Chapter 64
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Oath on the Tail #2
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“Hammer!”
“Hey! Yor’s here!”
Hammer was waiting for me at the spot where the party had split up.
A moment later, Hermit and Felix appeared from a distance.
“Everyone made it on time, nice.”
“Hermit, you didn’t cause any trouble this time, right?”
“What’d I do!”
“Alright, alright. No more fighting.”
Hammer stepped in between them to calm things down.
Then he turned straight to Felix and asked.
“Did you all harvest anything? Felix, you first.”
“There’s an orphanage in this Cunning Town. If we’re looking for kids, that’s probably the highest chance.”
“Orphanage?”
“It’s more like a training ground or breeding facility for professional thieves, really.”
A breeding ground for turning kids into robbery-murderers?
What the hell kind of place is that.
The world’s gone to shit.
I clicked my tongue and said.
“I found the kid. He’s resting at the inn right now.”
“Whaaat!?”
Hammer jumped in surprise.
He glanced around, then grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
“You really found him? Huh? No joke, for real!?”
“Yup!”
I explained it to everyone as briefly as possible.
I met a pickpocket, went to the gambling den together, and ran into Narakje.
Hammer stuck out his tongue in disbelief at my story.
“You’ve got some insane luck! I figured this mission would take at least a few months!”
A few months!?
Just thinking about it was horrifying.
I had zero desire to stick around this city that long.
‘I can’t farm Ether!’
I wanted to hurry back to the Great Wall and slaughter some monsters.
Hermit perked up at my story.
“You really got Narakje’s skillbook?”
“Yeah. [Subtle Touch].”
Since it came up, might as well absorb it now.
「Would you like to acquire [Subtle Touch]?」
Yes.
The book seeped into me with a whoosh.
So what changed?
‘[Subtle Touch]!’
I stealthily reached for the potion vials in Hermit’s side pocket.
Hermit freaked out.
“What the! Why’re you going for my pockets!”
Grrrr.
Hermit growled like an angry raccoon, and I realized my mistake.
‘We just got friendly, and now I’m gonna ruin it!’
There’s no mage as capable as Hermit.
I had to stay on her good side.
So I hurriedly explained.
“No, I was just testing out the new skill to see how it feels!”
“Oh, that’s what it was?”
And she forgives me just like that?
Hermit really is a pushover.
“Still, not my pockets! Go pick Felix’s!”
“Why me! No way!”
“Ahem, Yor, not mine either.”
Everyone was on guard against me.
Being cautious doesn’t stop you from getting pickpocketed anyway.
Anyway.
I tried [Subtle Touch], but it didn’t feel subtle at all.
What the heck was it?
Then Ashibar whispered in my ear.
【Kekeke-! Try it with ‘Black Eye’!】
Black Eye?
「Item Check Success!」
「Short Sword – Bonecleaver」 - Difficulty 8
「Small Necklace」 - Difficulty 9
「Stinky Cheese」 - Difficulty 2
...
..
“Oh.”
Difficulty levels popped up next to the items.
I instantly realized this was pickpocketing difficulty.
Out of 10, probably?
‘If I’d had this from the start, half my 14 priors would’ve never happened!’
Anyway, I felt great.
Hammer patted my shoulder.
“Then let’s head to the inn pronto!”
“Yup!”
I headed to the inn with the party.
How long had we walked?
Felix rested his hand on the longsword at his waist.
“Hammer, we’ve got a tail.”
“Tail? Where?”
“Who is it!”
Hammer and Hermit whipped their heads around.
Then whoosh—something flew at us.
A small bundle.
“Ambush!”
Shing.
Felix drew his sword.
I blocked him to stop any accidents.
“It’s fine. Put the sword away. Not that.”
I opened the bundle.
Inside were two dead sparrows.
Hammer crossed his arms and asked.
“Yor, what the hell’s going on? What’re those sparrows?”
“Probably Nimble left them.”
“Nimble—?”
The tail was probably Nimble.
I’d been smelling something like wildflowers—Nimble’s scent—around me the whole time.
‘The pheasant left at my inn door this morning was her too, huh.’
‘Now sparrows?’
Hermit took interest in my explanation.
“Nimble, the beast girl?”
Hermit gripped her staff and scanned the surroundings.
“If I catch her, dissect her, write a paper, and present at the academy… heh heh!”
“Hey, don’t! If she turns wolf, it’ll be a headache!”
I remembered Nimble ripping people apart.
A true savage beast.
Making an enemy of her for no reason would be trouble.
“Turns into a wolf? Transformation magic? Now I really wanna catch her!”
Hermit gripped her staff tight, aiming it everywhere.
Chatting like that, we arrived at the inn.
Hammer spotted the kid Isaiah and bowed his head.
“I’m explorer Hammer, captain. I’ll get you all safely back inside the Great Wall, so please cooperate generously.”
“…Newbie, she’s a real Erdari!”
Hermit gripped her staff warily.
Felix clicked his tongue while scanning the room.
“I slept rough last night. And you were sucking honey in a nice room like this.”
Honey my ass.
I nearly died to Nimble.
Couldn’t even sleep properly.
“Nice to meet you, Captain Hammer. I’m Sauriel, and this is Isaiah. How do we get back? Overland?”
“…Well.”
Hammer hesitated in his reply.
