Arena

Chapter 114 – Chase (Part 1)

“Corrupt examinees?”

Odin was completely surprised.

“Isn’t it a high level of difficulty for a 7th turn exam?”

At my question, Odin, as if I asked the obvious, agreed.

“Of course it is! Telling a 7th turn examinee to take care of examinees that have at least passed the 15th turn exams? It really is unusual.”

“Maybe it’s not something we are able to measure. The exams.”

“That may be true but tsk, you have been given a dangerous mission.”

“Do you perhaps know where any corrupt examinees like the Chinese examinees are?”

“There is no way to know. Corrupt examinees never divulge the location of their ‘mine.’”

“A mine?”

“It’s slang. It’s what we call the location of where they collect and store their majeong.”

“So I should look for a location that has a lot of monsters with majeong?”

At my question, Odin replied,

“That could be but trash like the Chinese examinees get large amounts of majeong a different way.”

“The method of getting majeong from killing Arena people?”

“Yes. Whether the Arena is small or big, they have majeong on their interior. Since humans are another life form that harnesses mana.”

“Then wouldn’t it work to look for a place that has suffered a large massacre?”

“Well, not really.”

Odin shook his head.

“There is no concept of human rights and public order is precarious in this world. Large massacres are always occurring everywhere.”

“......”

“In this place, there is a tradition of cremating the dead. Can you guess why?”

“The majeong.”

“Yes. The corpse is cremated and the majeong that is left is sold or used. It was the same in this past war. All those killed in action were cremated and that majeong recovered the cost of the war.”

According to Odin’s explanation, war is created to get majeong or lords who kill prisoners on purpose is a frequent occurrence.

‘This is a crazy world.’

It was another world so I couldn’t just look at it from the point of view of my world but for me, I still felt this all to be very inhumane.

“This is the way the world is here so even if a whole village were to be killed, there is nothing strange about it. It is a world where if you cannot pay the tax, the lords will take your life for it.”

“Ugh. They’ll be really hard to find then.”

“Corrupt examinees know that they themselves are good targets for other examinees. So they move even more carefully within the Arena.”

‘Getting an exam like this out of the blue, this is really complicated.’

Up to the 6th exam, all the exams were connected.

1st was the red apes.

2nd was the retaliation of the angered red rapes.

3rd was running into lycanthropes clan when escaping the forest.

4th and 5th was the elves that the lycanthropes were targeting.

6th was the fight with the elves that got attacked by the undead army.

There was a point of connection between each one.

‘Hold on, there’s no way that I would be given a totally random mission.’

Everything is a hint!

Even though it may seem random, there would definitely be a connection to the last 6th exam.

Figuring out what that connection was would be the guide to how to solve the 7th exam.

‘What could it be? I have to find that connection.’

While I was drowned in thought, Odin suddenly said,

“You look to have a lot on your mind. In the interest of changing the mood, would you like to take a tour of the grounds?”

“Oh, sure. We also have to find a place to set up the radio trans-receiver.”

“There is a spot I have in mind. Follow me.”

We go to the top of the mansion and set up the radio trans-receiver atop its steeple.

With the center at Count Wolfenbrooke’s territory, communications will be possible up to 1850 meters.

I was also able to look around Odin’s office.

In the expansive office was Odin’s personal safe.

“Open.”

At Odin’s words, it made a sound and one side of it opened. A small space the size of a study room appeared.

“Wow.”

“Magic is just as useful as science.”

Odin’s personal safe was filled with gold and weapons.

I took out the comm devices and synthetic muscle suits I had kept stored in my space bag.

Odin put them all in the safe and put one of the synthetic muscle suits on himself

“Now if I fought Lee Chang-wee I think it’d be doable.”

Even without it, Odin was strong so with his power multiplied by twenty times, his confidence wasn’t misplaced.

A while later, the tailor that Odin called arrived.

The old tailor measured my body here and there and said,

“There is a clothing piece that would fit you perfectly, shall I bring it? Or should I make it new?”

“The existing one will be fine.”

“Understood.”

The tailor politely bowed to me and left.

Odin said,

“You will soon become a nobleman so you’ll have to become comfortable with being treated with such respect.”

“Haha, got it.”

“Well, you’ve made a long trip and must be tired, I’ll get you a bath ready.”

“Yes, thank you.”

I returned to my chambers and sat on the side of my bed.

A bit later, two servants and two maids streamed into my room.

The two servants struggled to drag in a large wood bathtub.

The pretty looking two maids politely bowed to me as they said,

“We have come on the order to attend to your bath.”

“...... excuse me?”

“Please take off your clothes and come into the bath.”

They just told me to take off my clothes and it flustered me.

I can just picture Odin laughing at this somewhere.

The two servants were respectfully keeping their heads bowed. They were each holding a basket of bath products.

‘Well, doesn’t matter.’

I’ll be a noble soon, so I’ll have to get used to this kind of thing.

“Alright.”

I said as I took off my clothes. I took off the synthetic muscle suit too and got into the wooden tub of warm water.

Only then did the maids raise their heads and come towards me and attend to me.

