Show Me the Money

Chapter 226 – Tailing

“Whew, this Lord Fatty’s dead tired!”

Getting off the Dark Unicorn Guard's body, Fatty panted heavily, trying to catch his breath.

He had resorted to every trick possible to beat the unicorn to less than 3% HP, and yet, the creature still nearly killed him twice with so little health left. If it wasn’t for the skill Bloodsucker that allowed him to absorb a portion of damage into his health, Fatty would already have died countless times over.

Even so, he barely managed to hold on with less than 1% health left when the unicorn finally fell. It was a close call.

Fatty wasn’t in a rush to pick up the loot. He sat there cross-legged and reviewed the lesson learned from this fight.

A level 40 fought and killed a Celestial boss all by himself. If news of this spread, it’d absolutely make people go crazy. However, while Fatty had succeeded, the price he had to pay wasn’t small at all.

Out of eight bolts, one was completely destroyed while the other seven were heavily damaged. His two pets died and even Fatty had flatlined once. Moreover, his stock of supplies was depleted.

While the cost was negligible in the face of such a result, Fatty still felt a lingering fear in his heart.

If he didn’t have Death Transformation; if Wheat hadn’t burst with might and petrified the boss; if the Royal Winged Ant Poison hadn’t been able to paralyze the boss long enough; most importantly, if the Dark Unicorn Guard hadn’t been willing to die and letting him attack it… There were so many ‘ifs’ and if any of those did not happen, Fatty would have died a futile death today.

Letting out a long sigh, Fatty turned to clean up the loot. A weakened Celestial boss was still a Celestial boss. The unicorn dropped a Celestial cape with decent stats for its rank.

Putting the Plenilune Ballista back into his inventory, Fatty sat still and waited. When Death Transformation expired, he immediately tore a Recall Scroll.

“You need Cold Iron Ores? Alright, I still have fifty or so in my storage, all produced by our guild’s miners. I’ll send them to you asap.” In the middle of leading her guild to fight a boss, Liu Lan received Fatty’s message. She instantly emptied the fifty-something Cold Iron Ores from her storage plus some normal mineral ores, then teleported them to the Imperial Capital using 100,000 gold coins.

“I’ll credit this first and pay you when I have the money,” said Fatty as he received the ores.

“What money, it’s just some mineral ores.” Liu Lan pretended to be angry.

Fatty chuckled. Then, he contacted Fierce Dragon TheTalent and bought some more ores from his guild. After finishing all transactions, Fatty said goodbye to the two and raced to the Smithy.

“Grandmaster Karl, I’ll have to trouble you again.”

Shooting Fatty a surprised glance, Karl wordlessly took the ores. After a round of clinks and clanks, the blacksmith produced thirteen bolts. With the previous seven, there were exactly twenty in total. Karl handed Fatty the newly crafted bolts, then fixed up the damaged ones.

“What? Celestial bosses?! You… you are too reckless!” Hearing that these bolts were for dealing with Celestial bosses, Karl couldn’t help but reveal a shocked expression.

From his evaluation of Fatty’s strength, Karl had reckoned that the current Fatty was too weak, so he gave Fatty three years to do the mission. However, the blacksmith was stunned to know that Fatty could even fight a Celestial boss alone and had even killed one.

“Indeed, a hero from the youth!” Nodding, Karl exclaimed with a sigh. Then, he went into his store and retrieved an object.

The palm-sized object was small and intricate. From a glance, it was composed of complex mechanisms and had magical patterns carved all over the surface.

“This is?” Fatty looked dubiously at Karl.

“This is the God Slayer Crossbow, I created it based on the God Destroyer,” explained Karl.

Ever since he got his hands on the God Destroyer Crossbow, Karl had been studying it for virtually half his life. While limited by the lack of materials that prevented him from fixing it, he had poured in the precious materials that he went to great lengths to gather to craft the mini God Slayer using the God Destroyer Crossbow as the model.

“While the attack of this God Slayer Crossbow isn’t as high as the Plenilune Ballista, it wins in portability, very good for self-defense,” Karl explained.

God Slayer Crossbow Violet weapon Level Requirement: 40 Attack: 220 – 280 STR +10 DEX +8 Notes: A weapon created by Master blacksmith Karl in the Imperial Capital using the ancient Divine item God Destroyer Crossbow as the base model. Intricate and handy, it’s the perfect tool for travel and murder. When used in conjunction with bolts crafted from advanced materials, it will be a tiger with wings, an unpredictable killer.

A perfect tool for travel and murder? What scoundrel made this up?

“May I ask what kind of price do I have to pay for something so valuable?” Fatty understood very well that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

“I want that Demigod Dark Unicorn’s horn,” Karl replied.

“Okay, deal.”

Although the horn of that Demigod Dark Unicorn Chief was a rare crafting material, rarer than even the likes of Cold Iron Ore and Meteor Iron Ore, in Fatty’s opinion, it still couldn’t compare to the unique and powerful God Slayer Crossbow.

The Imperial Capital was indeed the Imperial Capital, you could grab any random NPC and find one with a super skill.

Paying 5,000 gold coins for each bolt, Fatty summoned the Earth Dragon and once again raced like mad toward the Holy Spirit Island.

