96 Chapter 0096
[Sahhan's Eagle
Type: Vehicle
Rating: Rare
Durability: 1098/1145
Speed: 30km/hour~460km/hour
A rare masterpiece made by the best magic engineers of the Sahhan Empire. It was a car that the previous king of the Sahhan Empire cherished a lot and had given to Marquess Wenselm, which was later passed on within his family.
To this day, the car has stood strong and has been taken care of regularly. It can still be counted as one of the top cars of the Sahhan Empire.
It is crafted with Black Iron and Orenium and is powered by a small-sized, medium-quality mana stone. The only drawback it has is the high consumption of its durability, making it unable to become the actual best in its field.
User restrictions: None.]
The car that Harold had given me was indeed amazing, its top speed being even higher than the Desert Scorpion!
It took me just a single day to arrive at the Drisica Kingdom, which was thousands of miles away from the Wenselm dukedom. I had arrived at an outskirt city called Lordir. I had set it as my location instead of directly jumping to the capital city so that I could gather information from the native NPCs here and gather some rumours which might be useful.
It was one of the most important parts of doing quests. Before I became a legendary class, I was a full-time adventurer who spent more time with NPCs talking and gathering information than levelling up.
'Well, I guess I'm still the same.'
I hadn't really changed much from the days when I was a gunslinger, and it was somewhat reassuring yet unsettling.
'Where do I keep this big guy?'
I had stopped at the outskirts of Lordir to somehow get rid of the outstanding car, which could potentially draw unnecessary attention to me, ruining my plans to stay low-key and collect information.
It was impossible to store something as big as that in my inventory, as the inventory was a dedicated space to allow for item storage up to two meters in width and height per item slot. The car was more than two meters in length, rendering me unable to store it in my inventory.
The inventory wasn't omnipotent and was fairly limited. It upgraded every 100 levels, but I needed to cross level 200 to get another upgrade, which was impossible when I had a quest to finish.
~~I can help!~~
"Huh? How?"
I was surprised by Drew's words. How can he help me hide this huge car?
~~You rarely pay attention to me. I gain a skill every ten levels, I'm already level 80, you know.~~
Drew said, and I brought him out of the pet inventory. The jiggly purple-coloured slime shook like a dog shaking off water from his body.
~~Ah! Fresh air! You should take me out more often, not like I'm that eye-catching.~~
Drew complained with a frown forming on his nonexistent forehead.
He said he could help, but I didn't know what he meant by that. So I did the most logical thing anyone would have done.
I checked his stats and found out what he meant.
One of his skills caught my eye in particular, which was probably the skill that the little slime mentioned.
[I devour, I vomit.
Type: Active Skill
Consumption: None
Cooldown: None
The primordial carries with itself an infinite space within it. Any inanimate objects can be stored within and taken out at will by Drew.
Items can be permanently sacrificed to the space within to increase Drew's powers in proportion to the item.]
Although the name was a little… peculiar, the effects were amazing. I had just gained an infinite inventory in Mayhem Online. If people knew that, they'd go crazy from envy.
'I can steal anything I want, and nobody will know! Mwahaha!'
~~... Let's draw the line there. No stealing.~~
—Tsk!
Drew said speechlessly, and I clicked my tongue. I was just kidding, dude! I have that much conscience myself.
`I believe you.`
'You shut up! Prolus.'
Anyways, with that said, the problem of storing the car was solved, and I moved into the city with a hoodie covering my head.
It was a fantasy world, so people who walked around hiding their faces were nothing unusual.
Coming inside the city, I went to the best place to gather information.
[Lotus Bar]
"What would you like, sir?"
Unlike the name suggested, the waiter was actually fat and hairy middle-aged man, one of his had a hook instead of a palm.
It was a common appearance, too, since amputated limbs were as common as curly hair in the world of Ethra.
"Bring me the Special Lotus Alé along with Garlic bread."
"Right away, sir."
The fat waiter with a big nose filled with mules gave his best smile, which was rather creepy, and went back to the counter to give my order.
I looked around at the people, and surprisingly, there were a lot of players and NPCs around the area.
'I guess it's due to the war? The northern fortress is three cities away from here after all.'
Most of the NPCs were mercenaries rather than official soldiers. Most mercenaries participated in the war due to the high pay, and if they somehow ended up dying, the insurance amount that their families got was enough to feed them for years.
It was a cruel world, and they had learnt to live just as cruelly in this world.
