Murphy used the special relationship between elders and warriors to mark the exclusive quest he gave Ashina as "Classified." In other words, he didn't want the matter becoming common knowledge.
As the handsome vampire's first player warrior, Ashina had carried out similar missions before. She didn't mind at all—in fact, she felt she'd finally been entrusted with "grown-up responsibilities." So she put her full professionalism into keeping the secret. While the other players enjoyed their wonderful rewards, the little potato quietly and efficiently went to work in this "secret area"—a place so hard to sneak into that, without instructions, it was difficult even to find.
Following the quest hints Murphy had given her, Ashina soon found the crack leading to the R-9 base's power chamber. Thanks to her natural "size advantage," she crawled inside and successfully located the target.
Murphy was very pleased.
This was the item that the slippery snake Mannis had offered as a "bargaining chip" when haggling with him earlier.
It was supposedly an oddity that the Serpent of Time couldn't decipher. Things in this world unaffected by the power of time were extremely rare, so Murphy believed the object Ashina had found would be a tremendous help to him in the future.
But only after he actually entered the crack did he realize how narrow the blasted place was.
It was only wide enough for a tiny, slender little bean like Ashina to squeeze through. A tall, strapping vampire like Murphy could barely even crouch down far enough to get inside.
The terrain was clearly abnormal.
Perhaps it was caused by geological changes from the explosion in the Eden District. In any case, when Murphy needed to go farther in, he had to disperse into a swarm of flying bats to keep moving.
The crack was