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Jeffery didn’t say anything. All he did was sip on his mug of unknown liquid and watch as the group who had hired him bickered about what to put in the betting pot. He wasn’t sure why a head-sized muffin was worth as much as ten dragon scales, and he wasn’t sure how the shirtless man was going to even obtain dragon scales, but it wasn’t Jeffery’s place to comment.
“Do you two want to participate as well?”
Evidently, it was Jeffery’s place to comment. He turned his head towards the horned woman, who was looking at him and Kax. Sitting not too far away from Jeffery, the red-haired man was likewise drinking from a mug while sitting with a wall behind him. Kax coughed, choking on his drink, as he raised his head and pointed at himself.
“Yes, you two,” Tafel said. “If you have things you can spare for a bet, and if you want to search for the unique hidden piece, then why not have some fun and make it a competition?”
Kax scratched his head. “I don’t think I….” Kax’s eyes glazed over, and a second later, he put the mug to the side and stood up, unsheathing his crystalline, bone axe. He walked over and placed it down on the table beside the muffin. “Kax bets his axe.”
Tafel stared at the now-weaponless man. “Are you sure you want to bet your weapon?” she asked and raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, give him a break,” Stella said from Vur’s shoulder. “The man doesn’t have anything else. He already sold away his soul, remember?”
“Yeah, that’s why it’d be really unfortunate for him to lose his axe as well,” Tafel said before shrugging. Well, they could always return the axe or get Kax a replacement weapon if he refused the return. She picked up the axe and handed it back to Kax. “At the very least, take it with you while you search for the hidden piece. There’s no need to make yourself weaker. It’s going to be tough to beat Vur; you’ll need all the help you can get.”
Vur turned his head towards Jeffery. “What do hidden pieces look like?” he asked. “What am I looking for?”
“It’s usually a conspicuous object located within a hidden location,” Jeffery said. “You’ll know it when you see it; at least, that’s what everyone who’s discovered a unique hidden piece has said.”
“That method must not apply to the first floor because I doubt no one’s seen it yet,” Stella said. She crossed her arms and furrowed her brow. “Unless? What if it does apply? Vur, we have to check out all the places it seems unlikely for other people to go: tops of mountains, bottoms of seas, within the clouds, and deep inside volcanoes!”
Vur nodded. “Diamant will check the mountains. Mistle will check the seas. Zilphy will check the clouds. Sheryl will check the volcanoes.”
Stella blinked. “And what are you going to do?”
“Supply Diamant, Mistle, Zilphy, and Sheryl mana to check the mountains, seas, clouds, and volcanoes.”
“Is that all you’re going to do?” Stella asked and tilted her head to the side.
Vur blinked in response. “Isn’t that all I have to do?”
“Shouldn’t you, you know? Go with them?” Stella asked. “Put in some more effort to win that muffin! There’s no way you’ll beat Tafel if she portals around everywhere while you’re sitting here relying on someone else to do your work for you.”
Vur stroked his chin. “But if Tafel wins, she’ll share some of the muffin with me anyway.”
“That’s right,” Tafel said. She didn’t just agree because a lazier Vur would be easier to beat. She really would’ve shared the muffin either way. Tafel’s eyes lit up when she saw Lindyss taking something out of her pocket. “Is that…?”
“What I’m wagering,” Lindyss said and placed an object on the table beside the large muffin. It was a blood-red feather. “A phoenix eyebrow feather. I’m sure you two know its uses.” Her head turned towards Kax and Jeffery. She gestured towards the feather with her left hand. “If you burn it with a corpse, they’ll be reborn as an infant amongst the ashes. Make sure you’re there to hose them down with water because they’ll get really hot and die again if you’re careless.”
Tafel scratched her head. If she won the contest, she’d get dragon scales, something she could easily obtain by going through Vur’s family’s roost, and phoenix feathers, something she could easily get by cleaning Minerva’s nest. Oh, she’d also get a crystalline axe, but she was planning on returning that one, so…. Well, the only thing that mattered was winning against people who were trying to win as well, but still. “How about we add one more condition?”
“Can’t you have fun normally without adding pressure onto yourself?” Lindyss asked, her expression darkening. “You need to learn how to relax and take it easy a little, or you’ll burn yourself out.”
“I have a question,” Jeffery said, clearing his throat. “If none of us find the unique hidden piece, what happens to the pot?”
“Hah?” Stella asked. “Isn’t that obvious? If no one wins, then the house keeps the pot!” She stuck her chest out and beamed. “I’m the house by the way.”
Lindyss placed her finger on Stella’s head and pressed down, forcing the fairy queen to sink into Vur’s body to avoid being crushed. “No,” the cursed elf said. “If no one wins, we each take back what we added to the pot.”
“In that case, I’ll participate as well,” Jeffery said and stood up. He walked over before taking a wrapped object out of a bag on his waist and placing it on the table. It made a soft clanking sound as it made contact with the icy surface. “This is a hidden piece I obtained from the first floor thirteen years ago. It’s a set of armor.”
“A set of armor?” Tafel asked and stared at the wrapped object. It was even smaller than the muffin she had taken out, how was a set of armor supposed to fit in that tiny little ball? “Can I open it?”
Jeffery grimaced as he nodded.
Tafel undid the packaging, and her face contorted as she pulled out a triangular-shaped garment with pawprints on it. “Is this … underwear?”
“To be more specific, it’s outerwear,” Jeffery said. “If you read the description from the root bracelet, you’ll see you have to wear it on the outside of your clothes for it to take effect.”
“I can also see why you held onto it for thirteen years,” Tafel said, her face expressionless. No one in their right mind would wear a pair of briefs with pawprints on them over their clothes in public. She reached into the packaging and pulled out another piece of cloth. It was a long white rectangle. “I see it comes with a cape.”
“Yes, both have to be worn at the same time for you to activate the equipment skill,” Jeffery said.
“Clothes provide skills here?” Lindyss asked, taking a look at the garments in Tafel’s hands.
“Apparently,” Tafel said and held up the underwear and cape. “This has the skill ‘Hundred Puppy Massacre’ according to the root bracelet.”
“Does it summon a hundred puppies to maul your opponent?” Stella asked upon hearing the name.
“No.” Tafel shook her head. “It summons a hundred puppies for your enemies to fight while you run away.”
“It, uh, only summons ninety-three puppies now,” Jeffery said and cleared his throat. “I’ve had to use it a few times.”
Thanks for the chapter!
Hahahaha oh my goodness! Couldn’t he summon the puppies and sell them? Why kill the puppies?! Some compulsion? I would be traumatized. I guess it depends on the puppy. If it’s those toy dog puppies… I probably wouldn’t even be able to see them properly… so would feel less bad. How old are the puppies? What sized dog? These are important bits of information!