It was done. Two Raiders laid dead at my feet. Tax collector and the goons too. Strangely, I felt very little, as if all emotion had been drained out of me. It was almost surreal. Ivy and Darya came out of hiding and walked up to me.
“They’ll send someone to investigate, you know that?” Darya said.
“So? Let them,” I replied.
“One of the villagers might have seen it too.”
“It’s much too late to worry about that now. Isn’t it? Good work with the tax collector by the way. Getting him out-”
Darya looked distraught. “This is all crazy. Like a nightmare I can’t wake up from.”
Ivy grinned. “A beautiful nightmare.”
Darya and I turned our heads, staring at Ivy in disbelief. What was wrong with her?
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “Let's load up the bodies in the carriage. The sooner we get rid of them, the fewer villagers see it.”
“They should have known the sort of company they were with,” Darya muttered with a blank voice. “Don’t travel with a murderer if you wish to live a peaceful life.”
I didn’t know if she was trying to convince me, or herself. I didn’t need any convincing, but still, killing humans, hiding bodies -- this wasn’t like me. This wasn’t who I was. The strangest part was that it didn’t bother me. Something had definitely changed after I’d killed the first goon and one of the symbols lit up on my forearm. I felt something sinister come alive within me.
I looked down at my blood-stained forearm, observing the row of four symbols running down its length. Similar symbols adorned my other forearm. They resembled Chinese characters, but far more intricate. None of the eight were the same. Did the symbols mean something? Was it some kind of a language in this world?
Perhaps Gregor would recognize them? I needed to ask him next time. I had assumed they were merely tattoos, but seeing them light up meant they were something more. Something mystical?
Four kills, four symbols. They had changed and were now different from the rest. Worse still, the symbols’ black ink was leaking out, spreading tendrils like an infection. What did it mean? Whatever it was, it didn’t look healthy. I was dreading how much worse it could look in the future. I already had evolution changing up my appearance, I didn’t need these symbols messing with it too. No, thank you.
Whatever happened to me and these symbols, nothing new showed up in my status screen. This was similar to how [Stronger Bones] didn’t add to my HPs or Constitution, but only added a section at the bottom. These symbols didn’t even do that.
A horrid idea struck me. Maybe it wasn’t energy, but their souls that I had absorbed? Because killing monsters, and bugs didn’t have that black wispy smoke and a mindless bliss effect. Was I a lich, or something equally horrifying? Was that my third race, #25490? Nobody in the village had anything similar, not that I paid a lot of attention to their forearms.
However, there was nothing I could do about it now except avoid killing humans. Which wasn’t something I was eager to do in the first place. At least .. until now? I’d worry about that later, right now I needed to hide all the evidence and fast.
I leaned down to grab the corpse by the foot when I heard sounds of someone approaching. I turned to see Karl and his two apprentices come out from around the corner.
Fuck.
Last thing I needed was more witnesses. The three were wearing armor and carried weapons. They stepped cautiously as if expecting to get attacked at any moment. They stopped and stared when they saw me, Darya and Ivy standing over two dead bodies.
“What happened here?” Karl asked with wide eyes.
“Nothing, just taking out the trash,” I replied. “Do you know how to hitch the horses to a carriage?”
He blinked. “Y-You … you killed them?”
“What? No, no. Goodness no. They, uhm … got into a fight with-”
“Why is your arm covered in blood? Did you get h-”
“Do you know or not?” I raised my voice, startling him.
Karl nodded meekly.
“Good, grab the other one,” I said.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
“What are you meaning to do?” he asked.
I pointed a finger at Karl and his men. “Tell nobody about what happened here, alright? If anyone asks, you say that the tax collector left in the middle of the night. Got it?”
“I thought you said that-”
I groaned. “Forget what I said. They left, okay? And nobody knows where. Got it?”
I waited for everyone to nod. “Good. We had nothing to do with it.”
Thankfully, they didn’t ask any more questions. While they hitched the horses to the carriage, Darya, Ivy and I dragged the corpses of the goons and the tax collector. We stuffed all six inside the carriage.
“We’ll take it from here,” I told Karl. “Don’t forget what I told you. They left in the middle of the night.”
