Chapter 73: Ghost Busters (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 73: Ghost Busters (2)
Inside a quiet office, a man was sipping tea and muttering to himself. "Little Balkan, huh?"
It was the first tempting rumor in a while. After all, how many adventurers had earned an epithet in just three months? No more than three since he took on this job.
"Interesting." Even the information on his essences, which had been corroborated by the guild, was fascinating. Normally, adventurers started with a rank-nine essence and slowly worked their way up. But this man? A corpse golem, a vampire, and this time even the essence of an Orc Hero. "This can't be explained by luck alone."
It was like he was using a cheat code. If you looked back on history, you would be able to find quite a few people who had walked similar paths. There were definitely people born into this world with special fates, talents, and luck.
"I wonder which one this guy is..."
Most of these people went on to be chronicled and praised as heroes or great names in history. So what about this barbarian? Seeing his achievements so far, the possibility definitely existed. Of course, he'd have to prove he had a basic foundation first.
"I'll have to look into this before he gets any cleverer."
This matter would have to be dealt with more carefully and cautiously than usual.
***
As soon as I opened the door to the standard upscale pub, Hikurod (on a seat made for dwarves) and Dwalkie greeted us warmly. "Oh, you're here! Come sit! Hahaha!"
"I'm really glad that both of you are safe."
I sat across from Missha, who had come with me. "What about Rotmiller?"
"He's not here yet. But he should be soon."
As it happened, after we ordered food and chatted for a while, Brown arrived at 8 p.m. Was it some kind of curse of his occupation to arrive right on time? "Bjorn, Miss Karlstein. I'm glad you're safe."
"No! I'm glad you're all right too, Rotmiller. I heard you were injurrred running away..."
"Ha... I feel that because of that, I've wronged you. If I hadn't gotten injured, then we wouldn't have had to leave y—"
I stopped him there, knowing that if I didn't, there would be no end to this pity party. "Why don't you sit down first? The food is here."
"...All right."
As soon as Brown was seated, the whole party was officially gathered in one place for the first time in a while. It was a miracle that, despite the party being separated in the labyrinth, all of us had come back alive.
"The gods must be looking out for us." The real conversation began with those bold words from Brown. The main topic of discussion was, of course, updates.
"So, Hikurod, what happened to you guys?"
"Oh, you mean back then?" In response to my question, the dwarf explained what happened in the labyrinth step-by-step in chronological order. Brown had apparently been taken down in a surprise attack as soon as they got separated from us. However, with a decisive counterattack, they succeeded in escaping by taking out the scout on the other side. The beginning wasn't much different from the story I'd heard in the hut, but since Hikurod was the teller, I was now able to hear the details.
"Then I used Emergency Restoration to use the Guardian's Wrist Guard once more and buy us time."
So that was the combo he went with.
"Wow, I didn't know you could link numbered items with abilities like that."
"Hahaha, I would've been none the wiser too. This is all wisdom that was passed down by my ancestors."
Emergency Restoration didn't repair equipment, but was a skill that returned equipment to the state it was in five minutes ago. A Numbered Item was no exception, although there was the downside that it consumed more MP than usual.
The wisdom of his ancestors...
It seemed that, as important as numbered items were to the dwarves, related information also got passed down. Anyway, to summarize the rest of the story, it went like this:
"First, we ran away, then we treated Brown. Then we tried looking for you too, but..."
Because of the distance between us, Brown's scouting abilities were unable to detect us. Still, they did not give up and continued wandering the Witch's Forest. But on the third day, they ran into Elisa.
"What? You rrran into that woman again?!"
"That's right. I don't know what kind of tricks she used, but she chased us through the forest relentlessly."
"And? So what did you do?"
"Hahaha, what could we do? We ran away!"
They shook Elisa off their tail and had no choice but to go through the portal and up to the fourth floor, and that was the end of that. The Tower of Heavens on the fourth floor had a stage-type format. After somehow finishing the first stage, they chose to stay put until the labyrinth closed, judging that if a rank-six monster appeared next, they might get annihilated.
"It was quite difficult to kill time for more than ten days, but... Still, I was able to hold on thanks to Rotmiller and Dwalkie."
