"Just to make this clear… I really hate this plan."
Alice was complaining again, and Kayden couldn't really argue this time. The plan that he thought of was incredibly embarrassing, something he had thought he would never do and had never done. But the situation called for it, so here we are.
"I don't like it either, but unfortunately, I can't replicate a female's voice on my own. Since you can't even do anything now, you can make yourself more useful."
"I can fight—"
"No, you can't, Alice!" Cathy interrupted, "Not until your arm's recovered."
"Yeah yeah…" Alice waved her off, before focusing her attention on Kayden. "Who in the world are you disguising yourself as?"
Kayden twirled around and let his silky, long hair flow freely.
"What are you talking about? I've thought of this look completely by myself!"
Alice sighed, "Really? Well, if that's your take on the ideal woman, let me just say that you should lower your expectations. By a lot."
"Aw come on. I think he looks great!" Cathy seemed to fawn over Kayden's new look. "You almost look like Myona, the Goddess of Wisdom! Just don't go claiming that you're a Goddess, because that's blasphemy!"
"R-right…"
Kayden was sporting a new look, and it was that of a beautiful woman, enough to inspire jealousy from miles away! Naturally, he did not come up with this look, but he had no choice but to lie. He took inspiration from someone he knew. That's right, it was Hel! All he did was take the good-looking part… and mirrored it.
"[I'm still unsure how to feel about you stealing my look, especially with what you plan to do with it. But since all of this is for the sake of your own safety, I'll allow it.]"
Kayden nodded, to acknowledge both Cathy and Hel's words. Speaking of what he was planning to do, he was going to take advantage of the greed of the adventurers. They had already discussed giving away the map for free, but since the original one had been destroyed, Ezekiel, who had memorized it previously, would redraw it.
The twist was that during its recreation, he would leave out some details on the map, especially the more obscure ones. Kayden would also use illusion magic to make the newly made map look old and tattered to appear more convincing, like it had been freshly dug up from the dungeon.
With Ryan's support, Aisha's and Hel's good looks, and a reward too enticing to refuse, Kayden was sure that this plan would work. Now all they had to do was set it into motion.
"Alright. Prepare your best voice, Alice. I'm dropping the invisibility spell!"
***
'W-why is she winking at me?'
Ryan was confused. The beautiful lady that had just offered the map as compensation suddenly started winking at him for no reason. What was he supposed to make of this?
'Could it be…? No way…'
The jealous stares of some people didn't help him collect his thoughts. He had a strange nagging suspicion that he had met the woman before, which was strange. He definitely would have remembered meeting someone so beautiful.
Then, he saw it. The lady rolled her eyes and a small bird appeared above her palm before slamming hard onto her palm and turning into a human. It was a retelling of a familiar event… his first meeting with the thief…
'Ah, crap. It really is him… I know that illusion magic users can do this sort of thing whenever they like, but somehow, I never thought he would stoop to this level. Guess I'm supposed to take over here…'
Clearing his throat, Ryan walked up to where Zhang was and pretty much took over the leadership position. All he had to do was say the exact words the adventurers wanted to hear.
"Listen up! I'm a B-ranked adventurer from the capital of the Adelastor Kingdom! I'm sure my qualifications to lead go without saying. Since the Crimson Menace is willing to part with such a gift, it would be a shame for us not to take it!"
The adventurers cheered, and Ryan could see Zhang look visibly frustrated from the corner of his eye. Ryan couldn't help but feel pity. Zhang had come from the Eastern Continent while most of the adventurers here are from the Central Continent, like Ryan himself. It was simple discrimination that led to the adventurers easily jumping ship.
He patted Zhang on the shoulder.
"Don't be too upset, I'm still part of your party. We'll come up with a plan to exploit this later, eh?"
"…Sigh. Whatever. You Galians are quick to choose, especially when it comes to treasure. This will come back to bite your asses, someday."
Brandon, who had been silently standing to the side while unknowingly enamored by Kayden's ne disguised look, spoke up.
"Who are you to judge? You wanted the largest portion of the treasure."
Zhang shook his head.
"Unlike you barbarians, I know how to think for myself. And do you know how much's the boarding fee for a trip back to my hometown? It's not little, I'll tell you that much."
"…That was your motivation the whole time? To pay for your travel expenses?"
"…Yes. What's wrong with that?"
"Nevermind…"
Well, it seemed that Zhang wasn't nearly as upset as he had thought. The beautiful lady, aka Kayden, proceeded to explain the plan that they had come up with to deal with the undead Naga.
"By the way! I can't help but notice that even after all this time, the Naga still hasn't appeared. As such, I myself will risk my own body and soul to draw it outside! I hope that by doing this, we can mend the relationship between us as adventurers!"
Murmurs began to surface among the adventurers. Some were skeptical and thought that this might be a ruse of sorts, while others were touched and taken aback. It was Ryan's job to squash the opposition, and he knew how unlikely it was for Kayden to betray him now anyway. If Kayden chose to do something, Ryan could simply reveal his trickery here and now.
"Don't worry guys. If he—she tries to take advantage of us, we can simply hold her party accountable."
His words were enough to quell any distrust among the doubtful bunch, as there weren't many to begin with. It seems that turning into a beautiful woman was really effective.
