The Collection of The End

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Junction area, near the Weeping Peninsula.

This is a castle located south of Nimgofo and west of Morn City. Although it is dilapidated, it still maintains the basic conditions for living people to survive.

It was originally occupied by a zombie-turned-"Grek Knight" and some demi-human minions, but thanks to a young wizard who was taking on quests everywhere, the original owner of this castle, Kenneth Hyde, had successfully Take back control of the castle and put it back into the hands of "still living" humans.

Sherlock specifically asked Melina some questions about these "living" aborigines, such as: If they became immortal due to the shattering of the 'Deathly Hallows', why were their homes occupied by demi-humans and living corpses?

Melina's answer was: Unless protected by a "blessing" like Sherlock, ordinary people would die and be resurrected repeatedly, and their memories would continue to be lost, and eventually they would become a muddle-headed "living corpse" with only a little instinct of life. Whether the territory that originally belonged to them will be considered "occupied" by then remains to be discussed.

"Well done, Faded One," City Lord Kenneth changed his tone from his previous submissive lover's help and became very bold: "You are now the 'lifelong magic consultant' of Hede Castle. There is a gift here, please be sure to accept it. "

Maybe people will be very confident after they have their own business? Sherlock guessed casually as he reached out and took the gift.

It was a strange brass dagger. Sherlock confirmed that it had no special function, but after looking at it for a long time, he would have unfounded fantasies: it was once given to a person with a lower status by a person with a higher status, but it was given to a person with a lower status. The junior one stabbed him in the back.

If there was a reason for such things, then the pride, confidence, and stinginess that Kenneth now displayed must be one of them.

But he would not betray the city lord just because he had a bad attitude. After all, Runes were needed to complete the mission.

"【Oh, really?】"

At this moment, the whole world "frozen", and everything in sight was covered with a layer of gray-white, but a flame ignited out of thin air in front of Sherlock, and then, out of the flame, a tall and thin man with dark skin and a mask on his face walked out. A bald man with a hearty smile.

"[My name is 'Fan Lei', and I am keen to expose all lies,]" the man ignored Sherlock's vigilance: "[This Lord of Hyde City withheld the three 'Golden Tree Seeds' that were originally supposed to be given to you. He plans to wait until you complete a certain number of 'reconstruction tasks' here at Hyde Castle before handing them over to you in batches. It's really insidious and despicable, don't you think?"

"Maybe that's true, so what?" Sherlock was unmoved.

"[So, you should directly kill this 'city lord' who has no subordinates, and obtain the ownership of the castle and the 'golden tree seeds' without spending extra energy working for him. Time is money, my friend, you Don't you think so?]" Fan Lei said as he took out a pale and stiff finger from his pocket: "[Oh, don't be too busy to refuse, even if you don't plan to deal with the stingy Hyde, you will always encounter someone who is so annoying that you want to The guy who wants to be killed but can be resurrected, then Old Fan Lei’s ‘gift’ will come in handy.]”

Without giving Sherlock a chance to refuse, a strange prop appeared in Sherlock's backpack. Fan Lei, who suddenly appeared, had disappeared, and the frozen world began to move again.

[Pale Finger: When used on a specific character, it will temporarily break the opponent's 'immortality', making it impossible to resurrect after being killed. 】

To sum up, a prop that can be used to attack NPCs and steal their items? The versatility seems to be very average, because no one can confirm how many tasks a communicable NPC will have, or how many tasks it is a part of. It is unwise to kill them hastily for small profits.

"Hmm...huh? Has that guy Fan Lei been here?" Melina shrugged her nose, looking like a hound smelling a fox: "Be careful, Lord Faded One, don't believe even a single punctuation mark he says."

"Of course." Sherlock looked at Kenneth again, put away the brass dagger, and turned to leave.

————

While searching for elite monsters and side quests, Sherlock discovered something:

Although Melina can be called omniscient, when Sherlock has questions about side tasks, she will try her best to answer them, but she has no interest in the tasks themselves. When looking at the people or things related to them, there is always a hidden feeling. It's very good, with a look down at you.

This is normal. Her duty is to guide Sherlock, the "Faded One", to defeat the "Fragment King" and become the "Supreme Mage". In contrast to the "main mission" that is so grand that it can change the entire junction, those who run errands and defeat "Side missions" such as monsters, puzzles and treasure hunts are meaningless.

"Witch Lani" is just the opposite. She almost never appears in the "main process", but she can always be seen in "side tasks". Her achievements include but are not limited to: rescuing a wandering businessman from a violent bear. They took away the trapped summoner Roderica, treated the infected magic swordsman Roger, sent the reckless Renya back to her employer, kicked the warrior Pot Alexander out of the pit, and kicked Parker off the cliff. Go down and wait.

Although Sherlock is not good at predicting things, judging from the events he has come into contact with, if Lani had not intervened in these tasks, the subsequent development would not have been wonderful.

In other words, Melina is busy saving the world, while Lani is trying to give everyone still living in this world - some of whom are not human beings - a relatively happy ending. It's hard to say which one is more important. , but there is no conflict between them for the time being, so it should be okay to leave it alone.

————

Finally, after Sherlock had visited almost all of Nimgofu to make sure that he had not missed any elite monsters or runes, and was just wandering around for the purpose of "creating a map", he met a man in the basement of a forest ruins. A female wizard trapped there.

It was a woman wearing an orange mage robe, sharp eyebrows, extraordinary bearing, and a bald head. She was chained to the basement wall by several translucent chains that emitted bursts of colorful light, and she could hardly move.

However, even if the situation was so bad, she did not have any dissatisfaction or resentment. She was not surprised that Sherlock broke the ceiling and fell, and she even felt a little dissatisfied that he came too late.

"My name is [Se Lian]," the bald woman said to Sherlock, "I am a wizard who was expelled from the magic academy for conducting forbidden research. If you have any questions related to magic, you can come to me for consultation. Haha , you are still far from the taboo, there is no need to worry about that in advance, chains? That is also not something you can do with your current magic level..."

"[Alohomora opens!]"

With a snap, the colorful transparent chains fell to the ground.

"..."

"..."