Chapter 705 - Fraud of the Damned

Eisen watched as the Undead around him turned back into sand, creating piles that the old man immediately stepped over to get through the next gate that was slowly opening up in response to the death of this necromantic worm.

The old man was breathing rather heavily, his body slowly breaking down due to extreme exhaustion on top of the damage that slowly acc.u.mulated all over him. Sure, he mostly healed that damage with his health pills, but with practically every bit of damage you received, you would lose a small amount of stamina as well.

And that wasn't anything that could be recovered through health potions or pills, only through a small assortment of specific potions. Adding onto that the fact that Eisen went through three fights directly after one another with little rest beforehand.

Satel landed right beside Eisen with a broad grin on their face, "Well, well, well.. That was pretty interesting, wasn't it?"

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." The old man groaned as he stepped through the gate in front of him. In this large open area, which was formed in a way that reminded Eisen of another Arena, the old man stopped for a while.

He opened his Item Storage and had his Elemental Spirit give him a couple of items. They were special bandages that Eisen made using cloth that was infused with materials that had certain healing properties. Beside those bandages, the old man also had the spirit give him some Healing Salve, which he quickly applied on the few small cuts and scr.a.p.es that were left on his body.

Wounds that you still had on your body despite your health being full were the kind that had to heal over a longer period of time. They usually disappeared after sleeping at the very latest, although that wasn't something that Eisen could do at the moment. Or rather, he didn't want to. He just wanted to rush through this place as quickly as he could, so sleeping wasn't something particularly in sight for now.

But since these wounds didn't particularly seem to be an issue anymore after Eisen bandaged himself, he figured he could go on for the rest of the circles. There were only two left after this one, after all. Just as Eisen placed the bandages and salve back into his Item Storage, he heard some footsteps that were coming ever so close.

"I see that you have made it through my trials successfully." The being said. Eisen turned his head and looked at the figure in front of him. It was a young man, that outwardly looked to be the opposite of the term 'Violence'. But considering what he said and the fact that he seemed immediately familiar, instead this being had to be 'Violence' itself.

Eisen looked at this God of the Underworld and crossed his arms as his Item Storage disappeared from behind him, "I guess so." The old man said, as the calm young man simply smiled back at him. Eisen couldn't help but feel that something was off, while also being sure that this was exactly what this God was like.

It simply didn't fit that the God of Violence was outwardly so weak and clearly harmless and kind. However, this was something that Violence caught onto rather quickly, "I know what you may be thinkin right now. I don't look all too 'violent', now do I? But that is the point. Violence can come from anyone and anything, even those that seem harmless. Violence from those can often be more dangerous than from those that are strong and intimidating, since it comes unexpected."

"...Well, it's not like I mind or care or anything. I was just surprised, that's all." Eisen pointed out, feeling a little bad for judging Violence on his appearance like that. But as he said, at the end of the day, he didn't really care about what Violence looked like.

"But I must say, I'm rather surprised that you got through those fights so easily. Of course, they were all possible to beat, but considering your drop in strength and the fact you are not a fighter by trade, I wasn't sure how well you would end up doing. In your prime, you would be able to rip through all nine circles at once and just drop down all the way instantly." 

"Is that so?" Eisen asked without much emotion in his voice, something that surprised Violence a bit, "You are taking this fact without much thought. I figured you would be more amazed by it." 

"Oh, I am quite amazed, honestly. But just being told that doesn't give me much to work with. I don't have any sort of reference for how strong that actually is. Sure, I can tell that I used to be strong, that's undeniable, but I have no idea how strong I truly was. That's why things like that don't mean much to me, you see?" Eisen smiled lightly as he looked back at the God.

The deity slowly nodded his head, before the two of them continued to speak for a little bit longer. There wasn't that much to really say between the two. Eisen didn't feel a particular connection to this God. A little bit of animosity might be the reason for that, although Eisen wasn't able to tell where it came from exactly, although it was radiated by both Eisen and Violence himself.

