Chapter 1971 – 1971. God’S Atlantis
I took the lead and started moving.
The mercenaries followed behind me. Somehow, the atmosphere was more chaotic than when I first saw them. They were completely intimidated after seeing Fafnir in person. The only saving grace was that Omikos, the mercenary captain, didn’t show any signs of unease.
“Omikos, it seems like the mercenaries are terrified of Fafnir. Can we even fight Fafnir like this?”
“It’s difficult right now. But it seems like you have a plan, Eugene. If there’s a possibility, I’ll follow you.”
Omikos seemed like a composed and loyal mercenary. At least on the surface. There was no way of knowing what he was really plotting.
‘He must be really greedy for Fafnir’s blood.’
After walking for about an hour, something came into view at the edge of my sight. As I got closer, I realized it was a village.
‘There’s no way Fafnir would be the only one in this vast area.’
I hadn’t seen any other monsters on the way here. Either there weren’t any from the start, or Fafnir had taken care of them because they were annoying. It was probably the latter. Atlantis wasn’t a city-type area, and most areas had monsters.
‘Fafnir seemed like a real pain in the ass.’
I cursed Fafnir inwardly and approached the village. There seemed to be an unusual amount of rocks and stones around the village. As I got closer, I understood.
‘It’s a mining village.’
There wasn’t a mine near the village. But even without a mine, there could be a vein of ore underground, so it wasn’t strange.
I walked confidently into the village. Omikos, who was beside me, was taken aback.
“We can’t just walk in like this. The villagers will be wary.”
“You’ve had this happen a lot, haven’t you?”
“When you travel around the area, you often encounter small villages. These villages in the backwoods don’t welcome strangers. They don’t trust them either. Most of them have suffered from thieves, bandits, and marauders.”
“What if they don’t trust us?”
“We’ll be at a disadvantage if we fight. There are monsters in this world. Even a small village has the strength to protect itself.”
“When did I say I was going to fight? I need to talk about Fafnir first.”
Perhaps because it was a village in the backwoods, there were no guards protecting the village. I entered the village nervously. People’s gazes were fixed on me. Most of them were women doing housework. They all looked disheveled.
I looked around the village for a moment and slowly headed towards the center.
Men were running towards us in a hurry from afar. They had all taken off their shirts, exposing their upper bodies. They were holding tools like pickaxes and hammers in their hands. They were miners, and their bodies were quite well-built.
One of them, a middle-aged man with piercing eyes, stood in front of me as if blocking my path.
“How dare you enter our village without permission! Get out of here immediately!!”
“We came to this area to kill Fafnir. We need information about Fafnir. Like weaknesses.”
“You think you can kill that evil dragon? You’re just suicide volunteers. We don’t have any information about Fafnir. Get lost.”
The village men were gathering more and more. There were already over 100 of them. They all showed hostility towards us. The mercenaries also became tense. If they went crazy and attacked, they would have to fight.
“Why are you so unfriendly? We just want to talk about Fafnir.”
“Don’t you think about your rude attitude?”
“If you keep being uncooperative like this… I’ll have no choice but to be uncooperative. Please, don’t make me into a demon.”
“Ha, now you’re even threatening us!”
“This bastard doesn’t understand the situation. Do you think you can win just because you have more people? I can kill all of you by myself.”
Just as I was about to use mana to strengthen my body, Omikos suddenly stepped forward.
“You’re both too agitated. Eugene, it seems like you’re very sensitive after meeting Fafnir earlier. Please, sit here on this folding chair and rest for a while. I’ll take care of this.”
“I was a bit tired.”
There was no need to refuse when someone offered to take care of a troublesome task. I sat on the folding chair that Omikos had set up. The broker had said he was an inflexible mercenary… but in reality, he was very flexible.
‘Is this the experience he gained from being a mercenary?’
“Village chief, I apologize for entering the village without permission. We were flustered because we just encountered Fafnir. As a token of apology, we’ll share some of our supplies. It doesn’t seem like there are many merchants around here… you must need some things, right?”
“We do need some things. Do you have any fruits? Preferably fruits that grow well in this kind of land.”
“I’m not sure about that, but we have various kinds of fruits.”
“It would be nice if you had clothes too.”
“We also have extra clothes. We brought a lot of things because this Fafnir raid is important.”
“We don’t need gifts. We may lack many things, but we’re not poor. We’ll pay a fair price for everything.”
“Do you have pennies? Or AP?”
