Proof-reader: Girondono
The two men started searching Ketan’s house, but they couldn’t find where the red marble was hidden in the end .
No, more precisely, they hadn’t predicted that there would be such thing as a secret hiding place . They had only carelessly looked at places like inside drawers and under beds .
“It’s not here . ”
“Yep . Not here . ”
After their search, the two men had gathered near the doorway and conversed while looking at Ketan’s corpse .
“What did I say? It’s not here . ”
“Okay, I got it . ”
“So where are we going now?”
“From here, the 3rd peak is closer than the 2nd peak, so let’s go to the 2nd peak first . ”
“Okay . By the way, are we going to get something out of doing all of this? Celta was a famous thief after all . ”
“I don’t know, but the guild master was the one who gave this quest . ”
“A lot of higher-level members left before because of that crazy bastard . It’s because of that . ”
And so, the two men left for the 3rd peak as they continued their conversation .
A few hours later .
“Eh? What?”
Another young man appeared in front of the ruined house .
* * *
Soo Hyuk, who had arrived at the centre of the 1st peak, looked up at the massive red tree towering over him .
‘Is this the tree…’
It was definitely the tree that Romian had talked about .
‘Then head south . ’
Soo Hyuk got hold his bearings and started walking south . Then a few minutes later, he stopped .
‘He does live here . ’
The reason he stopped walking was because he had spotted a house in the distance .
‘There’re a lot of monsters around here, so is it okay to be so obvious?’
Although there weren’t a lot, there were still orcs wandering around on the 1st peak . Nonetheless, the house was in full view to the surroundings, with no concealment what-so-ever .
‘Are there no orcs around here?’
Ketan seemed like someone who wasn’t wary of orcs . Wrapping up his thoughts, Soo Hyuk continued to trek towards the house .
“Eh, what?”
But when Soo Hyuk arrived in front of the house, he was startled at the scene before him .
“Why is the doorway broken?”
The house’s doorway had been smashed to bits, exposing its interior to the outside world .
“Did a monster attack?”
Soo Hyuk then cautiously approached the broken doorway and stepped inside the quiet house . What awaited him was an even bigger surprise .
‘A body?’
There was a dead body lying on the floorboards .
It was then .
[The quest ‘Romain’s First Request’ has been changed . ]
[The quest Romian’s Second Request’ has been changed . ]
Two notifications appeared in his vision after he noticed the corpse .
When Soo Hyuk read over the notifications, his eyes widened in surprised once again . Then he quickly opened his quest window to check the changes to his quest .
[Report with haste]
Ketan was murdered by someone . Previously predicting his fate, Ketan had wrote a letter beforehand . Find the letter and bring it back to Romian!
[Romian’s Letter: 0 / 1 ]
[Ketan’s Letter: 0 / 1 ]
[Quest Reward: Romian’s mission confirmation]
His ‘Romian’s First Request’ had been changed to ‘Report with haste’, and from the quest information Soo Hyuk realised that the corpse at his feet was Ketan .
‘Why…’
Why was he killed?
‘He looks like he was stabbed . ’
Blood had crusted around his stomach where his wound was, so it seemed like he was stabbed to death . Turning his eyes away from the blood, Soo Hyuk looked back at the changed quest .
‘Do I just have to report this to Romian?’
The reward for ‘Report with haste . ’, was Romian’s mission confirmation . It was the item he needed to complete this promotion mission . In other words, he just had to report this to Romian to be promoted to C-rank .
‘But it was originally a reward for the second request,’
Romian’s mission confirmation was originally a reward for the second request, but the second request hadn’t disappeared, it had merely changed . Then what was the reward for the second request now?
[The Lost Red Marble]
The red marble is hidden somewhere in Ketan’s house .
[Red Marble: 0 / 1 ]
[Quest Reward: Key to Phantom Celta’s Secret Cave]
‘Oh?’
Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but be flustered at the unexpected information .
‘Phantom Celta?’
It was because of the reward .
‘Celta is…’
Celta’s Secret Cave . Soo Hyuk opened the 4th section of the quest window and checked the special quest ‘Celta’s Inheritance’, which he had gotten from the library .
[Special Quest – Celta’s Inheritance]
Celta the Phantom, the thief without bloodstains, hid his entire wealth of stealings ina secret place . Find the secret place!
[Quest Reward: ??? ]
Soo Hyuk thought as he read over the quest .
‘Does Romian know something about this?’
He would be able to acquire the key to Celta’s Secret Cave if he found the red marble . That meant that the red marble was connected to Celta in some way, and Romian would also know something about Celta .
‘I should find it . ’
Soo Hyuk scanned the interior of the house . The red marble was in here somewhere, and he would obtain the key to Celta’s Secret Cave if he found it .
The secret place stated in ‘Celta’s Inheritance’, could have nothing to do with this key . After all, the secret cave might not be the secret place, but there was a high chance that they were related .
‘Okay . ’
Finally, he could see a clear path in this originally vague quest . Also, even if the red marble didn’t exist, he still had to find Ketan’s letter . So, Soo Hyuk started searching the house .
‘Eh?’
