Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Witch’s Creation! Demon Phoenix Butterfly

"A Guild Achievement Badge?"

Su Xuan stared at the badge floating in mid-air before him, lost in thought.

The badge was silver-white, engraved with the silhouette of a woman surrounded by several hearts.

Su Xuan was a little surprised. He hadn’t expected the reward for the hidden quest to be a Guild Achievement Badge, and its buff was quite good.

’What does +10 Desire mean, though?’ he wondered. ’Well, at least it isn’t a negative effect.’

Su Xuan stopped overthinking it and closed the achievement badge interface.

Seeing that it was late, Su Xuan told Ivsha to head back to the church. He was also getting ready to take off his VR headset and log out of the game.

But before he left, Su Xuan made a point to check the trading house. Six of the nine Nun’s Talismans he had listed for sale were already sold. It seemed everyone found the price acceptable. As for the private messages from the buyers, he didn’t open a single one. Out of sight, out of mind.

"Hm? There’s another private message?"

Su Xuan suddenly noticed a message that wasn’t from the trading house. Was it from a friend?

He immediately opened the chat panel to read it.

The message read: "You there? I’ve used up your Flame Gemstone. When can we trade again?"

"Oh?"

Su Xuan was a bit surprised. Had the Player who rented his Flame Gemstone finally gotten in touch?

However, he saw that the other person was already offline, so he left a message: "Let’s trade tomorrow morning. I’ll come find you then."

After sending the message, he logged out of the game.

Su Xuan took off his VR headset and let out a long sigh.

Although Ivsha’s character quest was over, he knew in his heart that things weren’t that simple.

Baron Noda was just a pawn on the board. The real person who wanted to harm Ivsha was a certain Princess of the Kingdom, hiding in the shadows.

This was only the beginning.

Still, with Edith around, there shouldn’t be any problems for now.

’Time for a shower! Then sleep!’

...

「The next morning.」

School, home, game on!

"Mr. Su Xuan~ I want you~"

The moment he entered the Guild, Ivsha approached him with light, graceful steps.

"Ivsha, we have a lot to take care of today."

Su Xuan quickly cut her off, steering her mind toward work. It was all for the sake of the Guild’s development—and his own physical well-being.

"Alright~ I’ll listen to whatever Mr. Su Xuan says."

Ivsha didn’t seem too disappointed. In fact, she was filled with anticipation.

It was as if she enjoyed the occasional rejection, which only made her inner desire burn brighter.

Su Xuan glanced at the time. It was ten in the morning, game time. In a little while, he needed to head to Sunset City.

There were two reasons he had to go to Sunset City.

First, the special commission quest to raise his F+ Evaluation to an E-Level Evaluation was located in Sunset City. Now that Ivsha had advanced, they could fit this special quest into their schedule.

Second, Lady Natasha had invited him for afternoon tea, an offer he found hard to refuse.

But before all that, he needed to buy back the Flame Gemstone.

Su Xuan opened his chat interface and saw that the Player named "Red" had replied to his message.

Red: "Okay."

"I’m online. Let’s trade."

Su Xuan sent the message and received a reply just a second later.

Red: "Go ahead."

[Player ’Red’ has sent you a trade request.]

[Your Offered Items: 70 Silver Coins]

[Their Offered Items: Flame Gemstone]

[Do you agree?]

"Agree."

[Silver Coins -70]

[Obtained Item: Flame Gemstone (Rare)]

Red: "A word of warning. While this item can reduce Flame damage, it also absorbs allied Flame Magic. And it has a damage threshold. By my estimation, the Magic of a Flame Mage with over 1000 Magic Power Value would be enough to shatter it."

"Okay, thanks."

Su Xuan thanked them. He hadn’t expected the other player to be so decent.

’A Flame Mage with over 1000 Magic Power Value, huh?’

’They’d have to be at least Level 40 or 50, and their quality couldn’t be too low either.’

As he pondered this, Su Xuan took out the Flame Gemstone. It would be perfect for dealing with the Flame Cocoon in the special quest.

"Ivsha, Rosaline, let’s go."

Clutching the Flame Gemstone, Su Xuan headed for the Teleportation Array.

Just as he was about to step into the array, a voice suddenly called out. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Master! Please take me with you!"

"Hm?"

Su Xuan turned and saw the Demon Spirit Doll that Emily had given him calling out to him.

"You want to go too? Sure, come along."

Su Xuan didn’t mind bringing the Demon Spirit Doll along. He walked over, picked it up, and put it in his backpack.

"Thank you, Master~"

A white light flashed, and Su Xuan found himself in Sunset City once again.

Returning to Sunset City after several days, Su Xuan noticed the atmosphere felt strange. There seemed to be many more Soldiers walking around than before.

"I can feel it~ The aura of a Witch~" the Demon Spirit Doll suddenly exclaimed excitedly.

"Can you help me find the quest objective?" Su Xuan immediately asked upon hearing its words.

This quest didn’t have a precise location marked, only that it was somewhere near the center of Sunset City.

"Mhm." The Demon Spirit Doll nodded. "I’ll lead the way, Master! Master!"

Following the Demon Spirit Doll’s guidance, Su Xuan entered the underground of Sunset City through a cellar entrance.

After descending underground, he was faced with a complex maze of sewers. After passing through them, the area ahead suddenly opened up, and Su Xuan couldn’t help but look surprised.

Beneath Sunset City, there was a massive Underground City hidden away. Its scale was comparable to that of a small town.

However, it was less an Underground City and more of a defensive structure, like fortifications built to protect the city’s citizens during wartime.

"I never thought there’d be an Underground City beneath Sunset City."

Su Xuan murmured in disbelief as he stepped toward the Underground City.

The Underground City was currently deserted, filled with nothing but rats and insects. Apart from that, there were piles of discarded weapons and armor.

"It hurts!"

Suddenly, Rosaline cried out, clutching her head, her face contorted in pain.

"Rosaline, what’s wrong?"

Su Xuan’s brow furrowed as he asked urgently. Rosaline was already an Undead; logically, she shouldn’t be able to feel pain anymore.

Unless the pain was coming from her soul!

"Memories... The memories are surging... tearing!"

Rosaline bit her lower lip, answering with great difficulty.

"The memories are surging?"

Before Su Xuan could finish, Rosaline suddenly took off running in a certain direction.

"Rosaline!"

Su Xuan gave chase immediately. ’There must be something in this Underground City that’s causing this!’

The moment he caught up to Rosaline, he froze, stunned by the scene before him.

"This is..."

He was shocked to find that the central area of the Underground City was covered in ash!

And in the center of that ash, a giant Flame Cocoon was trembling violently. Rampant flames radiated from it, threatening to incinerate everything!

[Flame Cocoon: Quest Objective! A mysterious creature suspected to be a Witch’s Creation. It seems to contain a fallen life form within it?]

Su Xuan narrowed his eyes, trying to peer through the cocoon and discern its true nature. The method seemed to have some effect; he could faintly make out something lying inside the Flame Cocoon... a butterfly?

[Demon Phoenix Butterfly (Epic)]

[Level: ?]

[Race: Insect Demon]

[Skills: ?]

[Taming Probability: 0.1%]