I didn’t know how to drive a carriage, but thankfully Darya had experience with it. Once Karl and his apprentices left, we drove the carriage slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible.
Out the gate, we went as far as we could into the swamp before the wheels got stuck in the mud. Darya unhitched the horses while Ivy and I pulled the bodies out of the carriage, dumping them on the ground. Then I searched inside the carriage and found a hidden space under the seat with a locked chest. It only took a couple of minutes of rummaging through the tax collector’s pockets to find the key.
Inside the chest was my purse of gold, along with a mishmash of gold and silver coins, various pieces of jewelry, and gold nuggets. I dumped the contents into my backpack, next to the coil of rope.
“Are you going to throw all that gear into the swamp?” Darya asked me with an emotionless voice.
She was all business now. Cold eyes, stern face. Did she blame me for the death of her father? For getting her involved in this mess? I feared facing Amelia and what she would say to me. I almost considered staying in the swamp, maybe with Ivy?
“Don’t have much of a choice. I don’t want any clues of what happened to be found.”
A jagged, black crack opened up in space before me. The sudden sight and sound of it startled Darya and Ivy, causing them to jump.
Darya took a step back. “What in the hell?”
“Calm down,” I told the two. “It’s something Bob can do. We might be able to save some of the better equipment inside there.”
The dark interior of the void pocket was cube-shaped, about a yard on the side. It wasn’t a lot, but plenty for what I needed. One by one, we removed all the gear and stored it inside. In the process I found several relics, two of which were [Exalted] grade.
“Any ideas what we can do with three horses?” I asked.
Darya winced. “Eat them. If someone saw them-”
“What?!” Ivy looked outraged, as if someone slapped her on the face. “You can’t kill these beautiful animals.”
I groaned. “They’re branded. People would know who they belonged to.”
“So?”
“So obviously we can’t have them in the village. You want them?”
“Me?” Ivy shook her head. “I don’t know anything about keeping horses. Where would they stay?”
“With you, in the swamp.”
“Y-Yeah?” Ivy said hesitantly. “No, no. I-I can’t do that.”
“Okay, that leaves us with a single option, and a delicious one too -- or so I heard. Horse meat makes for great sausage, right Darya?”
Darya didn’t respond, as she seemed to have gotten lost in her thoughts, looking away.
Ivy clenched her hands into fists. “No! You either let them run free, or we cannot be friends any longer!”
I sighed. “Yeah, alright. We’ll release them. Calm down.”
I wasn’t happy with the decision, but I also didn’t want to lose Ivy’s help and friendship in the future. With any luck the horses would get killed, or taken by someone before making it back. Even if they were to make it back to whatever stable they feel like running off to, it would be anyone’s guess where they came from.
Afterward with Ivy’s help we set the carriage ablaze. We had to wait for the fire to die down so we could toss any unburned metal parts into the swamp. While waiting we divvied up the four relics and other loot.
* [Ancient Relic] Sunforged Blade
* Item type: 1-handed sword
* 120% increased physical damage
* 50% of Physical damage is converted to Fire damage
* Adds 55 Fire damage to attacks
* [Exalted Relic] Stormheart
* Item type: Ring
* +50% increased Shock effect
* -50% cast speed of [Lightning] spells
* [Exalted Relic] Bolstering Bottomless Flask
* Item type: Flask
* +37% to all Attributes
* Duration: 3 minutes
* Cooldown: 12 minutes
* [Exalted Relic] Bolstering Bottomless Flask
* Item type: Flask
* +31% to all Attributes
* Duration: 4 minutes
* Cooldown: 9 minutes
Ivy saw the equipment taken from dead bodies as tainted, and wouldn’t touch any of it. Though, she was more than happy to take a share of gold and silver coins for the help she provided with potions.
Darya took one of the Bottomless Flasks. She said it was common enough, and it wouldn’t be suspicious for us to carry them. I stored the blade and the amulet in the Void Pocket. I didn’t want to waltz around the village with the same combination of gear that belonged to the Raiders and the tax collector -- it would look too suspicious. I hid the flask in my backpack so it was out of sight.
Lastly, I had also found an assortment of eating utensils in the carriage, including a steel spoon and a steel knife. I held up both of them so Bob could see them.