Chapter 35 Mammon [4]

"Was I wrong about him?"

Mia curled her finger, and the coffee machine hovered toward her.

Her mind was preoccupied with Nathan. She was confident that he was only acting like a crazy person.

"Here I was thinking that he had potential to be recruited. But it seemed he really was crazy."

Someone who had the guts to challenge Susan and the wits to fool almost the entire Ward would have been a promising prospect.

"I thought he was interesting."

BEEP-!

As she was sipping her coffee, the intercom rang.

Seeing the caller ID, her face scrunched up and Mia decided to ignore the call.

The intercom, which rang for the fifth time, to Mia's dismay, was automatically answered.

Before Mia could run away from the office, a deep voice reverberated throughout the room.

"You have a task."

"I just remembered that Miss Olivia had called for me."

Mia spoke answered without a beat. However, the voice continued, completely ignoring her.

"A team will be leaving for the investigation on the Aether circle that was recently found. Your task is to protect them and investigate the reason behind its late discovery."

"That isn't in the con-"

BEEP-!

Stopping Mia mid-sentence, the line was cut.

"Oh, he cut the line before I spoke?"

Suddenly, her lazy demeanor vanished, replaced by a beautiful smile on her face.

"Was being too cooperative?"

Feeling the chilly atmosphere, the cat ran away from the office.

***

"It's done."

I stretched my back and stood up from my desk.

The package that came turned out to be quite helpful. Now I knew quite a bit about Nathan and dare I say, I was able to deduce his personality and behavior.

"Looking at his notes, he really would have died. What kind of normal kid makes those plans?"

Anyway, it wasn't important right now.

"The bracelet and the book."

I looked at the two objects resting on my bed. Among the things the package had, these needed my immediate attention.

The bracelet belonged to Nathan. It told me many things about Nathan but the most vital were: Nathan had received a lot of money recently and I now knew how Lilith knew me.

The book, though I haven't touched it yet, I've read too many novels to know where this was going.

It was a tradition to leave the best for the last. So I had inspected the bracelet first.

"My spid-cough My doggy senses are tingling! It's time for the world to know my greatness!"

Hehehe. Finally, my OP cheat was here!

Wasn't it always like this? The extra who reincarnates gets a cheat, which makes him OP.

Ether and Art of Eridu were something I got on my own and they weren't OP, at least not yet.

Since my cheat was a book, I had particularly high expectations of its ability.

Now it was time to check the book.

The book was covered partially with black cloth. The cover was pitch black in its entirety, with intricate golden, red, and white patterns on it.

Extending my hand, I flipped the book.

ZAPP-! DING-!

I reflexively pulled my hand back.

"What was that?"

The moment I touched the pages, a jolt of electricity passed through my body.

The jolt of electricity wasn't very strong. I only dropped the book because it was sudden.

I again picked the book and warily opened it.

Thankfully, there was no surprise this time.

Opening the book, I flipped to the latest page.

======

"I sweated too much today."

Leon picked up the soap and started washing.

Pushing himself to the limit was a habit that had been ingrained in him. So, sweating wasn't something that bothered him any longer.

If he had to complain about anything, it would be his aching muscles and bones.

This had been happening since the day he fought Lark.

Normally, any injury or exhaustion would heal quickly for him, but since that day, he had been feeling tired. Recovery took more time, and exhaustion never left his body.

Yet Leon didn't think that his decision to fight Lark was wrong.

"No, this still isn't enough. I only won because of that strange surge of power. I still need to train more."

Turning on the faucet, Leon began rubbing soap all over his body.

He started with his legs. Thoroughly washing his ankles and foot, he started doing his calves.

"Should I decrease the intensity of training? We will be allowed to enter the Dungeon of Trials in a few days. I need to be in my top form for it."

Leon massaged his thighs while in thought.

"I shouldn't do that. I should try to train as much as possible. Besides, I can feel that I am close to a breakthrough in my art."

