＜ 8. Duel is a big deal in town (4) ＞
In Adsel, there is a clear difference between day and night temperatures. Although it was nothing compared to the real sun outside the dungeon, the warmth of the fake sun was enough to warm the small town.
Challengers passing through the village, or residents who have to bury their bones in the village. During the day, no one knows the value of this warmth. However, when the sun sets and the darkness sets in, you will soon realize its absence.
Javier, who was sitting on the threshold, rubbed his hands together. The weather wasn’t chilly enough to make me tremble, but I just wanted to grieve for no reason.
‘Damn it, the challenger chosen by the dungeon will freeze to death. It’s like taking care of the village chief’s house in a small town like this.’
It was because he was blinded by the compensation the village chief suggested. Javier, who reached the 25th floor in a state of disrepair, spent all of his meager fortune on the cost of medicine. The offer of 3,000 gold even if you work for a month couldn’t help but be tempted.
‘That means it’s already been three months.’
Javier had no money left in his pocket. The root of the problem was that he couldn’t overcome his boredom and set foot in a gambling table that took place among challengers every night. He still did not notice that it was a fraudulent gamble under the direction of the village chief.
The night watchman guarding the village chief’s house today was not his turn. However, he couldn’t resist a colleague’s offer to write off 300 gold if he worked instead.
‘It’s pitiful.’
The moon does not rise in Adsel. The dim afterglow left by the fake sun and the small lantern placed next to it were the only means to secure the view.
So Javier had no choice but to notice quite late that someone was coming this way.
“Stop, who are you!”
“He is a challenger who was commissioned by the village chief. It’s not something to come proudly in broad daylight, so I want to see the chief right now.”
Someone said it was a group of challengers who had just entered the village. The man standing in front was holding the bloody woman with both arms. When Javier recognized the woman, he couldn’t help but be surprised.
‘Aren’t you the Priest of the Earth? What, how did you kill him?’
The challengers who had already gone to kill the priest of the earth had been helpless several times. I entrusted the request again this time, but the village chief didn’t seem to be expecting much.
The three people in front didn’t look very strong. However, contrary to their appearance, they seemed to be quite talented contenders.
“Now, wait a minute. I’ll let the village chief know right away. Please wait outside for a moment.”
“It is a bit chilly. There might be eyes to see, so can’t we go inside and wait?”
When I heard it, it made sense. The Earth Priest gained fame by helping with farming and curing chronic diseases of the villagers. Even if they directly went against the will of the village chief, they could not ignore their eyes.
“Then, come inside and wait. It might be a bit crowded, but…”
“Ah, it’s nice to be crowded.”
Javier glanced at the challenger, thinking that some of them could say all sorts of weird things. Andrea smiled and responded.
‘This is a bit creepy bastard.’
Javier opened the door with a reluctant expression. It was in the midst of a gambling board in full swing in the living room.
“Damn it, how can I only get hits in my hand…”
“What is it, Javier, someone came in…”
In an instant, the tumultuous atmosphere subsided and became quiet. Everyone in the living room looked at Andrea, who was holding the priest covered in blood.
Andrea sighed in a low voice, savoring the moment of attention.
“But I also like this quiet atmosphere better.”
With those words as a signal, Emilia jumped out of Andrea’s arms and hit the floor with her cane.
Do you have eyes in your heart? Javier was lost in some poetic thoughts. Because the sensation he felt now was a sensation that could only be explained by saying that someone was closing the eyes of his heart.
It wasn’t just Javier. A consciousness that becomes hazy. Except for Andrea and her party, everyone in the living room lost consciousness and collapsed on the floor.
Emilia looked at the card she had hidden in her arms bewildered. The card disappeared soon after it was recognized as it entered a combat situation.
“Eh, is this really happening?”
“What did I say, priest?”
Andrea looked at Emilia with a triumphant expression.
The power of the Great God, the breath of rest.
This card that Emilia has has the effect of inflicting an abnormal sleep condition on only one target. That’s why the plan to put all of the village chief’s subordinates to sleep is inherently difficult to realize.
So Andrea gave Trisha instructions before coming here.
‘Tricia, won’t you tell me to lend me 3,000 gold?’
‘what? Why?’
