The serene atmosphere inside the new cave was undisturbed except for the echoes of the heavy rain pouring outside. Iris, who was tending to Bill's injuries, hummed her favorite tune softly, while also keeping a vigilant eye on the entrance, making sure they didn't get suddenly attacked by any beasts.
The outside was shrouded in complete darkness, with not a single light source to illuminate the area. Inside the cave, it was also quite dim, with only a single light source near the entrance, which Mako had lit up.
The fire that Mako had lit was bright enough to provide some illumination inside the cave, allowing everyone to see where they were and what was around them. Moreover, the fire had been purposefully placed near the entrance of the cave, so it could provide some visibility outside, enabling Iris to spot any beasts before they entered the cave and warn the others in time.
Despite the risk of making the fire more noticeable, Mako had placed it near the entrance of the cave because it had some advantages. They could spot any potential danger before it attacked, and the smoke released from the burning log would have somewhere to go instead of hanging around in the cave.
Iris wore a gentle smile on her face as she felt happy to be able to contribute to the group that had protected her, given her a place to stay, and provided her with food. While munching on a few sweet guavas, she continued to heal Bill's burnt body.
After healing Bill's internal injuries and the skin underneath the stitches, Iris carefully removed the expertly applied stitches by Mako. Although this caused some pain for Bill, who grunted each time a stitch was removed, Iris managed to remove them all and continue healing until Bill's body was fully restored to its former state.
***************
A few minutes passed and Bill gradually began to regain consciousness as his eyelids started to flutter. He had been unconscious for a full day and the last memory he had was being struck by the Lightning attack of the Beetle King.
As his eyes slowly opened, Bill was greeted with the same rocky ceiling as before, even though it looked a lot more smooth and closer to him than what he last remembered.
'So you were able to beat that thing on your own, huh?' Bill thought as a smile appeared on his face. The last thing he remembered was following Mako's Lead, where he and Leon were using their Earth ability to attack the Beetle King underground while Mako defended them against the regular Beetles.
However, out of nowhere, a huge ball of lightning had erupted from the ground near them and both he and Leon were hit by it. Considering that they were still inside the cave, Bill thought that Mako was somehow able to defeat that massive beast on his own after he and Leon were knocked out by the attack.
The loud echo of the rain directed his attention to the entrance and it was then that he noticed that he wasn't in the same cave as before. This cave was a lot smaller than before and it seemed to be thundering outside.
Bill's surroundings were dimly lit by a single light source, providing only minimal illumination. He noticed Mako sleeping against the wall on his left, while two other figures were sleeping ten feet apart from each other on his right.
One of them was Leon while the other one was one that Bill didn't recognize. Bill couldn't see quite well due to just waking up plus Leon's shadow was being cast on the other body making it hard to recognize. He tried to focus a bit on the other person and that is when he realized...
"WHAT THE..." Bill shouted as he noticed the feminine characteristics of Erin, but was cut off before he could finish his sentence.
Despite raising his voice, the tired individuals didn't wake up completely but only shifted slightly due to the discomfort of Bill's shout. Perplexed by what had just occurred, Bill suddenly felt something pressed against his mouth, it was soft and warm to the touch, but it was preventing him from shouting. Upon looking down, he noticed a feminine hand holding his lips shut.
"Are you insane! They finally got some time to rest and you wanna wake them up again with your loud mouth!" An angry yet fragile voice whispered in Bill's ears.
Bill followed the direction of where the hand had come from and could see a beautiful girl with brown hair and hazel eyes staring intently at him, inches away from his face.
Bill instantly freaked out as he jumped away from Iris and toward one corner of the cave. Bill's landing made some more noise and it looked like Erin would be the first to wake up if Bill continued to make noise as she was moving a lot with discomfort while still being asleep.
"Shhh!" Iris said while putting one of her fingers on her lips trying to make Bill understand that he must remain quiet.
Seeing as Iris was treating him like a friend who was annoyed even though he didn't even know her and the fact that all of his other friends were also here and resting without a worry, Bill was inclined to at least comply with the girl's request and quiet down a bit.
Bill slowly and quietly approached Iris and this time he whispered toward her so that nobody else would be disturbed.
"Who are you and why are you with us? Also, where are we exactly?" Bill whispered in a polite manner.
Seeing that Bill had calmed down, Iris eased up a bit and gestured for Bill to sit down which he did. She offered him some fruit and water which he embarrassingly accepted after his stomach made some grumbling noises.
"Well Bill, a lot has happened in the last 24 hours, so I am going to have to start from the beginning," Iris said as she began narrating the entire series of events that had occurred in the last 24 hours since she and Erin had encountered Mako and his two friends.
*************
[An hour later]
*DING!*
Mako was abruptly woken up by the loudest notification sound he had ever received. He didn't know what the system was up to but it was definitely urgent.
Mako opened the system's main interface and was greeted with a black exclamation mark on the quests tab.
'This doesn't look good,' Mako thought as he gulped down. He had no idea what a black exclamation mark meant since this was the first time he had seen it and was scared that maybe it was something bad.
Upon opening the quests tab, Mako noticed a black exclamation mark on the daily quest category. It was then that he realized that he had forgotten to complete his daily tasks for the day.
When Mako first woke up after his duel with Leon, he had received the daily quest notification but the countdown timer was paused after Mako found himself in a life-or-death battle against an advanced-tier beast.
However, the countdown was reactivated once the Beetle King had fled, and Mako was left alone to take care of his friends. The entire day was just so hectic that Mako had completely forgotten to complete his daily tasks.
In the past, the system had canceled Mako's daily tasks when he was in a serious situation and unable to perform them, such as when he was infiltrating the warehouse to free the prisoners. However, this time, the system didn't cancel the tasks despite the circumstances.
*Thud* Thud*
Mako could feel his heartbeat getting louder as he was genuinely scared as to what would be the penalty for skipping the daily quests. The system was quite unreliable at this as there were times when the system outright claimed that it would give Mako death if he failed to complete a specific quest.
Now, he was sure that not completing daily tasks for a day would warrant his death, but he still had no idea how seriously would the system take this. There was no other way to find out other than just open the daily task tab and that's exactly what Mako did.
[Daily Quest Failed]
Task 1: Meditate for two hours (0/2)
Task 2: Run 10,000 meters (0/10000)
Task 3: lift a total of 3000 Kilograms (0/3000)
[Calculating suitable penalties...]
[Penalty: Lightning ability is now locked for the next 24 hours, -500 Energy pool]
Mako stared at the system screen in front of his eyes with disbelief. Not only did the system not remove the daily quest even though Mako had such a tough day, but he would also now have to spend the next 24 hours without being able to use his lightning ability.
In addition to that, Mako's energy pool also suffered as his maximum energy dropped from 2000 back to 1500. The system had removed 10 attribute points worth of energy from his total energy pool and Mako was for sure pissed off about it.
However, before he could do or say anything, another notification rang in Mako's ears.
*Ding!*
