Chapter 42 042

"…What the hell?"

It was a totally unexpected situation for Lian, the assassin of the Ironbloods. It had already been fourteen hours since he began waiting in front of the ant cave with an iron will. He was starting to wonder why it was taking Seojin so long to clear one of the easiest dungeons in Midgard, but it looked as if he had made another huge achievement.

'The dungeon… disappeared.'

All of the players, including Lian, were staring at him. The black hole of an entrance slowly disappeared, and the Black Forest showed up like a hologram. Seojin was left blinking dumbfoundedly.

'…Gotta report this, right?' Lian thought reflexively.

As was the case when he first discovered Seojin, this event was not something he could make decisions on.

'Maybe I'll be able to see his real face if things go well this time.'

Many players were already flocking to Seojin as they sensed something was off. They were all thinking that they might get something out of this occurrence.

Lian blended in with the crowd, thinking Seojin might have been using a makeup pack.

'I'm sure that the guildmaster told me to watch out because he could use it and piss off at any moment.'

Makeup packs were one-use only, so after using one, he wouldn't be able to hide from the Ironbloods anymore. That meant that players could only select two appearances, and from the moment both of Seojin's appearances were revealed, the Ironbloods could easily keep him in check.

"What happened to the dungeon? You came out of it, didn't you? Huh?"

"Excuse me! Coming through!"

Seojin hurriedly left the scene, but it wasn't easy as many players were following him. And then, at some point…

"…He vanished!"

"How…? He was just here!"

Seojin vanished. The other players ran around like headless chickens but they still couldn't find him. It was as if he had evaporated into thin air. Those player didn't include Lian, however, as he saw exactly what Seojin had done thanks to his observation skills.

'Hmm, he got some moves, I'll give him that.'

Seojin did not vanish, he had simply used a make-up pack while blending in with the other players. Lian was just admiring his guts. It wouldn't have been easy to swap both clothes and appearance as he bent down for a few seconds.

'He failed to blend in properly though. Maybe he had no time to adjust the appearance…'

The corners of Liam's mouth raised as he stared at Seojin's blue—the literal primary color—hair and eyes. They were bright blue, which was highly visible from a long distance.

'Now you have lost your only means of escaping from the Ironbloods.'

Lian reported to the guild while tracking Seojin down.

The target used a makeup pack. I've identified both appearances he may switch between, and I'm following him.

'Please… please…'

Lian prayed as he waited for the reply, and a short while later…

-Check the results of the quest and take a nap. You must be exhausted.

"Yes!"

Finally, he got the answer that he needed the most.

'I can finally sleep! He'll probably try to complete his next quest quietly, then…'

"…Huh?"

Lian's chain of thought was interrupted as he lost sight of Seojin.

"What the… where did he go?"

'Did he log out?'

There weren't any traces of him logging out, though, like the glimmering dust that showed up after a player left the game.

"What in the world…"

Lian soon became nervous. He kicked the roof and rose high into the air, causing a loud thud in order to check all directions, but it was all in vain…

"So… does that mean I can't sleep?"

Lian murmured to himself with blurry eyes as tears began to obscure his vision.

* * *

Seojin hid in the alchemist's street and let out a sigh.

'…That was close.'

That was a very close call. The communities never mentioned this kind of event, and Seojin hadn't considered the possibility either. The dungeon completely disappeared once Seojin had cleared it. It was way different from what ordinary players usually went through. In other words, clearing the dungeon meant removing the components of the dungeon itself.

'I can't be the only one who knows. The Ironbloods… even the high-ranked players must know about that.'

The reason why Erzebet's dungeons were still in that state was probably due to the fact that the high-level players didn't know about it back when they were in Erzebet. They might have ransacked all of the dungeons here if the level penalty didn't apply.

'Anyway, that was too close. I was careless.'

Seojin shook off the majority of players at the scene by changing his appearance and even changed it again after a while to lose the keen ones.

'I'd be damned if I didn't have that skill.'

"A Thousand Faces" was an active skill he had learned through reading a skill book. It removed restrictions on the use of makeup packs, and through that, he could evade the flood of players everywhere he went. Plenty of them must have been from the Ironbloods, too.

'I'll have to change my appearance again soon… at least for the time being, it's safer to change it every cycle. I've already drawn too much attention.'

He had to vanish completely if he chose to go off-grid. It was always the weaker ones who struggled to survive until the opponent gave up completely.

'Should I go to Jeriel first?'

Seojin had to stop by the alchemy workshop and the vigilance committee headquarters to reap the fruits of his labor. If someone had tracked Seojin, there was a high chance that they would be waiting at the vigilance committee headquarters.

'No… they could be at the workshop, too. Assuming that whoever is tracking me is one of the Ironbloods…'

Seojin finally made up his mind after pondering to himself for a while. He decided to take the safest route.

