Chapter 27: Chapter 27

After the hunt ended, Shan, who was lying down exhausted, saw two lights approaching from afar.

It was Roden and Vent, holding torches with tense postures and looking around their surroundings.

“Hey, Shan, Shan! Are you there! Answer me!”

“Over here…”

Because he did not even have the energy to speak, after calling out in a whisper a few times, the two barely managed to discover Shan and the cockatrice sprawling beside him.

Astonished by the sight of him lying covered in blood, Roden quickly ran over.

“Oh no! How badly are you hurt? Priest, quickly heal him!”

“I’m not… badly hurt…”

Though he had a few wounds, they were merely light grazes or scrapes from rolling on the ground, and all the blood on his body had come from the severed neck of the cockatrice.

Realizing this, Roden let out a sigh of relief.

“You scared me… But why do you look so miserable? You’re making me worry.”

“Spirit.”

“Ah.”

At that moment, Vent, who was illuminating the massive monster’s corpse with his torch beside them, let out a low sigh.

“He really killed it! A cockatrice, and all by himself at that.”

“Not… by myself.”

If not for the spell Zerpo had cast on him, he would not have been able to completely sever its neck.

If not for Vent’s blessing, he would not have been able to recover his stamina after landing those several earlier attacks.

And if Roden had not thrown him a weapon, he would have been struck heavily while awkwardly carrying multiple weapons clanking around him.

Though he fought alone, he was able to win because everyone was together… Shan truly believed so.

Hearing his words, Roden laughed incredulously and pulled Shan up.

“Sure, let’s consider it something we all accomplished together. For now, let’s go get some sleep, great hero.”

Everyone was far too exhausted to deal with things like disposing of the cockatrice.

Although Shan was the only one who fought directly, the other two also had to experience the battle of uncertain outcome through sound alone in the pitch black darkness.

Stumbling back to their temporary shelter, the three lied down together next to Zerpo, who had already fallen fast asleep.

Fortunately, perhaps because the cockatrice was an endlessly terrifying tyrant to the snake monsters of this city, all four were able to greet the next morning without any trouble.

Zerpo, who woke up first, looked at the other three and spoke in dumbfounded disbelief.

“Don’t tell me you all slept without a night watch!?”

“Probably… looks like we did.”

“Good grief.”

If even a single snake from the outskirts had slithered in, they probably would have been wiped out.

Saying that they should never do this again no matter how tired they were, they held a brief reflection meeting and left their shelter.

Now it was finally time to harvest the results of their hard work.

*

“Hah…”

Inspecting the cockatrice’s corpse, Zerpo stroked its stony body as if unable to believe it.

“To think the day would come when I’d observe a cockatrice up close like this.”

“Do you happen to know what spoils can be taken from the beast?”

“First, if we scrape off the stone skin, it can be used as an alchemical catalyst. But it’s too heavy, and while rare, its uses are ambiguous so it won’t fetch much of a price, so let’s discard this. The webbing on its feet has good elasticity so it can be used as tool material, and even if its eyes lack petrification ability, their properties are similar to a basilisk’s so they can be used as magic tool ingredients…”

Shan butchered the useful parts according to Zerpo’s instructions.

Roden, who could not handle edged tools properly, took charge of receiving them from the side, organizing them, or hanging them up to dry easily.

However, while trying to cut open and extract the heart, he noticed a strange stone right next to it.

Translucent red and slightly larger than a human torso, this was…

“It’s a mana stone!”

“Oh, a cockatrice’s mana stone? Well, a beast of this size couldn’t possibly not have a mana stone!”

Mana stones mainly came from high-tier monsters, and the stronger the beast, the better the quality.

In fact, the troll Shan had caught previously was also an entity that originally dropped mana stones fairly often.

At that time, it simply had not dropped one due to bad luck.

When the mana stone was extracted, Zerpo verified it with various spells and nodded.

“It goes without saying. It’s top-grade. If we sell it to the guild, it’ll be worth at least ten thousand gold coins.”

“Ten thousand coins…!”

It was an amount he could not even dare to imagine.

Even the few hundred coins from the troll hunting reward were heavy enough to be inconvenient to carry around, so with that much, it would be difficult to carry, meaning they would have to open a bank account.

While grinning over the massive harvest for a moment, Roden hastily shouted as if remembering something.

“Ah, you must not do anything to the head!”

“I already gouged out the eyes.”

