With the clues from Moo, Misha and her party members took a ferry toward Volcano Island, searching for a trail of Lucien, the Slime Knight.

The small mountain island had a similar size as Misha's island. Instead of being populated by ropers, they could see a mountain range and a calm volcanic mountain top, similar to Mount Fuji. No trail of smoke or fire could be seen here.

"Why is this island called Volcano Island? Is it because it was once a volcano mountain? It won't erupt any time soon, right?"

Looking at the confused Shurka, Moo puffed his chest, "They called this VOLCANO because of those monsters inside the mountain, nya. All of them have a fire attribute, and they can shoot a fireball that deals fixed damage to players."

"Oh? Fire damage?"

"Yes! There are many 3,500-power monsters to 5,000 ones here, but I don't think they are worth farming anymore, considering our current strength, nya."

"You seem to know everything on this island."

"Of course, nya! I spent all my gaming days on this island ever since my mentor sent me to farm stones here."

Listened to Moo, Misha understood how he managed to progress faster than everyone else. It seemed his quest lines were more advanced than every player here.

Misha wanted to curse at Walter and Arthur for not giving her many quests like Moo's master. However, thinking back, she did not follow the tradition [Grinding by Questing] like Moo. Also, she cheated and forcefully made the two mentors accept her by bribing them.

Curious about quests, Misha asked for advice, "How did you ask your mentor for quests, Moo?"

Natalie, Sasha, Moo, Des, Non, and Shurka turned to Misha with a complicated expression.

"Have you ever used a quest menu, Misha?"

"What's the quest menu? Is it the one that displays our current quests?"

"…"

The atmosphere felt odd. It was as if everyone was looking at Misha with sympathy.

Shurka patted Misha's back, "Mish."

"Yeah?"

"In the quest menu…"

"Yeah?"

"There's another tab called [Available Quests]."

"…"

"All you have to do is walking toward your mentor, and then you open this menu."

"…"

"Once you do, you will have a list if you want to do what kind of quests. It ranges from easy quests to complicated chain quests, depending on your mentor's strength."

Misha felt like she wanted to commit suicide. For weeks, she had been playing a different game.

She opened her menu and navigated to the tabs, referred by Shurka.

And she found it.

However, all quests were greyed out, but some had red-cross on it.

"What's greyed quests and quests with a red strikethrough?"

"Quest names with red lines on it are lost opportunities. They are mostly time-limited quests. As for the grey one, you have to be near the NPC to activate those."

Misha counted the lost quest. There were 20+ quests that she could have accepted, but she did not.

As for the greyed quests, there were only 5 left.

Still, she could examine the content of the quests. Most of them offered ma.s.sive EXP as rewards, and their missions involved mafia businesses, such as cooking crystals for Walter, going around with Arthur to incite some mobs, or partic.i.p.ating in a group fight against the police.

She could have reached level 200 within a couple of days by doing these quests!

Misha cried, "I'm such a noob."

*Mew* (You're not only a noob. You're a noob banana.)

Moo patted Misha's back, "It's fine. Most of them are just EXP quests. Chain quests are unique, so they should still be around. Say, since you never knew about this menu, how did you initiate a quest after all this time?"

"I talk to them, just like how that perverted geezer offered to take you as his disciple."

"…"

"Isn't this how you accept quests in other games?"

"… Yes, but you won't get side quests or chain quests that way."

"…"

.

The entire party had to console Misha, who cried for 10 minutes.

After Misha calmed down, everyone resumed their journey to find Lucien or his trace.

"Well, I have many 1-Star fire resistance items on me. Do you have any equipment yet?" Moo attempted to change subjects.

Shurka and Misha had VIP10, and they had bought the package. Moreover, they were inferno dragonewt, which could use flame field skill, so they did not have to worry about fire attacks.

As for Natalie and Sasha, their soulless bodies had been working for grandmother Min, so they had earned enough money to invest in diamonds. With Min's support, they already bought VIP10 and the VIP package. They came here prepared as they wore accessories with fire resistance.

Des was a pro-gamer captain, so she had enough cash to buy diamonds when the price was low. She was also a VIP10 with 5-star accessories.

Moo and Non were the poorest of the group. They still did not have VIP status, and they had to rely on monster drops to get equipment.

Misha took 10 3-Star accessories from her inventory and pa.s.sed them to Non and Moo.

"Wear those instead of 1-Star items."

Non and Moo were astonished, "Wow! Are you give me these, nya? So all of you are PTW? I'm so lucky I befriend you!"

"Return these when the quest is over."

"I take my words back. You're stinky, nya!"

With all the preparation, everyone proceeded with Moo as their guide.

Moo and Non used his natural abilities to climb the rocky mountain and placed markers to leave behind some hints, so they could return here if something went wrong.

Misha and Shurka did not have a problem following Moo as they could fly. Des was a leporian, and she had a similar physical strength like Non and Moo. Thus, she could catch up with the two cats easily. As for Natalie and Sasha, they inherited half-blood of the fairy overlord. The two girls with the same face utilized the enhanced body and their psychic abilities to follow the others.

The party trekked through steep cliffs and rocky mountain range as if they were a squad of ninjas or elite marines.

Along the way, they ran into a group of fire pheasants with a strength of 4,000.

"Chickens, nya!" Non exclaimed, "They looked delicious!"

Moo nodded, "Indeed, they are delicious, but we shouldn't pick a fight with them right now. If we attack one of them, we'll aggro the entire island's chickens."

His face was pale when he talked about the fire pheasants.