‘Don’t ask me why, just… do it. Then take the money and go to the merchant and buy the goods I am talking about.’
To get around the miser’s quirks and buy stuff, Andrea cheated. He gave the money to Tricia under the pretext of lending it to him because he would go mad if he just handed it over.
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Nevertheless, it was hard, like taking off a piece of flesh. Andrea gritted her teeth and was barely able to hand over the money.
As Andrea said, Trisha has been getting some things. The first thing Andrea asked for was a crimson-colored potion.
‘Twenty-finger grip? What is this?’
Andrea took a little potion with a strange name and poured it on Emilia. Emilia was not taken aback because she had told her beforehand that she would pretend to be dead. Then I explained the effect to everyone.
‘It’s a potion that amplifies a single target magic only once with a wide area.’
The effect was superb, but the price of 1,000 gold made it impossible to calculate the balance of the potion. Except for these special circumstances.
In fact, there was a way to buy an explosive potion of a similar price and explode them all. However, such a noisy method was bound to complicate post-processing.
‘Besides… if I did that, this weak priest would treat me like a madman.’
Emilia still had a lot of work to do. It was difficult to be branded as a madman from the start.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t do that on purpose… No, I did it on purpose, but…”
Emilia was in a panic because she felt sorry for making her fall asleep. If it was to protect the enslaved people, he would ruthlessly defeat the challengers, but he was infinitely clumsy when it came to attacking directly.
Andrea sighed and said.
“Priest, I can’t even hear you because I’m all asleep anyway. Besides, they are all bad bastards who protect the village chief.”
“Me, bad babies?”
“Yeah, yell at them bastards and hit them on the head one by one with your cane.”
Emilia was struggling with the staff in her hand. Although it was said as a joke, Emilia seemed to take it seriously.
Having made up her mind, Emilia took action.
“I, the bad bird…”
“Andrea, if you make fun of the priest, you will be punished.”
Trisha stopped midway and stepped out. Only then did Emilia realize that it was a joke, and her face turned red with embarrassment. Andrea shrugged as if something had happened.
“What, but where did this man go?”
Trisha looked around and found Marco. Andrea clapped her hands softly as if she had forgotten.
“Ah, the priest used a card and now it’s a battle event situation. Since Marco-san is a summoner… he seems to have been reverse-summoned.”
Emilia made a puzzled expression, but Tricia nodded. Andrea was too lazy to explain, so she urged us to subdue the village chief first.
They went straight to the chief’s bedroom. It’s a bedroom, as you say, and since you don’t need to sleep in a dungeon, it’s a space that’s no different from your personal office.
The village chief faced Andrea and the others with his eyes wide open.
“What is this…”
pick-
“Keah!”
Trisha’s arrow, reinforced by the blow, pierced the village chief’s shoulder. Andrea approached the village chief with the Polar Dawn and closed his mouth.
“I will cut off one of your fingers for every unsolicited nonsense or scream. So you have a total of ten chances to say bullsh*t.”
It was the most impressive line of intimidation Andrea had seen in any novel in the outside world.
The village chief nodded slowly. Judging by the complexion, it seemed that the village chief was also deeply impressed by this intimidating line.
If the game proceeded as it should, there would be no chance to do something like intimidation. After defeating all of the village chief’s subordinates and entering here, the only option left was to kill the village chief.
But this time it was different. Andrea’s goal was not to kill the village chief.
“Where is the warehouse where you keep your property? If you don’t answer within ten seconds, it’s still one finger.”
Seoljeong-sang, the village chief, accumulated enormous wealth.
The village chief wasn’t simply holding a duel tournament to control the villagers.
People who are not challengers are not allowed to enter the store. Therefore, he used the challengers to buy cards and all kinds of useful items from shops, and sold them to the villagers at high prices to accumulate wealth. This was the reason why all the villagers were so obsessed with soliciting customers to earn gold.
However, there was no way to access the village chief’s warehouse. In the part where the village chief is killed, the scenario is forced to proceed, so the setting for this ‘tremendous wealth’ remains only a rice cake that cannot be solved.
Andrea was going to see with her own eyes the reality of the ‘setting’ that she hadn’t been able to reach until now.
It was a matter of needless to say that he would get a share there.
