Chapter 134: Infusing Justice Value
"How should we deal with these two?" Barrett asked.
"If she weren't in this amorphous slime state, I'd really love to have my way with her," Franco pointed at the writhing mass on the ground, his gaze sinister.
Inside the transparent octagonal magic cage, Solution morphed a human face and spat viciously at Franco, "Pah! Disgusting human!"
She even spat, but her saliva splashed against the magic cage and didn't reach Franco's face. "None of you will escape! How dare you oppose Lord Ainz, death is too good for you!"
"Is that so?" Franco pressed his wand against Sebas's head, his smile brimming with smug satisfaction. "Girl, look at the situation. I command you to transform back into a maid and serve me, or this old man here will never wake up."
"You... shameless!" Solution suppressed her rage, her body rolling like jelly. She swallowed her words and fell silent.
"Come on, bro, we're supposed to be the good guys, can we not do something so sleazy?" Barrett patted Franco on the shoulder, realizing for the first time that EeDeChi's requirement for high Justice Value to join the adventure team was right.
Barrett crouched down and turned over the blood-drenched Sebas, searching his body for any valuable loot.
After transforming into a draconic humanoid, Sebas's black tailcoat and white shirt were shredded to pieces, leaving him almost naked, but at least he wore green underwear. Finding no pockets in the underwear, Barrett reached inside Sebas's underwear, groping around wildly.
"Bro, I'm after lust, you're after wealth, is there really a difference between us?" Franco watched as Barrett rummaged through Sebas' underwear. "Uh... is his cock big?"
"Not as big as mine," Barrett replied after a brief moment of thought.
"Everyone!" EeDeChi clapped her hands, "Let's drop these pointless conversations, shall we? We still have a long way to go."
Barrett found nothing on Sebas, not even a spatial ring on his hands. For a level-100 powerhouse like Sebas, who also possesses the luxurious equipment of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, it was indeed hard to determine where his personal items were hidden.
However, Barrett noticed that the only piece of clothing on Sebas, his underwear, was of exceptionally high quality, made of a material that felt softer and smoother than silk, as if he was touching flowing water.
Barrett took out his dagger and tried to cut the underwear, but the blade turned dull without even making a small hole. The fabric's toughness was comparable to dragon sinew, yet more durable than steel.
"Cough, cough." Barrett coughed twice. The seasoned adventurer grabbed the underwear and pulled hard, eventually stripping it off Sebas and stashing it in his spatial ring. To avoid the indecency of an exposed backside, he then covered Sebas's lower half with a linen cloth.
Solution formed half a face, looking at him with a complex expression. She probably wanted to denounce Barrett's vile actions, but remembering Franco's detestable face, she dared not speak.
"Meow~ Meow~ Meow~" Cheeko suddenly meowed by the side.
"What's up?" Barrett looked at it in surprise. Cheeko was incessantly scratching at a toppled table nearby, under which something seemed to be pressed, revealing a red right angle.
He walked over, lifted the table, and pulled out the object. It was a blood-red steel plate, engraved with the pattern of a Meat Cleaver.
The edge of the steel plate bore ancient patterns, its surface coated in a layer of blood-like red dye, and it seemed as if blood was flowing over it when picked up.
The plate was marred with crisscrossing knife marks, as if it had been deeply chopped into by some blade.
Barrett felt a strong scent of blood and a surge of potent magic, realizing this was a terribly powerful magical artifact.
He took it to EeDeChi, saying, "Captain, look at this. What is it? Could it be something from the Great Tomb of Nazarick?"
EeDeChi, who had mostly recovered by now, was pulling a black coat over her tattered clothes.
She took a glance and activated a fifth-level magic—Artifact Appraisal.
[Item Name: Knife and Chopping Board]
[Material: Unknown Quality: World Item]
[Function: Appraisal failed, item level too high to determine]
[Note: A World Item can only be used by a new owner after it has been transferred from its previous owner, so possessing a World Item does not equate to being able to use it. The owner can sense the location of the World Item.]
"This is a World Item," EeDeChi said, looking at Barrett who was showing an excited expression, "but unfortunately, we can't make it switch owners, so we can't use it."
"What a pity." Barrett sighed. "We can't even sell it, such high-level magical items could be easily traced back to their origins by Ainz."
"Destroy it," EeDeChi said calmly.
"STOP!" Solution shouted from the ground. "If you dare to destroy a property of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, you will regret it!"
"If we can't have it, destroy it! I love this style of our captain!" Franco gave a thumbs up from the side. "I do the same with the girls who reject my confessions."
EeDeChi glared fiercely at him, threw the Knife and Chopping Board on the ground, then drew her giant sword, lifted it high, and chopped down hard!
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
Since the blade was blunt, after several strikes, a large notch was finally made in the Knife and Chopping Board shaped steel plate.
EeDeChi picked up the "steel plate" Knife and Chopping Board, grabbed each side with her hands, and ripped it apart with all her strength, like tearing open a package, along the notch, splitting the "steel plate" into two pieces.
The Knife and Chopping Board was completely destroyed.
Solution watched the scene, too scared to utter a word.
"All done," EeDeChi casually tossed the two pieces of steel plate to the ground, as strong magic burst from the now two-piece World Item, blowing up the sand on the ground.
"Alas, what a waste," Barrett lamented for the second time, watching a fortune slip through his fingers was not a pleasant feeling.
If the only loot after all that effort is a pair of underwear, it's quite a letdown for an elite adventurer. Barrett glanced around and noticed a black handbag lying under a table.
