Chapter 83: Yellow Talisman
Chapter 83: Yellow Talisman
After Marco and the others departed, the store fell silent.
Michelle quietly pulled herself closer to me.
I looked at her face, wondering what was going on, and I saw her staring at me with moist eyes.
Then, her slender and supple fingertips traced my collarbone.
[We’re finally alone……]
It seems that she wanna make out with me.
Yeah, I do feel the same way as her, but I can’t exactly calm myself down while we’re inside the dungeon.
[We can’t do it tonight. We won’t know when Marco and the others would come back, right?]
[Ehhh, they just left though.]
[Even still……]
They may encounter a strong enemy, get wounded, and immediately return.
Monsters can’t come in thanks to the Head Korokoro sticker, but the entrance door is made of glass.
If we were to make out here, we would be easily seen from the outside.
[We could just put back the curtains. Or like, we could do it in the back.]
[What if we get so absorbed in it that we don’t notice when everyone comes back?]
[Well, I don’t really mind getting seen.]
[No means no.]
Michelle sulkily pouted her cheeks.
[I’m going to the kitchen to boil some water. Wait there, I’ll make us some tea.]
[Geez……]
Guess I’ll bring out Michelle’s favorite snack to put her in a good mood.
When I came back after boiling the water, I saw Michelle picking up something from the store.
[You find anything you want?]
[No. That’s not it, I just wanted to know what this is for.]
What Michelle was holding in her hand was a yellow talisman.
Product name: Jiangshi Talisman
Description: A conspicuous talisman. Stick it on and play with it in various ways. When this talisman is thrown to an Undead monster, their movements will be sealed. When this talisman, it temporarily gains a specialization power against Undead.
Price: 30 rims
I’ve seen that in an old Jiangshi movie.
On the yellow talisman, six chinese characters “勅令陏身保命” are written in red.
As Michelle can’t read Chinese characters, I explained to her what the Jiangshi Talisman is.
(T/N: 勅令陏身保命 / “By Imperial Decree, Let this Servant Continue to Serve Even in Death” The meaning of these words translated in english isn’t really something that can be properly written in a talisman, so I’ll just keep it as is.)
[By the way, are there any Undead monsters in this dungeon?]
[There are. The northernmost part of the 3rd Underground Floor is particularly most known for their Undead.]
[Don’t tell me, there’s actually Jiangshis there?]
[I don’t know any monsters called Jiangshi. The monsters there are mainly made up of Zombies and Skeletons.]
Thinking about it again, zombies and jiangshis have a lot in common.
They are both corpses, and when they bite on someone, they turn into a monster.
It seems that this talisman works for those Zombies and Skeletons.
[The average drop for a Zombie is just under 400 rims. They form a large pack, so if you have a strong team, you can make a lot of money from hunting those. However, not many people hunt them.]
[Why?]
[It’s because not only are their packs just so large, they’re also tough. Fire Magic is effective against them, but you’ll eventually run out of mana.]
[What if you bring this?]
At my question, Michelle tilted her head.
[It might work during the day, but at night, it’s too risky. Zombies may be slow during the day, but I heard they start running at nightfall.]
I saw them doing that in a movie in my previous life too.
Zombies running just isn’t unfair, isn’t it?
[Besides, Zombies are originally Humans, so hunting them isn’t good for adventurers’ mental health.]
I see. Yeah, I get that reason.
Zombies being smacked around by nail bats, that happens only in movies.
I guess it’s better to just keep the talismans as more of an amulet.
◆
Titti was in her room illuminated by candlelight.
Marco had gone to the dungeon and wouldn’t be back tonight.
[Haahh…… This feels refreshing.]
She was fed up with Marco following her around like a dog.
With a sigh, Titti looked at the small gold coin in her palm.
[Finally, 100,000 rims……]
Of course, this was money that Marco had worked so hard to earn.
But to the former Titti, this money was nothing more than small change.
When Titti was the Queen Consort, a 100,000-rim gold coin was like a 10-rim copper coin to her.
As Titti was thinking of fleeing the country, she wanted to have at least 3 million rims on hand.
She could easily find a new source of revenue as long as she was out of the country, but she didn’t want to lower her standard of living while she finds an excellent man.
She also has some things to do before leaving the country.
If possible, she wanted to take revenge on the current King who turned her in such a state.
Even if that was impossible, she wanted to at least exact revenge against Michelle and Yahagi.
[Let’s give Marco an ultimatum……]
It seems that Marco has acquired a good weapon of some sort, and his earnings have been improving recently.
Titti had been thinking he was completely useless, so this happening was a pleasant surprise.
This way, she found it not needed to coerce him to do a crime.
[Hmph, looking at me with expectant eyes like a vulgar dog……]
So far, Titti had been thinking of dumping Marco as soon as he saved up enough money.
However, she changed her mind, thinking of bringing him if he was useful.
[It’s not that I’ve developed feelings for him or anything, but that guy did have cute points……]
Marco worships Titti like a Goddess.
[Well, I wouldn’t mind spending a little more time with him.]
Titti pondered on her plans.
First, she’s going to encourage Marco to stop being a servant and start living as an adventurer.
Marco would likely make more money that way.
Then, when everyone has forgotten about Marco, Titti plans to escape from Rondas Tower and move into Marco’s house.
Gathering her thoughts, Titti glanced outside the window.
She should prepare the various tools necessary for her escape ahead of time.
She already has the ingredients for the sleeping incense and poison.
Marco has earned the money to buy them.
However, she still has a lot of work to be done, such as making the various duplicate keys and stealing the patrol map.
[I would also need a wig for disguise. Guess I’ll go with a plain black one like Michelle’s hair. So that I won’t stand out……]
As if she thought her idea was funny, Titti silently giggled in the dimly lit room.