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Proof-reader: Girondono

The two men started searching Ketan’s house, but they couldn’t find where the red marble was hidden in the end .

No, more precisely, they hadn’t predicted that there would be such thing as a secret hiding place . They had only carelessly looked at places like inside drawers and under beds .

“It’s not here . ”

“Yep . Not here . ”

After their search, the two men had gathered near the doorway and conversed while looking at Ketan’s corpse .

“What did I say? It’s not here . ”

“Okay, I got it . ”

“So where are we going now?”

“From here, the 3rd peak is closer than the 2nd peak, so let’s go to the 2nd peak first . ”

“Okay . By the way, are we going to get something out of doing all of this? Celta was a famous thief after all . ”

“I don’t know, but the guild master was the one who gave this quest . ”

“A lot of higher-level members left before because of that crazy bastard . It’s because of that . ”

And so, the two men left for the 3rd peak as they continued their conversation .

A few hours later .

“Eh? What?”

Another young man appeared in front of the ruined house .

* * *

Soo Hyuk, who had arrived at the centre of the 1st peak, looked up at the massive red tree towering over him .

‘Is this the tree…’

It was definitely the tree that Romian had talked about .

‘Then head south . ’

Soo Hyuk got hold his bearings and started walking south . Then a few minutes later, he stopped .

‘He does live here . ’

The reason he stopped walking was because he had spotted a house in the distance .

‘There’re a lot of monsters around here, so is it okay to be so obvious?’

Although there weren’t a lot, there were still orcs wandering around on the 1st peak . Nonetheless, the house was in full view to the surroundings, with no concealment what-so-ever .

‘Are there no orcs around here?’

Ketan seemed like someone who wasn’t wary of orcs . Wrapping up his thoughts, Soo Hyuk continued to trek towards the house .

“Eh, what?”

But when Soo Hyuk arrived in front of the house, he was startled at the scene before him .

“Why is the doorway broken?”

The house’s doorway had been smashed to bits, exposing its interior to the outside world .

“Did a monster attack?”

Soo Hyuk then cautiously approached the broken doorway and stepped inside the quiet house . What awaited him was an even bigger surprise .

‘A body?’

There was a dead body lying on the floorboards .

It was then .

[The quest ‘Romain’s First Request’ has been changed . ]

[The quest Romian’s Second Request’ has been changed . ]

Two notifications appeared in his vision after he noticed the corpse .

When Soo Hyuk read over the notifications, his eyes widened in surprised once again . Then he quickly opened his quest window to check the changes to his quest .

[Report with haste]

Ketan was murdered by someone . Previously predicting his fate, Ketan had wrote a letter beforehand . Find the letter and bring it back to Romian!

[Romian’s Letter: 0 / 1 ]

[Ketan’s Letter: 0 / 1 ]

[Quest Reward: Romian’s mission confirmation]

His ‘Romian’s First Request’ had been changed to ‘Report with haste’, and from the quest information Soo Hyuk realised that the corpse at his feet was Ketan .

‘Why…’

Why was he killed?

‘He looks like he was stabbed . ’

Blood had crusted around his stomach where his wound was, so it seemed like he was stabbed to death . Turning his eyes away from the blood, Soo Hyuk looked back at the changed quest .

‘Do I just have to report this to Romian?’

The reward for ‘Report with haste . ’, was Romian’s mission confirmation . It was the item he needed to complete this promotion mission . In other words, he just had to report this to Romian to be promoted to C-rank .

‘But it was originally a reward for the second request,’

Romian’s mission confirmation was originally a reward for the second request, but the second request hadn’t disappeared, it had merely changed . Then what was the reward for the second request now?

[The Lost Red Marble]

The red marble is hidden somewhere in Ketan’s house .

[Red Marble: 0 / 1 ]

[Quest Reward: Key to Phantom Celta’s Secret Cave]

‘Oh?’

Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but be flustered at the unexpected information .

‘Phantom Celta?’

It was because of the reward .

‘Celta is…’

Celta’s Secret Cave . Soo Hyuk opened the 4th section of the quest window and checked the special quest ‘Celta’s Inheritance’, which he had gotten from the library .

[Special Quest – Celta’s Inheritance]

Celta the Phantom, the thief without bloodstains, hid his entire wealth of stealings ina secret place . Find the secret place!

[Quest Reward: ??? ]

Soo Hyuk thought as he read over the quest .

‘Does Romian know something about this?’

He would be able to acquire the key to Celta’s Secret Cave if he found the red marble . That meant that the red marble was connected to Celta in some way, and Romian would also know something about Celta .

‘I should find it . ’

Soo Hyuk scanned the interior of the house . The red marble was in here somewhere, and he would obtain the key to Celta’s Secret Cave if he found it .

The secret place stated in ‘Celta’s Inheritance’, could have nothing to do with this key . After all, the secret cave might not be the secret place, but there was a high chance that they were related .

‘Okay . ’

Finally, he could see a clear path in this originally vague quest . Also, even if the red marble didn’t exist, he still had to find Ketan’s letter . So, Soo Hyuk started searching the house .

‘Eh?’