Difficult, my ass. We should be the ones saying that.
Ha... and after that, they claimed they were tired and went to bed?
For some reason, my stomach was hurting again. Resting while we were working our asses off... fine. But...
"Oh, by the way, I didn't mention this. Miraculously, an essence came out during our first battle."
"An essence... came out, huh?"
Was this a fucking game? The essence that had refused to appear despite our hopes and despite countless battles with monsters in the Witch's Forest just so happened to pop up there? And it was the essence of a rank-seven monster, Mimic—a rare monster famous for dropping at least a mid-rank essence—at that.
"Once Rotmiller absorbed it, he opened the Treasure Vault."
Treasure Vault was Mimic's active skill. It was not a combat-type ability, but it could open a personal storage dimension when used.
"And? What came out?"
The key here was that when Treasure Vault was activated for the first time, various items were randomly placed inside it. If you were unlucky, you might end up with just a few high-ranking potions. I really hoped that was the case for them.
"It contained about two million stones' worth of mana stones, three high-rank potions, and two Numbered Items."
"Holy shit."
"...Why are you swearing all of a sudden?"
"I'm sorry, I'm just surprised." I continued to feel vomit coming up my throat, but I pushed it down and asked, "So what are the numbered items?"
"Unfortunately, one was in the 8000s and the other was in the 9000s."
That still meant they had earned more than ten million stones. Of course, since the two of us weren't there, they'd split that in three. Why was this dwarf bastard so lucky?
Emergency Restoration didn't repair equipment, but was a skill that returned equipment to the state it was in five minutes ago. A Numbered Item was no exception, although there was the downside that it consumed more MP than usual.
The wisdom of his ancestors...
It seemed that, as important as numbered items were to the dwarves, related information also got passed down. Anyway, to summarize the rest of the story, it went like this:
"First, we ran away, then we treated Brown. Then we tried looking for you too, but..."
Because of the distance between us, Brown's scouting abilities were unable to detect us. Still, they did not give up and continued wandering the Witch's Forest. But on the third day, they ran into Elisa.
"What? You rrran into that woman again?!"
"That's right. I don't know what kind of tricks she used, but she chased us through the forest relentlessly."
"And? So what did you do?"
"Hahaha, what could we do? We ran away!"
They shook Elisa off their tail and had no choice but to go through the portal and up to the fourth floor, and that was the end of that. The Tower of Heavens on the fourth floor had a stage-type format. After somehow finishing the first stage, they chose to stay put until the labyrinth closed, judging that if a rank-six monster appeared next, they might get annihilated.
"It was quite difficult to kill time for more than ten days, but... Still, I was able to hold on thanks to Rotmiller and Dwalkie."
Difficult, my ass. We should be the ones saying that.
Ha... and after that, they claimed they were tired and went to bed?
For some reason, my stomach was hurting again. Resting while we were working our asses off... fine. But...
"Oh, by the way, I didn't mention this. Miraculously, an essence came out during our first battle."
"An essence... came out, huh?"
Was this a fucking game? The essence that had refused to appear despite our hopes and despite countless battles with monsters in the Witch's Forest just so happened to pop up there? And it was the essence of a rank-seven monster, Mimic—a rare monster famous for dropping at least a mid-rank essence—at that.
"Once Rotmiller absorbed it, he opened the Treasure Vault."
Treasure Vault was Mimic's active skill. It was not a combat-type ability, but it could open a personal storage dimension when used.
"And? What came out?"
The key here was that when Treasure Vault was activated for the first time, various items were randomly placed inside it. If you were unlucky, you might end up with just a few high-ranking potions. I really hoped that was the case for them.
"It contained about two million stones' worth of mana stones, three high-rank potions, and two Numbered Items."
"Holy shit."
"...Why are you swearing all of a sudden?"
"I'm sorry, I'm just surprised." I continued to feel vomit coming up my throat, but I pushed it down and asked, "So what are the numbered items?"
"Unfortunately, one was in the 8000s and the other was in the 9000s."
That still meant they had earned more than ten million stones. Of course, since the two of us weren't there, they'd split that in three. Why was this dwarf bastard so lucky?
