Chapter 61: Heading toward gold (1)
Translator: miraclerifle
"Wow, we really almost died in there.”
Yoo Jaeha took a deep breath while looking at the hotel where the explosion had happened. They were currently 300m away drenched inside the Senado Square Fountain.
They were able to escape from the hotel thanks to the power of the < Ink belonging to an artist on Paris’s Montmartre Hill >.
[Ink belonging to an artist on Paris’s Montmartre Hill (B-Grade:Rare-Grade / Consumable Artifact]
- Remaining Uses (53/100)
It was the artifact he stole from Chairman Kwon’s personal lawyer, Lee Jin-A, in the past.
The effects were simple.
It is said that talented artists’ paintings have a way of drawing people in. That is why if you draw something with it, you get drawn into that item. Then, you can escape at the location where that drawn item exists.
In simple terms, it could warp a person if the conditions were met.
Ju-Heon had used the chaos to use the ink he had secretly hidden away and drawn an image on the floor. He had drawn this fountain that was the landmark of Senado Square. The two of them were instantly dragged into the picture and warped to this fountain to escape from the hotel.
‘Of course, the condition is that it needs to be an actual object within 500m.’
If there were no corresponding objects within the distance range, forget being warped, the user would end up being captured inside the image. It carried a scary risk of never being able to come back into the real world ever again. That was why anybody who used this artifact needed to be wary of the items around them, the distance to them and use it with extreme caution.
However...
“Wow, Captain-nim, you really suck at drawing.”
“........”
“Was that thing you drew back there supposed to be this fountain? It’s a miracle we managed to come out here.”
Yoo Jaeha was starting to make fun of Ju-Heon without any fear.
“I thought you drew a hamburger or some......oooooooow!”
“Oh yes, you"re a genius artist.”
Ju-Heon was pulling Yoo Jaeha’s ear so hard as if he was torturing him.
“You can go back to the hotel if you have any complaints. Have fun letting Keira blow your head out.”
“Aaaaaaah, my ear! Aigoo, I"m sorry! It was a joke, a joke! I was thanking you for saving me!”
“Did you just scream?”
“N, no sir! Of course not! How can I scream to you, my heavenly Captain-nim! I respect you!”
“Good. That’s how it should be.”
This punk was talented but always asking for a beating.
Soon, after Ju-Heon"s mental training(?), Yoo Jaeha sniffled as he asked.
"But how did you have an artifact on you? Didn’t you say you left all artifacts behind?”
He asked because there was n.o.body around them. Ju-Heon started to laugh.
"Are you an idiot? Going to meet an artifact user while really leaving all artifacts behind is asking to die.”
That was true.
The rule was that artifact users had to keep their artifacts on them no matter what they needed to do. Otherwise, it was like a soldier going to the battlefield without his weapon.
But Yoo Jaeha was shocked.
“Huh? Huh? Then did you really bring all of the artifacts with you? That’s weird, I don"t even feel any of their auras? You’re lying!”
“Tsk.”
Ju-Heon clicked his tongue and took the artifacts out from his pocket. They all looked like gla.s.ses, gla.s.ses case, pens, etc. However, Yoo Jaeha could not help but drop his jaws in shock while looking at them.
“That’s crazy, you’re saying these are all artifacts? I can"t feel any aura coming from them though?”
That was how Keira had been tricked as well. Ju-Heon just chuckled.
“It’s called < camouflage >, you idiot.”
Artifacts could transform into three appearances.
The first level was the basic appearance (antique form). The second level was the camouflage appearance (forced disguise). The third level was the original appearance (ultimate form).
It was only possible to turn them into the second or third levels using strong levels of Dominance.
In the < Camouflage > state where the artifact can change appearance as the user desires, it is possible to hide its aura based on the user"s abilities.
Although it was currently impossible for the other users of this era, it was not difficult for Ju-Heon.
The quick-witted Yoo Jaeha seemed to have realized something as he asked a question.
“Then the red color pencil you received from the soldier earlier was also!”
Ju-Heon took a red color pencil out of his pocket instead of responding. However, he then showed a second one.