Maybe it’s just my mood.

I felt like the maids’ eyes were glistening after seeing my body.

‘I’m sure I’m just mistaken.’

Yep.

It’s just my own delusion.

I’m sure it’s also just my own delusional thinking that the maids washing me, their hands keep going to private places.

I used all my might to not get flustered.

Somehow, they looked happy. It looked like they’re almost smiling, I’m sure this was just me overthinking. I’m sure of it.

After the bath, when I stepped out of the tub, the maids dressed me in a prepared silk gown.

The servants came back in and took away the tub and bath items.

But the two maids didn’t leave and led me to the bed.

“We received another order from our lord.”

“May we keep you company?”

Asked the two maids politely.

I hesitated, but only for a moment.

“Um, yes, why don’t you.”

I didn’t really have a reason to refuse.

The maids smiled and got into bed.

Like that, I spent the day relieving the hard fatigue of travel from the Brown Mountain.

***

“Did you rest well?”

“Yes, thanks to your many considerations.”

“Haha, as you say, I did take extra care on you.”

At Odin’s mischievous words, I felt embarrassed.

“How are the clothes?”

“They are fine. And more comfortable to move in than I thought.”

On top of the synthetic muscle suit, I was wearing the clothes the tailor brought me.

I was wearing a red colored top and bottom, similar in look to a tuxedo, and wrapped in a white scarf with a dark brown cape on the outside.

My shoes are magically light weighted leather boots, my feet were light and comfortable.

I felt a little burdened because the red was so eye catching but I was told royalty dresses even more flamboyant than this so I held my tongue.

“Have you found the answer to how you will carry out your exam?”

“Yes, there is one thing I’m thinking about.”

Last night when I woke up for a short while, I was deep in thought when I realized what my given hint was.”

“Oh ho, I want to hear.”

“I was thinking that like all the exams before, that this exam was also connected to the one before it.”

“That is true.”

Odin nodded his head and agreed.

“And the corrupt examinees kill monsters to get majeong, but also kill humans to get it.”

“Because humans are easier to kill than monsters.”

“So I was able to come to one conclusion.”

“And what is that?”

I smiled as I say,

“You will have seen it too.”

“I have? Hm, I’m not sure.”

Odin tilted his head.

I said.

“The zombies that were climbing up the cliff.”

“Those crawling zombies? What connection do they have to corrupt examinees...?”

He stopped there, when Odin started to see the big picture his eyes grew big.

I said.

“You said in t Arena, normally, corpses are cremated? Then where did those corpses come from?”

“They are people that have been murdered!”

“Yes, and who killed them?”

“It was the work of the corrupt examinees!”

“That’s it.”

Odin slapped his knees.

“I see. Seeing it like that, there is a connection to that exam and this one!”

“And what I think is that this becomes a hint for your exam.”

“To mine?”

“If the zombies are people that have been murdered by corrupt examinees, we can assume that the corrupt examinees are giving the corpses to the dark magicians.”

“......!”

“You said so yourself. That there are examinees who purposely distract others from completing the exams.”

“Then, if......”

“Those dark magicians have a deep connection to the end goal of the exams. The corrupt examinees, in order to halt the clearing of the exams, are cooperating with the dark magicians.”

“I have to return to the Brown Mountain and inspect the remains of the zombies. Seeing what they look like, their clothes, I will have to find out which country, from which area, they come from.”

Odin was thinking things over when he nodded and said.

“Those are some impressive deductions. You, Kim Hyun-ho, are incredible.”

“Not really.”

“Let’s move together. We can do our exams together this time.”

“If I can go around with you, I’ll feel much better for sure.”

That was a special day.

That was the day it was decided I would be going about with Odin, and also the day I became a noble.

The ID the magician made arrived.

The ID was a small rectangle board.

Odin bit his thumb and dropped a drop of blood on the ID.

“I, the count of Wolfenbrooke, Odin, hereby place the title of baron on Hino Kim.”

“Uh, Hino?”

Hino was the nickname that his daughter Bella gave to me.

Odin laughed and says to me,

“Okay, Mr. Hyun-ho, your turn to provide blood.”

“...... okay.”

As Odin did it, I bit my finger and drew blood.

When I dropped the blood onto it, something incredible happened.

“Huh?!”

Odin’s blood and my blood squirmed and moved, then mixed and became words.

Like that, red words appeared on the ID card.

Its words I’ve never seen before in my life but I was able to read it. It was written in the language of the Arena.

The words written in blood, read as the following.

[Baron Hino Kim]

“What do you think? Simple, no?”

“It really is. So the magic on this ID card responds to two peoples’ blood?”

“Without my blood, it doesn’t react.”

“How so?”

“Our family magician made it so that it only responds to my blood, using magic. This society has strict rules on identity and there are strict measures in place to prevent impersonating royalty.”

I looked at my completed ID with interest.

Magic proves my identity.

With an ID that no one else can take from me, I got that sense of superiority that comes with moving up.

It’s the same feeling when someone rides a supercar to boast their status.

I’m a noble in the Arena now.

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