He followed the Ghost Hallway path for some time until arriving at a fork.
It had three different paths. Each led to identical rooms, having 6 each for a total of 18 rooms.
At the end of the three paths was the first hall.
‘The final destination.’
Marvin leaned toward the left side. He planned to clean up these rooms one by one starting from the left, looking for treasure chests.
Uncommon items could appear inside these treasure chests. Marvin once got an uncommon dagger from this place in his past life. That dagger’s effect was pretty good, so he used it for quite a long time.
At that time, he unexpectedly caught a glimpse of a painting from the corner of his eyes.
This painting was quite special and Marvin was suddenly attracted to it.
‘Oh? This painting… Why didn’t I see it in my past life?’
Marvin, somewhat surprised, looked at the last painting of the left wall of the Ghost Hallway.
A young lady was painted, her hair the same color as wheat and her smile very brilliant.
She was quite different from the other people depicted in the paintings. Her smile felt very sincere.
‘Weird.’
This was the first discrepancy between Marvin’s game world and this world.
He couldn’t help but stay and take a look at the painting’s description.
But the name of the painting made him jump back, frightened.
[Headless Girl]!
This was a ghost!?
The girl in the painting was clearly a proper young lady!
Marvin suddenly was filled with a kind of strange feeling.
He shivered, abruptly looking at his own stat window and battle logs.
Nothing happened.
‘Could it be psychological?’
‘No curse and no willpower check… Did my courage decrease?’
Marvin muttered, going back on his way.
He quickly approached the first room, gently pushing the door to leave a small opening.
He could see a wooden bed in the room thanks to the dim light from the sunset, and sitting on top of the bed was an apathetic man.
Scarlet slave!
Marvin pushed the door open with his foot and kept his body low, rolling on the floor before attacking on the edge of the bed.
That scarlet slave awoke and was about to make some noise but Marvin’s curved dagger had already cut down his throat.
No blood. No scream.
That scarlet slave died just like that.
They weren’t soul puppets so Marvin only got a mere 11 exp from killing it.
The same as a low level Thief, or maybe even worse.
But there was other compensation in the room.
A shabby wooden chest was impressively standing besides the absolutely empty bed.
Chapter 18: Headless Girl
Chapter 18: Headless Girl
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Lucky!
There was a chest in the first room.
Although this chest seemed old, the things inside rarely lost their functions because of the passage of time.
Marvin leaned forward and gently shook the wooden chest.
He had no points in the two relevant skills, [Trap Disabling] and [Lockpicking]. Therefore, he had to do everything based on his experience.
Trap disabling was a Ranger skill. It was extremely important in team fights and especially in dungeons. But Marvin didn’t plan to take this path, because this field would waste valuable skill points and wasn’t worthwhile. As Rangers and Thieves were related classes, the Thief skill lockpicking could be cross-classed at the price of twice the skill points it cost for the Thief class. Marvin felt it wasn’t worth it.
He could use a low level unlock scroll to deal with treasure chests. If he could use money to solve the issue, why should he spend skill points?
There was a light sound inside the wooden chest. Marvin put his ear close to listen.
‘There shouldn’t be any trap. Only a simple lock.’
He tore up a common unlock scroll to open the copper lock.
As a precaution, he used the twig he was carrying to open the wooden chest.
Woosh!
A dart came flying from the wooden chest before crashing on the mud wall.
Marvin frowned.
His own judgement had surprisingly been wrong. Without [Listen] he could only rely on his natural sense of hearing, which made it quite difficult to find these small crafty traps.
Fortunately, he had been cautious enough.
He moved to take a closer look at the dart.
The dart tip was dark green, obviously dipped in poison. He recognized that kind of dart. The special Ninja class from an island in the east had this type of dart as one of their signature weapons.
‘Seems like this treasure chest came from a Ninja.’
Marvin took the only thing present inside the treasure chest, a thin book. There were a few words written in common language on top of the book.
– Introduction to Hidden Weapons –
‘It was a skill book! And a Ninja skill book on top of that!’
Marvin blinked. A skill book… Finding one relied on luck, so looking for one specifically was pointless. He had fought a few Ninjas in his previous life as a Ruler of the Night.
Although those players ended up defeated by him, Marvin still had a deep impression of the countless waves of hidden weapons they used.
After using the book – Introduction to Hidden Weapons –, the user could learn the way to use 1 to 3 beginner concealed weapons.
Using a skill book was only affected by the user’s stats, having no class requirement.
For example, if a Berserker picked up a – Burning Hands – skill book and had enough intelligence and some casting basics, he could learn that spell. But of course everyone knows that there’s no way a Berserker could use magic or know casting basics.
As for learning hidden weapons, there was a high dexterity requirement. It required one to be able to control the strength of every part of the body. An ordinary person would find it quite difficult to master it in a short amount of time.