The village chief drooled and hesitated to open his mouth. Losing everything you’ve built up is something no one wants.
“Three seconds left.”
A normal person would still choose to die. The unfortunate fact for everyone is that the village chief was not an ordinary person when it came to his obsession with wealth.
“Cut off all ten fingers at once. I have no intention of talking to the end anyway.”
It wasn’t smooth, but it wasn’t unexpected. Andrea had insurance in case this happened. Emilia, who received a wink, cautiously opened her mouth.
“I can feel that there is an empty space on the floor of the study.”
Andrea did not miss the disappointment that passed over the village chief’s face.
This was a characteristic that the Priest of the Earth God had. Even though she’s an NPC, she’s also a challenger, so it wasn’t surprising that she had this trait. As long as it wasn’t hidden by the power of the shadow god, Emilia could easily detect most secret spaces and hidden passages.
Andrea pointed the knife at the village chief’s back and headed for the study. Emilia had a clear look of bewilderment.
“Is that… Andrea-sama? Why don’t you just kill him when you’ve found out the secret room?”
The reason why the priest of the earth, who seemed so weak that he couldn’t catch even a single bug, was able to protect the enslaved people against the village chief. Emilia was able to make an extremely cool judgment on the ‘certain enemy’ who had harmed her first.
Andrea has already prepared an answer.
“You may have set some kind of trap in the secret room that only you can disarm. We have to put this person first.”
Emilia nodded in agreement.
She believed that Andrea would steal the village chief’s property and distribute it to the villagers. Without knowing Andrea’s true intentions.
‘There’s no need to say that I’m going to take my share out of it.’
Even after going to the study, the village chief kept his mouth shut. But it was a useless silence. Before Emilia could use her powers, Trisha found the secret space.
“It is under the carpet. I hid it too neatly.”
“Tricia… Previously, circumstances were pitiful, so he personally let me stay at my residence…. Is this a way to repay the favor you have bestowed?”
The village chief said, trembling with a sense of betrayal. Tricia kicked the village chief in the shin.
“f*ck it. Bastards who treat children as slaves can be beaten.”
Andrea asked Trisha to arrest the sleeping men, and asked Emilia to be a little more vigilant outside. Then, alone with the village chief, they climbed down the ladder towards the secret space.
Inside was a crude dungeon with rough supports. It was dug quite deep, probably because he wanted to make an assortment of secret warehouses for fodder. Andrea started walking with the village chief at the fore.
There were no traps or locks along the way. Andrea was at a loss for words.
“what? You hid it roughly like this, so why haven’t you been stolen by other challengers?”
The village chief kept quiet while heading to the warehouse. He reached the door, smiled meaningfully, and left a single word.
“You just made a big mistake. It will be irreversible now.”
It seemed like there was something. He wouldn’t even tell him if he asked anyway, so Andrea strangled the village chief with her forearm so that he wouldn’t do anything stupid.
“Keuk…”
It took less than ten seconds before I lost consciousness. Andrea put the village chief in a corner.
I felt uncomfortable, but when I grabbed the doorknob, the anticipation grew even greater. How many goods are hidden in this place where it was regrettable that I could not rob it every time.
Andrea finally opened the door.
There wasn’t a mountain of wealth… enough to fill the room.
Come to think of it, he is just the village headman. Like the king of a country, there was no way he would have such an enormous wealth to fill a large room.
Still, there were enough treasures to satisfy one side of the heart. Three chests full of gold coins, and two sacks full of artifacts on the other side. In front of the box, there was also a pile of cards that emitted brilliant light.
But Andrea couldn’t help but laugh at the treasures.
‘As expected, the village chief was in collusion with another being.’
A monster with a geometric shape drawn on his face instead of facial features was sitting on top of a treasure chest.
Two horns sprouted from the monster’s temple like Arpan. The outfit was a red tailcoat that would suit a fancy party. When the monster turned his head to look at Andrea, the ripple-like pattern instantly changed to an eyelid.
“What is it, you bastard?”
His eyelids opened, revealing large, bright red eyes. Andrea tried to hide her tension and faced the eyes of the ‘devil’.
＜ 8. Duel is a big deal in town (4) ＞ End
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