A Holy Water Supplier Fell Into My Lap
A Holy Water Supplier Fell Into My Lap
The fight ended surprisingly quickly.
"N-No! Those mercenaries were so hard to find...!"
The adventurers the Otherworlder brought were only A-Rank at best.
Well, not that A-Rank is normally something to dismiss with 'only,' but...
Even so, there was no chance I would lose to two A-Rank Adventurers. The Otherworlder who brought them was about B-Rank at most.
Thanks to that, the adventurers were now lying before me as cold corpses. I'd spared one Otherworlder for interrogation.
They came for my life, so I showed them no mercy.
'...That gave me a real start.'
Of course, they didn't charge in blindly without something to rely on. Lives are precious, after all.
They had an ace up their sleeve.
And their ace was Holy Water.
'I never imagined they'd just hurl Holy Water at me out of nowhere...'
To me, Holy Water was like a double-edged sword.
During Berserk A, it became a very welcome friend that let me bypass the pain.
But used outside of that, it acted as a debuff item that weakened my power.
That was probably what they were aiming for when they threw Holy Water at me.
But one thing they overlooked was that Holy Water's effects aren't that drastic.
If I'd swallowed it directly, that would be another matter, but having it splashed on my skin was nothing.
It only sapped my strength a little. Moving wasn't a problem at all.
And a gap that small could never bridge the distance between them and me. That was why they died.
In any case, the fight was over. Now it was time for the interrogation.
Without a word, I stabbed the Otherworlder straight in the thigh.
Shunk-!
"Guhk...!"
Their face contorted sharply. They might have set their Assimilation Rate to the minimum, but that didn't make all pain vanish.
I looked at them and said,
"So... shall we have a little chat? I heard something about a bounty earlier. What's that all about?"
"Ugh... nghh, there's money on your head... sir."
I'd stabbed first to loosen their tongue before they could decide to withhold info, and they started talking sooner than I expected.
With some awkward formal speech mixed in.
They told me:
Sometime yesterday, they checked the Adventurer's Guild bulletin board and saw a bounty request had been posted on my head.
The knights probably couldn't move themselves, so they were throwing money out to try and catch me.
After hearing that much, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked them,
"You came all the way here for that money? With just these two in tow?"
"I-I'm sorry. The money on the line was so huge, I guess I got blinded for a moment..."
"How much exactly was on it?"
"Well, it's about 5 million gold..."
"5 million?! That much?"
My mouth fell open for a second. 5 million gold was an enormous sum.
You could live long-term in an inn room for years and still have plenty left over.
Same when you converted it to Otherworlder money. From what Chae-rin told me, the exchange rate was roughly 1 gold to 10 won.
Meaning, my head was suddenly worth about 50 million won in their terms.
'The hell...'
The moment I processed that, I let out a curse under my breath.
It really was enough to make someone's eyes roll back and come after me. I frowned.
Of all times, this had to happen right after I got back home...
Then again, two months had already passed since Dantalion blew my cover. If anything, it was more strange that there'd been no repercussions until now.
As I was running along that train of thought alone, the Otherworlder I had pinned down spoke up.
"Um... more importantly, do you think you could spare me? I'm carrying so many items right now... if I die, it's a real disaster."
I scowled hard the moment I heard that.
It was a familiar disgust for Otherworlders I hadn't felt in a while. They came after my life, and what? They just don't want to lose some items?
Come to think of it, this one hadn't shown a single trace of sorrow even after the adventurers they brought died.
Not that they had any real bond, but their attitude toward people was rotten.
Well, of course. To them, this place was just a game. Didn't matter who lived or died.
I felt it viscerally: to them, I wasn't a human being but an NPC.
Thanks to that, I could deal with them without hesitation.
Their Assimilation Rate was lowered anyway, so they wouldn't feel much pain—while I made them suffer just a little.
"Gaaagh...!"
Just like that, they scattered into particles of light and vanished, leaving only the items they'd dropped starkly behind.
It was a hammer that looked pretty expensive. I clicked my tongue, looking at it.
'Would've been nice if they'd dropped Holy Water, at least...'
I'd asked them about the Holy Water too before dealing with them:
How the hell they'd gotten their hands on something so precious in this Holy Water drought.
But the answer I got was nothing but disappointing. They'd bought one out of curiosity ages ago and only just now used it.
