Request Accepted, Playing Detective

The papers had several tasks on them. Arbitrary things you would see in an average isekai, like monster hunting, resource gathering, and the like.

However, most of those tasks requested someone of a higher level. Monsters had slowly pervaded through the continent once it was created; A consequence of the Saints speed up of time.

The resource gathering tasks were in rather dangerous places, not fit for weaklings like them. Not to mention, they didn't even know what the resources looked like.

There were several other tasks, like bounties and odd jobs. However, to pay for rent, the two of them would have to do at least twenty odd jobs. They weren't especially difficult, only time consuming.

Joe and Amelia's eyes soon swept past the whole board, and landed on one certain task. The description was as follows.

"Unidentified serial murderer at Sancran Village. Qi traces at the scene. Suspected to be within rank 4-7 of the Qi Gathering Realm. Apprehend the suspect."

A Qi Gathering Realm cultivator was only a stronger than average person. They couldn't yet control their Qi externally and their strength was about enough to lift an entire queen-sized bed single-handedly.

However, they could still die if they were set on fire, or bludgeoned with a large rock.

However, the bounty was quite high, enough to live in the Tower for a few weeks. Upon seeing the bounty, Joe and Amelia made eye contact before nodding. They walked over to a receptionist nearby before asking about the task.

"Oh, that task? Nobody has been willing to take it since it's in such an out of the way area. However, there's nothing really special about the place. We can send you there for free and take care of your accommodation."

Seeing such a good deal, Joe and Amelia showed their willingness to take on the request.

The receptionist nodded before he took out a device, seemingly for communication. Upon speaking for a while, the receptionist motioned for them to follow.

After walking a bit, they reached a wall. Suddenly, the wall turned pitch black. Space elements began to flow out of it. Joe's eyes widened at the opportunity before attempting to absorb the elements.

After several minutes of the wall turning darker and darker, the receptionist motioned for the two of them to go through the portal.

"Once you head through the portal, you ought to head to the Accumula Hotel, because that's where you're gonna be staying. Just ask for directions from someone and they should know where it is."

The two of them nodded, Joe slightly later, and they walked into the portal.

Upon exiting the tunnel, Amelia asked him a question.

"Was that the space element?"

Joe nodded. The two of them had shared some secrets after living together and had gotten more acquainted with one another.

Amelia was part of an underground organization. She initially joined for money, before getting promoted consecutively. The old leader appointed her as a possible successor, causing all kinds of problems for her, before she decided to run away.

"So how much did you absorb?"

Amelia couldn't see the space element, so she didn't know how much Joe absorbed. The speed of one's absorption showed one's affinity toward said element. It was a question of curiosity toward Joe's affinity with space.

"Enough for a third compression, but I should keep these in case the cultivator is too strong."

Amelia nodded as they came out. Upon looking around, they saw what seemed more like a city than a small village.

Joe spoke first of his disbelief.

"Big t-... Big village, right?"

Amelia quickly followed up on that with a voice of confusion.

"Yeah... It really is..."

The roads were bustling and there was no sign of the dirtiness you might expect in a village. People were in abundance, while bright lights shined.

"I can see why the murderer was hard to find..."

Joe muttered to himself while still looking around. He decided to look for the prearranged place of accommodation. He pulled someone aside and asked him where the Accumula Hotel was.

"Oh. Just make a left turn and you'll see where the hotel is."

The man pointed in a certain direction before walking off.

Joe and Amelia nodded at each other before heading off in the direction of the hotel. Upon turning the corner, they saw a building a few floors taller than the other buildings, with an large sign that said, Accumula Hotel.

The two of them briefly glanced at each other before walking inside.

The interior of the hotel was filled with ferrets, reminiscent of an imaginary ferret looking animal. A certain music was being played in the hotel, giving Joe the urge to walk on forever. There were several people playing with the ferrets in the lobby, while the receptionist was sitting behind her desk with a ferret in her lap.

Joe walked up to the female receptionist while Amelia stayed behind to play with the ferrets.

"Um. Did someone arrange some accommodation a few minutes ago? It should be for us."

The female receptionist only nodded before passing him a hotel key and a room number. She then turned back to playing with her small ferret.

Joe got Amelia away from the adorable-looking ferrets to get to their room. It looked like a hotel room, as it should. There were two perfectly made beds and a note on the desk. Joe murmured the contents of the note to himself while Amelia read it silently.

"There are several hints to where the murderer may be... not released to the public because of unrest... Hyphen Square... Ramsay Street..."

Joe's eyes darted over the murder locations. He didn't know where those places were. It wasn't like he had a map app to see where he was.

'Well, maybe they put some more information around the room?'

Joe checked every drawer he could find while Amelia watched on in confusion. After a whole minute of searching, another note was found. The information was much more important however.

"Victim connection: Same family. Strong and wealthy family. Motive, unknown. Crimes scenes have been isolated from the public. Family name: Lagren."

Just the victim connection would make the note extremely important. Since all the victims were in the same family, then they would just have to investigate the family. However, it was easier said than done.

Without strong connections, neither of them could investigate the family of the victims.

'Seems like we'll have to go out on the street to ask for information...'

It wasn't very late in the day, as they had set off early in the morning. Joe brought Amelia with him to ask around on the streets.

…

By afternoon, Joe and Amelia had gotten some basic information. The Lagren family was a recently rising wealthy family in the "village". They worked mainly by selling rare goods. That was just about everything that they could find about the Lagren family.

"Hey, Amelia, I think we should head to the Lagren family's residence to ask questions, since we don't know much else about them."

Amelia shook her head hearing his words. "We might not necessarily need to ask them just yet. We should head to the crime scene and see if we can find any clues before we go."

Upon finding things reasonable, Joe nodded his head.

"Alright then, let's go to the crime scene."

…

The first crime scene was on Hyphen Square. However, there were still people around the square. After looking around for a few minutes, Joe and Amelia saw a barred up store.

There was also someone who seemed like he was guarding the place. Upon walking up, he suddenly spoke.

"Stop right there! Identify yourself!"

Joe was surprised at the sudden outburst, raising his hands, however, Amelia replied quickly.

"Wizards of the Nine Towers."

After hearing what seemed to be the magic words, the guard nodded at them before stepping out of the way.

Joe slowly put his hands down before following Amelia into the building. The stink was pressuring.

The store seemed to sell phones, and the body was in the manager's office. The two of them walked around the whole building before finding nothing.

"I mean, if the authorities couldn't find anything, I find no reason why we could."

Amelia only shrugged at that. She walked over to the body.

It was a fat man. He was wearing seemingly expensive clothing, and his hands were gripping air, indicating something was taken out of his hands after he died.

The remnants of the fat man's corpse were his torso and arms, indicating his head and legs were ripped off.

"A pretty brutal death don't you think?"

Amelia once again shrugged. "Well, there aren't any clues here. We might as well look at the next crime scene. All we know is the murderer took something from this fat guy. Maybe a business competitor?"

Joe nodded, and walked out of the building. Amelia followed as they headed to the next crime scene, Ramsay Street.