One was the regular red color pencil the soldier handed him.
As for the other...
“It’s Shakespeare’s pen.”
Ju-Heon then turned the artifact back to its original form. One of the color pencils turned into the fountain pen that Yoo Jaeha was familiar with.
Yoo Jaeha almost fainted while looking at that. It was shocking that artifacts could be camouflaged into different appearances, but most importantly...
“Wow, you total scammer! You changed it with the regular color pencil in that instant!”
Basically, this person received a color pencil from the soldier but had used Shakespeare’s pen on the map-type artifacts!
Yoo Jaeha quickly asked another question.
“Then is that pen the reason for the explosion and the soldiers ripping the artifacts up?”
“Oh, you"re quite sharp. That’s correct.”
“Then, what did you write? You wrote it in something other people wouldn"t be able to read on purpose! Is that really the artifacts’ language? Or maybe it is a weird ancient language? Blah, whatever, just tell me what you wrote!”
Ju-Heon started to laugh.
“Business secrets. You idiot.”
Actually, he had not written much.
[Macao Hotel employee Jamie Jung decided to commit terrorism due to extreme levels of stress. She chose to detonate a bomb in room 2002.]
[TSOF’s John Smith and Jamie Evans saw terrible demons coming out of the map-type artifacts.]
[They looked so terrible that they felt General Keira"s life would be in danger if they did not rip them up.]
It was something like that.
Shakespeare’s pen had a lot of restrictions, but it was an artifact for bewilderment and hypnosis. It was limited to affecting humans but could turn people with low levels of dominance within a 50m radius into the main characters of a play. It was quite effective. He had used it to a.s.sa.s.sinate some high ranking people in the past as well.
‘The issue is that you need to know the target"s face and cannot use it on the same person more than once.’
Anyway, Ju-Heon had just used Toombglyphs so that n.o.body else could read it. It was because he was certain that he was the only one who could decode that language.
“Anyway, our goal has been achieved. We can head toward Midas"s tomb now.”
The concerns about Irene being tracked inside Midas"s tomb has been resolved.
It shouldn"t be easy to restore the Columbus artifact either. At least 90% of it should be destroyed, so it was close to fully being destroyed.
‘So, it would be difficult for anyone not at Yoo Jaeha"s level to restore it.’
Yoo Jaeha started to speak with a disappointed tone at that moment.
“Aww, but it"s disappointing that we just left after destroying the artifacts. I don’t know about Columbus"s artifact, but we might have been able to use the others in the future if we restored them.”
Ju-Heon started to smile wickedly as if he had been waiting for that statement.
“I brought you a present expecting you would say that.”
“Uhh......what? W, what did you say? A present?”
Yoo Jaeha had a feeling it wouldn"t be a real present, but he still asked what it was. Ju-Heon then calmly waved a piece of paper in the air.
It was a portion of the ripped maps.
He had a large amount of the pieces of Keira"s consumable map-type artifacts.
He didn’t have every piece, but he had at least two thirds of them.
“I brought it because it seemed terrible to leave them there. Try to restore these if you can. Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it if you can"t.”
This employee almost fainted while grabbing the back of his neck after seeing these pieces of papers.
‘When did he manage to steal those?!’
“Aigoo, you’re going to even steal Keira"s panties in the future!”
“You"ve suffered greatly. General Keira.”
Richard, the professor who stole Yoo Jaeha’s art, didn"t know what to say while looking at the upset Monarch of War.
Keira was one of the important figures for Pandora that Richard and Chairman Kwon were creating. They were able to get many other countries to join because a major nation like the US was involved with it.
However...
‘Aigoo, is it General Keira this time after Chairman Kwon last time?’
He needed to really consider whether this Seo Ju-Heon b.a.s.t.a.r.d had some terrible fate with them at this point.
Why did he have to take down these important partners one by one?!
Richard who was wary of Keira’s emotional state cautiously asked.
"Did the map-type artifacts end up useless?”
“Can"t you tell?”
Keira glared at Richard as if telling him to get lost if he was going to ask such stupid question. Richard looked at the corpse-like artifacts and decided not to talk.