"It turned out that we didn't really need them, so we decided to sell them. Rotmiller, who absorbed the essence, decided to subtract that amount from the standard price of the essence according to the guild."
"I see... Congratulations..." Brown had a new essence, and Hikurod and Dwalkie had hit the jackpot. Maybe that was why I was able to smile and say congratulations out loud, but...
Crack!
The spoon I was holding bent in half.
"B-Bjorn? Why are you suddenly destrrroying a spoon?!"
"I couldn't control my strength because of the Orc Hero's essence."
"Huh? That's never happened before!"
That was because nothing like this had happened before. These damned freeloaders...
Having heard the dwarf's side of the story, it was now our turn. "Actually, we are more curious about what happened on your end. I heard some rumors about it yesterday, but... What exactly happened to you?" Hikurod asked.
If I left the explanation to Missha, she might end up blurting out the wrong thing, so I provided a short summary. Life after being left behind. Missha's "accidental" awakening.
"Miss Karlstein, congratulations. That must've weighed on your heart for so long..."
"No. I didn't do anything, it was all thanks to Bjorrrn."
"...To Bjorn?"
"Ah, no! I mean, without Bjorn, I wouldn't have come back alive!"
There were times when the story got confusing, too. Like how we ran into the three religious freaks in the hut, and when we came out of the hut, the Lord of the Floor was wandering around for some reason. As the dynamic story (unlike the one told by the people who had killed time on the fourth floor) continued, the three of them listened intently.
"Ha, you were really smart to think of going to the Orc Colony."
"If it were me, I wouldn't even have had time to think of the Dzarwi Clan."
"And? What happened after that?"
Their sincere reactions implored me to tell the rest. However, rather than exaggerating and inflating it, I continued the story from an objective point of view, with some exceptions.
"Huh, you mean they asked for a protection fee in a situation like that?"
"The two of you paid two million stones... I'm so ashamed. Hey, Rotmiller, Dwalkie, why don't we pool some money together for them?"
"Good idea. We can't pretend we aren't responsible for what happened."
I guess we sounded a bit pitiful after that. At the mention of the protection fee, some destroyed equipment, and five hundred thousand stones spent on repairs, the three of them gathered one million stones in total. To be honest, I didn't know how to react. "...Are you really giving this to us?"
"Of course. We made all that money—you don't think we can at least give you this much?"
What was this? Could it be that he was not a dwarf but a god? "Hikurod, you are truly a great leader..."
"Hahaha, thanks for the compliment. But tell us the rest."
"Okay." Scolding myself for denouncing such a wonderful dwarf as a freeloader, I decided to continue the rest of the story with more sincerity.
"Ha, do you mean that the Lord of the Floor actually showed up?"
I told them about the Lord of Chaos appearing with five hours remaining.
"It turned out that we didn't really need them, so we decided to sell them. Rotmiller, who absorbed the essence, decided to subtract that amount from the standard price of the essence according to the guild."
"I see... Congratulations..." Brown had a new essence, and Hikurod and Dwalkie had hit the jackpot. Maybe that was why I was able to smile and say congratulations out loud, but...
Crack!
The spoon I was holding bent in half.
"B-Bjorn? Why are you suddenly destrrroying a spoon?!"
"I couldn't control my strength because of the Orc Hero's essence."
"Huh? That's never happened before!"
That was because nothing like this had happened before. These damned freeloaders...
Having heard the dwarf's side of the story, it was now our turn. "Actually, we are more curious about what happened on your end. I heard some rumors about it yesterday, but... What exactly happened to you?" Hikurod asked.
If I left the explanation to Missha, she might end up blurting out the wrong thing, so I provided a short summary. Life after being left behind. Missha's "accidental" awakening.
"Miss Karlstein, congratulations. That must've weighed on your heart for so long..."
"No. I didn't do anything, it was all thanks to Bjorrrn."
"...To Bjorn?"
"Ah, no! I mean, without Bjorn, I wouldn't have come back alive!"
There were times when the story got confusing, too. Like how we ran into the three religious freaks in the hut, and when we came out of the hut, the Lord of the Floor was wandering around for some reason. As the dynamic story (unlike the one told by the people who had killed time on the fourth floor) continued, the three of them listened intently.