He remembered that just before Solution was restrained, she had tossed the handbag under the nearby table, obviously trying to hide her belongings.
Barrett bent down and pulled out the handbag. The bag was made of tough leather painted black, reinforced with studs on all sides, and adorned with a dark gold clover pattern on the back, with a skull-shaped silver lock in the center.
Franco tapped the silver lock with his wand, casting a 5th Tier magic spell to unlock it, "Gate Open." It was utterly ineffective; the entire bag was sealed with an unknown powerful magic. Even Franco would need to find the corresponding counter-spell to unlock it without damaging the bag.
EeDeChi also came over to look. As the only item carried by Sebas and Solution, there must be something inside the handbag that would make the trip worthwhile for the three adventurers.
"Heh, puny humans, dreaming of opening an artifact from the Great Tomb of Nazarick," Solution mocked as she watched Franco's futile attempts. "The magical power contained within is beyond your imagination..."
EeDeChi reached out, grabbed the skull-shaped silver lock, twisted and pulled, and the core and screws came out. A soft click of gears coupling sounded, and the handbag opened like a tightly closed mussel.
"..." Solution immediately fell silent and retracted her face back into her body.
Upon opening the handbag, they found stacks of parchment rolls, rusted metal scrolls, ancient handwritten manuscripts, and several broken pieces of stone tablets inscribed with intricate, unknown characters. The items all exuded a sense of antiquity as if thousands of years had been stuffed into the bag.
"You guys want to be archaeologists?" Barrett glanced at Solution. The trio decided to put the handbag away for further study later.
"Are we just going to let her go like that?" Franco pointed at Solution. "I'm thinking, maybe there's some magic that can fix amorphous slime into human form."
"Of course, we can't just let her go." EeDeChi frowned as she looked at the number representing Solution's Justice Value: -400. She took out her golden pen, raised it high, pierced through the octagonal magic cage, and plunged it into the swirling body of Solution.
Solution screamed in terror, "What are you going to do to me?"
"Relax, girl, don't struggle; I don't want to hurt you." The tip of EeDeChi's pen shone brightly, and golden radiance flowed through Solution's translucent body, beginning to infuse Justice Value.
"Ah, not bad." Watching the number above Solution's head change to 98, EeDeChi nodded in satisfaction. Her pen, which stored 500 points of Justice Value, had only lost two points after fully infusing Solution.
"Captain shot all over her face!" Franco said with a smirk. EeDeChi turned around, pretending to hit him.
Franco quickly picked up the sky-blue kitten named Cheeko from the ground to use as a shield.
"Put a restraining spell on this old man," EeDeChi told Franco.
"Sir, yes sir!" Franco gave a sloppy salute, holding the cat in his left arm and using his wand as a pen in his right, drawing a bold circular pattern around Sebas on the ground. Once the magic circle was complete, numerous golden chains emerged, firmly binding Sebas.
It must be said, having a mage in the team greatly compensates for any lack of control during combat.
Suddenly, tiny embossed letters appeared on the pen. EeDeChi ran her fingers over the text, holding it up to the sunlight, and read:
[After multiple adjustments to Justice Value, attributes have grown. Current Justice Value capacity: 700. Increased by 200 points. Justice Value generation rate: 4 points per day. Increased by 2 points. ]
[Note: Adjusting Justice Value cannot be used on oneself]
The trio and the cat left behind the unconscious Sebas and the immobilized Solution, walking out of the rickety tavern.
The commotion they caused was so great that if the local sheriff couldn't handle it, he would report it to the city lord, who would report it to the nearby knights' station, and then it would go up the chain to the lord... and eventually, the high echelons of the kingdom would notify the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
But all that was a story for another time. By the time Ainz led his forces there, they had already traveled to distant lands.
...
After slightly disguising themselves, the Last Defender of the Way adventurer squad left the city. They trekked through the wilderness and arrived at the small town of Mallor, where they settled into an inn.
Once they were sure no one was following or watching them, EeDeChi took out the suitcase, spread the scrolls, manuscripts, and parchment rolls on the floor, and the three began their research.
Most of these items were ancient relics purchased by Sebas from adventurers, traveling merchants, and old wizards, containing many strange tales and mysterious legends, mostly related to the Eight Greed Kings' desert and the dragons. It seemed the Great Tomb of Nazarick was also searching for something.
Cheeko crouched by the side, its tail wrapped around its body. Suddenly, it walked over to a pile of parchment and pulled out a notebook with a dark green cover. The notebook was not old but brand new, standing out among the antiques.
EeDeChi picked up the notebook, flipped through a few pages, and found it was a manuscript narrated by Sebas and recorded by Solution.
A few lines underscored caught EeDeChi's attention: "It's hard to imagine... The power of the Eight Greed Kings surpassed that of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, establishing a vast empire that spanned from the poles to the deep seas of the world. Why did it collapse overnight, leaving behind only a desert flowing with legends?
"The three dragon gods beneath the world's throne are not just absurd myths but real entities that were all slain by the Eight Greed Kings...
"Why are dragons so powerful... What place do they hold in the world's hierarchy of creatures, and who granted them their power...
"The three dragon gods, the Dragon Progenitor, Dragon Emperor, and Dragon Endbringer. The Dragon Progenitor governs creation, the Dragon Emperor sovereignty, and the Dragon Endbringer destruction...
"...Something is amiss. According to the calendar of the Eight Greed Kings' empire, in the year 1339, they launched a great expedition. I've found some inconsistencies that must be explored further..."