless smile.

"Supreme Staff is slippery by nature."

"It only answers the things it wants to tell you."

"As for what you actually asked, it doesn’t care, and it won’t bother responding to it."

Caelan lightly nodded at that.

He had already seen that Supreme Staff possessed a considerable amount of independence.

Standing beside him, Evelyn carefully observed Caelan’s expression.

When she saw that he did not seem angry, Evelyn quietly let out a sigh of relief as well.

In truth, Evelyn had not known any of the information Supreme Staff revealed today beforehand.

So she had never expected those quests to be this bizarre.

Just what kind of absurd game had turned the world into such a ridiculous state?

Evelyn could not help but complain fiercely in her heart for quite a while.

But after a moment, she still recovered her calm.

"I think... perhaps we can search for the answers to these questions in the Fragments of History."

Caelan nodded, though a plan had already formed in his heart.

The most urgent matter right now was still to complete the [class mutation request] as quickly as possible and enter 5-star.

After reaching 5-star, he intended to head into the abyss and search for the Fragments of History.

Just as Caelan was planning his next move, Evelyn suddenly extended something toward him.

It was a small pink notebook, along with a chubby sky-blue pencil.

"Caelan, how about leaving your contact information?"

"I think... there are still many things we can discuss with each other."

"And..."

"And you’ll also have questions for Senior Supreme Staff, won’t you?"

After saying all that, Evelyn blinked her bright, watery eyes.

She wore an expression full of expectation.

In fact, Evelyn had already been planning this.

She knew that with her strength, leveling up would not take very long at all.

That meant she would probably encounter the mirror-image quest even sooner than she had imagined.

Since that was the case, establishing a good connection with Caelan in advance was of utmost importance.

Besides, Caelan was also so handsome...

All in all, there was no loss in this for her.

...

The next day, at seven in the morning, Caelan stretched lazily and comfortably as he sat up from his warm bed.

He was just about to go wash up when the villa’s doorbell suddenly rang.

Caelan frowned slightly.

But very soon, the maid hurriedly got up, retrieved the item, and quietly walked to the bedroom door.

She gave the door a light knock.

Then, in a hushed voice, she said, "Honored Master, are you awake?"

"This is a delivery. If you need it..."

Caelan let out a yawn.

Then he replied casually, "Just bring it in directly."

If his guess was correct, it should be the various materials related to the abyss that he had purchased earlier.

On the other side, after receiving permission, the maid gently pushed open the door to Caelan’s bedroom.

Yet in the very next instant, her body suddenly froze.

Wow!

Master actually has an eight-pack.

He’s way too handsome, okay?!

If only I could touch it, that would be wonderful.

Wait.

You’re working right now.

How can you be thinking about this kind of messy nonsense!?