nChapter 18: Headless Girl

nTranslator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation

nLucky!

nThere was a chest in the first room.

nAlthough this chest seemed old, the things inside rarely lost their functions because of the passage of time.

nMarvin leaned forward and gently shook the wooden chest.

nHe had no points in the two relevant skills, Trap Disabling and Lockpicking. Therefore, he had to do everything based on his experience.

n

nTrap 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.

nHe 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?

nThere was a light sound inside the wooden chest. Marvin put his ear close to listen.

n‘There shouldn’t be any trap. Only a simple lock.’

nHe tore up a common unlock scroll to open the copper lock.

nAs a precaution, he used the twig he was carrying to open the wooden chest.

nWoosh!

nA dart came flying from the wooden chest before crashing on the mud wall.

nMarvin frowned.

nHis 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.

nFortunately, he had been cautious enough.

nHe moved to take a closer look at the dart.

n

nThe 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.

n‘Seems like this treasure chest came from a Ninja.’

nMarvin 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.

n– Introduction to Hidden Weapons –

n‘It was a skill book! And a Ninja skill book on top of that!’

nMarvin 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.

nAlthough those players ended up defeated by him, Marvin still had a deep impression of the countless waves of hidden weapons they used.

nAfter using the book – Introduction to Hidden Weapons –, the user could learn the way to use 1 to 3 beginner concealed weapons.

nUsing a skill book was only affected by the user’s stats, having no class requirement.

nFor 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.

nAs 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.

nBut this wasn’t a problem for Marvin.

nHis control over his body was more than precise enough to learn how to use concealed weapons without spending much time.

nThere was nothing else inside the chest so he just carefully put away the valuable skill book.

nHe once again used Stealth and left the room.

nBut suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a faint white shadow flying past.

nWhat the hell!

nMarvin was startled. He looked at that place but it was actually empty, nothing at all.

n‘Just my imagination?’

nMarvin’s face grew solemn.

nHe looked at the battle logs and his stats window once again but there was nothing.

nThe sky was already dark and the moonlight didn’t feel that bright through the dense fog.

nHe 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.

nThat white shadow… What was it?

nMarvin was somewhat nervous. He had never gone through that kind of event.

nThis place was strange. It seemed he needed to quickly finish his business.

nMarvin reminded himself to stay alert at all times and arrived at the second room’s door.

nThe inside was pitch black, so there shouldn’t be any scarlet slave.

nHe opened the door and went inside.

n...

nThere were a total of 18 rooms, and 10 scarlet slaves.

nMarvin took around 2 hours to clear those 18 rooms.

nHe 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.

nApart 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.

nMarvin 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.

nBut this secret and the sleeping lich both needed a certain strength in order to be explored. Marvin carefully put the book away.

nThe 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.

nThe bottle of medicine was the same as that blue gem, both needing appraisal. Marvin was no apothecary, so he obviously couldn’t appraise it.

nThe only thing that could be put to good use right away was in fact that necklace:

nMark of the Moon (Necklace)

nQuality: Uncommon

nEffect: Field of view in moonlight 50

nMay Faniya’s sight guide your path.

nRequirement: 14 Intelligence.

n...

nFaniya was the moon deity’s name.

nMarvin just happened to meet the 14 intelligence requirement, so he didn’t hesitate and equipped the necklace right away.

nYou equipped Mark of the Moon…

nMoonlight vision 50…

nTwo specks of bright light flashed in Marvin’s eyes. Marvin could clearly see everything around him through the dusky moonlight.

nThis was the additional 50 moonlight vision he just gained.

nThere 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.

nThis 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.

nRangers had a more powerful skill called Long Range Vision, which let rangers see past the human limit, further in the distance.

nBut this skill was limited to sunlight vision.

nSunlight 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.

nMoonlight vision’s uses were quite limited but it would display its effect as long as there was moonlight.

nIn short, Marvin was quite pleased with this uncommon necklace effect.

nAt least, walking in the moonlight later on would be much easier.

n...

nIn front of Marvin was the last chest with a magic lock.

nThat chest was a bit problematic. He had already used 2 magic unlock scrolls but they both had failed.

nUsing 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.

nHe still had 2 more magic unlock scrolls but the problem was that a magic lock could only take 3 scrolls.

nIf the third time was still a failure, the lock would become immune to scrolls.

nMarvin had a headache.

nShould he bet on luck? Or go back with the chest to buy an advanced magic unlock scroll?

n‘Forget it, better be safe than sorry. Let’s take the chest back.’

nThis chest wasn’t too big, barely fitting inside the Void Conch.

nBut as he tried to put it in the Void Conch, he surprisingly found that he couldn’t.

n‘Storage rejection!?’

n‘What kind of thing is inside? To reject a storage item?’

n‘Or is it the chest itself that has a storage rejection?’

nThis changed things, Marvin couldn’t take the chest back so he could only gamble one last time.

nRipping the last magic unlock scroll, he calmly waited for the result.

nThe light blue magic key entered the keyhole abruptly followed by a

"Kacha!

"

n‘Did it work?’

nMarvin felt slightly happy.

nBut the key suddenly shattered!

nThe magic lock trembled before returning to normal.

nStill unable to open it?

nMarvin was a little gloomy. This chest obviously had something good, but being unable to get it really was annoying.

nA cold wind blew past.

nMarvin’s heart suddenly grew cold.

n‘It’s that white shadow again!’

n‘It kept following me!’

nMarvin suddenly turned around, his curved dagger silently appearing in his hand.

nBut this time the area wasn’t empty. It had a powerful blinding light!

nStrong Light!

n

"Despicable trick!

"

nMarvin closed his eyes just as the light ray appeared, his fighting instinct helping him make the best decision!

nHe didn’t retreat but instead dashed forward with his twin daggers.

nThe daggers had already been smeared with holy water. Regardless which demon or ghost, it would be unable to withstand it.

n

"Wait wait…

"

n

"I didn’t mean to harm you.

"

nA 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.

"

nMarvin slowed his movements.

nThis was clearly a girl’s voice.

n

"Don’t open your eyes!

"

nAs Marvin opened both eyes, the white shadow immediately went past him.

n

"You can’t look at me or you’ll be cursed!

"

nThe girl’s voice turned anxious.

nMarvin asked while clenching his curved dagger,

"Who are you?

"

nHis had sweat on his palms.

nIt 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.

nCould it be an event triggered by the first person entering the monastery?

n

"I am Vanessa.

"

nThe voice behind Marvin said,

"They call me Headless Girl.

"

nHeadless Girl… Vanessa?!

nMarvin seemed to remember something.

n