by Way Woo
The fact that Jake hit the spending limit meant that Jake needed to start paying back as soon as possible: in other words, the Hero Shop is inaccessible to Jake until he pays back the points he borrowed.
But there was one worry still lurking in the back of Kelderian’s mind: the armor Jake bought.
It had high defense and looked really, really good, making it both a good item for gameplay and for showing off.
Unfortunately, the armor also had a hidden property.
It wasn’t just built for defense: when another item is used on it, it unlocks the armor’s true power, giving the wearer tremendous strength as well.
But of course, only the Hero Shop staff knows that fact.
He will never buy that item. It's a piece of junk here, Kelderian thought as he remembered that he placed the ability to unlock the armor’s power on a random object.
He hoped that eventually, when the Hero Shop customers increased, he’d start an event to find that item.
Several minutes passed, and Kelderian considered punching out for the day and going home when he heard a familiar scream from outside his office growing louder and louder until his door swung open.
“Boss, you’d better look! It’s horrible!”
If his assistant said it was horrible, then it was horrible. Kelderian had trained him personally, and was planning to endorse him to manage a different Hero Shop branch, hopefully without maniacs like that Jake Smithson fellow.
But now wasn’t the time for that. He was instantly alert when his assistant saw trouble, and while he led him back to the sales monitoring area, he could see him shaking, too.
“What is it now?” Kelderian asked, and his assistant could only point a shaking finger at a particular item in the buy logs.
Jake Smithson bought the item that removed the seal on his armor’s true power during his shopping barrage.
It was at that moment when a trap door opened in Kelderian’s gut and he felt his heart fall through it onto the floor.
Episode 23
***
According to the town’s rules, if you bought land to build a house in, you had to have enough points to stay in the inn for the duration of the construction process.
Which suited Jake Smithson just fine, as he gave the suite in Brino’s inn a few personal touches, as well as displayed most of the possessions he bought.
Possessions such as the microfiber bedding and premium mattress on the antique four-poster bed he was lying on at the moment, looking up at the ceiling.
He ignored the luxurious leather sofa, microphone, and amplifier in the room as his thoughts continued to swirl in his head.
Ten adventurers, ten interrogations, ten similar stories.
While he didn’t get everything he wanted from the adventurers who were sent to capture him, but were instead beaten down and interrogated themselves, he had acquired something much more important: corroboration.
It started with the third or fourth adventurer, probing questions that concerned the deaths of Seamus and his team of adventurers, and by the last one, he knew exactly what to ask, so much so that he had the last adventurer eating out of his hands by the very first question.
Free slice of pizza didn’t hurt, either.
And now, as he lay on the bed, he was finalizing his thoughts and making sure he didn’t leave out even the smallest of details before arriving at the conclusion.
The stars had just begun to come out of the sky by the time the last of the adventurers left the inn, going to his comrades and joining them as they limped towards the tents where the healers were.
Jake was a witness to that exchange, seeing the capture team finally drag themselves to the healers before he decided to take a moment to lie down and think.
Let’s make this digestible. First, the means. The murderer had the ability to kill six well-equipped and decently-leveled adventurers, with an bladed weapon, and via stab wounds.
The possibility exists that a powerful weapon was used.
However… Seamus and his party were already injured by monsters in a hunt shortly before the murder, and the guy I talked to said they died nearly all at once, within a few minutes. Opportunity? Yeah, this all sounds like the killer took them out while they were nursing their wounds.
Dick move, if you ask me.
Was this either the power of the weapon, or… were there accomplices? No, the capture team also told me that all the wounds had similar patterns and were also made, more or less, by the same weapon, so yes, it has to be a single assailant.
No magic, too. I’m sure of this, back then, when I saw them dead the first time.
Someone who can kill six people with a bladed weapon under a minute… that much power, only Liam comes to mind.
There’s a problem, though. Motive – we’re all back to square one here, and all Liam does is hunt and train, with a lot of other adventurers seeing him.
He has an alibi, then, Jake thought as he crossed Liam’s name off his metaphorical list.
There are two others left. Charles is already off the list, because he gathers plants and uses them to debilitate opponents at range. If he stabbed those guys, there would be traces of it on them.
Which leaves two: Kyle the surveyor not only trains adventurers to survive by themselves, but he also has the Chakra Drill sword skill he uses versus stronger monsters. And then we have Emmanuel, who got more popular since Seamus’ party got murdered. Mana burst is good... but not enough to kill six people.
Murderers don’t kill people because they can.
They do it because they know they can get away with it.
Which means one of these two adventurers have a trump card up their sleeve.
Decisions, decisions…
He swung himself off the bed and began putting on his outfit: nothing fancy, but the armor had to be included, sans the helmet, because the people he would be paying a visit to needed to see his face.
Well, if simply asking them won’t help, there is a straightforward and reliable way of getting them to show their true nature.