'What a joke…'
In the end, everyone obliged. Together with the Crimson Menace's party, the adventurers all left one by one and headed for the exit. The dungeon doors were still open, and only one woman stayed behind, ready to sacrifice everything to lure out the undead.
Once he was sure everyone left, including Alice, whom he had kept invisible throughout the speech, he immediately dropped his disguise.
"Man, that was weird. I hope I won't have to do that again."
"[Believe me. I'm not thrilled about it either.]" Hel sighed, before continuing, "[Anyway, I already told you to stop drinking those.]"
Kayden temporarily put down the potion of mana recovery from his mouth.
"I need the mana to keep up the ruse, don't I? Don't worry, think of this as the last stretch. After this, I won't be touching another one ever again. Hopefully."
Hel sighed again.
"[I should have probably you this, but your magic will undergo changes if you keep absorbing the death mana around you. Like how the water-based spells might produce scalding water when too much fire mana is absorbed, you might undergo something similar. Just be careful.]"
Kayden downed the rest of the liquid before tossing the vial away. He let out a small burp, wiped the corners of his mouth, and pulled up his stat page.
Name: Kayden
Title: Pest of Babylon
Level: 16
Health: 164/187
Mana: 54/108
Status effects: Mana poisoning (Death)
It seems that it must be pretty bad if the mana poisoning even showed up on his stat page, but Kayden wasn't focusing on that. Instead, he took a long good look at his level.
"If I'm not wrong. If I get the final hit on a monster before it dies, the amount of experience I gain increases, right?"
"[Well, there are other factors as well, such as level of contribution, but yes.]"
"In that case… how much experience do you reckon I can get for defeating that thing?"
"[Enough to level up twice, I would say. The Naga is a much tougher opponent than that Skeletal Champion though.]"
Kayden grinned. It was just what he wanted to hear.
"I'm gonna steal that final hit! I'm a thief, after all! Let's see… let's call this… Operation Kill Steal!"
Laughing maniacally in the darkness, Kayden disappeared into the hallway that led toward the Naga.
In his right hand held a torch, and in his other held an illusory copy of the map. This, together with the mini-map function of the System, allowed him to navigate perfectly through the twists and turns of the dungeon.
After about ten minutes of snooping around, he could soon hear a low rumble echo through the hallways, like the sound of something humongous shifting its weight. Kayden skidded to a halt and decided to walk more quietly from this point onward.
A sort of radar-like ping appeared on the mini-map, marking the direction and potential location of where the sound came from. It blinked an ominous, bright red, which contrasted with the darkness around it.
"Wow." He whispered, "I didn't know it could do that. This thing's better than Ezekiel's clairvoyance!"
"[Well… not necessarily… Anyways, stay alert.]"
Moving more stealthily this time, Kayden pushed onward. Every once in a while, he could hear that low rumble, and each time the mini-map would update itself. Slowly but surely, the location of this creature was beginning to reveal itself.
"It's in a large room…how peculiar. Why did it stop halfway in its chase? All the skeletons seemed to have been fairly aggressive so far…"
Hel came up with an idea.
"[Assuming that it's intelligent, it must have chosen to do on its own accord. That could mean that whatever held it back must have been more important than getting rid of intruders.]"
It sounded logical. Kayden would like to think that the Naga had to defend some great treasure, which would mean that he had the opportunity to take it before anyone else. Maybe he could earn a little bit more money from it.
Speaking of money, Kayden, despite offering the map for free to the adventurers, still had a way of making money with it. Thanks to them being able to forge falsehoods into the map, the real, unadulterated one could still make them money. Though it was best to only sell them to a few, trustworthy people, lest the secret gets revealed. With the number of connections the Crimson Menace is sure to have, Kayden reckoned that it wouldn't be too hard to get some buyers.
If anyone tried to resell the premium version, they could then claim that there was no such thing. Adventurers were more likely to believe the people with the actual map than any resellers. Additionally, as the majority of the adventurer now have a map themselves, even if it were missing some crucial details, they still got something out of it. Gratitude can come a long way, and they might even let them go if the truth were to be revealed. Right?
"Sigh. I said all these to convince Aisha to give up the map, but in the end, we're currently not earning enough to justify our losses. I wonder how long it would take for me to clear my debt…"
As Kayden sulked, he soon arrived at the large room where the mini-map had pinpointed as the most likely source of the noise. If the Naga wasn't here, he had no idea where else it could be.
He quickly took a peek inside the room, anxious to locate his target. One thing immediately stood out to him, and it was the scorched metal that practically filled the entire room. There was ash everywhere, and the smell was acrid, nearly sending him into a coughing fit.
"This must be… the room Aisha was in… Wow, she must have been really desperate…"
Kayden was a little bit in awe of the massive destruction. The rooms were massive, and the ceilings were tall. To be able to burn off the metal from every corner all by herself was an incredible feat of power, and it was the kind of power Kayden wanted. Well, as long as it didn't hurt his allies in the process.
Carefully, without making any sound, he stepped into the room and glanced around.
Without much time or effort, he saw it immediately. In the left corner of the room was a figure, standing a full head and shoulders above even the Skeletal Champion.
"Welp. I found it."