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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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I led Annelise and joined my companions.
“The orcs…”
“They’re fine.”
Some of them tried to flee, but they were disorganized, perhaps because they had lost their leader.
Chaos reigned within the village.
They were even fighting amongst themselves.
It completely stopped moving.
Judging from the severed connection, it seemed beyond repair.
I told Kayla and the others to rest, and ordered the undead to destroy the village.
There were no issues since the undead didn’t tire.
Cereo, despite losing his excessive aggression with the Basilisk’s death, let out a silent scream and obeyed my new command.
As per my instructions, my elite undead were tearing down the village.
Once they had left…
“This is a bit of a strange question, but…”
Kayla spoke cautiously.
“The Elite Living Armor that became a high-level undead…”
“Is Cereo’s soul possessing it?”
Annelise’s eyes darted towards me at Kayla’s words.
“How did you know?”
“His swordsmanship and movements were similar. Is it true?”
“Yes. It seems a fragment of Cereo’s memories remains. The other three are just empty shells.”
Annelise’s expression crumbled at my answer.
I knew there was a chance she would recognize him.
Athena praised Kayla as a genius, but honestly, I couldn’t really tell the difference between Kayla’s talent and Athena’s, as they were both extraordinary.
Therefore, I had anticipated that appearance wasn’t everything.
Besides, Kayla already knew that I had collected their souls.
She must have asked to confirm her suspicions.
‘Well, it wouldn’t have been exactly Cereo’s technique.’
Just like how No. 1 and No. 2 inherited a portion of my experience, the same went for Cereo and since his physique was different now, his combat techniques would have been subtly different from what he used when he was alive.
However, Annelise hadn’t properly observed their battle, and she wasn’t fully aware that I had turned their souls into Soul Shadows, so she seemed to be in shock.
‘Well, she just found out that her former companions didn’t find peace even in death.’
Or perhaps she was shocked to realize that even death wasn’t an escape from me.
Even the ultimate choice of death couldn’t free her from my grasp.
Meanwhile, the undead under my command, led by the Bone Golem, had completely subjugated the orc village.
There were no survivors.
We took a short break and headed inside the village.
There was no need to confirm their deaths.
The undead could sense the presence of living beings, and playing dead wouldn’t work.
‘Unless they could completely conceal their presence…’
There was no way an orc with such abilities existed in a place like this.
I pretended to stumble upon the dungeon while exploring the village, and Athena, Kayla, and Baldur gave me knowing smiles.
They seemed to think I had known all along, and they were right, so they didn’t say anything, knowing I wouldn’t tell them.
The dungeon was created by a mage long ago.
It had been hundreds of years, but he must have been quite successful in his time, as the interior was filled with various traps that were still active.
I turned the surrounding orc corpses into zombies and had them charge into the dungeon, clearing the traps in a brute-force manner.
The research journal was half-destroyed by time, and its contents didn’t seem particularly valuable.
‘But mages would go crazy for it.’
Since it wasn’t related to black magic, I planned to sell it.
As it was the research journal of a successful mage, I should be able to get at least 10 gold for it.
If it were intact, I could have gotten a much higher price, but it was too damaged.
You could say the rewards were less than expected, but it wasn’t a complete waste.
“Oh… Inha! Look at this!”
Athena brought me a pouch filled with various gems.
“There’s gold too!”
Gold and gems.
Their value didn’t diminish over time.
I had thought it was just an ordinary dungeon, but I realized once again that rumors weren’t reliable.
‘The Minotaur case was the same…’
Much information had been lost or hidden, and only fragments remained as rumors.
I learned that even if the basis was true, rumors shouldn’t be trusted.
“…We’ll sell the gold and keep the gems.”
“How much do you think they’re worth?”
“The gems… depending on their condition, they should be worth at least 20 gold each.”
There were about 20 gems, so it would be at least 400 gold.
It was an enormous sum.
‘I never thought we would earn this much…?’
The gold was the same.
It was a lump large enough to fetch at least 200 gold.
‘It doesn’t hurt to have a lot of money…’
The reason I wasn’t selling the gems was simple.
They were easily convertible, portable due to their small size, and they could be used to cast a few non-black magic spells.
‘Well, I probably won’t need to use them at my current level.’
It took us about four days to completely loot the dungeon.
We didn’t have to rush thanks to the ample time we had given ourselves, and although we used brute force with the zombies, we had to be cautious as we didn’t know what dangers the dungeon might hold.
We returned with light steps, satisfied with the loot.
Honestly, even the research journal alone wasn’t a bad reward.
10 gold wasn’t a small amount, and although I had earned tens of gold by capturing orcs in the past, it wasn’t usually easy to make that much money.
‘This orc subjugation request was only worth 5 gold.’
Earning double the reward as a side income wasn’t bad.
My goal was the side income, and considering our current level, it wasn’t a lot of money.
If this was all we had gotten, I would have been slightly disappointed.
‘There were no artifacts either.’
However, there was one person who wasn’t feeling so good.