It helps that it’s also very nice for letting off some tension, Jake concluded with an evil smirk as he sheathed the Swiftstone Sword before leaving his inn suite, locking the door as he went.
***
“I know what you did.”
“I hear their voices, you know. They want justice.”
“And they won’t stop until I get it for them.”
“Nothing against you, but I must cut you down.”
There were whispers echoing in the darkness in the tent of Kyle, the town’s surveyor.
He was in the midst of a dreamless sleep when the whispers lazily fluttered towards his ears, lulling him into the place between sleep and wakefulness…
“I haven’t done anything,” he slurred in his half-sleep, and only reflexes gained from hunting monsters prevented him from being half the man he used to be when he rolled out of bed, the sword cutting through the space where he had been.
He was awake in an instant, and looking at a pair of cold eyes.
“You know what you’ve done. Time to pay,” the man said, and Kyle immediately recognized the voice as that of the town’s pet psychopath Jake.
With that armor set and that sword of his, he looked less like a joke and more a god of death waiting to claim its latest sacrifice, and in the light of the moon coming in through the tent flaps, it was as if his eyes were glowing with nefarious purpose.
He had no time to put his armor on or grab his weapon, and could only crawl backwards, his pursuer taking slow and measured steps towards him.
“Wh-wh-wh-why are you doing this?” Kyle asked in a panic.
“They say it’s the easiest way to get justice,” Jake whispered back, swinging his sword at the adventurer again, causing him to back up even faster.
“Was this because of that hunt gone wrong? I trained Mark properly!”
His bare back felt cold canvas and metal, and he knew then and there that it was over.
“I train my surveyors to defend themselves, not kill! Please!”
As Kyle cowered in the corner, he was babbling now; he knew that if Jake attacked again right then, it would be impossible to dodge that sword.
He wanted to live.
He didn’t want to die without a clue as to why.
He wasn’t given the dignity of a response, as Jake took up a stance and swung downward to cut him open from shoulder to hip.
He whimpered, closed his eyes, and prayed for the end to be swift and painless.
The sword sang as it fell.
A dull thud echoed in the tent as Kyle’s eyes opened, only to see the sword swing hit the dirt close by, missing him completely, and Jake was nowhere to be found.
It was only him and his tent.
Except a lantern bloomed to life, filling Kyle’s tent up with yellow light, causing him to gasp when he opened his eyes to see Jake holding the lantern and putting it back into its place.
“Well, that was a clusterfuck,” Jake said with a bit of frustration, before his mood went through a complete turnaround as he returned that huge sword of his back to its sheath on his back. Gone was the stone-cold killer with blazing eyes, replaced with the usual joking fool that Brino had come to know – and fear. “Seems I went to the wrong tent. My apologies.”
Kyle wanted to say something but in his fear his mouth could only make vague sounds.
“You okay or something? No? Well, I did kind of give you the fright of your life. Sorry about that,” Jake continued, sheepishly scratching the back of his head with one hand while scouring his inventory with another. “Darn, I only have full boxes. Oh well, whatever, guess you deserve it for that scare. Here you go.”
He pulled out a smaller box from his inventory and put it on Kyle’s bed.
“Better grab it while it’s hot. Still have some important things to do, names to clear, criminals to catch, so as soon as I take care of that, I’ll formally apologize to you. You cool with that?”
Kyle could only nod dumbly.
“Great! Enjoy that, then,” Jake said pleasantly as he stepped out of the tent and closed the flap before going on his way, the deduction clear in his mind.
Kyle wasn’t the killer.
He thinks he’s responsible for an incident, but that incident wasn’t Seamus’ party getting killed.
Besides, Kyle’s a good adventurer, but he’s not a killer. He’s a mentor, a man of knowledge. Possibly had a teaching job before being flung here to Brino.
Lucked out with a good skill, but is teaching other adventurers too much to focus on strengthening his own.
He’s too much of a straight arrow to kill six people in cold blood.
Kyle’s off the list.
***
As Jake was taking measured steps towards Emmanuel’s tent, he was also taking account of the surroundings.
One thing in particular stood out to him: Emmanuel’s tent was the second closest to the front gates of Brino.
It’s the perfect spot for someone who needs to make a quick getaway or to hide, Jake thought as he unsheathed his sword as quietly as possible. Now I’m going to flush him out.
Just like with Kyle, the lights were out in Emmanuel’s tent, and a blanketed lump on the bed moving up and down was all he saw of the suspect’s presence.
It was then that Jake decided to bait him out, soundlessly pulling the flap back, stepping inside, and readying his sword.
Down went the swing, Jake slowing its descent deliberately to see if his target would dodge.
The flat of the sword landed softly on the sleeping lump, and nothing happened.
Heavy sleeper, huh? Maybe I should give him a few more pokes and see what happens, Jake thought as he pulled his trusty bat out of his inventory and onto his left hand to give Emmanuel a few more pokes to wake him up for that personalized little chat.
