Preparations

[

Processing request…

Request Accepted

Request Nature: Miscellaneous Rent Box

Specification: A fourth of your Inventory (i.e. Capacity 250 liters and weight limit 250 kg) will be reserved for miscellaneous storage.

Effect:

1. Contestant can conjure any container within this space

2. The combined capacity of all the containers must not exceed the limits

3. Only things with no Stats can be stored within the containers

Price: 100 Mission Credits per Random World

Warning: Process must be repeated after upgrading the Inventory

Do you accept the transfer?

]

'100…' Kai's lips twitched seeing the price. It was more than he had expected. For a moment, Kai had even thought to let Roland pay the price. But even he admitted that asking Roland to give him Mission Credits would have been an outright robbery.

'One should know how to control one's greed,' Kai thought. 'Especially thieves.'

With one flick of his hand, Kai took out the enormous corpse of Great Redshank. He had told Ser Tussy that he found the corpse as it is. Otherwise, it would have been troublesome to explain how a newbie killed such a magical creature.

"Yes," Kai finally answered. Immediately, he felt a corner of his Inventory graying out as if he didn't have full access to it anymore. It was kinda like having a drawer within a drawer.

Kai also noticed there wasn't any reduction in total Mission Credits. But it was all a misconception, he knew. If the System won't get to deduct 100 MC before Random World's teleportation, then Kai won't be able to access the Miscellaneous Rent Box.

'A double-edged sword,' Kai thought, naming this absurd function.

Kai eyed the corpse then. It had almost covered the entire room. 'It's a little complex for Items like these,' Arlen had told him. 'The System will allow it to be stored as long as you can distinguishably tell it is or was an Item. So if you were to store only a claw of the magical creature, the Inventory will reject it. Unless the claw is itself an Item, that is.'

And that's what Kai had been worrying about. The corpse had turned out to be too valuable to just discard it. Before giving it up to the smith, Kai had decided to store its innards and blood.

'It will become a life-saving food in worst-case scenarios,' Kai reflected.

After sharing it with Arlen and others, only two-thirds of the beast was left. But it was still more than enough to last for a long time if stored properly. Kai went to the room's main door and found a guard outside. He tried to peek inside, but Kai blocked his eyesight.

"What is it?" the guard asked, annoyingly.

"I need an Item," Kai replied. "Preferably a cleaver. If not, a dagger will do."

"Humph! You…" The guard snorted. He was about to say something when Kai narrowed his eyes. The surroundings became cold suddenly. The guard gulped heavily and scampered off like a scared chicken.

*

*

It was bloody work.

Kai held the dirk in his hand, angled it perfectly, and cut through the muscles. A big glass bottle was on his right, containing whatever blood Kai had salvaged. On his left was a wooden chest. From the open lid, one could see a big liver, kidneys, entrails, and other organs and pieces of flesh.

Kai gently took out the heart and placed it in the chest. "Sigh!" Kai took a weary breath. He was exhausted. But this had to be done before handing over the rest of the carcass to someone else. With only 3 days to go, he didn't want to take chances.

Kai was anything but lazy.

'Now the brain,' Kai thought, holding the dirk. It was the Item Roland had given him. There was nothing special about it, though. 'These are mass-produced to handle magical creatures' corpses in the Random Worlds,' he had told Kai.

When Kai was done, he put the blood-filled jar and the wooden chest back into the reserved space of his Inventory. The remaining carcass could still be stored normally.

'Now, I must do that too,' Kai thought, his brows furrowing heavily.

Kai had been looking forward to this the most. Ever since he had seen Arlen taking out that vial, Kai had been looking forward to this moment. He thought for a moment, and the System turned his thoughts into reality.

Kai swept his hand, and a vial appeared out of his Inventory. It was the same vial Arlen had given him. And its purpose was also the same.

'I can't depend on Light Neurotoxin too much in a battle,' Kai had told himself. 'It depletes my HP and MP and makes me incapable of using other Abilities of the Blood Essence.' So Kai had been searching for the solution. The result? Store the poison ahead of the battles.

Kai resolved himself, focusing on the ever-present hotness in his chest. Even after experiencing it many times, the heat still had an edge to it. A hot mist covered his entire body, and the tattoo of the Blue-tailed Boa Constrictor appeared on his right arm.

[

Skill Light Neurotoxin Activated

Time Limit: 30 Seconds

]

Kai's reptilian pupils shimmered in the well-lit room. The nail of the middle finger extended, turning into a serpent's fang.

Drip! Drip! …

Kai paled instantaneously. 5 colorless drops of the poison had brought down his HP by 25 points. The drop in MP was enough to make him dizzy. But Kai persisted. Assisted by the maniacal will of his, Kai managed to remain awake until his HP and MP returned to their original values.

The tiredness, though, kept piling on.

Another activation. Eyes bloodshot! 5 more drops. And Kai couldn't hold on any longer. The only thing he could do before losing his consciousness was to send the vial back to the Inventory.

'Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?' Kai thought. And then the sleep took him, bringing him to the realm of nightmares.

*

*

Bang!

Bang!!

Loud banging noise woke him up, his head pounding along with them. Kai squinted his eyes and found himself sprawled on the blood-covered floor. He propped himself up and opened the door somehow. Roland was standing there, along with two others.

"It's time to…" Roland said, but then his face crumpled. "What the hell is this smell? Why haven't you changed? Didn't you bathe?"

Kai looked down and saw his clothing. Mud and blood were on him like another layer of skin.

'Oh,' the thought struck Kai then. 'So this was the thing I had forgotten.'