“That much is fine. But you shouldn’t mess with the overall shape. First, sever the neck…”

Even the cockatrice’s head, which became much lighter after cutting off the neck section, was larger than an average adult body and covered in boulder-like skin, making it immensely heavy.

Perhaps one of the four horses they brought would have to be used entirely to load this single item.

However, the severed head of a monster was originally the most definitive proof of a hunt, so regardless of its actual value, they had to take it along if only for symbolic meaning.

Roden smirked as he meticulously applied preservatives from the cut cross-section to between the stone skin.

“I look forward to seeing what kind of expressions people will make when we bring this back…”

A monster that more than ten knights would have to attack together, prepared for half of them to die, had been subjugated by a boy in his early-to-mid teens.

It was a story so absurd that it would not even be written in the epics of the great knights recorded in history, including Emperor Baren.

Precisely for that reason, they needed an undeniably clear piece of proof to demonstrate it.

While Roden prepared the head, the others finally entered the interior of the mansion where the cockatrice had lived.

Scrapes and scratches were visible everywhere in the hallways large enough for that lizard monster to pass through.

“What kind of person lived in a place like this?”

“It’s clear they weren’t an ordinary person. Among the Altoan ruins we’ve passed through so far, I’ve never seen a house of this size…”

Vent answered as if murmuring at Shan’s question.

Since the mansion was so vast, the three scattered for an efficient search.

Vent and Zerpo searched the first and second floors, while Shan went up to the third floor so he could leap down whenever needed.

‘It’s really huge.’

The largest house Shan had seen until now was the Weavers mansion in the capital, but this house was large beyond comparison with that one.

In the first place, because the doors and hallways were of absurd sizes as if a giant had lived here, he wondered if the overall area might be more than ten times greater.

Perhaps the royal palace of Pendia looked like this?

Yet strangely enough, despite that, things like furniture were similar in size to what ordinary humans used.

Perhaps because the cockatrice could not go up to the third floor due to its heavy body, there were no scratch marks in the hallway, but whether because of the immense time that had passed, most items were shabby and worn out.

‘There’s nothing good here, contrary to expectation.’

He had thought the owner of such an enormous mansion must surely be rich, but unexpectedly, compared to other mansions nearby, there was actually less remaining here.

Had they been of an unexpectedly frugal disposition?

Wondering about this, Shan opened the largest door, the last room at the end of the hallway, and let out a low exclamation upon seeing the interior.

“Oh…!”

Inside the worn, crumbling drapes, a sword lay atop a pile of dust presumed to have originally been a bed.

Judging by the size and splendor of the room, it was likely the master bedroom of the house’s owner.

Approaching with slow steps, Shan drew the sword from a wooden scabbard that was already tattered and on the verge of breaking.

The length was around one meter including the hilt and blade, the crossguard was relatively short, and the grip seemed suitable whether held with one hand or two.

Just looking at the blue-gray blade reminiscent of cool winter weather and the subtle magic patterns glowing upon it, one could tell it was no ordinary item.

“A magic sword?”

Murmuring in a trembling voice as if unable to believe his unexpected luck, Shan soon swung the sword lightly through the air.

Just like his body, the magic sword was slightly lighter than an ordinary iron sword of similar size.

“Roden! Mr. Vent! Mr. Zerpo!”

Kicking open the door immediately, Shan called out loudly to his companions and jumped straight down from the third floor to the first floor.

The three who had been searching other floors or busy with preservation work at the entrance came running in a hurry.

“What happened?”

“I found it! A magic sword!”

“Really!?”

“I knew it!”

Magic swords were originally treated as the most expensive among magic tools.

Everyone’s face brightened.

But for some reason, the face of Zerpo, who had hurried down from the second floor and was looking at the sword, hardened.

He scanned Shan, Roden, and Vent one by one with somewhat frightened eyes.

“Th-This, don’t tell me…?”

“It’s a good thing, right?”

Because his reaction somehow did not seem to be in a positive direction, Shan asked as if pressing him without realizing it.

Zerpo, who was even breaking out in a cold sweat, swallowed hard and spoke softly.

“Just a moment, just in case, I need to inspect it a bit.”

While he continuously chanted spells toward the sword, the remaining three sat around right next to him and chatted.

It was about what kind of ability that object, presumed to be the top harvest of this journey along with the cockatrice’s mana stone, possessed and how great a value it had.

“First of all, it doesn’t look like it was made of ordinary metal, right?”

