Sitting at the desk of her small study, Monique her her head in her hands. Staring at the papers, she could only lament about how nothing was working out.
Of course, it wasn't that easy. She was so happy when she got the quest to get holy armaments, and it only said to find a blacksmith and epic
She had celebrated too early. Seth and the metal were the easy part. Finding the gorgon was a headache! Monique had already exhausted all her sources. Well, the three she knew. Minas Mar had no dungeon known to have gorgon monsters or a gorgon boss under its control. There were also no reports about such a beast.
Yesterday, she had visited the Bryce, from the Adventurer Guild. The Holy Land and the Abyss were a vast land filled with dungeons, and the guild had a good overview of most dungeons in general.
Despite the great number of dungeons, the guild had no dungeon that fit either. Not just on Urth, Bryce, the leader of the guild on Urth, also had no immediate information about any gorgon dungeons in different worlds. However, she probably couldn't blame him; his rank was just too low to access that kind of info.
Today, she had visited Simon from the System Church to ask whether the church might have information. But this was an even more complicated matter. Since Chrona pulled out, Minas Mar had its own congregation of the System Church.
This allowed the independence, but it also meant that there was now a rift between the System Church of Urth and that of Chrona. Even if they managed to keep some connections stable, since Samuel, the Saint, was revived and built by Seth, Simon didn't have full access to Chrona's info, as he used to in the past.
"I do know that there are some dungeons with gorgons in Chrona, but I can't remember where exactly. Even if I could tell you the world, I wouldn't recommend traveling to Chrona at this time. Ponze is currently fortifying his power to become Crown Prince. If he finds out you and Seth are in Chrona, he might try something," the priest had warned her.
None of their allies were able to give her the info, and their own network didn't have any either. This would have been the perfect moment for a divine revelation... but nothing happened. Probably because getting the materials fresh was actually Seth's requirement.
The soul of a gorgon wasn't actually needed to make the Aegis, as far as Monique understood it. The blacksmith could have just bought the leather from the auction house. She would pay for it, too! Although Gorgons were usually above lv.100, they were not inherently legendary.
The leather couldn't be that expensive if there was any on the auction house. Alas, Seth wanted to hunt one with her together and harvest her leather and soul fresh. She also understood that this was the most ideal option. But what other options were there?
She went over it in her mind. Unless Athena told her, she wouldn't find a gorgon on Urth; she had already contacted anyone that would have known. Simon no longer had access to the specific location of a fitting dungeon or monster, and even if he did, traveling to Chrona seemed dangerous.
Bryce was also a dead end. He didn't have the authority to get the info she needed, and what he had was not helpful. As she mulled over it, she could think of two more sources who may know. One was Paolo.
The Angel Summoner and his Angel came from a world outside the system, and he had wandered a bunch of worlds in between. Maybe he knew... but even if he did, would he know the way there and back? Traveling across the Pathworks without proper tech seemed chaotic and unreliable. Even the system church's teleport, which spat you out at a randomized location when you were an ori huma, at least got the world right.
The last option she thought of came to her as a brainwave. Perrerian. Not only was it a world that was overrun and struggling with a dungeon, it was also one of the few foreign worlds connected to Urth where she could travel with ease.
Most importantly, Athena had given her the divine quest while Monique was in Perrerian. Maybe this had a meaning? Apart from Perrerian, there was also the world with the dark elves she heard of, but chances to get good info from that were slim. Their contact there was gone...
Following her sudden intuition, the Chosen of Athena quickly called Jane. Jane had been their primary ambassador. Unlike her, she had actually listened to all the nonsense those representatives and nobles droned on about.
"Jane?" Monique asked, moderately excited, when the other would pick up her call.
"Monique? Do you know what time it is? Why are you calling me this late at night?" the disheveled merchant asked with a cranky voice. The picture in the orb looked like she was in bed.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't notice that it was already this late... but since you already picked up, I have a question. While we were in Perrerian, did you hear about a gorgon dungeon or a roaming one?" the spear demon asked directly.
"Ugh, is this about the armor that's being made for you?" she asked, annoyed, but took a moment to think. "Hmm, I think I vaguely remembered someone complaining about a monster that petrified their titan pilots... But I don't know whether that was a gorgon. I can contact our People in Gula tomorrow to get some details. Is that enough?" she asked, tired.
"Yes! Thank you!" Monique thanked her enthusiastically. A beast that petrified people was the closest she got to finding a gorgon, so far. There were not that many beings that could just petrify people. Apart from the gorgon, Monique had only heard of the Basilisk.
In her opinion, there was at least a 50/50 chance it was a gorgon. And if it was... Then there was the problem of having to get there. Seth had said he wanted to come along to hunt the gorgon, but would he come along to a different world, governed by a semi-magical feudalistic state?
Monique had made enough annoying experiences in Perrerian to know that they would leave them alone. Maybe they could go and travel in secret? They didn't have to mention that the technically acting head of state was visiting. That could be an idea, yeah.
Mulling over it, the Chosen of Athena was mumbling into the night.
...
The next morning, Monique immediately went to the blacksmith's workshop but ended up before closed doors. The door was tightly locked.
"Seth is forging again. The door has to stay closed because of the effects some of the forging ballads have, " a voice mentioned as a friendly reminder from behind her. Wedan had noticed her standing at the door when he went to enter his own workshop.
"Oh! I see, thank you. How long do you reckon this will take?" she asked, a little hesitant. It was the first time she found the workshop door locked, so she didn't really know what to do now.
"Errm, since he had been working on legendary items lately, I guess at least one hour. Depending on size and complexity, longer," the dwarf gave his guess.
"Go do something else. I will give you a call when the door is open again," the dwarf promised her. Monique hesitated for a moment but agreed in the end. At this point, there was nothing more she could do to move her quest forward. She had to wait for Jane to get the confirmation and for Seth to finish forging.
Since there was nothing else, Monique decided to go the the training room to practice her spear arts.