008 – The Shoulder Mark #3
“Hendricks, what brings you lot all the way to Miscanic University?”
*Crunch*. *Grind*.
Hammer clenched his gauntleted fist around his hammer hard enough to make it scream.
“Didn’t you swear you’d never even look this way again after the beating you took here last time?”
At that, the hulking giant of a man from the party that had already claimed the treasure room hefted a massive axe—large as a man’s torso—and dropped it to the floor with a heavy *thud*.
“Damn it, this is the only area forecasted to have a sunrise in the Night’s Land tonight—what do you want me to do? It’s almost the end of the month. We have quotas to meet!”
With two massive men shouting at each other, the entire corridor rang deafeningly.
Felix took advantage of the commotion to nudge my side with a *tap*.
“Rookie, stay sharp. In the Night’s Land, more Blessed die at the hands of other Blessed than to monsters.”
“Hammer, we got here first, so I’m telling you nicely—beat it,” Hendricks warned with his giant axe.
The man beside him drew a pair of swords and added,
“If you want to die at the hands of the bounty hunter Double Sword, come at me.”
Bounty Hunter Double Sword?
What a cool name, what a cool nickname!
The smoke bombs, shuriken, and nets dangling from his waist—all of it screamed veteran.
“That conical hat—he a brat from the Magic Tower?”
The old man gripping his staff also laughed leisurely, *keh-keh*.
Anyone could see he was a mage.
“This old bag of bones ought to teach you a lesson as your senior.”
The swordsman and the mage both exuded far more experience than our party.
But Hammer wasn’t intimidated by their momentum.
“Who knows how many hours it’ll take to reach the next treasure room? And if we run into those Order madmen on the way, we might end up dead. You think we’re just going to walk away? Not happening.”
The atmosphere grew increasingly heated.
A fight could break out at any moment.
At that, the one-eyed man from the other troop pressed two fingers in a V to his eye and shouted,
“「Observation Eye」!”
What the hell was that?
The man soon shouted out,
“Hammer, Level 13. Blessed with 「Bird’s-eye View」!”
“Hermit, Level 11. Blessed with 「Magic Crest」!”
“Yor, Level 4…? Blessed with—”
“Puh! Level 4? Did you just learn to walk yesterday?”
The giant with the massive axe widened his eyes.
Then he burst out laughing, *pahaha*—it sounded like thunder.
“Hammer, I heard your party had some trouble recently, so you recruited a new rookie? You think you can take us on with some greenhorn?”
I felt everyone’s gazes converge on me.
Being the center of attention was more embarrassing than I’d thought.
“Yep, I’m that rookie, Yor,” I said.
“Hey, you don’t need to introduce yourself to those guys! Come here!”
Hermit grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him.
Hammer also spoke in a very low voice.
“Felix, if a fight breaks out, protect Yor first. They’ll target him. His level is the lowest, and the only one who can open the treasure chests is Yor the thief.”
In other words—
If I disappeared, our party would have no choice but to withdraw from the treasure room.
So the enemy would try to target me first.
“Hendricks and I are about evenly matched. Even if Hermit handles their mage, that dual-wielder and the thief—you’ll have to handle both of them, Felix. You confident?”
“I’m confident.”
“You sure you’re okay? Your gait’s been off today.”
“I was bitten by an ant larva.”
“Ant larva? What’s that?”
Felix would have to fight two people’s worth of battle in my place because of my low level.
But thanks to the blow to his groin I’d given him yesterday, his condition didn’t seem normal.
…….
….
Now everyone had fallen silent.
The atmosphere was such that no one would find it strange if someone died.
Even if no one died, just getting injured would be a problem.
They say it costs ten thousand Ether just to get treatment from a priest.
What should I do?
In that moment, I racked my brain furiously.
Hermit and Felix both wore extremely serious expressions.
Hammer, clad in armor, was likely wearing a serious expression too.
That was the kind of people they were.
Felix trained his muscles with strange, acrobatic stances, while Hermit stayed up all night reading mountains of boring books.
Hammer woke at 4 a.m. to run the training grounds.
They were humans serious about their craft.
The kind of people I’d never met in my life.
The warrior, mage, and dual-wielder of their party were probably the same kind of people.
But the thief of their party, Aekku, was different.
He was the kind of human who wanted to mooch off others without putting in any effort.
To scum like that, their own safety came first, no matter what happened to anyone else.
“Hey, you there! The best-looking one!”
“Me?”
Aekku, whose face was already a wreck, immediately reacted.
Ergh, you shameless bastard!
“Yeah, you! If a fight breaks out like this, you won’t get out unscathed either. Our party’s Felix chews thieves up and spits them out. If we fight, he’ll kill you first.”
“Yor, what are you doing?”
Hammer asked quietly.
But I just kept saying what I had to say.
“Since it’s come to this, why don’t we make a deal? Whatever’s in the chest, we split it.”
“Shit, why would we split our stuff with you?”
“Watch your words. Looks like you haven’t opened the chest yet. In the Night’s Land, the first to lay hands on sealed things owns them.”
It was what Asivar had told me when I purchased the 「Star Key」.
At this, the thief Aekku rolled his single eye busily.
I shouted so that everyone could hear.
“Felix, if a fight starts, target that bastard first.”
“Of course. I’ll cut his hands off or gouge his remaining eye. Even if he meets a priest for treatment, it’ll cost a lot of Ether.”
Well, I’d said all I needed to say.
Aekku looked at Felix’s menacing blade and spat on the floor with a *ptoo*.
He then glanced at his own companions, seemingly making calculations and assessments.
“What’s the split!”
“Whoever opens it gets nine. The rest gets one. Each side gets ten minutes to pick the lock. How’s that?”