Jake nudged his sleeping form with the bat.
Nothing happened.
He nudged him again.
Still nothing.
“I don’t get how a sleazy little shit like you can afford to sleep so soundly when you have six dead adventurers to answer for,” Jake declared. “We’re going to have a little man-to-man talk about just what happened at that mountain not too long ago, and you’re going to tell me everything you know.”
He broke one of the urns with a swing of his bat as emphasis.
Still no response.
He put a chip on one of the tables with his sword.
Nope, still sleeping.
“I’m going to pull that blanket off you and we’re going to deal with this like civilized folk, and I don’t care about whatever your murderous ass wears to sleep or not!” Jake cried out as he put his hands on the blanket and pulled.
A flash of silver out of the corner of his eye and the pulse of danger alerted him, and he moved back.
But when he looked back to the bed, it was empty, save for a few pillows set up to look like someone sleeping.
If he’s not sleeping here, where would he have—
Jake couldn’t finish the thought as another flash of silver arced through the air, this time aiming for his neck, and he couldn’t dodge completely in time.
I’ve got the defense and armor needed to tank this... damn it! Jake cursed as a sliver of black blossomed on his neck, a fine dark mist spraying out from the cut on his neck that wasn’t there a moment before.
Just a scratch. But breaching my stats and armor?
His indignation gave way to conviction as he knew now that this was the guy behind the murders of Seamus and his team. With the ability to become invisible and hide, it would be child’s play to just sneak up on six injured adventurers and stab them to death, one by one.
But that wasn’t just the proof.
The proof was in the attempted interrogation.
Emmanuel placed his tent in a perfect spot to escape; he also arranged his tent in a way that he could fool people into thinking he was sleeping on the bed, but he was actually hiding nearby, using his stealth skill to the fullest.
That wasn’t the third strike: it was immediately going for the neck that sealed Emmanuel’s fate; no dialogue, no explanation, nothing. It was if he was waiting for someone to figure him out, and possibly entrap whoever that person was.
You don’t resort to killing right off the bat in a fight until you are clearly aiming to murder.
More flashes of silver from out of the corners of Jake’s eye, and his thoughts quickly dissolved back into focus and reflex as the world kicked back into high gear.
The sword moved.
But it was intercepted by Jake.
“Wrong guy to fuck with, asshole,” he said as he stepped back, out of the tent and onto the main street of Brino proper, and the silver flashes were following him.
It was at this point where Jake knew that this battle was for keeps, as Emmanuel wouldn’t let the truth about him be known, and Jake already knew all that was needed to know to get his name cleared.
That was why he saw the flashes – Emmanuel wanted to finish the job he started.
The sword flashes silver in the moonlight, right before he strikes, Jake thought as he stood in the middle of the road, sword at the ready. His cloaking skill is good… very good.
But there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
He closed his eyes and flowed into a stance with his sword, visualizing falling cherry blossoms as he did.
For someone who could attack you from anywhere unseen except at the last moment, there was only one way to flush him out.
One of the higher-tiered special attacks from the Cherry Blossom Weapon Art was a large amount of sword strikes in a short amount of time around the user, and the range depended on how large the weapon being used was.
Jake took a gamble that his attacker didn’t know he had this ability, and decided to play a dangerous game of chicken with him.
It ends here, tonight.
His eyes remained closed as he focused on deploy
ing the technique right, because if done correctly, he would lure Emmanuel into the buzz saw of attacks and hopefully get sliced to pieces.
Come on…
The blossoms fluttered lazily in the air, reminding its wielder of the transience of life.
Almost…
There is beauty in both life and death. It is a worthy cause to make one’s life a work of beauty.
Just a little more…
Jake’s eyes snapped wide open to see the flash of silver.
NOW!
The area around Jake was instantly saturated with gray arcs overlapping one another; the technique moving so quickly that he didn’t sense his sword make contact with flesh.
He only saw the aftermath, a bloody Emmanuel being knocked back, gritting his teeth as Jake’s sword carved a shallow but bloody cut from left shoulder to right hip, and as the killer screamed, Jake smiled.
The man in armor put away his sword and stalked his murderous prey.
“You thought you could pull off that nice guy act, huh,” he said. “Well, it’s over for you now.”
Jake was a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid.
Someone like Emmanuel -- who actually murdered adventurers when they should be working together -- was nothing more than a rabid dog who needed to be put down.
Letting him get away now would only mean a problem someday.
The sword was in his hand, the hesitation from his mind gone, and he readied the finishing blow.
However…
The swing went wide as a jolt from the ground caused Jake to stumble.
What the heck was that? Jake asked, and the ground shook again.
Huge shockwaves enveloped the town of Brino, and combined the sound of falling masonry signified something rather horrible taking place.
The outer walls of Brino were collapsing!
It was all the opportunity Emmanuel needed, as when Jake turned back towards the murderer, he had long since vanished.
Thanks to the readers
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