“There are no pennies here because no merchants come. AP is also precious to us, so it’s hard to use it for something like this. But we have gold.”
The village chief took something out of his pants pocket. It was shining yellow in the light. It was gold.
The mercenaries were surprised. They looked around and realized that this village was a place where they mined gold.
‘A village that mines gold. Not bad.’
Gold had always been a guaranteed currency. The value of gold was high on Earth, and it was the same in Atlantis.
The mercenaries, who had frowned at the mention of gifts, changed their expressions when they heard that they would buy it with gold. They were all rummaging through their backpacks, trying to sell their goods. It was a business where they could make several times the profit.
「Gold Collector sponsors 1,000 AP.
“I can’t understand. Why are you trading? They’re weaklings anyway. They have gold that doesn’t suit them, so why not just take it by force? Gold should be in the hands of the strong.”」
“You can say something right too. But damn it. Why did you do that earlier?”
「Gold Collector sponsors 1,000 AP.
“Trials will make you stronger.”」
“What a load of crap.”
Even now, I gritted my teeth when I thought of the Gold Collector.
According to my original plan, I should have been taking down Fafnir by now. Along with the mercenary group.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought about targeting another dragon. But the whereabouts of other dragons were vague. More than anything, I had already signed the Reaper’s contract. It was difficult to unilaterally break the contract.
‘Even if the Reaper’s curse can be dealt with using the Thousand Hearts, the Reaper’s pursuit is too much for me to handle right now.’
I was trying to strengthen the Hwaryeon Flying Daggers, so I couldn’t just catch any random dragon.
I took out a cold bottle of water and soothed my burning insides.
About an hour had passed.
The village chief, who was in a good mood after getting all sorts of things, began to speak.
“Our village digs tunnels to mine gold. If you go about 50 meters underground, there are gold veins everywhere.”
“That’s why the people of this village can use gold like water.”
Omikos nodded in admiration. A village where gold came out. It was indeed a name that deserved admiration.
“But what’s the point? We can’t go outside the village because of Fafnir. Fafnir, that evil dragon, won’t let us go… Even if we have gold, we have nowhere to spend it. And we have to offer gold to Fafnir every week.”
“We came to kill that Fafnir. Please tell us Fafnir’s weaknesses. If Fafnir dies, won’t you be free too?”
“Speak properly. If Fafnir dies, a new master will appear.”
The mercenaries glanced at me, who was sitting apart. According to the contract, I would get all the byproducts after killing Fafnir. This area was no exception.
“There are three conditions.”
“Do you really need to set conditions?”
“If Fafnir finds out that I said this, do you think he’ll leave our village alone? He’ll torment us with all sorts of evil deeds. He might even demand sacrifices.”
“…I’ll listen to the conditions first.”
“One is the guarantee of our village’s safety. No matter who becomes the ruler among you, guarantee the freedom and safety of our village. That arrogant guy shouldn’t become the ruler of this area.”
Omikos glanced at me and then asked.
“What is the second condition?”
“Return the gold that Fafnir has plundered from us. Even just a part of it is fine. We’ve been working for decades. We deserve some compensation, don’t we?”
“What is the third and final condition?”
“Help us a little. There’s a huge rock blocking us in the underground tunnel. We’ve tried everything, but it won’t break. If you help us, we’ll be able to break that rock. Just help us for one day. Ah, all these conditions will be guaranteed by the system. It’s the authority we received from the system instead of being plundered by Fafnir.”
「Transaction Contract」
「This contract is guaranteed by the system.」
「The contract must be fulfilled.」
Omikos’s face hardened.
They were asking for a lot compared to just giving information. Omikos also felt it.
“…We need time to discuss this with our colleagues. Please wait.”
“We can’t wait long. We have to mine gold to offer to that damn Fafnir.”
I led the Omikos mercenary group out of the village. There was a risk of eavesdropping in the village.
“There was a reason why the villagers were so confident. The system was giving them some convenience.”
I clicked my tongue and said.
It wasn’t strange. The people of the continent had to sacrifice themselves for the stories the gods wanted. But what if the sacrificed continentals messed up the stories that were supposed to entertain the gods by acting like trolls? It was a real headache for the system.
So, the system also provided benefits to the continentals within the limits that didn’t break the balance. That benefit was the contract guarantee, like now. It wasn’t a benefit that directly gave power to the continentals, so it was judged to be okay.
“What are you going to do?”
Omikos asked me. They were mercenaries, and I was the employer. The choice was naturally mine.
“What do you think?”
