Chapter 107

Crime chuckled at Myung-Hoo’s question.
“I hear you caught Karot.”
“Yes, but… what’s the problem?”
Ming Hu shook his head at Crime’s words. Crime opened his mouth, still smiling.
“No problem, no problem at all. Heh, heh, we’re here to… I wanted to see how Karot became Reach.”
At Crime’s words, Ming Hu realized why the Mages, including Crime, had come here.
“Are you asking me to show you a dead body?”
“…Yes.”
Crime nodded. At Crime’s words, Ming Hu looked at the other leaders. They were staring at him, their eyes like horse manure.
‘Hoo…’
I wasn’t going to go until I was shown. That’s when it happened.
“If you don’t mind my asking. I was wondering if you could show me…”
<Mages' Curiosities
Wizards are curious, to the point of living off their curiosity. The mages who are wizards are extremely curious about the corpse of Lich you have. Satisfy their curiosity by showing them the corpse of a lich!
Difficulty Level: F
Quest Reward: Helioca Merit 30,000
As Crime finished speaking, the quest appeared.
"A quest?
I didn't expect this to be a quest.
"Look at the reward…
And when he saw the reward, he couldn't help but be a little surprised. The reward was huge for just showing up.
"Yes, let me show you."
[You have accepted the quest].
I was going to show it to him anyway, so there was no reason to refuse. After accepting the quest, Ming Hu walked out the door and said, "I'll show you.
"I'm going to get you out of here, so follow me."
"Yes."
Ururu
Stepping out of the forge, Ming Hu stopped walking in a large clearing some distance away from the forge, and turning around, he saw that not only had the magic masters followed him, but also those who had stood in front of the forge.
"Ah, the wizards of the respective magic towers."
Crime said, seeing the look on Myung Hu's face. Crime nodded in understanding and opened his inventory, pulling out Karot's corpse.
"Ohhh…"
"Ohhh."
"Ho-ho."
As Karot's corpse was brought out, the masters of magic and the mages of each tower let out a gasp. Ming Hu placed the body on the ground and opened his mouth to speak.
"Look."
As soon as Ming Hu had finished speaking, the wizards began to crowd around and look at Karot's corpse. Then one of them opened his mouth and said, "I'm sorry.
"Can I touch it?"
"Yes. Do whatever you want."
He answered the wizard's question with a look that said it didn't matter. Then the wizards began to talk among themselves, touching and examining Richie's body.
"I'm just making items.
Judging by the mages' reactions, it would take quite a while. Karot's corpse is a valuable item anyway. There was no point in guarding it.
"Let me know when you're done."
With that, Ming Hu said, and walked to the forge to make the item. When Ming Hu reached the workbench, he felt someone standing behind him and turned around.
"…?"
The man standing behind him was Crime, who had come to see the body.
"Don't you see dead bodies?"
Ming Hu asked, looking at Crime, who had followed him into the forge.
"That's… Wait."
Poof!
Crime asked for a moment's patience, created a sound-blocking shield around him, and then opened his mouth to speak.
"I was curious, but my purpose was not to see Richie's body."
"…?"
Ming Hu cocked his head at Crime's words. What purpose did he have in coming here, then?
"Did you happen to see any books or anything when you killed Karot?"
"A book?"
"Yes."
At Crime's words, Ming Hu immediately realized what book Crime was referring to.
"Book of the Dead!
The unidentified artifact-class item, the Tome of Death, the book Crime spoke of, was clearly the Tome of Death.
"That sounds pretty important.
It was clear from Crime's reaction that this was a pretty important item. He wondered how to dispose of it, but this might be a good time to do it. Ming Hu opened his inventory and took out the Book of Death.
"Do you have this…"
But Ming Hu wasn't finished.
Poof!
As soon as Crime saw the Book of the Dead, Chapters gasped and tapped the floor with his staff.
Siaak
Then an opaque veil arose around Ming Hu and Crime.
"…?"
Ming Hu looked at the opaque curtain, puzzled. Seeing Ming Hu's expression, Crime slightly bowed his head and opened his mouth to speak.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for anyone else to see…"
"This must be the book you were talking about."
"Yes."
At Ming Hu's words, Crime looked at the Book of Death and then at Ming Hu.
"I…"
But Crime only stammered, unable to get the words out easily. Normally, Crime would have been straightforward in asking for the money back, but he was still under the illusion of Myung-Hoo's identity, so he was careful with his words.
"You can't say it first.
But Ming Hu was also unable to speak up first. He couldn't say outright, "I'll give you this and ask for something in return.
