Chapter 3

# Chapter 003

He had brought them here to collect the spoils of the stronghold.

Searching for spoils had become much more important than when it was just a game.

This was because neither monsters nor humans could come back to life or respawn anymore.

Once dead, that was the end.

The same went for the spoils.

However, it would be inefficient to search this vast stronghold alone, which was why he had asked for help.

Of course, he didn't trust these villagers.

“I won't tell you not to take items your village needs or a bit of loose change that can fit in your pockets.”

Ian met the eyes of each young man with a serious gaze.

As if memorizing their faces.

“But don’t leave out anything that looks valuable. If you can't tell whether it's valuable or not, bring it to me especially.”

Ian casually stroked the sword of the vigilante leader, which was now his.

“By the way, I despise the most those who betray kindness. I wouldn’t even want to breathe the same air as them.”

It was said to intimidate them.

It wasn't entirely a lie, though.

Ian looked at the young men, who were swallowing hard, and added,

“Understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Understood!”

The young men shouted in unison.

Ian nodded slightly.

“Then, dismiss.”

The young men scattered.

Their eyes gleamed like hyenas.

“Don’t get too distracted by the treasures. Hold your swords tightly. There might still be living things lurking around.”

He added this warning, and the tavern owner followed leisurely behind.

“Owner.”

Ian called out to stop him.

“Yes, sir?”

“You’ll move with me.”

“Alright, then.”

The tavern owner approached readily.

Though he had more fat than muscle, he still had a robust build.

If he had chosen to be a knight or a barbarian warrior, he might have had such a physique.

‘Then, there would have been far fewer people who underestimated and attacked him.’

“You need some muscle, I see.”

The owner said.

Ian turned and replied,

“You seem to have a better eye for finding valuables than these villagers.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Weren’t you a veteran? You must be skilled at looting.”

The tavern owner chuckled.

“I was a regular soldier in Bell Rond. You have a good eye.”

Ian shrugged.

The tavern had always been a place he visited frequently for quests, even when it was just a game.

And almost all tavern owners were either thugs or veterans.

It was unlikely that anyone else could run a tavern.

The owner seemed to have the attitude of a retiring sergeant, so Ian had assumed the latter.

It was a simple deduction.

“Here we are.”

Ian entered the heart of the stronghold.

At the very end of the stronghold, the clearing where he had beheaded the kobold chieftain.

“Is that the chieftain?”

The tavern owner pointed to the center.

A large battle axe.

And a grayish body without a head.

In front of it lay the black sword Ian had used.

“Yes. We’ll start with this one.”

Ian, standing in front of it, said.

The tavern owner gasped.

“I’ve seen kobold chieftains before, but never one this big. No wonder his head was so large.”

The size of the kobold chieftain was as massive as the tavern owner.

Ordinary kobolds were about the size of children, so this was an abnormal development.

Moreover, it was wearing armor and adorned with various trinkets.

The armor was just leather patched together, and the trinkets were mostly made of animal fangs and claws.

“From the looks of his face, he was young. He would have grown even larger.”

As he spoke, Ian bent down.

“I can’t tell. But if he had grown any bigger, it would have been terrifying.”

“Yes. He would have attacked the village. Most of you would have died.”

“Well, that’s probably true. You’re quite confident about it.”

“The vigilantes were too weak.”

Actually, it was a scene he had seen in the game.

The flow of time had changed as the game became reality.

It had been over a year since he fell into this world, but he was still much earlier than when he had visited in the game.

In the game, the kobold stronghold had dominated the forest in tribal units and threatened the village.

This kobold chieftain had been a grand chieftain leading other chieftains at that time.

Eliminating him before he reached that stage made things much easier, but the experience points were much less.

‘I hope the spoils aren’t too poor either.’

Ian examined the chieftain’s trinkets one by one.

“...There it is.”

His eyes soon lit up.

Fortunately, the spoils were intact.

“What is it?”

The tavern owner, squatting a distance away, asked.

Ian held up a necklace.