"Ha, you were really smart to think of going to the Orc Colony."
"If it were me, I wouldn't even have had time to think of the Dzarwi Clan."
"And? What happened after that?"
Their sincere reactions implored me to tell the rest. However, rather than exaggerating and inflating it, I continued the story from an objective point of view, with some exceptions.
"Huh, you mean they asked for a protection fee in a situation like that?"
"The two of you paid two million stones... I'm so ashamed. Hey, Rotmiller, Dwalkie, why don't we pool some money together for them?"
"Good idea. We can't pretend we aren't responsible for what happened."
I guess we sounded a bit pitiful after that. At the mention of the protection fee, some destroyed equipment, and five hundred thousand stones spent on repairs, the three of them gathered one million stones in total. To be honest, I didn't know how to react. "...Are you really giving this to us?"
"Of course. We made all that money—you don't think we can at least give you this much?"
What was this? Could it be that he was not a dwarf but a god? "Hikurod, you are truly a great leader..."
"Hahaha, thanks for the compliment. But tell us the rest."
"Okay." Scolding myself for denouncing such a wonderful dwarf as a freeloader, I decided to continue the rest of the story with more sincerity.
"Ha, do you mean that the Lord of the Floor actually showed up?"
I told them about the Lord of Chaos appearing with five hours remaining.
"To think they would blow through all those supplies... It makes sense why they collected a fee."
Then I told them about the battle to subdue the monster and the tremendous amount of resources it required, the infighting that broke out, and the Evil Hiatus getting triggered. After that, I mentioned the essence I negotiated from the Dzarwi, who lacked a tank, and our escape.
"I see. I was wondering what the rumors meant about the Essence of an Orc Hero, but I guess that's what they were talking about."
I even brought up having a vampire essence, but the dwarf was pretty generous about it.
"At first, I was reluctant to talk about my numbered item, too. We're fine, so there's no need to bow your head."
Bow my head? I was just looking at some food I had spilled on the ground by accident. But I didn't feel the need to correct him.
"Anyway, congratulations. You already have two rank-five essences. The foundation for becoming a top adventurer has been laid for you."
"...Thank you for saying that."
After that, the story ended with me calmly recounting our escape from Evil Hiatus and getting chased by the Lord of the Floor while carrying Missha. The three of them listened intently, and each expressed their admiration at the end.
"Hahaha, I knew right away that this fellow would one day do something great."
"Indeed! That was the most extraordinary story I have heard in recent years. It's a pity that I didn't get to be part of it!"
"Truly... With an achievement of this magnitude behind you, no one will dare take issue with calling you Little Balkan."
There was only one thing that caught my ear, something Rotmiller said. I cocked my head. "Wait, Little Balkan?"
"You haven't heard yet? It's your epithet!" the dwarf kindly explained.
Little Balkan. After the Free Barbarian, this was a new title.
Epithet...
However, I couldn't be sure whether this would have a positive effect in the future or the opposite.
***
[Your level has increased by +1.]
[Your Reputation has increased by +1.]
***
The day after the meeting, I met up with Hikurod early in the morning and visited the guild to report Elisa Behenk.
"...A priestess of Karui?"
Since this wasn't a common occurrence, the staff who received our report could not hide their bewilderment. However, their complexions changed when I submitted my five-star ID card and the video recorder that Hikurod had worn on his head throughout the expedition as evidence.
"This... I don't think this is something that I can resolve on my own. Could you please wait a moment?"
We were immediately called to the branch manager's office, and there we explained what had happened. As a result, the news spread to the temple. Elisa was excommunicated from the Church of Reatlas, and immediately became a most-wanted fugitive.
"The checkpoint records indicate that the villain has returned to the city, so we will be able to catch her soon."
The guild and temple representatives spoke confidently, but for some reason, it didn't seem to me like the bitch would be so easily caught. I didn't have evidence, but I had a feeling.
I don't know if it's a good idea to leave it like this.
Therefore, I decided to keep checking in for updates about Elisa later and closed this case. Right now, there was nothing more we could do. We even received an unexpected reward.