“Of course. It’s a color that could never come from ordinary steel. Perhaps it’s an alloy mixed with a rare metal from the Ajun Kingdom.”

One of the specialties of the northern Ajun Kingdom was precisely various metals with peculiar properties that rarely came from other regions.

Among them were those possessing traits such as half the weight with similar durability to iron of the same weight, or not rusting.

However, a moment later, the words that came out of Zerpo’s mouth after finishing the inspection were beyond what they had imagined.

“It is a sword made of True Silver. And pure True Silver with almost no impurities at that. The cockatrice beast seems to have stayed here to suck in the power flowing from this.”

“Ah…”

“Absurd. A sword of that size entirely?”

Vent murmured with an incredulous expression as he looked at the sword.

True Silver was something Shan had also learned about during his liberal arts lessons.

The hardest material, the prince of metals, True Iron.

The queen of metals that accepted magic best, True Silver.

The king of metals that could be worked into anything and was called the almighty metal, True Gold.

Those three metals were treasures among treasures that countless kings and feudal lords would covet even in small amounts merely mixed as alloys.

Yet to think it was not a weapon with a small amount mixed in, but one made entirely from it?

“About two hundred years ago from now, Libert and Ajun fought a war to get their hands on a mine where three kilograms of True Silver were excavated. Soldiers were mobilized in tens of thousands, and the kings of both kingdoms were even killed once by each other…”

The victor of that war, called the True Silver War by later generations, was the Ajun Kingdom, and they divided the True Silver obtained at that time into seven chunks to forge weapons, making them a point of pride to this day.

Judging by its size, that sword must weigh at least over one kilogram, meaning it was about one-third of the amount the two countries had gone to war to obtain.

Just as everyone was astonished, Zerpo let out a nervous laugh and spoke.

“If it were just a sword made of True Silver it would be one thing, but the magic cast inside it is even more absurd.”

“What is it?”

“It is magic that manipulates physical properties. Although there are certain limits, it can change everything from increasing or decreasing length to shape and hardness. It is a miracle of a level that modern magic could never implement no matter what. Perhaps the price of this magic is even more expensive than the True Silver.”

Just hearing about it made one realize it was an absurd functionality.

If that was truly possible, wouldn’t knights not need to struggle to prepare all kinds of weapons?

“Hmm…”

Only then did Vent and Roden also realize why Zerpo had shown a dizzy expression the moment he saw this weapon.

Failing to understand the reactions of the others, Shan asked.

“If it’s a good item, it’ll be expensive, so isn’t that a good thing?”

“It’s a problem because it’s too good. This is not just a magic sword; it’s an item worthy of being handed down as a family heirloom for generations by the royal family, whichever of the Alliance’s five royal houses you present it to.”

“If we try to sell it to the Explorer Guild, Count of Shedil will immediately lead his order of knights over, kill us all, and snatch it away. Because there’s no way an item this precious could be bought with money.”

A treasure, by definition, needed to have liquidity, but this was so precious that it was impossible to sell somewhere and divide its value.

If the four of them were people belonging to some giant power, they could at least attempt a transaction, but if mere sons of jewelers, priests, mages, and an Altoan boy attempted a trade, it was obvious someone would try to immediately strip the item from them and kill and bury them.

Even so, the moment someone took possession of this, that person would practically take 99% of the rewards of this expedition.

If one were to put a price on it, it was such a rare item that kings of various nations would try to obtain it even by paying hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

While a long silence flowed, Shan offered a clear solution.

“Then shall we split it?”

“Huh?”

“Pardon?”

“Even though True Silver is hard, I don’t think it’s to the extent of being impossible to break, so I’ll concentrate my spirit as much as possible and cut it into four pieces. Then we can just take one each. Ah, come to think of it, didn’t you say the shares weren’t exactly one-quarter? Roden probably knows…”

The three (Roden, Zerpo, and Vent) were dumbfounded by Shan’s words for a moment and looked at one another.

Then, without knowing who started first, they burst into laughter.

“Pfft, hehe, ahahaha!”

“To divide it like that…”

It seemed like a good idea, so why were they laughing so much?

As Shan wore a sulky expression, Zerpo wiped the corners of his eyes with his fingers and explained.

“If you do that, the magic imbued in the sword will probably shatter. Its value would drop to less than half in an instant.”

“Ah.”

“Besides, isn’t there a much simpler method for you, Shan? That is, simply stabbing me and Priest Vent once each and taking it.”

They were people he had met only a few months ago, and he had done the fight against the cockatrice by himself anyway.