"Tch."
In the end, the Holy Water I craved so desperately still eluded me.
If I'd known, I should have scraped the spilled Holy Water off the ground with my hands.
'When the hell was that bastard Dantalion going to croak...'
At the very least, that bastard had to disappear before the Holy Water supply could flow again.
I was lost in all sorts of thoughts by myself when it happened.
Suddenly, a familiar person came running from the far side of the forest.
"Yor, huge trouble! Huge...!"
It was Yoo Chae-rin. She spotted me and rushed over, breathless.
"Right now, there's a bounty on Yor's—...huh?"
But only for a moment. She froze solid the second she saw the two corpses lying cold at my sides.
I looked at her and said lightly,
"That there's a 5-million-gold bounty on my head? I know."
Though I'd really rather not have found out this way.
*
It didn't take long to calm the startled girl down.
That was because I, the one with the bounty on my head, was perfectly composed.
'I felt like I'd become a character out of One P—ce...'
Composed enough to even have trivial thoughts like that.
I guessed 5 million beri made me small fry. Still a long way to go.
Anyway, I'd fled the Empire as a kid and even had a composite sketch made of me before.
This much, I'd already been expecting.
Of course, that didn't mean I felt zero sense of danger.
"What are you going to do from now on?"
Chae-rin asked once we'd cleaned up the bodies.
"Well... for now, I'll just carry on as I am."
Honestly, what I had to do hadn't changed.
Live my ordinary daily life, and deal with any intruders who came.
I'd already prepared pretty much everything I reasonably could. I'd secured a shelter to flee to, and I'd bored an escape tunnel in the cave.
The only thing I could do beyond that was lay traps around the house...
It was frustrating, but nothing could be done. I couldn't just charge recklessly into the Deep Layer.
Still, I was confident. Confident I could handle most bastards who came charging in without much trouble.
Except for one concern...
'I was way, way too short on Holy Water...'
It wasn't just because Berserk hurt.
What if someone invaded the day after Berserk A broke out?
Or if pursuers came following the scent of blood?
Then things could truly go to hell. Spare Holy Water was essential, if only to avoid that scenario.
Sure, taking Holy Water would still sap my strength, but at least my mind would be clear.
But I couldn't get any because of that goddamn bastard Dantalion.
"Hoo..."
I let out a sigh and said to Chae-rin,
"For now, bring me any Holy Water you see at the market, no matter what. I don't care how expensive it is."
"Haah, I want to, but none has been showing up at all..."
With those words, she headed back out of the forest.
... And most fortunately, an opportunity to get Holy Water came to me not long after.
In a pretty unexpected way, at that.
Several days later, another uninvited guest showed up at my cave.
"Well, well. Finally met you."
Though this was a slightly peculiar uninvited guest.
She was tall for a woman, around 170 centimeters, with very long, straight violet hair.
Compared to her slim figure, her expression was somewhat fierce, making her seem a little strong-willed.
Overall, she was a flashy woman.
But all that was ultimately just superficial appearance.
The most peculiar thing was that my opponent had come alone.
She was an Otherworlder, no less, and had a stream running right beside her.
I immediately activated 'Player's Eye' and checked the chat first.
[Whoa it's Yor!]
[Whoa 50 million won!]
[Han-byeol, you look like you're about to get wrecked anyway, do you really have to fight?]
[Leave her, she's been getting her ass kissed everywhere lately so she's been full of herself]
[Damn talent-hacker for real]
[Please T_T be careful not to get hurt T_T]
[Our sis will definitely win! Hurry up and take down that demon henchman or whatever!]
[Ugh I seriously wanna beat the crap out of these star-crazed dogs;;]
She must have been a pretty popular streamer, because the chat window's firepower was no joke.
Since she'd come here, her goal was clear.
First, I had to greet the guest. I gripped my spear and said to her,
"You here for my head too? Though your numbers are awfully shabby for that."
"Hah, taking all kinds of talk from an NPC. You worry about yourself. I came plenty prepared."
Then my opponent drew her weapons. Two enormous curved sabers, one in each hand.
Ready to charge, she grinned and continued,
"Let's see now... Holy Water works wonders on Manifestors, right? Better stay nervous. I've got quite a lot of it."
At those words, I smiled back brightly.
"Oh, yeah?"