The heavy, gold-embossed doors of the Earl's audience chamber slammed shut behind Shin Youngwoo—known to the world of Satisfy as Grid.
He stood in the hallway of the castle, his breath hitching in his chest, his hands trembling as they clutched a glowing purple quest scroll.
[Quest: Earl Ashur's Secret Request]
Rating: S-grade
Description: Travel to the North End Cave and retrieve 'Pagma's Rare Book' for Earl Ashur.
Reward: A massive amount of gold, a title of 'Knight', and a Legendary-grade weapon.
Penalty for Failure: ???
"S-grade... it's actually an S-grade quest!" Grid whispered, his voice cracking with a mixture of terror and intoxicating greed.
"I'm going to be rich. I'm going to pay off my debts, buy a car, and show those bastards at the high school reunion what a real winner looks like!"
He didn't notice the flickering shadow against the stone wall behind him. He didn't notice the cold, calculating eyes of a Level 250 Shadow Stalker—one of Earl Ashur's personal assassins—watching his every twitch.
High above, in the manor, Earl Ashur stood with his back to the room. "Is he moving?"
"Yes, My Lord," a voice rasped from a crystal ball. It was the Captain of the Shadows. "The adventurer called Grid has restocked on the cheapest possible rations and is currently sprinting toward the northern gates. He looks... agitated."
"Follow him," Ashur commanded, his voice cold as the mountain ice. "Sir Arthur spoke of his tenacity, but I trust no 'Immortal.' If he lays a finger on that book for himself, or if he speaks a word of this quest to another soul, slit his throat. I want a report every sunrise."
Eral Ashur turned to the map on his desk, his finger tracing the border of the Gauss Kingdom. "Soon," he hissed. "Soon, the blood of kings will pay for the tears of my wife."
The Northern End Cave was a labyrinth designed to crush the spirits of the strongest warriors.
For a Level 73 warrior like Grid, with gear that was barely better than scrap metal, it was a literal suicide mission.
The Shadow Stalker, tasked with monitoring him, sat perched on a stalactite, hidden by a 'Greater Invisibility' spell. He watched with growing disbelief as Grid entered the first cavern.
Crrrk!
A Level 120 Cave Spider dropped from the ceiling.
Grid screamed—not a battle cry, but a high-pitched, undignified shriek. He swung his sword with the grace of a drunken peasant. Three seconds later, the spider's pincer punched through Grid's chest.
Splat.
Grid's body burst into shards of gray light.
"Is this the 'Tenacious Warrior' Sir Arthur spoke of?" the Shadow whispered to himself, scratching his head. "He died in one hit. He didn't even parry."
Two hours later, Grid was back. He looked frustrated, his face red, cursing the 'game', the spider, and his own bad luck. He ran back into the cavern.
Death #2: Eaten by a Cave Bat.
Death #3: Fell into a spiked pit.
Death #4: Accidental self-injury while swinging his sword.
By the tenth day, the Shadow Stalker was no longer annoyed; he was disturbed. He had watched Grid die seven times.
Each death resulted in a 10% experience loss and the potential drop of items. Any sane person would have abandoned the quest, realized they were under-leveled, and gone to grind slimes.
But Grid... Grid was not sane.
"DAMN IT! YOU OVERSIZED BUG! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL SELL YOUR LEGS FOR SILVER!"
The Shadow watched as Grid, now Level 71 due to experience loss, charged the spider again. His armor was held together by literal string.
His sword was notched and dull. But there was something in his eyes—a terrifying, vacuous hunger that ignored the pain of death.
He wasn't fighting with skill. He was fighting with spite.
Death #8: Crushed by a falling rock.
"Lord Ashur must have been deceived," the Shadow muttered, scribbling into his report log. "Target 'Grid' possesses the combat intelligence of a mountain goat. His survival rate for the inner sanctum is 0.0001%. Suggesting immediate termination of the contract to save the Earl's time."
On the fifteenth day, something changed.
Grid reached the "First Hurdle"—the narrow bridge crossing the Chasm of Woe. It was guarded by a Frost Ghoul Captain, a Level 180 elite.
Grid approached. He had died nine times now. He was shaking, his stamina bar blinking red, his stomach growling from the cheap, moldy bread he was eating to save money.
The Ghoul Captain swung its frozen mace. Grid didn't dodge. Instead, he tripped. The mace whistled over his head, smashing into the stone wall.
"NOW!" Grid roared. He lunged forward, not with a sword skill, but by biting the Ghoul's arm and stabbing it repeatedly with a rusted dagger he'd found in a trash pile.
It was the ugliest, most pathetic display of "combat" the Shadow had ever seen. There was no dignity, no grace, no magic. It was a man fighting like a cornered rat.
Ten minutes later, the Ghoul Captain collapsed, its HP finally depleted by the thousand tiny cuts Grid had inflicted.
Grid stood over the corpse, covered in blue ichor and his own blood, and let out a manic, terrifying laugh. "I did it! I'm going to be a Noble! I'm going to be rich!"
He collapsed from exhaustion immediately after.
Back in the Earl's study, Ashur hear the latest report from the Shadow.
Report Day 15:
Target has died 10 times in total.
Current Level: 70.
Note: The target's psychological state is highly unstable. He talks to his sword and cries while eating bread. However, he has successfully crossed the first bridge. His tenacity is... unnatural. It is not the tenacity of a hero, but the obsession of a man who has nothing else but this quest.
Ashur looked at the report, then at Airgid, who was nursing a glass of wine. "Ten deaths. He lost five levels and still he pushes forward? Arthur was right. The man is a fool, but he is a fool who doesn't know how to stay down."
Knight captain Darius chuckled. "There's a fine line between a hero and a madman, Lord Ashur. Usually, it's just a matter of whether they succeed or not. If that boy actually brings back the book, he'll be the most dangerous kind of tool—one that doesn't care about his own life."
"Let him continue," Ashur said, a predatory glint in his eyes. "The deeper he goes, the harder the cave will bite. If he makes it to the heart, he will be so broken that he will be easy to discard."
Miles away, on the road to the Bairan, Arthur sat into the carrige
A notification from Ciel flickering in the corner of his mind. Ashur has send Grid to retrieve 'Pagma's Rare Book'
Arthur smiled. Everything was moving according to the blueprints he had laid out. Grid was suffering, dying, and crying—the necessary ingredients for the birth of a Legend.
By forcing Grid to struggle through the North End Cave while being watched by Ashur's shadows, Arthur had ensured that the "betrayal" at the end of the quest would be even more dramatic, fueling Grid's transformation.