"…"
"…"
Soon there was silence. Ming Hu was waiting for Crime to speak, and Crime knew it. In the end, it was Crime who broke the silence.
"This may seem a bit far-fetched, but please don't take this the wrong way, and I'll make a case for returning the book as a thank you."
"Yes."
As if waiting for the words, Ming Hu immediately nodded and replied.
"Yes?"
Crime asked, puzzled by Ming Hu's quick response. Ming Hu spoke again.
"I'll give it back to you."
With that, Ming Hu handed the Book of Death he was carrying to Crime.
"Uhhh. Thank you."
Crime paused for a moment, not expecting the Book of Death to be returned to him so soon, before accepting it and expressing his gratitude.
"I'll go ahead and send you the examples I mentioned."
"…Yes."
The case Crime was referring to was not one he had ready right now. For a moment, Ming Hu looked dazed, as if mesmerized by something, but then he smiled and nodded. Strangely, the corners of Ming Hu's mouth tilted upward, almost to the point of excess. Ming Hu looked at the Book of Death in Crime's hand and thought.
"What an important tem…
The reason the corner of Ming Hu's mouth turned up so much was because of the message that appeared when he handed over the Book of Death.
[You have returned the Helioca Empire's hidden treasure, the Book of Death].
[A great contribution to the Helioca Empire].
[Helioca's public profile increased by 40 million].
The message appeared the moment Crime received the Book of Death, and when Ming Hu saw it, he wondered if his eyes were deceiving him. But when he opened his character window to check his karma, he realized that his eyes were not deceiving him.
'40 million…'
My character window showed over 40 million achievements. This wasn't a dream, it was real.
'If I had this… five floors…'
With this level of achievement, he could purchase a pass to the fifth floor after purchasing additional items he needed on the fourth floor.
"Well, I'll leave you to it."
"Oh, yeah."
Ming Hu sobered up at Crime's words and replied with a smile.
Tuck
Crime slammed his staff down once more, dispelling all the shields around him.
Siaak
He then warped away and disappeared from the room. Ming Hu stared at the spot where Crime had been for a moment, then closed his character window and turned to his workbench to craft an item.
* * * * *
After returning to the Order's building some time after seeing Karot's corpse, the mages gathered in a small conference room and began to talk. The topic of conversation was Ming Hu and Karot's corpses.
"It was magic."
"Heh, I've never seen anything with such a powerful binding spell."
Each shuddered as they recalled the powerful binding magic that had been imprinted on Karot's body. Of course, what they saw was not binding magic, but an attribution system.
As NPCs, they recognized the attachment system as powerful binding magic. Because they recognized the binding system as magic, NPCs could remove the binding system from an item if they had the skill to do so.
"It was so high that you couldn't even see it when you were in the eighth circle…"
Of course, the attribution system on Karot's corpse was of the highest level. No amount of NPC leveling could disable it.
Profit
Just then, the door to the breakout room opened and Crime walked in.
"Hmm? Where have you been?"
"Oh, I'm here to see Emperor Peha for a moment. But…"
Crime continued, looking at the captains seated in the breakout room.
"I'm looking outside and there's a mobilized squad of marauders, so it looks like they're all back… Where's Reim?"
"If it was Reim, he'd run to the forge as soon as he got here."
"Heh heh."
Hearing that, Crime chuckled. To the chuckling Crime, Sith the Fourth opened his mouth to speak.
"But did you also see the binding magic imprinted on the corpse?"
"Hmm? Binding magic?"
Crime shook his head at the Sith's words. Binding magic?
"Hmm, I guess I didn't look at the corpse right. The corpse was imprinted with an incredibly powerful binding magic. It was a high-level binding magic that even our current level can only recognize as binding magic."
"That's such a high level that I wouldn't recognize it if it was eight circles."
At their words, Crime looked at the captains, stunned.
"Huh? Seriously, you can't even see 8 circles?"
"Yeah, I wonder what his magic level is…. Hehe. Makes me want to take him on as an apprentice."
And so the misunderstanding of Ming Hu deepened.
* * * * *
"Hmmm."
Alkan looked at the papers and frowned, swallowing hard. Then he looked at Revil beside him and said, "I'm sorry.
"What should we do here? It seems like it would be really inefficient and damaging to send in a whole bunch of knights, but it's a place we can't just walk past."
Revil thought about Alkan's words for a moment, then opened his mouth to speak.
"I think you can send him on his way."
"That?"
"If you caught Rich…"
"Hmmm. That should be enough."
"Yes."
Upon hearing Revil's words, Alkan immediately pulled out a piece of paper and began scribbling.