Zerpo spoke calmly, asking if there was anything to weigh on his conscience.

At this, Shan shrugged his shoulders as if to ask why he was saying such a thing.

“You’re saying that because you know I won’t do that.”

“That’s right. Honestly, until a moment ago I felt prematurely scared thinking you might do that, but after hearing you say we should split it into four pieces, I feel even dumber for having had such thoughts. Experiences like this aren’t very common.”

After learning its exact capabilities, he did want to possess that sword more, but he did not have even the slightest thought of killing Zerpo and Vent to do so.

Killing a comrade who fought alongside him for his own gain when they had not betrayed him first?

To Shan, such a thing was simply something he could not do.

Not something he shouldn’t do.

“But then wouldn’t it have been fine if you just didn’t tell me what kind of item it was?”

“How could I deal with the aftermath of deceiving a warrior who defeated a cockatrice by himself?”

“That’s true!”

Vent, who was snicker-laughing, looked at Shan and spoke nonchalantly.

“Let Shan take that sword.”

“Pardon? Is that alright?”

“Even by the existing distribution criteria, Shan’s share was eighty percent, and considering his contribution to the core cockatrice hunt, it wouldn’t be lacking to see it as one hundred percent. If a dozen knights had swarmed over in your place and defeated the cockatrice with our help, do you think they would have recognized even a single cent of our contribution?”

Hearing that, he thought they certainly would not have.

Even though Vent and Zerpo were fairly skilled priests and mages, they were merely resources with plenty of replacements around.

“Hmm, but still, just receiving it is a bit…”

“If so, then as hush money, just give us a generous portion of the sales proceeds from the mana stone and other byproducts. And keep the existence of that item a secret.”

“Right. It must never be known.”

Roden nodded vehemently and agreed.

If it became known that the person possessing such a treasure among treasures was a mere Altoan boy, he would literally become the public enemy of the entire world.

If he were to reveal it proudly, it would have to be at least after gaining enough strength to protect the item.

*

Even after the distribution of the excessively large prey was over, there were still many things to do.

There were still many unsearched locations in this grand mansion, and even before the fight with the cockatrice, they had not searched all the surrounding buildings.

Having explored the central area of the city for nearly two days, the green eyes decided to slowly organize the obtained items and head back.

This was because the number of artifacts obtained had grown so large that even if they excavated more, it would be difficult to carry them.

The number of horses they could mobilize was four, and among them, one had to carry the cockatrice’s head, while another had to carry drinking water to eat and drink.

Thanks to that, the room to load luggage was not as much as expected.

“Shall we exclude this shelf? For a single item, it weighs over eighty kilograms…”

“No way. If this finds its proper owner, it might be more expensive than ten other mediocre items!”

“Don’t leave out that jewelry box! The magic cast inside it is extremely rare!”

“Things like that don’t make money!”

While the three engaged in a fierce debate on this topic, Shan was completely absorbed in his newly acquired sword.

First, the very first function he tested was length adjustment.

The moment he simply wished for it, the blade of the sword, which had been about one meter long, shot outward.

“Whoa.”

The sight of an object made of solid metal transforming felt somewhat creepy even.

The extended sword shrank back to its original length just by thinking about it, and then shrank even further, changing to the level of a one-handed sword.

Shan smirked as he imagined how monstrous an effect this sword could produce when used in a fight against a person.

Even if he only adjusted the length of the blade by 10 cm, he would be able to thrust the sword into the body of an opponent who let their guard down thinking his attack was too far away to reach.

Naturally, most sword fights ended right at that point.

As he handled it a bit more this way and that, the function of the sword had room to be used in even more creative ways than expected.

First, he could shorten the handle and remove the crossguard to use it outright like a dagger, or make the stiff blade as flexible as cloth.

If he applied this a bit further, curling the blade round and extending it long, it would literally be no different from a rope.

And although it was a bit difficult perhaps because it differed completely from its original form, he could even change it into shapes like a spear or an axe.

By this point, he wondered if it was even right to call this weapon a sword.

Of course, whether because it had an original form, taking the shape of a sword was the most stable and strong.

Continuing on, Shan, who transformed the sword into the shape of a long, thick greatsword and swung it, tilted his head.

‘This is a bit lacking. Maybe because it’s too light…’

Even if he greatly increased the length and width of the blade, the weight did not increase, so taking wind resistance made it difficult to swing, nor was power put into it to that extent.