“A valuable item.”

“To me, it just looks like an unpleasant red stone.”

“You’re right.”

Ian put on the bloodstone necklace.

A rare accessory that increased strength and constitution by 1 and mental fortitude by 3.

The chieftain’s composure, which was far superior to other kobolds, was partly due to this necklace.

The tavern owner, looking at the necklace with a wary eye, said,

“You have a keen eye. I don’t have anything to do, though.”

“Now you do. Strip this guy’s armor.”

“...So, it’s muscle work. Got it.”

The tavern owner lifted the chieftain’s body.

While muttering that it was disgustingly heavy, he began to remove the ragged armor skillfully.

Ian placed his hand on the armor.

It was an equippable item, but its performance wasn’t outstanding.

It also seemed difficult to repair.

“You can have the armor. It should fit you well.”

“Is that alright? Another decoration for the tavern. Thank you.”

The owner’s hands, untangling the tangled knots, were filled with enthusiasm.

Ian added,

“And that battle axe.”

“...Is that alright? To me, these look more valuable than that necklace.”

Not at all. The battle axe looked intact on the outside, but it would break with just a few hits.

“Don’t misunderstand. It’s not free.”

Hiding his true intentions, Ian calmly added,

While the tavern owner tilted his head.

“While I stay in the village, you need to bring me work.”

“Like a kobold extermination quest?”

“Yes. Big or small, it doesn’t matter. As long as the reward is clear.”

This was the real reason he had called the tavern owner separately.

Before falling into this world, he had seen a list of essential side quests in a guide, but he hadn’t read it all.

No matter how much smarter he had become, it didn’t make him know what he hadn’t seen.

He couldn’t go around looking for every quest himself.

So, he planned to let the work come to him.

Among them, there would be quests.

At least some clues.

If a ragged armor and a battle axe on the verge of breaking were the price, it was a good deal.

The spoils the village youths would take were in the same vein.

“Surprising.”

The tavern owner, looking at Ian for a moment, said.

With a tone of admiration.

Ian chuckled.

“Why, did you think I would only complain about the food? Like those vigilantes?”

“Even if I did, I couldn’t stop you. But I thought you would leave soon. Someone like you wouldn’t stay in a backwater village forever.”

“I will leave. When my business is done.”

If it weren’t for the game, he might not have known.

Ian planned to clear as many quests as possible and move forward.

Even if it led to a different outcome from the story he had experienced in the game.

“Understood. Gladly. I’ll bring you everything except for trivial things like finding a cat.”

“Even those are fine. If you can kill it and bring it, that’s fine too.”

The owner laughed and removed the armor.

His hands, organizing the armor, were meticulous.

Now it’s mine, he thought.

Ian chuckled inwardly and looked at the chieftain’s naked body.

His gaze soon fixed on the center of the chieftain’s chest.

“Of course, it’s here.”

In the center of the chieftain’s chest was a fairly large black pearl.

Thick blood vessels around it had not yet subsided.

This was the best spoil he could get from the chieftain.

“What’s this? A cursed pearl?”

The tavern owner muttered again.

Ian nodded.

“Something like that.”

“Good heavens. Ru Solara…”

The owner closed his eyes and murmured the name of the god.

“Dagger.”

Ian extended his hand.

The owner, with a grim expression, drew his dagger and handed it over.

Ian stabbed the dagger into the chieftain’s chest without hesitation and extracted the pearl.

A heavy black pearl that still gleamed with blood.

Something ominous seemed to stir within it.

The owner, organizing the armor, asked,

“What kind of curse is on it?”

“It’s filled with corrupted magic. A lot of it.”

“...So, did this chieftain use black magic?”

“The one who embedded this used it. This is also his terminal. When the time came, it would have made him obey the one who gave him power.”

Now that the chieftain was dead, it was just a concentrated essence of corrupted magic.

The owner’s brows furrowed.

“So, there’s someone who wants these to spread?”

“Yes.”