But this wasn’t a problem for Marvin.
His control over his body was more than precise enough to learn how to use concealed weapons without spending much time.
There was nothing else inside the chest so he just carefully put away the valuable skill book.
He once again used Stealth and left the room.
But suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a faint white shadow flying past.
What the hell!
Marvin was startled. He looked at that place but it was actually empty, nothing at all.
‘Just my imagination?’
Marvin’s face grew solemn.
He looked at the battle logs and his stats window once again but there was nothing.
The sky was already dark and the moonlight didn’t feel that bright through the dense fog.
He didn’t have dark vision, so his ability to see things was quite limited. But it was the same for those scarlet slaves. Their rooms were lit by candle which made it a lot easier for Marvin to assassinate them.
That white shadow… What was it?
Marvin was somewhat nervous. He had never gone through that kind of event.
This place was strange. It seemed he needed to quickly finish his business.
Marvin reminded himself to stay alert at all times and arrived at the second room’s door.
The inside was pitch black, so there shouldn’t be any scarlet slave.
He opened the door and went inside.
…
There were a total of 18 rooms, and 10 scarlet slaves.
Marvin took around 2 hours to clear those 18 rooms.
He harvested 90 battle exp and 6 treasure chests. Out of those 6 chests, only one of them had a magic lock while the rest were all ordinary locks.
Apa
rt from that concealed skill book, the remaining 4 chests gave him a pouch of gold bars, a necklace, a bottle of unknown medicine and a handwritten ancient book of the Scarlet Monastery’s history.
Marvin had already found the book before. This book looked as if it was an average and boring old book, but it actually held a huge secret of the Scarlet Monastery.
But this secret and the sleeping lich both needed a certain strength in order to be explored. Marvin carefully put the book away.
The gold bar’s purity was quite high, and could be converted for a considerable amount of wealth in any city. When it came to money, it was always the more the better.
The bottle of medicine was the same as that blue gem, both needing appraisal. Marvin was no apothecary, so he obviously couldn’t appraise it.
The only thing that could be put to good use right away was in fact that necklace:
[Mark of the Moon (Necklace)]
Quality: Uncommon
Effect: Field of view in moonlight +50
May Faniya’s sight guide your path.
Requirement: 14 Intelligence.
…
Faniya was the moon deity’s name.
Marvin just happened to meet the 14 intelligence requirement, so he didn’t hesitate and equipped the necklace right away.
[You equipped Mark of the Moon…]
[Moonlight vision +50…]
Two specks of bright light flashed in Marvin’s eyes. Marvin could clearly see everything around him through the dusky moonlight.
This was the additional 50 moonlight vision he just gained.
There were a lot of different kinds of visions. The most common was sunlight vision, the normal kind. Marvin had a quite average 100 points of sunlight vision with his human race.
This meant that on a flat area with enough sunlight, Marvin could see a living being within 1000 meters and could more or less differentiate between a person and an animal.
Rangers had a more powerful skill called [Long Range Vision], which let rangers see past the human limit, further in the distance.
But this skill was limited to sunlight vision.
Sunlight vision’s counterparts were dark vision and moonlight vision, which the average humanoid race didn’t have any bonus in. Mankind’s moonlight vision was at 10 while dark vision was around a pitiful 1. Some with inferior vision would be near 0.
Moonlight vision’s uses were quite limited but it would display its effect as long as there was moonlight.
In short, Marvin was quite pleased with this uncommon necklace effect.
At least, walking in the moonlight later on would be much easier.
…
In front of Marvin was the last chest with a magic lock.
That chest was a bit problematic. He had already used 2 magic unlock scrolls but they both had failed.
Using an unlock scroll to open a lock had a certain chance of failure. This kind of situation showed the strength of the enchantment on the lock.
He still had 2 more magic unlock scrolls but the problem was that a magic lock could only take 3 scrolls.
If the third time was still a failure, the lock would become immune to scrolls.
Marvin had a headache.
Should he bet on luck? Or go back with the chest to buy an advanced magic unlock scroll?
‘Forget it, better be safe than sorry. Let’s take the chest back.’
This chest wasn’t too big, barely fitting inside the Void Conch.
But as he tried to put it in the Void Conch, he surprisingly found that he couldn’t.
‘Storage rejection!?’
‘What kind of thing is inside? To reject a storage item?’
‘Or is it the chest itself that has a storage rejection?’
This changed things, Marvin couldn’t take the chest back so he could only gamble one last time.
Ripping the last magic unlock scroll, he calmly waited for the result.
The light blue magic key entered the keyhole abruptly followed by a “Kacha!”
‘Did it work?’
Marvin felt slightly happy.
But the key suddenly shattered!
The magic lock trembled before returning to normal.
Still unable to open it?