After both of them came to the same conclusion, that it was time for Eisen to head on to the next realm, that was exactly what this old man did. Violence created a gate for Eisen and Satel to walk through to get to the realm of Fraud.

The gate closed behind Eisen as a notification appeared in front of him.

[New Quest – Fraud of the Damned]

[Description] In order to be acknowledged by the Gods of Hell, you have started to make your way through the nine circles of hell. On your first stop, you reached Limbo. On your second, you reached L.u.s.t. On your third, you reached Gluttony. On your fourth, you reached Wrath. On your fifth, you reached Greed. On your sixth, you reached Heresy. On your seventh, you reached Violence. On your eigth, you reached Fraud – Your task in this realm is to find the odd one out in each of these trenches.

[Conditions] Find the odd ones out (0/5)

[Rewards] Fraud's Acknowledgement

[Penalty] None

Eisen waved the notification to the side as he stepped through this realm that was spreading out in front of him. For now, it was just a tunnel and staircase, although he could already see light shine in from its end. After Eisen walked up the stairs, he saw that he was in something like an arena again, something that was apparently supposed to be rather akin to the colosseum.

On the edges of this colosseum, instead of seats for onlookers, there were deep trenches out of which Eisen could already hear the cries and m.o.a.ns of the damned souls that were sent here to suffer.

There were five in total, and without hesitation, Eisen walked up to the first of the trenches. He was glad that he didn't have to fight or do anything that would take up too much time, but it still felt like something that would take up quite a bit of time.

The first thing that Eisen did, of course, was to check the trenches with his truth-seeing eyes, both with mana-sight as well as truth-sight. Beside that, Eisen even tried to use his Crafter's Soul skill to note down common themes that these trenches generally had to figure out what might be off.

All the monsters that were inside there seemed incredibly eager to get out of these trenches, trying to climb on top of each other to climb out and reach Eisen so that they could be pulled out, but Eisen of course didn't help any of them.

The monsters that could speak were trying to convince Eisen to help them out with random, obviously fraudulent promises. Women, money, power, all of that were things that they tried to promise Eisen. But he wasn't weak-willed enough to go for that.

But all of this just made it harder to figure out what was going on, and what the 'odd one out' would be in each of these trenches. He thought maybe it would be a theme for the type of monster trapped in there, but that wasn't the case.

Then he tried to focus on the things that were promised to him by the speaking monsters, because maybe one of them was trying to give him something different to all the other monsters. But in the end, that wasn't the case either. Maybe the 'odd one out' was a monster that couldn't speak, or it was just another thing that made one of these creatures different to each other.

It wasn't the rank they reached while they lived, it wasn't their size. It wasn't their weight either, or their apparent age at which they died.

"I doubt you can give me any tips, right?" Eisen asked as he turned his head over toward Satel, who just smirked back with a light shake of their head, "Sorry, can't do that. Not that I know which ones stick out anyway."

With a light sigh, although he already expected this answer, Eisen squatted down in front of one of the ditches, deep in thought.

Until another idea popped into his mind, one that made him somehow feel rather excited, since it might be the solution for all of this.

"Maybe it's the one that didn't commit fraud..?" He questioned himself. There might be one amongst each of these ditches. One that didn't just voice false promises to Eisen, but ones that they would be able to follow up on. 

In the first trench that would be a being that truly wanted to help Eisen without gain to themselves.

In the second one, it would be something who didn't use flattering words with Eisen, or maybe something that truly meant its own words.

When it came to the third, Eisen thought maybe it was a creature that only lived for the gods, doing work for them, and not making profit in the names of the gods.

The fourth one was the one Eisen was most curious about. In Dante's infernos, they were 'Sorcerers', as in Healers, Fortune Tellers, or Diviners, things that just didn't exist on earth, but things that could exist here in this world. So maybe, here in this world this ditch was for those that pretended to be great beings of magical power, but really weren't. Then maybe the thing Eisen was looking for was a rather powerful one.

And at last, in the fifth, Eisen should be looking for a leader that did all it could for the best of whatever group they were leading, instead of doing it out of self-interest in a corrupt manner.