"Hahaha! Anyway, this was a surprising profit."
"Rewards always follow justice."
We were given about three million stones by the temple in exchange for providing key evidence. Well, it'd have to be divided by five, but that wasn't bad. This amount of luck was fine to take at face value. Any more than this would start to scare me.
"Whew, there was a lot to testify, so it took longer than I thought. Let's leave now. Everyone will be waiting."
After finishing our report on Elisa, we headed to the rendezvous point. The final distribution of loot was completed after a brief discussion.
"Let's just divide everything we got before we split up into five equal parts. Anything we got after we separated can be negotiated on either end."
We split up the equipment and consumables from Elisa's faithful servants, Hans, and the mana stones we had earned up to day four, by the number of people in the party. Having anticipated this, I had paid the protection fee with only the equipment from the religious freaks, so the calculations shouldn't be too complicated.
Oh, shoes.
I remembered Hans's boots, which later got blown up by a landmine, but I decided to just stay quiet. Not only would it be annoying to redo the math, but I used up all their holy water and potions anyway.
"Dwalkie?"
"I-I'm calculating. Ah! We get a share of 1.22 million stones per person!"
For Missha and I, that was a total of 2.44 million stones, plus 1.2 million stones from the reward given by the temple and the 1 million stones that the three others gave us as aid. The amount we got from selling the three religious freaks' expandable backpack and the equipment that remained after paying the protection fee was 3.11 million. And we had earned eight hundred thousand mana stones after fifteen days of work. Simply put... that was a total of 8.55 million stones. And if I had split this with Missha, my profit from this quest would have been 4.27 million stones.
If it hadn't been for that promise.
"Ugh..."
As you could tell just by looking at Missha's regret-filled eyes, all of this profit was mine. That had been the deal. Well, I had mostly accepted her offer to ease her guilty conscience at the time, but...
I should keep and manage the money myself.
Missha was now my main comrade. All essences, wearable equipment, and overall training techniques would go through me now. Of course, a lot of money would go into them as well.
In that sense, if I subtract three hundred thousand stones for the cost of repairing my equipment and Missha's, plus the cost of my treatment...
The net profit from this expedition could be calculated as 7.65 million stones. Even taking into account the damaged boots in the labyrinth, the lost mace, et cetera, it was a ridiculous gain. Including all the pluses and minuses, it was still an amount that far exceeded what you could earn from simply hunting monsters.
Though it's not a lot if you consider the amount of money I will be spending in the future as well.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Missha.
"Never mind. Finish your food."
Things had changed. After the vampire essence, I absorbed the essence of the Orc Hero, which I thought could only be obtained later on. Also, I had found a comrade who could grow stronger with me.
I'll have to start with that when I get back.
Therefore, it was necessary to reevaluate the plan.
"To think they would blow through all those supplies... It makes sense why they collected a fee."
Then I told them about the battle to subdue the monster and the tremendous amount of resources it required, the infighting that broke out, and the Evil Hiatus getting triggered. After that, I mentioned the essence I negotiated from the Dzarwi, who lacked a tank, and our escape.
"I see. I was wondering what the rumors meant about the Essence of an Orc Hero, but I guess that's what they were talking about."
I even brought up having a vampire essence, but the dwarf was pretty generous about it.
"At first, I was reluctant to talk about my numbered item, too. We're fine, so there's no need to bow your head."
Bow my head? I was just looking at some food I had spilled on the ground by accident. But I didn't feel the need to correct him.
"Anyway, congratulations. You already have two rank-five essences. The foundation for becoming a top adventurer has been laid for you."
"...Thank you for saying that."
After that, the story ended with me calmly recounting our escape from Evil Hiatus and getting chased by the Lord of the Floor while carrying Missha. The three of them listened intently, and each expressed their admiration at the end.
"Hahaha, I knew right away that this fellow would one day do something great."
"Indeed! That was the most extraordinary story I have heard in recent years. It's a pity that I didn't get to be part of it!"
"Truly... With an achievement of this magnitude behind you, no one will dare take issue with calling you Little Balkan."
There was only one thing that caught my ear, something Rotmiller said. I cocked my head. "Wait, Little Balkan?"