“Overland return is extremely dangerous right now. So we’ll save that as a last resort and look into other options from here.”
Makes sense. Night Land was dangerous.
Crawling with criminals fleeing the law, demonkin, and mad undead.
A kid like Isaiah wouldn’t last a day.
‘All my hard work would go to waste.’
Then Sauriel spoke in a soft, noblewoman tone.
“Captain Hammer, there’s an ancient ruin untouched by human hands for ages beneath this city. It has a teleportation magic circle.”
“Teleportation magic circle!?”
Hermit jumped.
Forgetting her wariness of the Erdari, she excitedly asked.
“That real? It’s really there?”
“Yes, really. I saw it clear as day.”
“What luck!”
“Hermit, what’s a teleportation magic circle?”
“Magic that moves people or objects!”
“Like the Ether table?”
“Yeah! The Ether table’s a degraded version of it!”
Hermit then launched into a lecture on imperial magic history.
Honestly, I couldn’t stifle a yawn.
While Hermit and Sauriel talked shop, I slipped out of the inn.
Rustle.
A presence hiding behind the corner wall.
Felix, who’d followed me, clicked his tongue.
“Nimble, right? How long’s she gonna keep this up?”
“Dunno.”
Why’d the kid who growled she’d kill me suddenly act like this?
Maybe she was waiting for the perfect opening to strike.
Like a beast eyeing her prey’s weakness.
‘No way the pheasant and sparrows were to fatten me up before eating?’
The thought sent chills down my spine.
Felix poked my side.
“You stole something from the Sea King’s chest, right.”
“Demon soul contract?”
“Yeah. Maybe she’s here to get it back.”
Come to think of it, Nimble had demanded I hand something over.
Called me a thief.
‘If I return it, will she stop gunning for my neck?’
Cold sweat dripped from my forehead.
Return stolen goods?
Once it’s in my pocket, it’s mine.
Giving it away free is basically charity.
“Yor! Felix! Get ready to move!”
Hammer yelled from the window.
Looked like they’d wrapped up upstairs.
#
We scoured the sewers to find the underground ruins of this city.
Finding the way wasn’t hard.
Sauriel knew the winding underground paths like the back of her hand.
The problem was the traps.
But I disarmed those easily.
Click!
“Safe now!”
“Master Yor, impressive skills.”
Sauriel admired.
Little Isaiah chimed in from the side.
“Yor’s awesome. Wins all the gambles, didn’t lie to us!”
Aw, praise makes my nose itch.
That’s how we entered the underground ruins.
Statues with long noses and ears everywhere.
Small, kid-sized.
Hermit poked one with her staff and jumped.
“These are goblins? Petrified goblins!”
“Quite knowledgeable. Long ago, this city was full of goblins.”
According to Sauriel, Cunning Town was a goblin (thief) city.
Proved by the countless goblin statues.
“Why’d all these goblins turn to stone?”
Felix tapped a statue.
Hammer eyed them warily and tapped too.
“Man, hope they don’t suddenly wake up!”
I examined a goblin statue closely.
Chop off the head, and it’d look just like Ashibar.
Weird idol Ashibar.
Was he a goblin?
Lost in thought, we reached the ruins’ depths.
A clearing surrounded by cliffs, with a magic circle drawn there.
“A real teleportation magic circle!”
Hermit joyfully placed her hand on the floor.
“Ooooh! Mana’s still there! Let’s activate it—.”
Wooooong.
The circle vibrated loudly under Hermit’s palm.
No joke, it was deafening.
Right then.
Rumble.
The petrified goblin statues cracked and crumbled.
Gold coins and jewels spilled out clinking.
My senses sharpened.
“Fuck, these bastards have jewels in their guts!”
I eagerly scooped up the gems and gold.
Right then, one gem went tok—rolling off the cliff.
Tok, tok, boom, thud—whoaaaa.
The cliff was insanely deep; the echoes hit like thunder.
Next instant, Nimble’s fur bristled all over.
“—It’s coming.”
Coming?
What?
Before we could question—
【—disturbing my long slumber.】
【Here to covet my treasures again?】
Roooar.
The ruins shook like an earthquake.
Soon, something huge with wings flapped up from the cliff base.
“Son of a! Dragon! Why’s it so damn big!?”
Hammer shouted.
True to his words, a gray-bodied, horned dragon flapped its wings and roared.
—RAAAAAWR-!
Size of two large buses combined.
【Not even a pebble to give—.】
Kwaaaa.
The dragon opened its maw, spewing a bizarre ray.
Everything it touched petrified with a crackle.
“…Stone Dragon Isidore!?”
Sauriel gasped.
“No way I’d guess a dragon that size slumbered in city ruins! It must’ve woken to the circle’s activation noise!”
Dragons took a level 20 party teaming up to fell.
No chance for us now.
“Teleportation circle! I’ll rev it up fast!”
Huuuuh—Hermit poured in more power.
Ssssh.
Strange circuits lit on Hermit’s face.
“—[Mass Teleport]!”
Flash!
Light exploded.
【I’ll burn your city—!!!】
When I came to, we were in the strategy room with the familiar Ether table.
I pumped my fist and yelled.
“Son of a, we lived! Hermit! We made it!”
“Urk….”
Thud.
But Hermit collapsed, spewing black smoke, no time to celebrate.
And Nimble bristled her tail fur, shouting.
“What the hell! Where are we!?”