W1.A1-21: An Oddity

"What just happened?" Lena finally came to her senses and asked as she turned to look at me, puzzled.

I gestured for her to wait and walked forward before crouching down. Moving my hands, I began to check the dead guy's pockets.

"You should check his storage ring if you want to find the loot." Lena couldn't stop herself from commenting as she pointed at the storage ring the guy was wearing.

Her comment made me turn speechless for a moment before I could finally speak.

"Do I look like some kind of professional bandit?" I asked. "I'm not looking for some loot," I stated.

Just as Lena was about to ask me again, I took something out of the guy's clothes before raising it in front of her and saying, "This."

Lena looked at the thing in my hand before frowning. "A medallion?"

"Yep." I brought it closer and began to observe it.

It was a circular medallion made out of some kind of heavy, black metal. It had a distinct shine to it, reminding me of the mana that the guy had exuded earlier.

A pattern was engraved in its center, depicting the shape of a hand with an eye in the middle. Combined with its black metallic hue, it looked eerie, to say the least.

"Can you tell me now?" Lena hopped towards me after she saw me keeping the medallion in my pocket. "I'm soooo curious now."

I chuckled at her nonchalant expression. She was acting as if we had not just killed the target of the mission without even gaining anything of value from him.

But that was just how much she trusted me.

And not letting down her expectations, I began to explain.

"Didn't I say earlier that I found this guy a bit strange?" I asked and continued without waiting for her to nod. "I was right," I said.

Pointing towards the dead guy, I clarified, "This guy was not actually a peak master-class expert." I took a pause before adding, "At least, it has not been that long since he was brought to the peak."

"You mean a forceful breakthrough?" Lena asked in surprise. She clearly seemed to know what it meant, but it also made her raise a question.

"But why would someone do something pointless like that?" she asked. "Isn't it said that only people who have lost all hope will try to forcefully break their shackles to advance to the next stage?" She then looked at the dead guy before commenting, "And this guy clearly doesn't look like he was trying to break through to become a grandmaster."

I gave a nod, as her confusion was totally normal.

Then I pointed at the guy again before speaking, "He was not trying to break through another stage; instead, he was brought to his peak stage from his initial rank." I thought for a moment before adding, "He was probably at the beginner level of master-class before his forced advance in strength."

"Isn't that totally useless, though?" Lena's confusion grew. "Such a breakthrough wouldn't have done him any good."

She then smirked, "No wonder this guy was dead before I could even blink."

"You're wrong." But I didn't agree on that and explained, "Your understanding would have been applicable had he been a normal person, but it's irrelevant when it comes to him."

"Is he someone special?" Lena couldn't help but take another look at the dead guy. Due to the high-speed action that took place earlier, she was unable to see his face clearly.

The guy seemed to have been in his thirties. He was tall and thin, with dirty-blonde short hair.

His face was pale, even before his death, and his cheeks were sunken.

Even though his power was "fake," for someone at the master stage, he sure looked unhealthy.

"He's not special," I replied. "But the group he works for is sure an oddity."

Before Lena could ask about that, I waved my hand, saying, "Don't ask me because I have only encountered them once."

"And believe me," I said. "The encounter ended before I even had a chance to exchange a few sentences."

"So, you killed them, huh?" Lena smirked.

"It was not like I wanted to." I sighed before giving a shrug. "What can you even say to a bunch of guys suddenly jumping at you with their weapons raised?"

"Right." Lena nodded in understanding before asking, "What should we report for the mission then?" She then added a suggestion of her own: "Let's just say he was accidentally killed?"

"No," I refused. "We'll say that he ran away." I gave the general idea before elaborating: "He had somehow already sensed our presence and was lying in ambush. We were lucky enough not to lose any members due to our alertness, and when the guy realized that he couldn't win, he ran away."

"That's a lame reason!" Lena complained.

She said, "Not to mention this will reduce our evaluation, but do you even think they'd believe that a single master-class expert ran away from the grasp of the two of us—the only disciples of our master, a sword saint?"

"They won't." I agreed. "And even if they did, the other nobles will surely use this to take a jab at our master's reputation."

"Then why did you even suggest that?"

I pursed my lips before saying, "Don't ask about it for now, as I can't explain it without our master's permission."

"Tsk! such a teacher's pet."

"Hey, that was uncalled for."

"Hmph." Lena snorted. "Don't even try to deny how much our master favors you."

"Is that so?" I asked with a blank expression before pointing at her shiny golden armor. "Then why are you the one who gets to keep her armor and storage ring?" Then I pointed at myself and continued, "While I had all my items confiscated from me?"

"How would I know?" Lena shrugged. "It must have been another one of those things that you and our master have kept hidden from me." She pouted, clearly referring to the topic from earlier.

"Okay, fine." I could only hold my forehead at her unreasonableness before saying, "I'll tell master to tell you about it too."

"You better." She snorted and stopped asking about it anymore. While she seemed to be talking casually, she was also the one most afraid of our master.

"What should we do now?" A bored expression appeared on her face as she felt that her mission had ended a bit too quickly.

"Oh." I also began to think. I, too, had not expected that I would have to take such measures.

After thinking for a while, I couldn't decide how to wrap up the mission for now, so I decided to focus on the mess at hand.

Pointing at the dead body, I said to Lena, "Store him in your ring first; he's dead and without any spirit, so it should not be a problem."

"Eww!" Lena showed a disgusted expression before saying, "No way am I going to store a dead body inside my storage!"

"Oh?" I gave her a look. "Says the girl who used to hunt the poor wild animals and keep them in her storage as snacks."

"That's completely different!" She retorted. "They were food," she said before pointing at the dead guy and saying, "This is not."

"Well, that just depends on personal preference." I muttered before sighing, "Fine, let me do this then."

I crouched down before touching the corpse. My mana circulated at full velocity as it came out of my body before covering the corpse.

A cocoon of energy was formed around the body, looking almost solid.

Heaving a breath, I stood up and said, "I have sealed him completely; it should not be a problem now, right?"

Lena pursed her lips.

"You should have just burned it."