Annelise.
She barely spoke during the four days we explored the dungeon.
She followed my instructions without any problems, but she seemed lost in thought.
Even Athena, seeing her completely dejected state, refrained from bothering her as much as usual.
And although only I knew about it, Annelise had even spoken to Cereo.
Naturally, there was no response.
Cereo’s mind reacted to her voice, but as he was currently under my control, he couldn’t show any reaction outwardly.
Annelise was further disheartened by his lack of response, leading to her current state.
Honestly, I was quite happy with her current state.
She had lost her will to live, spending her days doing chores.
This was the most convenient situation for me.
When we returned to the Mercenary Guild and reported the completion of the request, Servisso responded with surprise.
“Already…?”
“They were stronger than what was stated on the request form. There were over thirty orcs who could manipulate mana. And… a Basilisk even appeared.”
“…A Basilisk?”
Servisso seemed unable to keep up with the story.
Well, it was understandable.
We had returned less than a week after departing for the orc subjugation, including travel time, claiming to have completed the request.
We said that the orcs were much stronger than the information stated, and on top of that, we had even captured a high-level monster, a Basilisk.
And I hadn’t even mentioned the dungeon yet.
‘We’ll have to reveal it if we want to explain the source of the gold.’
And I had to sell the research journal too.
It was inevitable.
“We brought the Basilisk’s corpse, so you can confirm it.”
We had brought it using the Bone Golem.
It took a bit longer, but not by much.
We had arrived right away, but it had been chaotic at the entrance.
Just then, someone barged into the guild.
“Inha! Where is Inha!”
A familiar voice.
I turned my head, and there stood Otriokar.
“Oh! Inha. How have you been?”
‘Inha?’
I couldn’t help but feel strange about the unusual way he addressed me.
He used to call me “you”…
‘Ah.’
I understood the reason behind his change in address.
Unlike before, I was now a 5th class mage, on the same level as him.
In the world of mages, my status had significantly increased and with the Mercenary Guild’s guarantee, I even had a background now.
I was now someone worth befriending, unlike before.
‘We became acquainted in the past when I brought him a live troll.’
It had been a profitable deal.
I could guess why he had personally come all the way here from the magic tower.
‘He must have heard about the Basilisk.’
It seemed the news had spread quickly since it was a hot topic.
“It’s been a while, Master Otriokar.”
“Haha. Indeed. I’ve been hearing about you through rumors. You broke through, right? To reach the same level as me, 5th class, at such a young age… You’re truly remarkable.”
“Haha. It’s all thanks to you.”
Servisso seemed a bit flustered by Otriokar interrupting our settlement.
He couldn’t really say anything to the branch manager of the magic tower, so he just stood there awkwardly.
I gestured for Kayla to handle the settlement and dealt with Otriokar.
“But what brings you here?”
“Haha. You already know, don’t you? I heard you subjugated a Basilisk.”
“Ah, that’s what you’re here for. Well… its condition isn’t very good.”
“Who cares about its condition? The fact that you defeated a high-level monster is remarkable in itself.”
High-level monsters weren’t particularly rare.
However, the places they inhabited were often dangerous, and unless they were causing harm, people rarely went out of their way to subjugate them.
The reason was simple, the risk of losing valuable resources.
Therefore, high-level monster corpses were quite valuable.
Especially for someone like Otriokar, who was affiliated with a branch of the magic tower, it was almost impossible to directly obtain high-level monster corpses.
‘They usually go to the main tower.’
So it seemed he didn’t want to miss this opportunity.
Otriokar asked with a slightly urgent expression.
“You’re not planning on selling it elsewhere, are you?”
“Why would I? I’ll give you a good price.”
He couldn’t afford to be forceful.
The Mercenary Guild’s backing, my equal standing with him in terms of level, and the fact that I was a warlock all hindered him.
And I liked that.
Honestly, I could have been more assertive.
I had recently made a name for myself, but I was still just a warlock, a newcomer, and he was an established figure here.
There would be consequences, but I could have acted more forcefully if I wanted to.
However, perhaps because of our good relationship, he didn’t do that.
“Well, its condition is indeed poor, so the farther it travels, the more its quality will deteriorate. And considering how well you paid for the troll before…”
“Right! We’re friends, aren’t we?”
Our friendship amounted to me bringing him a troll and lowering my head slightly to avoid friction with the magic tower.
“This might be a bit rude to ask, but do you have the funds?”
“Don’t worry. The Doriem branch is quite well-funded since the main tower pays attention to it.”
He said that if it wasn’t enough, he could provide additional funds in exchange for a part of the corpse.
“Is that so? Then please take a look at this as well.”
I showed him the damaged research journal.
“A, a dungeon?”
It seemed Kayla had told Servisso about the dungeon.
“We discovered a dungeon recently. It’s a research journal written by a mage hundreds of years ago. It’s quite damaged…”
“A research journal?”
Otriokar’s eyes widened once more.
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[them wizards be greedy af]