Shifting his hands upwards, he started washing his thin-

======

BANG-!

I slammed the book shut tightly.

The book was being written in real-time and it was giving a detailed description of Leon's every move, too detailed.

Here I was waiting to see what I will find in the book and what I found was a detailed description of Leon's dic-dammit!

"Where is bleach?"

No, that isn't enough. I should go for the memory manipulation skill, even if it's dangerous.

"I know I am unlucky, b-but this is too much! Which pervert is writing this?"

I'll fucking kill that bastard!

As I started raging, I finally noticed the system window which was floating in front of me.

======

Quest :-

Find and kill ???? Mammon.

Acceptance Reward – Skill[Synchronization]

Clearance Reward – Pandora's Heart, ???, ???

Failure Penalty – ???

Time Limit – 13 years

--> Accept

--> Reject

======

"A quest?"

Was this even possible?

I've never heard of quests in "Hero has returned". This was my first time seeing one.

"Why is there something-Ah!"

I realized a potential reason for this quest. Up till now, I had been thinking that a higher being was the reason for my reincarnation. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense that I was transmigrated inside a novel.

I still didn't like the fact that it transmigrated me in this novel, but I wasn't against the idea of living a new life. Rather, I was thankful to whoever was the reason behind my transmigration.

"Was HB the one who gave me this quest?"

HB was what I had started calling the higher being.

"Mammon? Who is it?"

Reading the short quest description, I questioned the name.

Not only was the information given too little, but it was also my first time hearing the name Mammon.

,m Further reading, I realized that there were many question marks in the quest. Almost everything was a question mark and what it showed was something I've never read about.

Mammon? Synchronization? Pandora's Heart?

What were these things?

"Is there more to the novel?"

The hairs on my back stood at that thought. Even the things I knew were already too dangerous, and now there were chances there was something more in the novel.

"Shit"

Now that I think about it, the author had written the novel only a little bit after the war, before I died. At that point, Leon was the only alive member of the main cast and was rebuilding the human civilization.

Most of us expected the novel to end with the war. But from the foreshadowing the author had shown that this was only the beginning of the late stages of the novel.

There were stronger beings and many more races.

"Is Mammon someone like that, too?"

Shaking my head, I denied my thoughts. If Mammon was truly someone on that level, then the quest would have only been about killing him. The fact I was supposed to find it meant it was in hiding. If it was hiding, then it should be weak.

Finally calming down, I again read the window, but this time more carefully. I wanted to get as much information as possible.

"13 years?!"

I noticed the given time limit only now. Understanding the meaning behind it, my heartbeat sped up.

HB should know that I knew about future and vital pieces of important information. Using it correctly would make me a powerhouse in the future. This was why I wanted to keep the original storyline as much intact as possible.

Although I only had the Legacy-art of the ancient hero and Ether right now, if everything went as I have planned, I would only be a little weaker than Leon 10 years later.

It should be noted that this was a huge achievement.

In the future, Leon's enemies would be powerhouses of other races, races that had access to aether and system far before humanity, and powerhouses who had the highest strength, talent, and potential in those races.

Leon would be able to catch up to them in only one and a half decades.

This was who Leon was.

A protagonist, a hero, and

…..the last ember of humanity.

"That piece of trash should have died after completing the novel!"

I immediately clicked on the reject option. I wasn't going to do something this reckless and dangerous, even more so when the failure penalty was unknown.

DING-!

Reading the notification, my face paled.

"The penalty will apply if I reject the quest?!"

Then at least let me know the penalty!

It was scarier because the penalty was unknown. Had it shown what the penalty was, I would have been able to weigh my options.

"I should dela-Arrrrrghhhhhh!!"

The moment I thought about not accepting or rejecting the quest, I felt my head split. The pain made me think someone was poking hundreds of needles into my head.

Immediately, I thought about making a choice and the pain disappeared.

"Huff..hufff.."

I had no other choice but to accept the quest.