Not long after he started, Soo Hyuk stopped his movements .

‘Light?’

It was because there was a faint green light coming from a tiny crack on the wall . Drawn in by the light, Soo Hyuk approached the tiny crack .

Creak…

He had barely pressed against it, but the area around the crack was pushed inside the wall . Seeing this, Soo Hyuk pushed against the wall harder, then saw it .

‘Found it . ’

The red marble and the letter .

[You have acquired ‘Red Marble’ . ]

[You have acquired ‘Ketan’s Letter’ . ]

Soo Hyuk immediately stored them in his inventory and checked his quest . The quest ‘Report with Haste’ didn’t specify whether he had to deliver the letter to Romian, so he wasn’t surprised when he couldn’t see the ‘complete’ button on the quest . But, when he checked the ‘Lost Red Marble’, the ‘complete’ button was visible .

‘Looks like I don’t need to go to Romian to complete the second quest . ’

Soo Hyuk quickly pressed ‘complete’ with this thought .

[You have completed the quest ‘Lost Red Marble’ . ]

[You have acquired ‘Key to Phantom Celta’s Secret Cave’ . ]

Soo Hyuk checked the information for the key when he read the notifications .

[<Heroic> Key to Phantom Celta’s Secret Cave]

A key that can open Celta’s Secret Cave .

‘Hmm, it doesn’t say where the cave is . ’

He had hoped for the location of Celta’s Secret Cave, but a maybe was a maybe . There was no information or clues on the location .

‘I can’t just bring it up…’

There was a high chance that Romian would have some information on Celta, but with what had happened to Ketan, it didn’t seem like a good dead . If he did, he could leave a bad impression and Romian would also get suspicious .

‘Okay, I’ll casually ask while giving him the red marble . ’

Deciding on his strategy, Soo Hyuk opened his mouth .

“Archmage’s Subspace . ”

[Warping to Archmage’s Subspace . ]

Now, it was time to report to Romian .

[You have completed the quest ‘Report with Haste’ . ]

First, he gave the letter to Romian and finished his quest .

‘Now I just have to get the confirmation…’

Soo Hyuk was still waiting for Romian’s confirmation, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask, since Romian was reading Ketan’s Letter with crushing intensity .

‘I’ll just wait for him to finish reading . ’

Deciding to ask after Romian finishes reading the letter, Soo Hyuk patiently waited while staring at Romian .

Romian was completely silent as he read the letter . Meanwhile, his eyes were switching back and forth between blank absentmindedness, extreme focus and heavy sadness .

.

.

.

If you’re reading this letter, then that must mean I died somehow . Maybe from the cave’s traps or maybe from murder .

Murder was probably more likely . The red marble, the key to Celta’s cave . It’s too much for us to handle, a much bigger scale then our small world .

.

.

.

After finishing the letter, Romian looked up at Soo Hyuk . As they met eyes, he thought,

‘He’s not it . ’

Soo Hyuk wasn’t the one who killed Ketan . What did he know originally to kill Ketan? Also, if he had killed him, then he wouldn’t have brought this letter back .

‘Then who is it?’

Who killed Ketan? There weren’t many people that knew of Ketan’s hut on the 1st peak in the first place . There couldn’t be more than 10 people .

‘First, I have to notify them . ’

The 2nd peak, 5th peak and the 7th peak . He had comrades in those 3 peaks . Ketan was murdered, and it was possible that the murderer wouldn’t end there . His comrades could be in danger, so he had to quickly warn them .

“Have you also seen a marble? It’s red…”

Romian asked Soo Hyuk . Of course, there was a high possibility that Ketan’s murderers had taken the marble, but it wasn’t certain .

“Ah, yes . I have it here . ”

Soo Hyuk opened his inventory as he replied to Romian . He had already obtained the key from the quest rewards, so there was no need for the red marble anymore . Soo Hyuk took out the red marble from his inventory and held it out to Romian .

‘Hmm?’

Soo Hyuk widened his eyes in surprise when he pulled out red marble .

‘The light…’

When he first saw it in Ketan’s hut, it had been gently spewing a strange light . But now, it’s smooth surface was a dull red with no light .

‘It is because I completed the quest?’

While wondering if the glow disappeared because he completed his quest, Soo Hyuk handed the marble to Romian . Opposite of him, Romian was silently staring the marble . He then snapped back to reality after a few seconds and received the marble .

“Um, could you please wait a moment?’

“Okay . ”

At Soo Hyuk’s reply, Romian walked over to his desk and opened a drawer . Then after storing the letter and the marble, he took out a scroll and returned to his seat .

“This is the mission confirmation . Thank you for your service . ”

[You have acquired ‘Romian’s Mission Confirmation’ . ]

Soo Hyuk received the scroll and bowed to say goodbye and head out of Romian’s room .

‘I couldn’t ask in the end . ’

He couldn’t find the chance to ask about the marble .

‘Well, I’m sure I can ask again on another day . ’

It didn’t have to be about Celta or the Secret Cave; Romian’s identity was enough . And so, Soo Hyuk started heading back to the agency with a light skip in his steps .