abcnovels
Chapter 59: Beware of the Deer (1)
Chapter 59: Beware of the Deer (1)
? Beware of the Deer (1) ?
?You’re really not so bright now, are you? Can’t you already guess just by seeing it? This is a coin.?
I knew that it was a coin already. It would be fucking weird if I didn’t even know that.
However, as it was an object from Knox, I expected it to be a coin with some form of special powers, or perhaps it may even be a rare relic.
But then, Knox’s next words broke all of my expectations.
?It’s just a coin. It’s also called 1 copper. The mortals seem willing to risk their lives for this small round thing. I assume you are the same, right??
“Well, that’s true, but….”
?This is the only earthly possession this God has. It’s something I’ve been interested in and cherished for a long time, but I’ll give it to you.?
Cling— Gurllll—Tuk—
Knox moved her hand and rolled the coin toward me. It spun a circle around me and then stopped exactly at the spot where I was prostrating and fell over in front.
Ssk —
When I slightly turned my head, I could see that it was really just a regular copper coin.
The copper coin was embossed with the face of a once-great hero. The size was similar to a 500-won coin. In fact, the value was equal to a few 500 wons at most.
Anyway, I felt relieved that, at the very least, I was able to survive this situation. With that in mind, I held on a sigh of relief from leaking and picked up the coin.
Then a sudden stream of letters came inside my head followed by a Ding sound.
?Achievement “Mom, please just give me 1 Copper!” completed, rare relic ‘Coins I lost at night’ acquired.? ?Task points + 100? ?Current task points: +167?
Oh, so the result of attaining an achievement was my task points increasing by 100 points, huh? This way of getting achievements and task points was really similar to a game system, wasn’t it?
While I was not very familiar with how karma and mana worked in this world, something like this, however, was very easy to understand for me as a modern person.
“Please accept my deepest gratitude.”
?You are not very bright but you do have good manners. Anyway, the allotted time is almost up. Any longer than this and I will get caught by those dimwits from Olympus, so I’ll be leaving now.?
“Go home safely!”
?Oh, one more thing, Boy. This God takes care of an apple like one does to one’s child— with sincerity and affection. It’s my job to keep the bugs and birds from taking it away. The same thing is also applied to my daughter, Luna, who is like my other self… ?
I thought that she would be speaking about some more things, but, Knox’s voice slowly dropped like a radio that had run out of its batteries.
Maybe Knox wasn’t aware of the specific restrictions or the time set for her to appear in this world. While talking, it seemed like the connection between the mother and the daughter had been abruptly cut off without her assent.
Anyway, even after Knox stopped talking, I still maintained that prostrating position without lifting my head for a few more minutes.
Knox’s imposing presence disappeared after a while, and with it, the unreal feeling caused by this weird situation that was akin to walking on clouds quickly faded away as if time had finally resumed. Soon enough, I grew aware of what had just happened to me.
Damn it, I can’t believe that I talked back to a literal goddess and refuted her back there. It was an impossible thing to do without having a lot of guts and plucking up some courage. Has my schlong finally taken over my brain?
After surviving the threshold of life and death somehow, the sudden feeling of relief along with the nervousness that still persisted made my body lose all its strength.
After a few more minutes of being immobile, I was barely able to get up and fit into my raincoat for warmth. I was using it instead of the blanket for obvious reasons.
Snore— Snore—
Luna was sleeping soundly as if she didn’t notice the calamity that I just went through just now. She completely trusted me and was sleeping calmly and comfortably.
“Sigh, at least I managed to survive. Long live chaos.”
[Stats] Name: Hassan
Level: 8
Strength: 3
Agility: 2
Stamina: 3
Task: 67 ? 167
Blessing: Blessing of Chaos ? Imperfect Dexterity? Night’s Cloak
My mouth which had previously become stiff due to the tension slowly curved up and formed a radiant smile. I couldn’t believe that my task points went up to 167! This was a very good sign for me in many ways.
Did this mean that anything Knox gave to me would be a rare relic? I didn’t know that even a simple 1 copper could wield such a great meaning when that belonged to a God.
Just in case, I would keep the 1 copper that Knox rewarded me in my other pocket.
However, it was very monumental to me that the task points finally reached over 100. There were a lot of things that I could do with that many task points.
What I was most curious about right now was this necklace that I took away from the necromancer not long ago.
The epic relic —The Black Star of Acheron1To clarify, it is referred to as Pluto’s Black Star in Chapter 45. This is just an alternative name for the relic. The original name is still Pluto’s Black Star. — could reportedly be strengthened by just using a hundred task points.
