"Why is it still pitch black?" EeDeChi turned around, looking around in confusion.
"The domain created by Innate Talent hasn't disappeared, which means its owner is still alive," Barrett said quietly. He and EeDeChi approached Clovis, the 'Lord of Despair,' and flipped over the assassin who had received a slap from EeDeChi, examining him closely.
Clovis's face was badly disfigured from EeDeChi's slap, twisted and crooked, with half of his teeth scattered on the ground and one eye shattered beyond recognition. Even his own mother wouldn't recognize him now.
But he was still alive; his breathing was faint, suggesting he was merely unconscious.
Barrett intended to wake up the notorious assassin with a stream of urine. However, as he was unfastening his belt, he suddenly remembered there was a girl nearby, so he quickly re-fastened his belt.
EeDeChi glanced at Barrett with contempt, then took a bottle of water from her spatial ring and poured it all over Clovis's face.
Soon, Clovis groggily regained consciousness. He looked at EeDeChi and Barrett with his only intact eye, his lips parting slightly with a loss of teeth, "Who... are you?"
"To make sure you understand, I am—" EeDeChi began, crossing her arms, ready to explain.
Barrett tugged at her, "Captain, skip the 'to make sure you understand' nonsense. It's better to just finish him off quickly; the longer we wait, the more trouble we might have."
EeDeChi nodded, "That makes sense. Go ahead and do it. I only took half of his life; the rest is up to you."
Are you really afraid of dirtying your hands? Barrett shook his head in resignation and raised his sword, preparing to stab it into Clovis's chest.
"No! You can't kill me!" Clovis, with his mouth and eyes twisted, trembled as he stared at the gleaming sword. For the first time, his eyes showed an intense desire for life and an overwhelming fear of death.
Barrett wondered if his victims had the same expression when he killed them?
"You can't kill me! If I die, my... brother... Slam Daguerre, and my employer... Odys Malcon Waverly... won't let you get away with this!" Clovis rasped, naming the two people in a desperate plea for survival.
"Good. I'll remember those two little bastards' names," EeDeChi said, clenching her fists. It seemed that being ambushed on her way home had really angered her.
Barrett drove the sword down, piercing through 'Lord of Despair' Clovis's heart, taking the rest of his life.
As 'Lord of Despair' died, his Innate Talent, the "Domain of Despair," vanished into thin air.
The night sky changed from deep black to deep blue, as if a deep blue velvet blanket had covered the sky, dotted with star-like golden specks, and a golden crescent moon peeking through the clouds. Starlight and moonlight bathed the ground, revealing the trees and road around the carriage.
The enemy was dead, so it was time to clean up the battlefield. For adventurers, that meant it was time to loot the spoils.
EeDeChi was particularly interested in the bracers on Clovis's arms. Clovis had boasted that these bracers, excavated from the Eight Greed Kings' desert, were treasures that could seemingly give one control over the world. Yet, the assassin who thought he could control the world couldn't even control his own life.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
EeDeChi removed the silver bracers and examined them closely. The bracers were a dark silver color, adorned with ancient, wavy patterns and inlaid with arc-shaped red crystals that emitted a faint red glow.
She cast a spell on the bracers:
5th Tier Magic: High-tier Artifact Appraisal!!
Lines of text appeared before her eyes.
[Item Name: Bracers of the Expedition Master]
[Category: Armor]
[Quality: Divine Artifact]
[Equipment Effect: Increases 33% in mental power, constitution, strength, agility, armor, magic resistance, endurance, health regeneration, mana regeneration, and so on, greatly enhancing various physical attributes.
[For example, if you are a level 100 warrior, wearing the Bracers of the Expedition Master would be equivalent to increasing your level to 133...]
What a treasure! EeDeChi was ecstatic. She vaguely remembered that she was level 100 herself, and reaching level 133 would mean she could easily defeat the great demon Ainz Ooal Gown!
Hahaha! EeDeChi's lips were stretched into a wide grin. She could almost picture herself walking back into the Great Tomb of Nazarick, dragging Ainz Ooal Gown off his throne, and then giving him a good pounding!
A few lines of text still floated in her view. EeDeChi managed to calm her excitement and continued reading.
[Note: This bracer is only suitable for warriors below level 70 and above level 20.]
What the fuck kind of example is that!
EeDeChi tossed the bracer to Barrett. "This piece of junk is yours."
[Note Two: At the start of the Great Imperial Expedition, one of the eight emperors, who took the Heavenly Punishment Flame and the Silver from the earth, spent four days and three nights forging these bracers. They were given to the general of the expedition army, with a vow to break the chains that bound them.
The wind knows no bounds, my head rests on my spear.
Iron horses shatter dreams, swords cover white frost.
The return is uncertain, separated by a thousand miles.
The blood moon dims, and longing grows even harder.]
Barrett caught the thrown bracer, looking somewhat puzzled. He didn't understand why the captain, who had been so excited as if she had found a treasure in a junk pile, now treated the bracer as if it were worthless, with a look of disdain. Girls' thoughts were indeed unfathomable, and the thoughts of this peculiar girl were even more inscrutable.
Still, he happily accepted the silver bracer. After all, it was the prized possession of 'Lord of Despair' Clovis, and it had to be valuable.
Barrett put the bracer on his wrist. His arms were a bit thicker than Clovis's, but the red glow from the bracer's crystal flickered, and the bracer adjusted itself, enlarging slightly to fit perfectly on his wrist, without any gap.
After sorting out the bracers, the two of them stripped Clovis down to his bare skin, finding several odd pieces of equipment and a spatial ring.
However, they couldn't break the soul mark on the spatial ring at the moment, so they couldn't see what valuable items it might contain. They decided to pocket the ring for now. It's a rare piece of common sense in the bizarre world of the mystery of magic that spatial rings can't store other spatial rings.
Barrett then searched the five other assassins' corpses thoroughly, even checking their underwear, and collected several bags of gold coins.
The night's events had been thrilling, and the haul was substantial, but EeDeChi clearly didn't care about these material possessions.
They were in the outskirts now, with the cold night wind howling, and the dark tree shadows dancing in the chill. There was no sign of human activity around.
She tightened her black coat and sighed, "I really don't want to spend the night on an open carriage with a big guy like you."
"Do you think I want to spend the night with you?" Barrett muttered quietly, but EeDeChi heard him.
The captain shouted, "If you don't want to spend the night here, then come up with a solution!"
She jumped onto the carriage, closed her eyes, and lay down on the seat. "Why don't you pull the carriage?"
"I'm not a horse, and I don't pull carriages!" Barrett quickly retorted.
He looked around and spotted a vague silhouette in the darkness. Based on his experience, he approached it and found that it was indeed Clovis's released horse.
Since it was late at night, this horse didn't have night vision like a nightmare steed. After running a short distance, it couldn't see the road clearly and simply stood still, sleeping. Barrett woke the horse up and led it over to hitch it to the carriage.
The carriage regained its power, but it still needed someone to drive it. Barrett glanced at the captain, who was resting with her head tilted on the seat, and took on the role of the carriage driver himself.
He set the carriage in motion, following his memory to the capital's main roads, and drove towards the lodging arranged for them by Princess Renner near the palace under the cold moonlight...