Chapter 172: Reports

We won't have to worry about funds for a couple of months. Neco has been giving me most of his profits to give to the citizens. Even though he's practically disconnected from them, he still spent years with them at that hell hole so he has some responsibility to protect them in whatever way he can. And he placed that responsibility on me.

Right now, Neco has contributed a lot. We have about 132 artifacts on hand right now. He has only invaded around 83 artifact dungeon in a matter of one month and he already got a lot. Well... new artifact dungeons will form and will procedurally generate within time.

We've given around 50 artifacts for the elite unit and another ten for the two discipless Rize picked up. I've been looking at their training in secret and it seems that Rize is a pretty great instructor. I don't have to worry about anything. But I'm interested in what those two people that Rize pick up would grow into.

I'm currently reading the file that Afal has sent me. I couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that he ranked the members of the elite unit. That's so him.

There's more reports that I have to read now because of the creation of the elite unit but Afal still trains the normal soldiers. I don't have to worry about all of them. So I guess that'll be fine. Afal ranked them into multiple classes... S being the highest and C being the lowest.

As of now he found four S class talents, ten A class soldiers, 17 B class talents and the rest at C class. But as he said in his report, "Even though they are C class within my eyes, their much tougher than the soldiers that didn't got in. I'll do my best to create an army to support your plans my lord." I don't get what's that about but I guess he'll do everything he can do produce a good army.

After reading the rest of the documents, I heard a knock at the door. "Come in." I told them.

"Hello." Neco opened the door and went in. "Inventory." He then pulled out a haul of artifacts and laid them all on my desk.

"I told you to bring it to Lam. I don't need to check it for anything. You got these artifacts by yourself so it's all yours."

"I know that. But, I found an interesting artifact dungeon. The rewards are... incredibly great too."

"Hmm... okay. What's it about?"

Neco sat on the chair and began to talk, "Most artifact dungeons are like normal dungeons right? They're underground and such. But this artifact dungeon that I found was submerged. But the structure of the dungeon looked like a castle."

"That's interesting. Continue."

"So I found these two items." Neco pushed over the book that was on the table and then he summoned out a weapon from his inventory. "Apparently it's deep dark items. I don't know what they are but these are what I found about them."

"Let me take a look." I opened the book but there was no text. "What's this book about..?"

"It's all about assassination and how to kill certain monsters."

"Wait what?" I was confused. I looked at other pages but there was nothing. Not a single letter, ink blot or anything that indicates that something was written. "You can read this?"

"...Yeah?"

"I don't see anything. It's just a blank book with my eyes."

"Huh!?" Neco snatched away the book that was on my hands and flipped over the book. A bright light was emanating from the book and certain letters floated but I couldn't read or comprehend them. Neco instantly closed the book after a few seconds. "Just ten seconds in and I was passed on years of knowledge about certain things. This is a Deep Dark book... Hmm... Curious. Maybe it's because..." Neco looked at the dagger that he got from that artifact dungeon.

I grabbed it and took it from him. "Analyze."

[Deep Dark ????????]

That's all it said. Nothing more, nothing less. A bunch of question marks. This has never happened. I mean, the system puts random symbols for something locked. Like I have to achieve something to unlock those symbols and get the effect. But this one are just question marks.

"Do you see anything?" Neco asked.

"No." I replied. "This is interesting. Do you know the rarity of this item?"

"I'm an assassin but my real class is thief. So I know the rarity of all items. And yes, this is an ancient artifact."

"That's amazing. The only ancient thing I've ever received is the Flower of Zeratria. So you got this from that dungeon?"

"Exactly."

"Hmm... Let me see the dagger."

"Sure." Neco gave me the dagger.

I swung it around but as soon as I raised my hand, the dagger disappeared and reappeared inNeco's hand. "What?" I took it from him and it instantly went back to Neco's hand again and again. "Is that the weapon's skill?"

"No. Apparently it's soul bound to me."

"What's that mean?"

"I can't give it to anyone, sell it or trade for it. In short, it'll always be mine no matter what I do unless I completely die."

"I see. What more did you discover?"

"The place itself is weird. There was no enemies other than the two golems that I fought. And those two golems are weird."

"Weird... how?"

"Well, right now golems are manmade by people themselves. And golems usually have their weakpoints, their cores in which gives life to the stone statues extremely guarded. But the golems that I found has their weakpoints bare. It was on their heads and easy to find. I'm pretty sure that's old technology right there."

"So that means it's a survivor of the previous battle royales. I don't know how long but it's enough to make me interested. What more?"

"The artifact that I saw there has an altar ready for it. Right now, I'm still contemplating if it really was an artifact dungeon that I saw. There was a giant star in the middle, two circles overlapping the stars that looked like a demonic symbol. There were five? pillar or something from each point of the star. And at the very top of each pillars were flames. I didn't lit them up. They were just... there. Continually burning for what seems like years."

"And you found these two artifacts there?"

"Two..? Ah yeah, I found the two of these on that place."

"I see. Then bring me to that place. I don't know what that is but it's extremely important. We simply do not know anything about that place so we're gonna go there."

"Got it. Then I'll get ready."

"Not now but tomorrow. I still have to check in the others."

"Alright. See you."

The next one that came in was Zeta. "Hey." I called out to him.

"Hey. It's been a month. There's no news?"

"Nothing. Herold is... Hmm... PFFT-"I couldn't help but contain my laughter as I saw Zeta's clothes. It was something that a jester would wear minus the face paint and the hat. It was absolutely ridiculous.

"HEY!" Zeta got angry. It seems that he forgot that he was wearing that ridiculous outfit.

"HAHAHA!" I couldn't contain it anymore and I just let out my laugh as tears followed.

"Tsk. This was part of the mission! I had to freaking get in these clothes so those Serpent union members would come to me. I couldn't believe that nobles and royalty would wear something like these."

"Alright, alright. That's about enough for now." I wiped the tears of laughter from my eyes away. "Well, thanks for the intel gathering. So, did you find anything?"

"Well I found some bases. I immediately sent them to Lam."

"Yeah and Lam passed it on to Precia, Yefa and Greta. Great work. You've done a quick job of finding those places."

"Don't mention it. ALSO, NECO LEFT ME AFTER THREE DAYS TO SEARCH FOR ARTIFACTS!"

"Ah- hahaha... I'll tell it to him later."

"Jeez I spent the rest of the month fending all those players by myself. Anyway, I've been into several kingdoms myself and I went down to every underground black market. This time, there was something leading those black markets. It was the serpent union. They're now selling slaves and has been running not consensual brothels there too. Those women are slaves too."

"Damn it... That's completely inhumane and disgusting."

"So... what do we do?"

"Herold still hasn't contacted me. Take Rize with you. Invade those black markets. If you're done with them, tell me. I will teleport to your side and bring them here."

"Alright."

"By the way... I know this might be cruel but to those who are not willing to live... Kill them off peacefully."

"...I know."

"They've seen and has gone through something too much. Just let them rest. In this world, death is a luxury."