* * *

A sudden visitor caught Meldt, the junior alchemist, completely off guard.

"Y-you're the person from before, right?"

The guy who brought a considerable quantity of bone fragments before—Seojin, if he could remember correctly—was in front of him. Jeriel told him before that he must be a B-rank mercenary or above.

Seojin was an important guest, but there was a little problem here. This place was Meldt's house.

"W-what brought you here?"

"Some things happened… when do you start work?"

"I was about to head out now. Junior members practically live in the workshop except for when they're eating or sleeping."

'That's… pitiful.'

Reminded of when he worked as a salaryman himself, Seojin spoke with a compassionate look on his face. "Please tell Jeriel to come here, and don't draw too much attention… no, actually, where does he live?"

Meldt reluctantly pointed to the right of his house.

"He lives there."

"He's your neighbor? All right, tell him to come home. I have to discuss something privately with him. Oh, excuse me, is it okay if I wait in here for a minute?"

"In this house?"

"I'll compensate you."

Meldt shook his head. "It's not even my house anyway. The guild provided me with it, so make yourself at home. I'll speak to the alchemist."'

'…They provide housing?'

The pity Seojin felt disappeared within seconds. Meldt left for the workshop, and Seojin really made himself at home. However, he didn't have to wait for too long as Jeriel rushed in through the open door.

"Hey, you!"

"There you are… did you run all the way here? Nobody followed you, right?"

"Don't worry. I pretended to take a walk as if I needed to grab something from my house. I mentioned that to Meldt on purpose."

"Loudly?"

"Anyone could hear me."

That was a relief. It seemed as if Jeriel regarded Seojin more highly than he'd expected.

"Yeah, I heard that you wanted to have a private conversation. Do you know how I felt when I heard that?"

Jeriel came and sat down across from Seojin. He reached out exaggeratedly as if he was moved

"I was happy that you weren't on your guard against me. Can you believe that? The feeling of joy superseded my anticipation to this conversation."

"That's probably because you looked forward to me fulfilling your personal request one day."

"That's definitely not what I was…."

"I prefer that kind of thing, give and take. You don't have to sugarcoat such a relationship, we can become decently acquainted as time goes on."

"You're right… I'll try not to sugarcoat things."

Seojin was satisfied as Jeriel acted clumsily. He had said that to draw a line, but it was close to the truth.

'It's feels bad to benefit from a close acquaintance'

Jeriel hadn't given Seojin much, and their future relationship depended on what he could give him right now.

"So, what's this covert business about?"

"You'd better see for yourself."

"This is…"

Seojin handed Jeriel the magic stones from ogres, and the Squirmshrooms. He did not miss the trace of disappointment in Jeriel's eyes.

"These are from Rank C dungeons, I don't see why you needed to give me them in secret."

"You're right about the magic stones."

Seojin took out the remaining magic stones and handed them to Jeriel. Seojin had only managed to collect around seventy. While that was a whole dungeon's worth, this was'nt enough, as evident by Jeriels' disappointment.

"You say that like the squirmshrooms would be different."

"It is different, very different, in fact."

Intact Squirmshroom (3891)

* A parasitic plant. The fully grown, wriggling mushroom takes complete control of its host. Used as a rare material for alchemy.

Jeriel's jaw dropped soon as he saw that he had almost four thousand squirmshrooms.

"Hey, this is…?"

He was speechless for a moment, remembering how Seojin had hoarded tons of bone fragments yesterday.

'So, did he collect all of these in a single day? …I misunderstood terribly. This guy isn't merely a B-rank mercenary.'

Jeriel guessed Seojin was at least rank A, or even higher than that.

"Satisfied?"

"Satisfied? That's an understatement. I've never experienced anything like this while working here as an alchemist."

Jeriel wasn't lying. No adventurer had ever gathered as many materials this passionately, in such a short period of time.

"I have a favor to ask of you."

"Anything! I'll help you no matter what you ask."

"I have something to do with the Commander of the vigilance committee, but I can't do it by myself."

"It wouldn't be hard to pass on a message, but as far as I know, the Commander is away at the moment."

Jeriel spoke as if he was genuinely sorry and offered an alternative.

"Why don't you tell Rachael? She's probably the highest ranked beside the Commander. Also, a senior alchemist like me is qualified as a client."

Being a client meant he was superior in the power game.

"That would be great."

Jeriel left the house the moment Seojin nodded. As soon as the door closed, Seojin opened the community window and began to write a new post with rapid speed.

He caused a big incident this time, so he might as well make full use of it.

Anti-Mainstream here. I'll be sharing how to clear the dungeons in Erzebet "properly"

The provocative title drew an explosive number of views as soon as it was posted. The players on there hadn't forgotten about Berne yet either. And just little later…

-Yo bro! Are you free right now?

As that message arrived, Seojin felt the aftermath of his post.