Not long after he started, Soo Hyuk stopped his movements .
‘Light?’
It was because there was a faint green light coming from a tiny crack on the wall . Drawn in by the light, Soo Hyuk approached the tiny crack .
Creak…
He had barely pressed against it, but the area around the crack was pushed inside the wall . Seeing this, Soo Hyuk pushed against the wall harder, then saw it .
‘Found it . ’
The red marble and the letter .
[You have acquired ‘Red Marble’ . ]
[You have acquired ‘Ketan’s Letter’ . ]
Soo Hyuk immediately stored them in his inventory and checked his quest . The quest ‘Report with Haste’ didn’t specify whether he had to deliver the letter to Romian, so he wasn’t surprised when he couldn’t see the ‘complete’ button on the quest . But, when he checked the ‘Lost Red Marble’, the ‘complete’ button was visible .
‘Looks like I don’t need to go to Romian to complete the second quest . ’
Soo Hyuk quickly pressed ‘complete’ with this thought .
[You have completed the quest ‘Lost Red Marble’ . ]
[You have acquired ‘Key to Phantom Celta’s Secret Cave’ . ]
Soo Hyuk checked the information for the key when he read the notifications .
[<Heroic> Key to Phantom Celta’s Secret Cave]
A key that can open Celta’s Secret Cave .
‘Hmm, it doesn’t say where the cave is . ’
He had hoped for the location of Celta’s Secret Cave, but a maybe was a maybe . There was no information or clues on the location .
‘I can’t just bring it up…’
There was a high chance that Romian would have some information on Celta, but with what had happened to Ketan, it didn’t seem like a good dead . If he did, he could leave a bad impression and Romian would also get suspicious .
‘Okay, I’ll casually ask while giving him the red marble . ’
Deciding on his strategy, Soo Hyuk opened his mouth .
“Archmage’s Subspace . ”
[Warping to Archmage’s Subspace . ]
Now, it was time to report to Romian .
[You have completed the quest ‘Report with Haste’ . ]
First, he gave the letter to Romian and finished his quest .
‘Now I just have to get the confirmation…’
Soo Hyuk was still waiting for Romian’s confirmation, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask, since Romian was reading Ketan’s Letter with crushing intensity .
‘I’ll just wait for him to finish reading . ’
Deciding to ask after Romian finishes reading the letter, Soo Hyuk patiently waited while staring at Romian .
Romian was completely silent as he read the letter . Meanwhile, his eyes were switching back and forth between blank absentmindedness, extreme focus and heavy sadness .
.
.
.
If you’re reading this letter, then that must mean I died somehow . Maybe from the cave’s traps or maybe from murder .
Murder was probably more likely . The red marble, the key to Celta’s cave . It’s too much for us to handle, a much bigger scale then our small world .
.
.
.
After finishing the letter, Romian looked up at Soo Hyuk . As they met eyes, he thought,
‘He’s not it . ’
Soo Hyuk wasn’t the one who killed Ketan . What did he know originally to kill Ketan? Also, if he had killed him, then he wouldn’t have brought this letter back .
‘Then who is it?’
Who killed Ketan? There weren’t many people that knew of Ketan’s hut on the 1st peak in the first place . There couldn’t be more than 10 people .
‘First, I have to notify them . ’
The 2nd peak, 5th peak and the 7th peak . He had comrades in those 3 peaks . Ketan was murdered, and it was possible that the murderer wouldn’t end there . His comrades could be in danger, so he had to quickly warn them .
“Have you also seen a marble? It’s red…”
Romian asked Soo Hyuk . Of course, there was a high possibility that Ketan’s murderers had taken the marble, but it wasn’t certain .
“Ah, yes . I have it here . ”
Soo Hyuk opened his inventory as he replied to Romian . He had already obtained the key from the quest rewards, so there was no need for the red marble anymore . Soo Hyuk took out the red marble from his inventory and held it out to Romian .
‘Hmm?’
Soo Hyuk widened his eyes in surprise when he pulled out red marble .
‘The light…’
When he first saw it in Ketan’s hut, it had been gently spewing a strange light . But now, it’s smooth surface was a dull red with no light .
‘It is because I completed the quest?’
While wondering if the glow disappeared because he completed his quest, Soo Hyuk handed the marble to Romian . Opposite of him, Romian was silently staring the marble . He then snapped back to reality after a few seconds and received the marble .
“Um, could you please wait a moment?’
“Okay . ”
At Soo Hyuk’s reply, Romian walked over to his desk and opened a drawer . Then after storing the letter and the marble, he took out a scroll and returned to his seat .
“This is the mission confirmation . Thank you for your service . ”
[You have acquired ‘Romian’s Mission Confirmation’ . ]
Soo Hyuk received the scroll and bowed to say goodbye and head out of Romian’s room .
‘I couldn’t ask in the end . ’
He couldn’t find the chance to ask about the marble .
‘Well, I’m sure I can ask again on another day . ’
It didn’t have to be about Celta or the Secret Cave; Romian’s identity was enough . And so, Soo Hyuk started heading back to the agency with a light skip in his steps .
Comments