Free Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley by John Nest, Timaeus, Vaanouney, You The Reader

to unequip all his equipment because of the narrow space.

As Smoke reached the middle of the tunnel, he used his Cunning of the Dire Fox ability to check if there was indeed a monster inside. Yet, his ability sensed nothing.

He searched around, as far as his DarkElf eyes could see and saw nothing. Always on the look out, Igniz went out ahead of him.

His symbiote signaled him to step out of the small crevice. Once outside, he found that he could stand up straight but barely.
     
      - Entered the shrine of the Ifrit Vigilantez

      - There are no monsters inside the shrine of Vigilantez.
      - Suggested level for entering this forest is not applicable.
    Smoke was surprised by the sudden game notification. He had never heard or read of Vigilantez, but he must have been someone special to have a concealed shrine. It had an area of twenty square feet and a height of six feet.

He looked around and still found nothing. Not until he turned around and saw the imposing figure of the Ifrit, Vigilantez.

The entire wall above the exit of the small crevice was covered in a fresco painting of the Ifrit. The flaming figure had orange flames for hair with two bent horns which pointed upward.

Vigilantez had a humanoid form except for his hands and feet, which had claws like those of a lion. He only wore a lower body armor that was made of a black lusterless metal.

He had four wings stretched out behind his back and covered the entire wall. It was made of red and orange flames. At first glance, Vigilantez looked like a Lord of Hell.

Yet, if you studied his face close enough it looked like that of a forlorn child.

As Smoke touched it, an earthen hand came out of the wall and a notification window popped up.
     
    + Do you wish to offer any of the following to Vigilantez?

  1. 10,000,000 zecs
  2. A rare item
  3. An ability tome
    He was in a dilemma. He didn't know anything about this Vigilantez character. Although, he had read about Ifrits in the real world. They were powerful and cunning Djinns.

With only the general knowledge of Djinns, Smoke decided to bet on making an offering. From Sierra's regular report, he found out that the boss in the mausoleum,  had a high drop rate of the skull helm, which was uncommon for a rare item.

This made Smoke decide to use the skull helm that he had with him. He originally planned on giving the item to Adder but he refused it. The Condortlian did not want to wear an item from an Undead monster.

He removed the doubts he had in his mind and placed the skull helm into earthen hand.
     
    Completed Offering, to the Djinn of the West: Ifrit Vigilantez

  + Acquired the locations of Ifrit Vigilantez's temples
  + Your map has been updated with the four locations
  + 500 Favor points to Vigilantez
    Smoke inspected his map and found four blinking lights beyond the Margome mountain range. He got nothing else aside from the temple locations and the 500 Favor points.

He felt that he was cheated, but there was no use crying over spilt milk. He was still deep in regret when he received a call from Sierra.

"Gandiva's back and she got the Guildium and the special ability that I was talking about. So, how's everything on your end?" she asked.

Smoke was happy to hear Sierra's voice and was even happier when he heard that everything was going well for her, which made him feel inadequate.

"I don't know how to say this but, I kinda got Adder almost killed again... But don't worry he is stable now. In fact, he's even grown back an arm." said Smoke in a meek voice.

There were three seconds of silence before Sierra answered. "What do you mean an arm? And how could you have almost killed Adder?"

Smoke told Sierra about their run in with the mutated Centaurs, and he told her about the mysterious Vitalis stone that recreated Adder's left limb. He was ashamed of the Vigilantez's reward that he casually left out of his update.

They shared their theories about Adder's