Marvin was a little gloomy. This chest obviously had something good, but being unable to get it really was annoying.
A cold wind blew past.
Marvin’s heart suddenly grew cold.
‘It’s that white shadow again!’
‘It kept following me!’
Marvin suddenly turned around, his curved dagger silently appearing in his hand.
But this time the area wasn’t empty. It had a powerful blinding light!
[Strong Light]!
“Despicable trick!”
Marvin closed his eyes just as the light ray appeared, his fighting instinct helping him make the best decision!
He didn’t retreat but instead dashed forward with his twin daggers.
The daggers had already been smeared with holy water. Regardless which demon or ghost, it would be unable to withstand it.
“Wait wait…”
“I didn’t mean to harm you.”
A timid voice spoke, “Can you keep your eyes closed? I don’t want you to look at my current appearance. I don’t want anyone to see what I look like right now.”
Marvin slowed his movements.
This was clearly a girl’s voice.
“Don’t open your eyes!”
As Marvin opened both eyes, the white shadow immediately went past him.
“You can’t look at me or you’ll be cursed!”
The girl’s voice turned anxious.
Marvin asked while clenching his curved dagger, “Who are you?”
His had sweat on his palms.
It was the first time he had ever met such a strange thing. There wasn’t any event like that when he came to the Scarlet Monastery in his previous life.
Could it be an event triggered by the first person entering the monastery?
“I am Vanessa.”
The voice behind Marvin said, “They call me Headless Girl.”
Headless Girl… Vanessa?!
Marvin seemed to remember something.
Chapter 19: Painting World
Chapter 19: Painting World
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Headless Girl Vanessa.
Marvin started to remember something about this name.
In the game he often took time to check the game forum. He once saw a picture posted by an anonymous player ID.
On the picture was an ornament shaped like a platycodon flower.
That ornament was an uncommon item, but the effect was quite astonishing. Marvin still remembered its attributes
[Vanessa’s gift]
Quality: Uncommon
Effect: Fear resistance +10
Requirement: Help the headless girl accomplish her dream.
…
This was obviously a quest reward item.
At the time, that guy sharing his equipment info was most likely just showing off, so most people overlooked it. Luckily, Marvin’s memory was quite good as he was still able to remember its attributes.
There were not many items that could raise fear resistance in this world. Marvin remembered a few but they were hard to get hold of.
There was originally no clue for how to get Vanessa’s gift.
But he just now figured it out. That anonymous player posted the picture just a week after the Scarlet Monastery instance was released.
He probably was the first player to enter the Scarlet Monastery and triggered the headless girl quest then.
“Vanessa… Why can’t I look at you?” Marvin asked hesitantly, wanting to know the ins and outs of the situation.
He could feel that the girl had no malicious intent.
“Because my current appearance is very frightening. Every ordinary human that looked at me would b
e cursed from fear. You might lose your mind!” Vanessa explained, “So please, by all means, don’t turn and look at me, please?
Marvin nodded.
The headless girl’s body probably had a [Strong Fear Effect] attached to it, that kind of trick. If someone saw her body, he would need to face a fear check.
Although Marvin had a tough soul, if his body was unable to endure and failed the check, he would be done for. He still wasn’t fond of taking risks.
“Why did you appear?” he asked.
“My head has been stolen by a despicable person. Can you help me retrieve it?” Vanessa quietly asked.
The girl’s voice felt somewhat terrifying in this quiet empty room.
Marvin glanced at the shadow on the ground. Under the light of the moon, a blurry shadow could be seen on the ground.
‘There really is no head.’
Marvin gloomily cursed in his heart; sure enough, it’s the [Headless Girl].
He forced a laugh. “I am a mere human, why do you think I can help you?”
“I can feel that you have strong willpower, and your fighting skills are quite excellent,” Vanessa said in a low voice. “You can stealth and could easily steal my head back without that despicable guy noticing you.”
“I need more detailed information to decide whether I should get involved in your matter.” Marvin spread his arms as if there was nothing he could do, adding, “I don’t want to lose my life.”
…
Ten minutes later, a sneaky shadow returned to the ghost hallway.
He approached the painting. Headless Girl.
He was pondering whether he should accept the headless girl’s request or not.
An item able to increase fear resistance wasn’t something easy to find. On top of that, the quest didn’t require fighting, only stealing something, which was his domain.
After agreeing to the headless girl’s request, another quest appeared in Marvin’s quest menu.
Marvin already knew about the quest details, and the reward was a “???”.
This kind of random quest reward was always a gamble, but luckily this time, he already knew what the quest reward was.
He followed Vanessa’s directions and gently put both hands on the painting.
“Relax, relax.”
Vanessa’s gentle and soft voice could be heard next to his ears.
Night Ranger - Full Series - 735 Chapters Page 13