On the contrary, when made into a small dagger and thrown, it became a compressed dagger with a weight of one kilogram, unleashing a more destructive power than expected.

Swish… as he swung the flexible soft sword, the remaining body of the butchered cockatrice was sliced away smoothly.

The stone carapace, which originally required all his strength to pierce with an iron sword, was dug into deeply just by lightly imbuing it with spirit.

‘It’s sharp beyond comparison with an iron sword, and sturdy as well…’

Furthermore, thanks to being spread thin like cloth, extending it to a length close to nearly five meters was also possible.

The only terribly sad thing was the single fact that he could not use such a good item in front of others.

If he felt aggrieved, he had no choice but to quickly become a knight and succeed in life.

Just as Count of Shedil had said before, if he became something like a King’s knight, people might not say anything about it.

Though he did not know well what kind of person the King of Pendia was.

The end of this long, fun entertainment came because the packing of luggage was finally completed.

Worthy of the effort spent discussing for a long while, the four horses were loaded with only enough luggage to barely endure a long march.

Everything else was buried in a pit dug nearby.

“Will the day come when we return to retrieve those as well?”

“It has to. But processing just the items we have right now will take quite a while.”

If they released too many artifacts at once, prices would crash, so they would have to take their time and sell them slowly.

Of course, even if they just sold them all at once, it would produce enormous profit, but wouldn’t it be better to see a lot of gain with little effort if possible?

While talking, Vent let out a small sigh as he looked at the luggage piled full atop the saddle.

“With this, explorer work is over as well.”

“Pardon? Why?”

“We should retire! With this much, our monastery can be operated for the next hundred years even without sponsorships.”

“I also think I’ll be able to research until I grow old and die with the profits obtained this time. Of course, if I lavishly waste it all, I might have to work again.”

“Ah…”

Only then did Shan recall once again that the two of them had been doing explorer work as a side job for their main professions.

Merely receiving a portion of the profits from this excavation would generate funds on the level of completing ordinary explorations dozens of times, so there was no longer any reason to keep doing this job at the risk of their lives.

Seeing Shan’s disappointed face, Zerpo spoke with his characteristic showy smile.

“It seems you are disappointed that we can’t be together, but it can’t be helped. My brilliant intellect must be used in the workshop.”

“I’ll even miss that obnoxious way of speaking now. I should also spend my time at the monastery taking care of kids to my heart’s content.”

Vent stroked the horse’s mane and laughed heartily.

At that moment, Roden shouted in surprise upon looking at Shan as if realizing just then.

“Wait, but where did that sword go? Don’t tell me you left it behind?”

Looking now, the True Silver sword was nowhere to be seen anywhere on Shan’s body.

What was strapped to his waist was clearly the steel longsword he had bought before, and among the luggage loaded on the horses, there was nothing that looked like a sword.

At this, Shan grinned and slightly pulled back the collar of the clothes he was wearing.

Something blue-gray was seen wrapping around his chest.

“Ah, don’t tell me?”

“Yeah. I made everything including the hilt thin and soft and wrapped it around my body.”

“I didn’t think of a method like that.”

If he did that, it was certain it would really not be noticed under ordinary circumstances.

Perhaps it was the most expensive underwear in the world.

Toward Roden, who was laughing in disbelief, Shan spoke boastfully.

“I even came up with a name this time. Because this won’t break easily like the weapons I used before.”

“What is it?”

“A Thousand Shapes!”

Indeed, it was a name that fit its function perfectly.

It was a drawback that because it was so intuitive, one could figure out what ability it possessed the moment they heard it, but in truth, magic tools were mostly like that anyway.

Shortly after chatting and laughing excitedly, once they left the central district of the city, everyone became tense again as usual and prepared for battle.

Though they had already dealt with the snakes in this district once while passing through, creatures that had been in other districts might have crossed over in the meantime.

While advancing while on guard against a surprise attack that might strike at any moment, Shan suddenly closed his eyes and sniffed.

“What’s wrong?”

“I smell something burning. It’s quite harsh…”

“A burning smell?”

“Um, I think I smell it a bit too.”

Zerpo, who was likewise focusing his sense of smell, answered.

It was rare to smell something burning in the Demonic Realm.

Unless perhaps a fire elemental or something appeared on occasion, because basically creatures called monsters had no reason to use fire.

Advancing while feeling puzzled, before long they came to realize where the smell originated.

Pure white glowing flames were covering the outer edge of the city and slowly approaching.