“What could be the purpose? Is it a black mage driven mad by the rage of the Black Wall…?”

“That’s not my concern. It’s over, so don’t worry about it.”

Besides, that black mage would die by his hands eventually.

Ian muttered to himself while wiping the blood off the essence.

A corrupted high-level magic essence.

If he were a black mage, this would have been a valuable item he could use immediately.

All characters in Aquilonia could choose to ‘fall’.

It was content added in the first DLC, a kind of expansion pack.

Knights to dark knights. Barbarian warriors to berserkers. Mages to black mages. Scouts to assassins. Clerics to ancient priests.

According to the guide, not only the skills but also the choices and quests would change.

And falling was still possible.

Ian hadn’t chosen it because his level would reset the moment he did.

He also didn’t know the skill tree after that.

And he didn’t know how his relationships with major characters would change, so there were plenty of reasons.

In any case, what was important now was that he could use this essence if he purified it.

Whether he used it as it was or used it to create something, it would save his life at least once.

‘Who in Agel Rane can purify this?’

Ian put the essence in his pocket.

Actually, he pretended to put it in and moved it to a subspace.

The inventory window, which used to have 12 slots, was now a small subspace.

It was small, so it couldn’t hold many weapons, but it was a personal vault that couldn’t be stolen.

“I’m done with this guy.”

Ian handed the dagger and stood up.

The tavern owner, holding the dagger with a wary look, asked,

“Then, where’s your next business?”

Ian pointed to a hut behind the clearing, the only one that still had a proper shape.

“Now, we need to loot this guy’s house.”

The tavern owner’s eyes lit up.

He quickly took the lead.

“Let’s go. I’m curious what the kobold chieftain kept in his house.”

More like, he was curious what kind of loot would drop this time.

Ian followed leisurely behind.

***

The spoils collected by the village youths filled a cart and more.

Scrap metal, logs, unusable weapons, and relatively intact kobold corpses.

Most of it was junk that Ian wouldn’t have bothered with if he had come alone.

Ian took only the best of the spoils.

A few magic stones and silver coins.

Combined, they were barely a handful.

“This much… isn’t bad.”

Each item was more valuable than all the junk combined.

It was an excessive gain for the time and effort he hadn’t put in.

He had also found magic stones in the chieftain’s hut, so overall, it was a successful search.

“Still….”

He needed to check.

Ian turned his head.

The village youths, lined up.

All of them had bulging pockets.

‘They really collected a lot.’

Ian muttered to himself and began to scan them one by one.

The youths his gaze fell upon froze like frogs in front of a snake.

Ian’s eyes were eerily flickering.

It was the Vision skill, which detected magic.

Though only at level 1, it was sufficient to identify something containing magic.

“...”

Like now.

Ian stopped walking.

The green light flickering in the bulging pocket was clearly visible to him.

He didn’t know what it was, but it was definitely a magic item.

He looked at the youth’s face.

A village boy with a stupid-looking face and an unusually pale complexion.

He felt more bitter than angry.

Even after he had warned them.

“Why are you so foolish?”

“Y-Yes…?”

The youth, trembling lips, asked back.

He seemed to know he had done wrong.

The feeling was short-lived.

Ian drew his sword from his waist.

Most of these fools in the dark age learned only through blood.

“Take everything out of your pocket.”

The faces of those looking at Ian finally tensed.

All eyes turned to the youth whose lips were trembling.

The youth’s lips moved again.

“What… exactly….”

Ian raised his sword without saying another word.

Just as he was about to cut off the youth’s head.

“...?”

Ian’s brows furrowed.

The magic in the youth’s pocket was emitting a denser light.

And the magic seeping into the youth’s body was becoming clearer.

Ian moved his eyes back to the youth’s face.

Pale complexion. Trembling lips. Unfocused eyes.

“...We couldn’t communicate from the start.”

“T-That’s… what… T-That…”

The youth’s voice became strangely distorted, like metal being scratched.

His wide-open eyes turned purple.

Purple magic power surged throughout his body.

“H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H