The letters naturally floated into my sight once again as I fiddled with the necklace.
?Would you like to use the 100 task points to strengthen The Black Star into Pluto’s Eye??
?Yes.?
?No.?
I moved my hand without hesitation and promptly pressed the ‘Yes’ button. When I pressed the letter in the air, a long loading window appeared before my eyes with a beeping sound.
I heard a deafeningly loud sound soon after.
Clang— Clang—
?Strengthening? 39%?
Clang— Clang—
?Strengthening? 67%?
It felt like I was playing a speculative game. As I was getting a bit nervous, wondering if there would be a probability mechanic in strengthening or some other mechanic of that type, a sudden and small sound akin to that of exploding firecrackers rang in my ears.
?You have successfully strengthened the equipment.? ?The epic relic, The Black Star, has been safely strengthened into the epic relic, Pluto’s Eye.?
I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed that the strengthening process had been successful anyway. Now, just what the hell was going on? While I felt a little suspicious, some additional letters showed up in my mind.
?Pluto’s Eye? Kore said that she didn’t like the dull underworld. To Kore, who was depressed, Pluto gave a necklace that looked just like his eyes, but Kore didn’t like the color of it. So she threw it into the river that flows through the underworld.
It can protect the wearer from mental corruption-related magic and blessings.
By consuming 100 task points, you can strengthen Pluto’s Eye by + 1.
Strengthening probability 80%
This fucking strengthening option did have a probability mechanic, after all.
* * * * * *
“Hassan, get up. It’s already morning.”
“I-I’m up, Elfriede…!”
“I’m Luna.”
“Oh, it’s Luna.”
It was only when I woke up that I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
I dreamt about getting beaten up and whipped by Elfriede, but it didn’t feel like it was just a dream because it was too vivid.
I must have had a nightmare because of my current state of being in low spirits. A lot of things happened last night, after all, it must have affected my psyche.
“On top of that, who is Elfriede? You also called this name last time.”
Luna blinked her eyes with curiosity. I didn’t want to explain my slave life or about Elfriede to this girl. We would never cross each other’s paths anymore, so there’s no need to dig up my dark past.
“A very bad person. You don’t have to worry about it though.”
“Perhaps she is a female?”
Crease—
The middle part of Luna’s brows tightened into a small wrinkle.
It was something that you wouldn’t notice if you didn’t really look closely at her expressions. But perhaps because I had grown used to her usual bright expression, the difference was clearly apparent to me.
At once, I felt goosebumps trail all over my back. And all traces of sleepiness in my body disappeared with that single glare of hers.
“Well, how should I explain it? It’s a bit complicated. Anyway, let’s get ready!”
I did my best to change the subject. Luna’s serious gaze persisted for a while. But soon, she shouted in an extremely energetic and cheerful tone.
“Anyway, take a look at this! Hassan, you did it, didn’t you?“
There was a simple statue of Knox at the end of the direction Luna was pointing towards. However, it was very different from the strange shape it had last night.
The statue was in the form of a woman in a long, drapery dress, sitting in the lotus position on a platform with her robe pressed down.
While giving off a mysterious aura, the folds and curves of the dress were insanely detailed, it was finally fit to be called the statue of a God.
“You did a great job! I feel as if you made it after seeing Lady Knox in person! It seems to have a cool magic power as well.”
“Really?”
But damn it, I wasn’t the one to carve it. How did that statue change shapes like that?
Was it Knox? Maybe the sight of the grotesque statue made by Luna was simply too much for her to bear.
Anyway, we left the cabin early in the morning and had a simple meal at a nearby inn. As always, it was the super cheap dry bread, milk, and watery porridge combo that we had, and as usual, its taste left much to be desired…
“It’s delicious! Right?”
Luna, however, was more cheerful than ever. Poor Luna! Her taste buds must have been ruined beyond repair. Even if I boiled a rock and gave it to her to eat, she would probably also say it tasted delicious and munch it down.
Of course, looking at it from another angle, it could be called a great blessing to have this kind of talent in this world filled to the brim with tasteless foods.
After finishing all the meals, Luna and I left for the streets, heading towards Sodomora’s south gate. The south gate was full of all kinds of shops, including the marketplace, so the whole place was bustling from very early in the morning.
I felt like I would have been easily distracted by the items sold by various merchants and the auctions that were going on all over the place, had I not been here with a purpose today. With thoughts about what I had to do in mind, I kept myself from being distracted and headed straight toward a certain place.
Lapu, Lapu.
I remembered the name of the swindler I had to chase and catch today. His name was Lapu. A former Bronze-tier adventurer of the Mars Guild.