"You haven't heard yet? It's your epithet!" the dwarf kindly explained.
Little Balkan. After the Free Barbarian, this was a new title.
Epithet...
However, I couldn't be sure whether this would have a positive effect in the future or the opposite.
***
[Your level has increased by +1.]
[Your Reputation has increased by +1.]
***
The day after the meeting, I met up with Hikurod early in the morning and visited the guild to report Elisa Behenk.
"...A priestess of Karui?"
Since this wasn't a common occurrence, the staff who received our report could not hide their bewilderment. However, their complexions changed when I submitted my five-star ID card and the video recorder that Hikurod had worn on his head throughout the expedition as evidence.
"This... I don't think this is something that I can resolve on my own. Could you please wait a moment?"
We were immediately called to the branch manager's office, and there we explained what had happened. As a result, the news spread to the temple. Elisa was excommunicated from the Church of Reatlas, and immediately became a most-wanted fugitive.
"The checkpoint records indicate that the villain has returned to the city, so we will be able to catch her soon."
The guild and temple representatives spoke confidently, but for some reason, it didn't seem to me like the bitch would be so easily caught. I didn't have evidence, but I had a feeling.
I don't know if it's a good idea to leave it like this.
Therefore, I decided to keep checking in for updates about Elisa later and closed this case. Right now, there was nothing more we could do. We even received an unexpected reward.
"Hahaha! Anyway, this was a surprising profit."
"Rewards always follow justice."
We were given about three million stones by the temple in exchange for providing key evidence. Well, it'd have to be divided by five, but that wasn't bad. This amount of luck was fine to take at face value. Any more than this would start to scare me.
"Whew, there was a lot to testify, so it took longer than I thought. Let's leave now. Everyone will be waiting."
After finishing our report on Elisa, we headed to the rendezvous point. The final distribution of loot was completed after a brief discussion.
"Let's just divide everything we got before we split up into five equal parts. Anything we got after we separated can be negotiated on either end."
We split up the equipment and consumables from Elisa's faithful servants, Hans, and the mana stones we had earned up to day four, by the number of people in the party. Having anticipated this, I had paid the protection fee with only the equipment from the religious freaks, so the calculations shouldn't be too complicated.
Oh, shoes.
I remembered Hans's boots, which later got blown up by a landmine, but I decided to just stay quiet. Not only would it be annoying to redo the math, but I used up all their holy water and potions anyway.
"Dwalkie?"
"I-I'm calculating. Ah! We get a share of 1.22 million stones per person!"
For Missha and I, that was a total of 2.44 million stones, plus 1.2 million stones from the reward given by the temple and the 1 million stones that the three others gave us as aid. The amount we got from selling the three religious freaks' expandable backpack and the equipment that remained after paying the protection fee was 3.11 million. And we had earned eight hundred thousand mana stones after fifteen days of work. Simply put... that was a total of 8.55 million stones. And if I had split this with Missha, my profit from this quest would have been 4.27 million stones.
If it hadn't been for that promise.
"Ugh..."
As you could tell just by looking at Missha's regret-filled eyes, all of this profit was mine. That had been the deal. Well, I had mostly accepted her offer to ease her guilty conscience at the time, but...
I should keep and manage the money myself.
Missha was now my main comrade. All essences, wearable equipment, and overall training techniques would go through me now. Of course, a lot of money would go into them as well.
In that sense, if I subtract three hundred thousand stones for the cost of repairing my equipment and Missha's, plus the cost of my treatment...
The net profit from this expedition could be calculated as 7.65 million stones. Even taking into account the damaged boots in the labyrinth, the lost mace, et cetera, it was a ridiculous gain. Including all the pluses and minuses, it was still an amount that far exceeded what you could earn from simply hunting monsters.
Though it's not a lot if you consider the amount of money I will be spending in the future as well.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Missha.
"Never mind. Finish your food."
Things had changed. After the vampire essence, I absorbed the essence of the Orc Hero, which I thought could only be obtained later on. Also, I had found a comrade who could grow stronger with me.
I'll have to start with that when I get back.
Therefore, it was necessary to reevaluate the plan.