"Have you heard about General Elexis? I heard that she was able to hold off against the devils for one and a half months straight, even with that meagre amount of soldiers."
With my high insight stat, it was easy to eavesdrop on conversations. An NPC mercenary was talking about Elexis, one of the top players currently in Mayhem and also one of the most popular ones.
"I heard that too. Resurrectors are truly amazing. They don't have to worry about dying and can increase their strength steadily."
Another mercenary beside him said in a jealous voice.
"Hmph! They're just cursed beings who could never rest in peace. I'm better off being dead than being immortal."
The conversation of the group went in a totally different direction, so I started listening to other people's conversations before I finally found something interesting.
"Here's your Special Lotus Alé. Your roasted pricken meat will be here soon."
"But I asked for garlic bread."
"About that, we have actually run out of garlic right now, so I hope you can make do with roasted pricken meat. It's the best around here; also, you'll get a 20% discount as an apology."
The fat waiter who had disturbed me when I was just about to listen to an important piece of news smiled regretfully.
"I need a 25% discount on both the meat and Alé."
"Haha! You make quite the bargain. Since the mistake is mine, I'll accept it. Hope you enjoy your time here."
I just said okay and waved my hand, telling him to go away if he didn't have anything else.
"Did you hear the news from Capital City Kobid? I heard there have been about fifty-thousand strong army stationed outside the city for the last half a month. It's an army from the Empire sent to aid the king, but he had not yet given them orders to reinforce the Northern fortress!"
"I heard it too. I say the king is in cahoots with these devils! Wasn't the second prince found to be working with devils half a year ago? The king had tried to defend him even back then! It was thanks to his majesty the emperor that the evil prince was executed for colluding with the devils."
"What other reason does he have to not defend his own country? He has definitely fallen from grace! If I were him, I'd personally march the army to slaughter these devil sons of bitches!"
"Shh! Keep your voice low! However bad he is, he's still the king of this country! We must not talk bad about him. There are eyes and ears everywhere."
'Interesting…'
This group gave out quite the information here. From their talks, it was quite viable that the king had given up on the country, and it'd become visible soon enough.
Since he was holding back the Empire's army, it meant either he was ready to sacrifice himself for the cause of whatever he was planning to do or he was confident that he'd survive even if the Empire took action itself.
I doubt it's the latter, so I'd place my bet on the former assumption.
"These gentlemen! Why don't you tell me more about what you were talking about earlier?"
A man with a hoodie just like mine neared the mercenary group that had just badmouthed the king, making them anxious that they had already been caught.
"W-what do you mean? We didn't say anything at all!"
The oldest one from the group said as he gathered some courage.
I looked at the person who took off his hoodie to show off his charming face with green hair.
'... Huh? Lycan?'
Lycan, a Korean gamer, 9th in the unified ranking and the first in the archer rankings! What was such a big-shot player doing here?
"Calm down. I'm not here to cause trouble! I just want to know more about what you just said. If what you're saying is true, then the emperor must be informed about this matter before it does irreparable damage!"
Lycan said passionately, his hand waving grandly from here and there.
'... What's he trying to do?'
"Yes! Old man Corrin, let's tell this brother everything we know if it can help save our Drisica kingdom from turning into a piece of devil crap!"
The young mercenary, who was barely holding on, burst out in rage. He had the heroic spirit of a young hatchling.
Lycan smiled from the corner of his mouth, looking at the young mercenary.
"Calm down, Idris! But… since you're willing to help… will you really deliver our message to his majesty, the emperor?"
"Of course! Leave it to me!"
Wait, wait, wait!
'What the fuck?'
Did he just make those NPCs give him a quest…
So easily?
It was said that getting a quest out of an NPC was a really hard task. One had to build a certain level of affinity and fulfil all sorts of different conditions to get some quests out.
But this Lycan guy casually made some no-name NPCs give him a quest that was directly related to the highest level NPC on the central continent!
'Rankers are truly monstrous! To think that I was really good at talking to the NPCs! Ptui!'
I spat out in discontent.
Oh, wait!
I felt like I was ignoring the most important thing.
'This bastard just stole my quest!'
He basically had the same quest as me! He'd probably go and verify the details of the information he got and then report it to the emperor!
Wasn't that basically what my quest was?
How the fuck did I end up gaining a competitor out of nowhere?
I knew my luck these days was too much! To think I'd start rotting at such a time!
I felt sour in my mouth for some reason.