These wild roosters never attacked players first. However, had a player attacked them, they would cry and summon all of their friends toward its current location, and all summoned chickens would attack anyone on sight.

Moo had a hard time fighting against these chickens. He had to run away several times in the past, and he never wanted to experience that again.

Listened to Moo's story, everyone was astonished.

"You had it rough, catto," Des consoled Moo.

"You're kind, nya. I'll lend you my catto d.i.c.ku when we got through this quest-OUCH!"

Des elbowed to Moo's solar plexus, stunning him.

"Let's ignore the chickens and continue."

They ignored the monster zone and continued climbing the silent volcano.

The group followed Moo to an area with open ground, 1,500 meters above the seawater level. He waved his hands and gestured the group to stop.

"What's wrong?"

Moo had a wry smile on his face, "The system warning should come at any time now."

After Moo warned them, everyone received a warning message.

>

>

>

>

"Fire aura? Zhurong?" Everyone was confused.

Moo nodded, "My mentor taught me that a fire G.o.d is sleeping inside this volcano, but I saw him in person. He's actually a mutant that produces combustible substance at all times as long as he breathes in oxygen. Well, his body is burning continuously for a hundred years, and he kept himself hidden in there."

Misha was astonished, "Then, how is he alive after all the burning?"

"I don't know. I'm not him, nya."

"Did you talk to him? How did you know all of this?"

Moo puffed his chest, "I have a hero subcla.s.s, nya! Heroes can accept rare quests from all NPCs and talk to boss monsters. I talked to the guy, and he's quite a nice person, nya!"

Misha and Sasha's face twitched. They had villainess cla.s.s as their subcla.s.s, so they were wary about a certain kind of cla.s.s that could counter their villainess perks.

A hero cla.s.s was such a career path that might turn against them in the future. However, since they were friends, Moo and the two girls should be able to work together.

"Can't you just tell him to stop releasing this aura?"

"Nope. Not possible. It gets worse if we get closer to the center of the volcano. The last time, I have my mentor's artifact, so I can meet him in person, but I already returned that thing. If we get to the center, we'll suffer 10,000 damage every minute without any fire resistance artifacts."

Misha stood still and waited for the fire damage to arrive, testing their fire resistance skill and their accessories.

>

>

>

One of her accessories and her Fire Resistance skill was at work, which reduced the damage from 60 to 38. The reduction was not significant, but Misha was happy with the last game message.

'Finally, a way to grind my fire resistance skill.'

Tama was also happy.

*MEW!* (I LOVE IT HOT!!)

Not only Tama, but Mii in Shurka's chest also cheered.

*MII* (IT'S SO HOT! OH, YES!!)

Meanwhile, everybody flinched as their HP dropped from the aura.

45!

40!

42!

Even though they had accessories to protect themselves from fire damage, they were not enough.

"Misha, Shurka, can you use flame field and cover us from the aura damage?"

Misha shook her head, "Can't do. My FF is level 22. It only covers my body."

However, Shurka gathered everyone around her and activated the skill.

Flame Field!

A large fire dome covered the entire party member. Unlike Misha's low-level flame field, it did not cause a shockwave that could harm anyone.

"What's your flame field level, Shurka?" Misha was curious.

"100."

Everyone widened their eyes, "How are you leveling your skills so fast!?"

"Teehee! I kept using only one skill when I'm farming low-level mobs. Do you know that you can get skill levels by killing weaker monsters? As long as you can get at least 1 EXP out of it, you can grind your skill levels."

"…"

This explained how Shurka's progress was slower than the rest of the crews. Still, her skills were more OP than Misha.

*Mew* (You suck, Mish.)

Misha cried again.

.

.

Everybody proceeded further around the calm mountain. They arrived in front of an abandoned mine, which Moo had come here often.

+60!

+60!

As they hiked here, Shurka's flame field's HP was still full as the fire damage increased its HP instead of damaging it.

This was the perk of elemental barriers. As long as the element matched, the barrier would be invulnerable against the same elemental attacks.

However, one person refused to stay in the barrier, Misha.

>

>

>

Misha continued to grind her fire resistance skill. When she first arrived at the island, it was at level 1.

But now, after 30 minutes of hiking on this mountain island, the skill had reached level 8.

"We're here! Get ready, nya!"

Moo warned everyone and got into a fighting stance. However, no party member could see any monster anywhere.

"What's wrong, Moo?"

Moo exhaled slowly, "This is the territory of disgusting dogs! The moment they smell us, they will come at us with their entire packs. Every dog in the cave will rush us any time now."

By the time that Moo finished explaining to other players, they could hear the howl of a dog.

*AWOOOOO*

*RUMBLE*

The mountain shook as something was approaching them.

Everyone kept the distance away from the cave. Misha and Shurka, as the race of tankers, stood in front of everyone.

Misha activated her flame field to get her s.h.i.+eld HP up. She acted as the primary tank while Shurka stayed behind her, becoming the secondary tanker.

"Do you have an aggro skill, Misha?"

Since Misha seemed to volunteer to be their tank, all party members were curious if she knew what she was doing.

"Nope!"

"…"

Before anyone could yell at Misha for being dumb despite her 6000 INT, the monster horde rushed out of the cave.

They were humanoid monsters, Fire Cobalt. Each of them had a dog head and a muscular human body, wielding an armor plate, a sword, and a s.h.i.+eld. 

Misha and everyone gazed at the number on their heads in astonishment.

15,000 Power!

"I thought this island only has 5,000-strength monsters at the maximum!"

Moo meowed back with teary eyes, "They were only 10,000 when I last came here to kill the slime boss! I don't know anything about this!"