“Nine to one? What kind of split is that! This was our spot to begin with!”
“Is this your land? What spot? And if you can’t open it anyway, it’s better to find another path than to camp here doing nothing.”
Only then did Hammer seem to catch on to my plan.
Hammer pointed his hammer and bellowed like a raging bull.
“Yeah, if we cause a ruckus here, we’ll just get found by those Order of the Star bastards and die together! Wouldn’t you rather go somewhere else than struggle in front of a chest you can’t open anyway!”
“Fine! I accept!”
Aekku raised his hand.
At this, the other party members glared as if dissatisfied.
But Aekku raised his voice instead.
“If you were so sure you could crush them, then fine! That Felix bastard is Level 15. Our swordsman might not even be able to stop him! And if I get hurt, who’s going to take responsibility?”
“He has a point.”
*Nod, nod*.
I empathized as well.
This is what you might call a thief’s intuition!
# # #
And so, the lock-picking contest began.
“I’ll go first.”
Aekku thrust a pick into the keyhole.
*Click, clack*.
“Hasn’t it been ten minutes?”
“Damn it, fuck!”
Whether out of anger or frustration, he kicked the chest with a loud *thud*.
“If I can’t open it easily, this is at least a「Silver-grade」chest. You think a rookie who just learned to walk can crack it? Looks like you have a lock-picking Blessing, but that won’t be enough.”
“Not enough?”
“Yeah, Blessings aren’t omnipotent. With a「Silver-grade」chest, even with a Blessing, the unlock rate is less than one percent! You need fundamental skill to back it up!”
What, is my「Star Key」less useful than I thought?
Whatever, I thought, and grabbed a lockpick to shove into the keyhole.
「Would you like to disassemble the lock?」
「Cost: 1,000 Ether」
「Success rate: less than 1%」
What the fuck?
It costs Ether?
Asivar, you son of a bitch!
Soon, the back of my left hand radiated heat, as if touching a hand warmer.
*Click*.
A strange sound rang out.
Curious, I opened the lid on a whim, and it opened easily.
“Huh, the lock’s open?”
Hammer rejoiced.
At that moment, the giant Hendricks with the massive axe shouted toward Aekku.
“What, the lock opened easily! What were we wasting two hours for!”
“I-I had almost finished unlocking it! That rookie bastard just added the finishing spoon on top! Yeah! Fuck, since we did almost all the work, let’s split it fifty-fifty!”
*Shing*.
Aekku drew a dagger from his waist.
The tip of his dagger was aimed at me.
The moment I thought—is he really going to stab me—Felix’s fist smashed into his jaw.
*Crack*.
“Kuaaack!”
From the sound of it, his jawbone seemed broken.
Well, he’d been hit by a killing machine, so it was inevitable.
At this, Hammer spoke to the giant who seemed to be the enemy leader.
“Your side drew steel first, so the distribution agreement is void. Want to keep going? I think you’d be better off withdrawing quietly and saving on medical fees.”
With Aekku unconscious, their numbers were down by one.
Now we had the numerical advantage.
The giant Hendricks gnashed his teeth with a *grind*.
“Fucking hell, this was our spot. And I got swayed by this brat’s chattering. You, what was your name?”
“Yor.”
“The con artist who got sentenced to death for wrecking the Dantes establishment?”
Hendricks struck the floor with his giant axe with a *thud*.
Word about me had already spread this far?
“There were some damn unfair circumstances at play.”
“Hah! The kid’s got more guts than he looks. Fine, I detested the Dantes crew myself. I’ll let this pass for the sake of your name, which made them eat dirt.”
Hendricks of the giant axe and his group hoisted the unconscious Aekku and left the area.
Members of the other troop brushed past me.
“Goodness, I wish you were in our troop!”
The old mage even grabbed my arm and expressed his regret.
Only after the other troop members disappeared around the corner did Hermit—who had been frozen like a mouse in front of a cat—let out a long *huu* sigh.
“…We survived. It’s best to avoid causing a commotion at Miscanic University if possible. That battle mage from earlier was wearing a Military Merit Medal. If we’d fought… even I wouldn’t have had it easy.”
To be honest, my legs were shaking too.
…I really thought I was going to die.
At this point, I’d earned my breakfast today and then some, right?
“Hiya, Yor! You really pulled off something great! Driving away guys who had already claimed the chest without spilling a drop of blood!”
*Thump, thump*.
Hammer patted my back.
“So what’s in the chest? Huh? After all this trouble, I’ll be really disappointed if it’s nothing special. There better be something good.”
*Creeeak*.
I opened the rather heavy chest lid.
Inside, something like a white cloth was visible.
Curious, I lifted it, and lo and behold, a very red book came out?
“This is a Skill Book!”
Hermit the Witch reacted first.
He picked up the book and was thoroughly delighted.
“And it’s a red cover! The highest grade of Skill Books! If we’re lucky, this alone might fill this month’s quota!”
“What kind of skill is it? Since it’s Miscanic, it must be a mage-class skill. Hermit, if it’s a mage-class book, you decide whether to use it or sell it!”
Hammer snorted from beneath his helmet too.
Whatever it was, it seemed incredibly valuable, and the words “decide whether to use or sell” lodged in my ears.
“Can we use a Skill Book directly instead of selling it for Ether?”
“Huh? It varies by party, but ours agreed that if a suitable Skill Book drops, the person matching that class decides!”
Just then, Hermit—who had been tracing the squiggly, barely legible letters with his finger—suddenly flinched, his body trembling.
“Huh, this is strange. It seems to be a thief-class Skill Book. What is a thief Skill Book doing at a magic university….”