“Guild Master, he’s left the city.” In a corner that Fatty wasn’t aware of, two players watched him exit the Imperial Capital and reported via their communicators.

“Tail him,” a bland voice rang out. Per command, the two players summoned their mounts – Goshawks, a type of avian pet.

Fatty never noticed that people were following him up in the sky. He just rode like mad and wasted several days to reach the Holy Spirit Island.

“He’s actually running this far. That must be some first-rate mission,” the two tails complained non-stop along the way. If it weren’t for the two of them taking turns, they would have lost chase of Fatty when they logged off to rest.

“How can he be online for so long? Is he not scared of developing mental problems?” During three days, Fatty only went offline a few times for meals. The two players simply couldn’t figure it out.

“Whew, I’ve made it, just in time.”

Looking up to see the moon about to reach its highest spot in the sky, Fatty arranged the Plenilune Ballista, then held the Holy Horn in his left hand, waiting for midnight to come.

“Wuuu….” A series of weeping echoed. The Dark Unicorn pack punctually came out to attack the Light God statue.

Bam! Inky died again to pull a monster. Fatty had no time to mourn for the pet though. Grasping the short period when the Holy Horn helped the depraved soul regain its sense, he began attacking.

Kah kah… The Plenilune Ballista started to operate. The dragon tendons inside vibrated, and akin to the growl of the Plenilune Beast King, a bolt screamed out, nailing the Dark Unicorn Guard to the wall.

Shooting twenty bolts in succession saved Fatty a great deal of time than before, having only eight. When the unicorn’s clarity was in its last seconds, Fatty fired the last bolt.

“Wuuu…” The Holy Unicorn’s soul emerged above the Dark Unicorn Guard’s corpse. With a smile, it nodded to Fatty and leaped into the Holy Horn.

Thud! A pile of items gushed out. With a casual wave of his hand, Fatty retrieved a Celestial item and several decent Violet and Gold items, then threw the rest to the Elemental Skill Book.

Fatty tossed several Harvests and gained all the usable materials from the unicorn’s body. Then, turning to the remaining three bosses, he couldn’t help but let out a long sigh. This time was the only period he could hope to kill them. Any other time, provoking them was no different from suicide.

“Squeak squeak.” Wheat suddenly popped out from underground and squeaked to Fatty. The latter was instantly alert. There are people outside?

Walking to a discreet corner, Fatty took out the X-Ray Mirror and scanned the area. No living person was revealed. Furrowing his brows, Fatty activated the Mirror’s X-ray function that could see through everything. Immediately, two vague figures slowly emerged on the glass.

“Players of the Sun Moon Cult.” Fatty snorted coldly, enraged in his heart as he saw the two players’ guild emblem.

I let you off lightly the last time you ruined my business, and yet you lot have the gall to track me here to make trouble? See how Lord Fatty will handle you!

“Report: He’s entered a temple. We didn’t dare to stay too close. Situation inside is unknown. But there is certainly a high-ranked boss in there… Yes, we’ve heard noises, very strong… I don’t know, there isn’t any sound now. Not sure if he has killed the boss or died back to the respawn point… Okay, we’re going in.”

The two Sun Moon Cult members reported to their guild master, Invincible East, then split up and Stealthed toward the temple.

Upon setting foot in the temple, their eyes instantly greeted the massive statue of the Light God, as well as the herd of damaged Holy Unicorn’s heads at its feet.

“This is strange. Did that fatty die?” The two scanned the surroundings without spotting Fatty.

“What’s this?” The duo noticed a pile of bones next to the remaining three perfect heads.

Just when they neared, three sturdy Dark Unicorns abruptly appeared before them with a whoosh. The monsters stared at them as if staring at prey.

“AHHH! BOSS!!” screaming in shock, the duo frantically turned to flee.

Whew. The Dark Unicorn Chief let out a slight snort, and the two level 40-somethings were packed on a free trip back to the city.

“Boss, we were killed. A boss killed us! It seems to be a unicorn, but it’s black. Too terrifying, it one-shot the two of us just with a breath!”

At the Black Tortoise City’s respawn point, the two rogues reported to Invincible East with crumpled faces.

“Everyone, heed my command, those who aren’t in the middle of the tournament, go to these coordinates. Bring all of your supplies, there will be a powerful boss. Yes, bring your aerial mounts, we’ll travel by air this time.”

Closing his communicator, Invincible East revealed a ferocious smile. Then, he opened the communicator again and ordered, “The rest who don’t have a match, for the time being, block the west gate. Don’t let Money Grubber escape.”

“High-ranked boss? How high can it be anyway? Not like it can be a Celestial-tier. Hahaha, if you, Money Grubber, have that gut to fight a Celestial boss alone; I, Invincible East, will take my head off and let you kick it like a ball.”

“I guess the players of the Sun Moon Cult should come soon.” Fatty appeared from Stealth and glanced at the players’ bodies that hadn’t reset. “It takes me at least three days to run from the Imperial Capital to this place. Their mounts shouldn’t be able to compare to the Earth Dragon, so it’ll take them even longer. Until then, humph, Invincible East, you’d better be here as well.”

Gazing at the spot where the remaining three Dark Unicorn bosses had disappeared, Fatty turned around and exited the temple.

“Come, Wheat, come level with Lord Fatty.”