Chapter 339 - BEAST FORM
"HE'S dying?" Luo Yan exclaimed unbelievingly.
"One might look at it that way," the leader answered all mysteriously.
Luo Yan almost rolled his eyes at the vague talk. Seriously, he didn't even look like a mysterious old man with no otherworldly desires. Those should be the only ones allowed vague talk. Well, at least he looked like a hermit. That would probably do.
"Can the Leader explain it more profoundly?" he still said politely. He almost added, 'because if you don't talk quickly, that guy would probably be dead by the time we got there'.
"The light in the lamp represents the life of the person it was connected to. If they were alive and well, the light would be very bright. If they were dying, the light should be very weak. But as you can see, the light in this lamp is flickering. Which meant that there's something that's taking his life force slowly. And its ember would soon die down."
Luo Yan nodded, understanding the leader's explanation. "How soon is 'soon'?"
"I can't really tell you the exact answer," the leader said, shaking his head. "It could be an hour or even a day. I could only sense that it's 'soon'."
Well, thank you for that not so helpful answer. But Luo Yan didn't voice that out. "Then I guess we should leave now before everything becomes too late."
"Wait—" the leader called when they moved to leave. Luo Yan glanced back, looking at him with a questioning gaze. "Whatever you may discover, can you tell me the result? I will consider it as a very big favor."
"Of course," Luo Yan easily said. How could he refuse when there's a possibility that they might get a reward?
After that, Luo Yan, with Eclipse on his shoulder, and Shen Ji Yun walked out of the leader's office. They climbed straight down towards the first floor and then out of the building.
"Brother Ji Yun, you said that the Tower of Edia is located on a floating island called the Garden of Eden, right? And we can't directly teleport there?"
Shen Ji Yun nodded. "Yes, to both questions."
If Luo Yan remembered correctly, Shen Ji Yun mentioned before that the only way to directly teleport there was to take a task that was directly related to the Tower of Edia. But that kind of task could rarely be seen in the Task Hall. And since, they're practically racing against time, not knowing when that Rhys would croak, they didn't have the time to look for tasks that were related to the Tower of Edia.
"Then how would we go there?" That was the question.
[Maybe Mashter and Captain could ride a flying beast to that Tower place.] – Eclipse suddenly suggested.
Luo Yan glanced surprisingly at the little guy on his shoulder. That was actually not such a bad idea. He probably would have thought of that if he wasn't so focus on other things. Like the fact that they might be running out of time and if they didn't move fast enough. Then their only, and maybe also their final, clue to this 'Finnea's Curse' task would die.
Seriously, what was that NPC doing getting his life force suck from him? No, the one at fault was the people involved in writing the script for this task. Why couldn't they just write something straightforward where players didn't need to do all this? But then again, if they did that, those hidden tasks wouldn't be as interesting.
[Good thinking.] – he said to Eclipse and gave him one of his favorite Mana fruits.
The little fox quickly nabbed on the fruit. [Thank you, Mashter! You're the best!]
Luo Yan turned to Shen Ji Yun who seemed to be having trouble deciding about something based on his knitted eyebrows and the deep crease on his forehead. He's most likely also thinking of ways on how they would go to the Tower of Edia.
Yes, Shen Ji Yun was indeed thinking along that line. The only difference was he already thought of a way. If they couldn't teleport there, then they could just directly fly.
"Brother Ji Yun, maybe we could rent some winged beast to go there?" Luo Yan suggested. "Or is flying there also not allowed?"
"No, it's allowed. But there's no need to rent a winged beast," Shen Ji Yun said still looking all tangled about something.
"Then what shall we do?" Luo Yan asked, curious as to what kind of suggestion Shen Ji Yun would made. Especially since he'd been making that weird expression for a while now.
"Let's teleport first on my island."
Luo Yan didn't ask and just nodded. They didn't really have much time to waste right now and arguing with him about something so simple wasn't really ideal. If Shen Ji Yun had a way to go to that Garden of Eden, then he would follow his arrangement without a problem.
Upon seeing Luo Yan agreeing, he reached out and held the other's hand. Then he used a teleportation scroll to directly teleport them to his floating island. When they arrived, he reluctantly let go of Luo Yan's hand. Because if he didn't do it fast enough, he knew he would just fell into a daze while thinking how soft his rabbit's hand was.
"So, what's the plan that Brother Ji Yun thought of?" Luo Yan asked, a little bit of excitement leaking from his voice.
Shen Ji Yun showed that tangled look again. After a few seconds, as if thinking that they shouldn't waste both of their time by hesitating, he let out a long sigh and just said, "I'm thinking that we could use my beast form to fly over there."
Luo Yan blinked his eyes a couple of times, not sure if he heard it right. But looking at Shen Ji Yun's awkward expression, he now finally understood why the other had been showing that tangled expression. Because he was embarrassed to show him his beast form! That only made Luo Yan even more excited.
"Yes, please. Let's do just that," he quickly said, his blue eyes shining brightly.
Shen Ji Yun gazed down at Luo Yan's beautiful face. Seeing those shining eyes full of expectation and excitement, he knew he couldn't refuse him. He was the one who suggested this, so he might as well just accept his fate. "Okay."
He walked forward, distancing himself from Luo Yan. He took a deep breath and opened his Status Window. There, he clicked on his beast form. Yes, transforming into one was easy as that. And then he slowly felt his whole body expanding.
Luo Yan watched from afar. He saw as Shen Ji Yun was suddenly surrounded by a purple smoke. Which was kind of a disappointment. Because he was expecting that the transformation would be like one of those werewolf transformations where his whole body would distend and he would see his bones and muscles growing and stretching.
But soon, that disappointment quickly disappeared when he finally saw the huge beast hiding behind the smoke.
It was probably as big as a five-story building. Its main body had a shape similar to that of a horse, only if the horse had purple scales on them. It had thick mane, the color of which was a much darker purple. And it had cloven hooves. But its head was similar to a dragon's. On top of it was a pair of golden antler-shaped horns.
Strangely enough, Luo Yan didn't feel any contradiction. Like all of its parts were arranged in some kind of strange harmony.
And frankly speaking, all he could think of at this moment was…
"Beautiful."