He was a promising hunter, but one day, he was caught in a case of money fraud and was subsequently ousted from the guild, resulting in him becoming a crooked scammer.
Until yesterday, he had nothing to do with me. But today, fate had it that I was chasing after him in high spirits. I had all the intentions to make the bastard pay for all of his wrongdoings.
“Look at this, Hassan! It’s a squirrel!”
However, Luna, who had been the one to get robbed, was distracted by all the junk sold in the market. Weren’t you making a big fuss at the guard station just yesterday?
It was impossible to make one’s anger completely disappear. Even though I had healed her Depressive Anger, I didn’t believe that it would’ve been enough to make her completely forget about all that pent-up fury.
“Squirrels are cute!”
But Luna looked cute even as she was staring at the squirrel sitting in her hand with her gleaming and enchanting eyes.
“Yes, you’re cute. I-I mean the squirrel is.”
“Right? It actually tastes even better than it looks.”
Damn it, so squirrels around here was supposed to be eaten? Well, this was a useless concern in a world where protein-based food was rather rare… But seriously, this is quite shocking even by taking that into account.
“Here, you can go back.”
Luna released the trembling squirrel from her hands and began walking again. In any case, we must find Lapu, who frequently appeared in this south gate area.
However, how were we supposed to lure that bastard out when he was able to cause losses of up to 100 silvers, which was equal to 1 gold, and still not get caught by anyone?
“Hey, Luna.”
“Hm?”
“How did you find that swindler?
“When I just entered the market, that guy came and started talking to me first.”
“Hmm.”
Was he the type that targeted someone who was easy to trick? That should be the case since Luna indeed looked like a person that could be easily conned.
My query led to zero results. And with that, there were no leads we could pursue. This was why I wasn’t sure if we could find a clue even if we went around this large south gate market area.
“Let’s scatter and look for him. We should meet up in front of that fountain over there later.”
“Okay!”
That was how I and Luna decided to disperse and look for that damn swindler by ourselves. Although there was a sketch of the guy, it was useless to try to find anyone with a similar face because he was capable of escaping from the guards.
But I could tell a person’s identity just by touching their wrists. Assuming that Lapu is his real name, I would be able to identify him using this method.
No, no. I’d rather have him find me instead of looking for him. These swindlers were always in search of an easy target to trick and loot.
My mind recalled a story that I had heard a long time ago. So, I picked up a stone from a nearby road, sat on the ground inside a crowded park, and then began grinding the hard ground with its surface.
Ssk— Ssk— Ssk— Rattle—
The sound of me grinding the stone against the hard ground attracted a lot of people’s attention.
In some ways, people already stared at me because of my physique and appearance. And now I was also doing something strange, so it was natural to attract a lot of people’s attention.
It was hard for me to act like that when I had a rather timid side to me, but I had no doubt that this method would surely entice him to approach me.
“What are you doing?”
Then someone approached and talked to me. I spoke to him as if it were a matter of course, like what I was doing was nothing unordinary.
“Well, I’m going to grind the stone and make a needle.”
“What? You’ll grind a stone to make a needle? That’s the craziest thing I’ve heard this year. Let me see if you can do that.”
Then he burst out laughing in a maniacal fit as if he was going crazy from my words and went back on his way. I still continued to grind the stone on the ground silently.
At that moment, a lot of people took interest in me and talked to me.
“Crazy guy.”
“How barbaric.”
“Isn’t he the Samaritan who caught the lion?”
However, when I did what I had to do silently without answering much, people got tongue-tied and soon left as if they had lost interest in me. It was a bonus that everyone was looking at me like I was a doormat.
Of course, some of them looked at me with expectant eyes.
“It seems to be something meaningful. That’s interesting.”
“Maybe it holds a philosophical meaning. something like to never stop trying until you achieve whatever you want.”
“No, on the contrary, doesn’t it mean that there are some things that are impossible no matter how hard you try?”
I never stopped grinding the stone on the ground despite many reactions from the crowd. Being patient until your target took the bait was the basic rule for fishing. I think that the swindler wouldn’t miss this kind of easy target.
Rattle— Rattle—
How long had it been?
“Hassan, I found him! He’s over there in that square! Why are you grinding stones on the ground like that?”
“I know right?!”
I threw the damn stone on the floor without looking back. Damn it, I’d been doing that for nothing!
Wanna unlock all premium chapters? Check the Membership Chapters will seamlessly unlock no need to bother buying coins anymore.
48 Footnotes:
- 1To clarify, it is referred to as Pluto’s Black Star in Chapter 45. This is just an alternative name for the relic. The original name is still Pluto’s Black Star.