‘I might die if I say the wrong thing.’
Getting burnt was one thing, but these artifacts that had lost pieces of their bodies looked hopeless. The consumable artifacts weren"t even responding no matter how much Dominance was channeled.
Keira who was sitting with her legs crossed glared at Richard with an annoyed expression.
"Why do you think I came to see you?”
“You want me to restore them.”
“Yes. I came because I heard that you became Chairman Kwon"s restorer. Can you do it?”
He felt as if she would shoot him if he said he couldn’t.
Richard could only awkwardly smile at Keira’s request.
“Umm, I apologize but I need at least two thirds of the pieces to even try something. Where did the rest of them disappear?”
Of course, Ju-Heon had taken them.
However, Keira who had no way of knowing that just frowned and motioned with her hand.
“I don’t know. That’s none of my business. Just shut up and restore them. I don’t care as much about the others, but you must at least restore Columbus"s Map.”
How can she so openly say that she doesn"t know?
But it was understandable why she was like this.
“You said you"ll give them to England, right? Three of the US"s important artifacts. They decided to drop any charges about the incident with the Prime Minister in return.”
Keira’s eyebrows shot up in anger.
“Hurry up and restore them if you know the situation. I need to use Columbus"s Map to gather more artifacts to make up for this loss.”
Keira ground her teeth while looking at Columbus"s Map that was ripped in half.
The artifact must have gone nuts from the shock of having its body split in half as it was running wild saying it needed to find some weird things like Sky Island or Atlantis.
‘I"m certain that Seo Ju-Heon was the one who made it like this.’
Grind. The US had suffered quite a bit because of him.
She continued to grind her teeth as she started to speak.
“Anyway, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Seo Ju-Heon is dangerous. We need to take care of him or somehow drag him into the US excavation team. Personally, I want to make him my... No, the US"s slave.”
Richard chuckled at that statement.
“Do not worry. I will do as you ask. He’s still a civilian no matter how much of a ruckus he causes. He’s just a weak little punk once we take away his artifacts.”
“What? Take them away? Then, perhaps?”
“Yes ma’am. Pandora will soon be revealed. A law that prohibits civilians from using or owning artifacts will soon be spread throughout the world. Even Seo Ju-Heon and Yoo Jaeha will end up having their artifacts forcibly taken away. It won’t be a problem executing or turning these little boys without any backing into slaves at that point.”
Richard then started to laugh.
‘I need to use this opportunity to turn Seo Ju-Heon into Pandora’s slave and get rid of that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Yoo Jaeha.’
You just wait, you d.a.m.n thorns in our eyes.
Ju-Heon calmly started to speak to Yoo Jaeha without caring about what Richard was thinking.
“That Richard b.a.s.t.a.r.d is probably going to try to take our artifacts away. They’re going to use legal means to do it. Just keep that in mind.”
Yoo Jaeha almost spit up his bulgogi hotdog after hearing Ju-Heon say such things so calmly.
‘What did you say? That bald b.a.s.t.a.r.d?!”
They were at Macao airport to head to Midas"s tomb. Yoo Jaeha became angry just hearing Richard"s name, but what bulls.h.i.t was this?!
“What do you mean they are going to take our artifacts away legally?!”
“Hmm? I already told you about Pandora. There’s soon going to be a law preventing civilians from possessing artifacts. We will naturally be the example case to punish.”
Yoo Jaeha"s jaw dropped in shock.
“W, wait, how can you say that so casually? It’s not like I asked you what you ate this morning! That’s dangerous!”
Ju-Heon just chuckled as if Jaeha was overreacting.
“Don"t worry. I"ll make it so they can’t do as they please.”
“How?!”
“Shh. These are the times to use to wealthy people.”
Ju-Heon raised his index finger to tell Jaeha to be quiet as someone from the Holten household headed over. He seemed to be the Holten family"s butler as the gentle-looking old man probably in his sixties led the two of them to a section of the airport.
“Sirs, the young lady is waiting for you.”
They were not getting on a regular airplane but the Holten family"s private plane.
However, they were shocked once they arrived at the plane.